Timeline: Cal Poly student Kristin Smart went missing in 1996. Here’s what’s happened since

Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman from Stockton, disappeared early on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend in 1996, after leaving a house party just off campus. She would have turned 46 years old in 2023.

Paul Flores, who was also a Cal Poly student in 1996, was the last person seen with Kristin Smart, who was officially declared deceased in 2002.

Paul Flores was arrested April 13, 2021, and was charged by the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office with a count of murder, which District Attorney Dan Dow says was committed during the commission of rape. Flores’ father, Ruben Flores of Arroyo Grande, was also arrested and charged with helping his son conceal the crime.

On Oct. 18, 2022, after months of court proceedings, a jury found Paul Flores of San Pedro guilty of murdering Smart.

A separate jury acquitted Paul Flores’ father, 81-year-old Arroyo Grande resident Ruben Flores, of being an accessory to murder after the fact. He was accused of helping his son hide Smart’s body.

Paul Flores was sentenced in December to 25 years to life in state prison

Here’s a timeline of Smart’s disappearance and the investigation:

Timeline of Kristin Smart missing person case

May 25, 1996: Kristin Smart is last seen around 2 a.m. walking with students Paul Flores and Cheryl Anderson from a party at 135 Crandall Way near the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo. Anderson separates from Smart and Flores at the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue.

May 27, 1996: Student Jennifer Phipps calls Cal Poly police to report Smart missing. A report is not started at that time.

May 28, 1996: Phipps calls the San Luis Obispo Police Department to report Smart missing. A report is started and Phipps is referred to the Cal Poly University Police Department. Cal Poly police take a missing person report, which is the first time Smart’s parents, Stan and Denise, learn anything is amiss. Paul Flores is interviewed for the first time. He tells a campus officer that he and Smart separated near Santa Lucia Hall, and that he hasn’t seen her since.

May 30, 1996: Campus investigators Ray Barrett and Mike Kennedy interview Flores at their office. Meanwhile, the first of several searches for the missing student is conducted on campus.

May 31, 1996: Campus police follow up on several alleged sightings of Smart, a 6-foot 1-inch blonde woman. San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office investigators Bill Hanley and Larry Hobson interview Flores at the Cal Poly Police Department.

June 5, 1996: Cal Poly Police Det. Mike Kennedy searches Smart’s room in Muir Hall for evidence and seizes the room’s contents for safekeeping.

June 10, 1996: Kennedy secures Flores’ room at Santa Lucia Hall after he and his roommate have moved out. None of Flores’ property is found in his residence hall room.

June 19, 1996: Hanley and Hobson, the District Attorney’s Office investigators, interview Flores at the Arroyo Grande Police Department. During the videotaped interview, Flores tells investigators that he lied when he previously stated he received a black eye playing basketball. He says he actually received the injury while working on his truck. Flores abruptly walks out of the interview before it concludes and says he won’t answer any more questions.

June 26, 1996: Amid a flurry of criticism from the Smart family and friends, University Police Chief Tom Mitchell asks San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ed Williams to assist in the investigation. Williams obliges and the Sheriff’s Office takes over the case.

June 29-30, 1996: Nearly 400 volunteers turn out for a massive campus search. Cold Canyon Landfill in rural San Luis Obispo is also searched at an expense to the university of $16,000. Dogs trained to search for human remains are brought in to search for clues. Four dogs independently react to Flores’ dorm room at Santa Lucia Hall. Dogs also react to his stripped mattress.

July 17, 1996: Sheriff’s Office investigators search Flores’ Arroyo Grande home. The search doesn’t yield any clues to Smart’s whereabouts.

July 19, 1996: Employees with San Luis Obispo’s Lininger Construction install a billboard on Highway 101 as a daily reminder of Smart’s disappearance.

Oct. 15, 1996: In a rare move, prosecutors subpoena people to testify before the San Luis Obispo County grand jury in the case of the missing Cal Poly student. Among those called are Flores and his parents, Ruben and Susan Flores.

Nov. 26, 1996: Stan and Denise Smart file a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores. The lawsuit — which remains ongoing — alleges that Flores murdered their daughter at Cal Poly. The Smarts later add Cal Poly as a defendant, alleging campus officials failed to keep their daughter safe. A San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge initially dismisses the university from the complaint, but gave the Smarts a second chance to prove their case. The university appealed and is awaiting the judge’s final decision.

Jan. 24, 1997: The Smarts’ Arroyo Grande attorney, James Murphy, begins interviewing potential witnesses in the civil suit. Ultimately, no substantial revelations come out of the depositions. The Smarts subpoena all law enforcement reports and files in the case of their missing daughter. The named agencies — Cal Poly University Police, the Sheriff’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office — continue to fight the request in court in a hearing each year, due to the ongoing and criminal nature of the missing persons investigation.

Feb. 21, 1997: California Gov. Pete Wilson offers a $50,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case of Kristin Smart. The offer boosts the total reward to $75,000.

March 4, 1997: Murphy, the Smarts’ attorney, initiates a search of an Arroyo Grande rental property owned by Flores’ parents. The search fails to turn up any new leads in the case.

April 13, 1997: A fundraiser to help with the Smarts’ legal bills draws roughly 200 people in Arroyo Grande.

May 23, 1997: Sheriff Williams states “There are no other suspects” in the case besides Paul Flores.

May 8, 1999: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges asks for the FBI’s assistance in the investigation. Sheriff’s deputies sift through dirt around Paul Flores’ old Santa Lucia Hall dorm. Hedges announced that no new evidence had been found at the site. FBI agents interview hundreds of Cal Poly students and staff.

Aug. 12, 1998: Gov. Wilson signs the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act of 1998 into law. The law requires universities to contact law enforcement when violent crimes occur on campus.

May 25, 2002: Kristin Smart is declared legally dead.

May 24, 2016: On the 20th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance, the Smart family issues a statement saying: “She was a girl with dreams and visions for the future. We plan to find a way for them to live on.”

Sept. 6, 2016: San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson announces that a new lead “strongly suggests” Smart’s remains may be buried on a hillside on the Cal Poly campus near the Cal Poly “P” that had been searched by about 400 volunteers in June 1996. A joint Sheriff’s Office-FBI excavation takes place over five days. The agencies sift through approximately 20,000 cubic feet of dirt, taking away bones and a possible “item of interest” to a facility out of the county for analysis. The bones are later revealed to be animal bones.

May 28, 2017: The Smart family creates a website, kristinsmart.org, where people, businesses and other organizations can donate to a nonprofit scholarship fund for women seeking degrees in law enforcement, forensic science or architecture.

Sept. 6, 2017: A year after the Cal Poly excavation, the Sheriff’s Office calls the effort “beneficial,” but doesn’t release any further information.

Sept. 25, 2019: Orcutt resident Chris Lambert launches Your Own Backyard, a podcast devoted to Kristin Smart’s disappearance. The podcast generates massive public interest in and outside of San Luis Obispo County.

Nov. 17, 2019: A large crowd gathers for a public candlelight vigil in Arroyo Grande.

Jan. 18, 2020: The Stockton Record publishes an article based on a reported interview with Denise Smart, who told a reporter she was told by “the FBI” that a new development in the case was imminent and to “be ready.” The story goes viral.

Jan. 22, 2020: Following an inundation of public and media requests for more information, a spokesman hired by the Smart family clarifies that the information shared with The Stockton Record came from a “former FBI agent,” and not someone associated with the investigation. The family says that no new developments are expected to be announced in the near future.

Jan. 29, 2020: The Sheriff’s Office announces that, since 2011, it has served 18 search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches at nine locations, submitted 37 evidence items from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing, recovered 140 new items of evidence, including two trucks that belonged to members of the Flores family in 1996. In addition, the agency says it has conducted 91 in-person interviews, written 364 supplemental reports related to the case and spent approximately $62,000 in investigative expenses during this time.

Feb. 5, 2020: Sheriff’s officials and FBI agents search the home of Susan Flores in Arroyo Grande and the home of Paul Flores in San Pedro. One additional property in San Luis Obispo County and another in Washington State are also searched. Officials do not say why they searched the properties.

Feb. 11, 2021: Paul Flores is arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office says the arrest was “a result of information obtained during our search warrants last year at the home of Paul Flores as part of the Kristin Smart investigation.”

March 15, 2021: The Sheriff’s Office serves a search warrant at the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores, the father of Paul Flores, using cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar.

March 16, 2021: The Sheriff’s Office concludes its search of Ruben Flores’s house.

April 13, 2021: Paul Flores is taken into custody in San Pedro while Ruben Flores is taken into custody in San Luis Obispo County. The Sheriff’s Office conducts another search of Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande property.

At a news conference on the Cal Poly campus, Sheriff Ian Parkinson announces that new evidence recovered in the recent searches shoe that Paul Flores murdered Smart and his father Ruben Flores helped cover up the crime. Both men are booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail; Paul Flores is held without bail while Ruben Flores’ bail is set at $250,000.

The Smart family releases a statement saying they had “waited for this bittersweet day” for almost 25 years. The family thanks Parkinson, law enforcement officials, and podcaster Lambert. A candlelight vigil is organized by students on the Cal Poly campus.

April 14, 2021: San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow announces formal charges against Paul and Ruben Flores. Paul Flores is charged with murder and Ruben Flores is charged with accessory. Dow says for the first time that Smart’s murder occurred during the commission of a rape, and he said prosecutors intend to introduce evidence of Paul Flores’ past sexual assaults in support of the murder case.

April 15, 2021: Paul and Ruben Flores appear at an arraignment via Zoom from jail, but enter no plea. Another hearing is scheduled for April 19, when both parties are expected to argue over bail. San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Craig van Rooyen grants a defense motion for a protective order barring any parties in the case from publicly commenting on proceedings.

April 19, 2021: Paul and Ruben Flores plead not guilty to their charges. Following arguments by deputy district attorney Christopher Peuvrelle and defense attorneys Robert Sanger (representing Paul Flores) and Harold Mesick (representing Ruben Flores), van Rooyen denies bail for Paul Flores, finding him a public safety risk.

A county probation report submitted to the court in opposition to bail for either defendant, obtained by The Tribune, reveals for the first time that prosecutors say “dozens of women have recounted Paul Flores’ sexual assaults and predatory behavior that document his 25 years as a serial rapist.”

The documents also quotes Peuvrelle, who wrote: “The excavation below (Ruben Flores’) deck at 710 White Court showed damning evidence that a body had been buried in that location and then recently moved.”

April 21, 2021: Finding that Ruben Flores is not a public safety risk, van Rooyen lowers his bail to $50,000. Flores is released that evening with a court order that he does not leave San Luis Obispo County, surrenders his passport and submits to electronic monitoring.

April 22, 2021: Jim Murphy, the Smart family’s civil attorney, files a lawsuit in San Luis Obispo Superior Court against Ruben Flores, accusing him of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the family over the nearly 25 years Smart was missing.

The lawsuit alleges that Ruben Flores, with the help of Susan Flores and her boyfriend, Mike McConville, moved Smart’s remains from under the porch of Ruben Flores’ property during the night of Feb. 9, 2020 — four days after the Sheriff’s Office search — and transported them to an unknown location. Murphy claims to have a witness who is known to law enforcement.

April 27, 2021: A Los Angeles Times report reveals details about Paul Flores’ criminal history, including that Flores was the subject of two ongoing sexual assault investigations by the Los Angeles Police Department, and had been linked by DNA evidence to an alleged 2007 rape investigated by the Redondo Police Department. No charges were filed in the latter case due to a lack of evidence, the newspaper reports.

May 24, 2021: Kristin Smart’s family visits San Luis Obispo on the 25th anniversary of her disappearance. Family members say they continue to be grateful to San Luis Obispo County law enforcement officials as well as community members who “refused to give up.”

July 9, 2021: Paul and Ruben Flores make their first court appearances ahead of a massive preliminary hearing. Judge van Rooyen denies the District Attorney’s Office’s motion to add two rape charges against Paul Flores, saying evidence of a sexual assault in the Kristin Smart murder case is “weak.”

July 15, 2021: Several records are unsealed by Judge van Rooyen, including a summary of what investigators found during several searches of the Arroyo Grande property of Ruben Flores in previous years. According to the documents, traces of human blood were found in a patch of disturbed soil underneath the Flores home.

Aug. 1, 2021: The month-long preliminary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores begins in San Luis Obispo Superior Court. During the hearing, numerous witnesses speak about the events leading up to and after Smart’s disappearance and experts discuss evidence collected during investigation.

Aug. 12, 2021: Podcaster Chris Lambert gets a subpoena to serve as a witness during a preliminary hearing and removes social media pages for the “Your Own Backyard” podcast; Lambert is ultimately not called to testify during the evidentiary hearing, though he is unsuccessfully subpoenaed ahead of the Flores trial in July.

Oct. 20, 2021: Paul and Ruben Flores plead not guilty to charges against them.

Dec. 17, 2021: Defense attorneys for Paul Flores file a court motion to dismiss the case, claiming that the case against Flores lacks credible evidence. San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy denies the defense motion in January 2022.

April 13, 2022: Judge van Rooyen rules to move the Kristin Smart murder trial to Monterey County, deciding that Paul and Ruben Flores could not receive a fair trial in San Luis Obispo County because of pretrial publicity.

June 6, 2022: Defense attorneys file a motion in Monterey County Superior Court to dismiss the case against Paul and Ruben Flores, citing “outrageous government conduct.” The motion is denied.

June 19, 2022: The start of the Kristin Smart murder trial is pushed back due to a health concern with a trial participant.

July 15, 2022: The Tribune teams up with ABC News, the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times in an effort to unseal records in the Smart case. The news media coalition, formed by the Tribune, files a motion to both unseal records and allow remote online access to them.

July 18, 2022: Opening statements in the Flores trial begin in Salinas — more than 26 years after Smart’s disappearance. There will be two juries deciding two verdicts: one for Paul Flores and one for Ruben Flores.

July 21, 2022: The prosecution begins to argue their case against the Flores men, beginning with witness testimony from the Smart family.

Aug. 4, 2022: Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe unseals hundreds of documents in response to the news media coalition’s motion.

Aug. 24, 2022: A Redondo Beach woman testifies Paul Flores raped her in 2008 after meeting him at a bar. She says she recognized Flores as her rapist when she saw his photo in the news after his arrest on suspicion of Smart’s murder.

Sept. 2, 2022: A second women testifies Paul Flores raped her. She says she met Paul Flores in a San Pedro bar in 2011 and was “saying no and screaming” as he tried to shove a red ball gag in her mouth.

Sept. 2, 2022: The gag order in the case is modified to prevent the blanket sealing of court documents — something the Tribune-led news coalition argued was out of line with the U.S. and California Constitutions, California Rules of Court and common law.

Sept. 20, 2022: The prosecution rest its case against the Flores men after showing the juries a final piece of evidence: a screenshot from an alleged home video from Paul Flores’ computer that depicts a woman with a red ball gag in her mouth. The move is followed a motion for a mistrial by the defense, which also motions for a dismissal after the prosecution rest its case. Both motions are denied.

Sept. 21, 2022: Defense attorneys for the Flores men begin to argue their case, challenging evidence and witness testimony presented by the prosecution. Paul Flores’ defense attorney, Robert Sanger, motions for a mistrial twice, alleging Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle engaged in “prosecutorial misconduct.” Both motions are denied.

Sept. 27, 2022: Defense attorneys for both Flores men rest their cases arguing for their clients’ innocence following a fourth attempt for a mistrial.

Sept. 29, 2022: The prosecution calls forensic DNA analyst Angela Butler to the stand in a rebuttal to the defense’s case. Butler, the only rebuttal witness called, clarifies her testimony about the accuracy of the blood test used on soil samples taken from underneath Ruben Flores’ deck.

Oct. 3, 2022: Closing arguments begin for Paul Flores. Peuvrelle, the prosecutor, says Flores is “guilty as sin,” alleging Flores “hunted,” raped or attempted to rape then killed Smart. Defense attorney Sanger calls the prosecution’s case a “conspiracy theory,” and says there is no evidence to convict his client.

Oct. 4, 2022: Paul Flores’ jury heads into deliberations after closing arguments come to a close and his defense attorney unsuccessfully motions for another mistrial. Ruben Flores’ jury hears their instructions before arguments begin.

Oct. 5, 2022: Ruben Flores’ jury begins deliberations after closing arguments in his case end. Peuvrelle says Ruben Flores is a “father who would do anything to help his son,” and Flores’ defense attorney, Harold Mesick, says jurors would have their “imagination” to make the prosecution’s case make sense.

Oct. 18, 2022: Paul Flores is found guilty of the first-degree willful and premeditated murder of Kristin Smart. Paul Flores faces 25 years to life in prison and will be sentenced on Dec. 6, 2022. His father, Ruben Flores is found not guilty of accessory after the fact. A juror who acquitted Ruben Flores later spoke with The Tribune, saying Paul Flores’ jury made the wrong decision.

Dec. 6, 2022: Paul Flores’ sentencing is delayed to March 10, 2023, after his attorney said he needed more time to file a motion for a new trial.

Jan. 6, 2023: Los Angeles County prosecutors say they will not file charges against Paul Flores after alleged rape videos and child porn photos were found in his San Pedro home.

March 10, 2023: Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe denies Paul Flores’ motion for a new trial. He is sentenced to 25-years-to-life in state prison for the 1996 murder of Kristin Smart. O’Keefe told Flores he was a “cancer to society.” Several of Smart’s family members spoke at the sentencing. The jurors that convicted Flores later spoke with The Tribune to explain their decision.

March 30, 2023: Paul Flores is transferred from San Luis Obispo County Jail to North Kern State Prison in Delano. North Kern State Prison is a “reception center,” a place where inmates go to be evaluated before their long-term placement.

May 17, 2023: Paul Flores files a notice of appeal in an attempt to overturn his conviction.

May, 26, 2023: Cal Poly issues its first public apology to Kristin Smart’s family for the way the university handled their daughter’s case.

June 30, 2023: Scientists say they found evidence of human body decomposition near Susan Flores’ front yard. They used an EPA soil vapor testing method to detect compounds associated with human remains.

Aug. 23, 2023: Paul Flores is attacked in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga a few weeks after he arrives at the prison. He was stabbed in the neck and transferred to the hospital in “serious condition” but was in “fair condition” by the next day and returned to prison.

Oct. 25, 2023: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation identify the inmate who stabbed Paul Flores as Jason Budrow. Budrow was already serving two life sentences for previous murders: his girlfriend in 2011 in Riverside County and Roger Kibbe, the serial rapist and killer known as the “I-5 Strangler,” in 2021 while incarcerated.

Jan. 18, 2024: Kristin Smart’s family sues Cal Poly, alleging the university could have prevented Smart’s murder if they had handled earlier allegations against Paul Flores properly.

April 2, 2024: Cal Poly claims the Smart family cannot sue them, citing multiple reasons including no proof of liability and a statute of limitations.

April 11, 2024: Paul Flores is attacked for the second time in Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and was returned to the prison in “fair condition.”

This story was originally published July 18, 2022 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Timeline: Cal Poly student Kristin Smart went missing in 1996. Here’s what’s happened since."