Evidence of human remains found in Kristin Smart search, sheriff says
Sheriff Ian Parkinson said investigators believe they have found evidence of human remains at Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home in the continuing search for Kristin Smart.
Parkinson shared that update in a wide-ranging news conference Friday morning as the investigation at the home, owned by the mother of Smart’s convicted killer Paul Flores, entered its third day.
“We believe that based on what we’re looking at — evidence-wise, scientific evidence — that human remains were there at one time or are still there,” Parkinson said.
However, he could not conclusively say the remains were Smart’s.
Paul Flores was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart when she was a first-year student at Cal Poly. Smart went missing nearly 30 years ago on Memorial Day weekend of 1996. Her body has never been recovered.
On Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant at 529 East Branch St., the home of Susan Flores. Throughout that day and the next, law enforcement worked in and around the home, as well as in a neighboring property’s yard, as scientists took samples of soil vapor and examined the area with ground-penetrating radar.
Environmental chemist Steve Hoyt told The Tribune on Thursday that the scientists were again searching for evidence of human remains, which they’d identified near Flores’ yard in recent years.
The press conference was the first time the Sheriff’s Office has commented publicly about the search since it was announced Wednesday, aside from small updates about how long it would continue and an appearance by Sheriff Ian Parkinson on the “Up + Adam” podcast on Thursday’s episode discussing the case.
The Tribune requested its own interview with Sheriff Parkinson on that same day but was denied.
During that appearance, Parkinson said the search could last several days as the department and investigators “overturn every rock.”
Are human remains buried at Arroyo Grande home?
Parkinson confirmed the office has been using ground penetrating radar at the site, both inside the home and outside, as well as conducting soil testing to look for “compounds in the soil that are related to a human decomposing body.”
“On the opposite wall or property, they had positive results, so the mission is to soil-test on the property and find out where that source was,” Parkinson said.
Soil samples have been sent to a lab in San Luis Obispo and analyzed every night of the search so far, he said.
“I think it’s safe to say we have not recovered Kristin yet,” he added, “but our search goes on.”
Parkinson said if the department found reason to dig at the site, it would need to seek a “piggyback warrant” to allow it to do so.
“A judge is giving you permission to do certain things,” Parkinson said. “You have to find probable cause to do the next step.”
However, that morning at the East Branch Street house, Tribune reporters watched a Sheriff’s Office investigator unload at least three shovels from a county vehicle and bring at least two into the backyard.
“We will dig anywhere that the evidence shows us,” Parkinson said, adding that the house has gone through renovations over the years and the layout looks different than it has during past searches.
Parkinson also confirmed that there have been anomalies found by ground penetrating radar at the site, but noted those have to be analyzed to determine if they are of-interest in the case. He said objects as commonplace as sewage lines could cause anomalies.
He said the same ground-penetrating radar machine operator that searched Ruben’s house in 2021 is now searching Susan’s property. The search at Ruben’s house uncovered a location where Sheriff’s Office investigators thought Kristin may have been buried at one time.
On Friday, new tarps covered a portion of the home on Branch Street. Parkinson said those were in there to shield the work, “sealing it from public view.”
“It’s not something is being hidden,” he said. “It’s the fact that we don’t want people guessing what we’re doing. We need to work in peace, and that’s what we’re doing now.”
Parkinson said it is unclear how long law enforcement will be at the house on Branch Street, but it plans to remain to fulfill the full extent of its search warrant. He said it was likely the search could last through the weekend.
“We are not leaving that house until we are sure that we have checked everything,” he said.
What led to the new search warrant?
The Sheriff’s Office has searched Susan Flores’ property twice — once in 2000, when the outside of the property was searched, and again in 2020, which only covered the inside of the house.
The soil in Flores’ yard has never been tested before now.
But the question still remains: Why now?
Parkinson said that new information was derived from a non-eye witness.
“There was some information, but not in the context of ‘I saw this happen,’” Parkinson said.
He also said scientific advancements in the soil testing method — known as “vapor intrusion testing” — was “a piece of the puzzle” that secured the new search warrant.
Environmental engineer Timothy Nelligan, environmental chemist Steve Hoyt and former FBI chemist Brian Eckenrode — who were onsite taking soil samples since Wednesday alongside Jacob Nelligan and Edward Bentil — have a forthcoming study currently under peer-review that differentiates the volatile organic compound profiles of different decomposition processes — showing the difference between human remains and other remains.
But just like the ground-penetrating radar, the soil science is helpful, but not conclusive.
“It’s not necessarily evidence,” he said. “It is leading us to that path.”
He noted that the warrant bars Susan for her home until the search is complete. She was seen by a Tribune reporter at Ruben’s house on Thursday.
Parkinson said another search has been executed since Paul’s conviction, but he did not disclose the location or scope of the search.
“Kristin has been moved, and we don’t know how many times she’s been moved and to where she’s moved, and so just because somebody’s house was searched doesn’t mean that we’re not going back there,” he said.
A warrant was also served to the house of a neighbor, who has been “extremely cooperative,” he said.
Is Paul Flores’ mother a person of interest in Kristin Smart case?
Parkinson said Susan Flores is a “person of interest” in the case “as she always has been,” but noted that they do not have “a lawful reason to detain her at this point.”
He said if his office were able to secure evidence pointing to her involvement, she could potentially be charged as an accessory to murder. In California, there is no statute of limitations on an accessory to murder charge.
He later clarified that charges would be largely up to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office and what that office felt was able to be prosecuted.
He noted that Ruben, because he was already acquitted of allegedly helping his son hide Kristin Smart’s body, would be harder to charge due to double jeopardy rules that prevent people from being tried for the same crime multiple times.
Parkinson said it would depend on new evidence being found that could prove a different charge.
When asked if his office had been in communication with Susan Flores, Parkinson said they “have always been open to it” but “she’s never been willing to sit down with us.”
Parkinson: ‘It’s not what we believe, it’s what we can prove’
Parkinson did acknowledge that strong feelings and opinions from the public about the case can make investigation difficult.
“I think the problem with this case from the very beginning was most people that had read the case believe they knew about the case,” he said. “It was always their feeling was based on belief, and as I repeat it to the Smarts many times, it’s not what we believe, it’s what we can prove.”
Parkinson also noted that the Branch Street property has “from the very beginning” been a location of a lot of interest for those following the case, but he and his office had to be careful to ensure there was enough new evidence to warrant a new search of it.
Parkinson also said it would be possible for Ruben Flores’ home to be searched again if evidence points to it.
“Anything is open,” he said. “Kristin has been moved, and we don’t know how many times she’s been moved, and where she’s been moved.”
The Smart family released a statement on Friday morning, too.
“We remain hopeful that this current search will be successful and look forward to the outcome,” the statement, shared by family spokesman John Segale, said. “Our family greatly appreciates the efforts, dedication, and commitment of Sheriff Ian Parkinson, Detective Clint Cole, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department, and the technical experts assisting with the execution of this search. Finally, we continue to feel the tremendous support of the local community and all the people far beyond the Central Coast who provide us with great strength to continue this journey to bring Kristin home.”
Sheriff urges public to continue to come forward with new information
Parkinson once again urged anyone with any potential information to come forward and share it with the Sheriff’s Office.
“We have people out there who saw something, and they just didn’t supply it because they didn’t think it was worthwhile,” he said.
He also urged the public to “manage your expectations.”
“We are doing everything systematically, and if it doesn’t net the results we want, we have done a great job of changing the direction and moving on to something else,” he said. “Ideally we would have had Kristin a long time ago, but ideally we recover Kristin and can create some peace for the family.”
Sheriff’s news conference follows two days of searching
Sheriff Ian Parkinson addressed the media starting at 9:08 a.m., starting with a quick aside to the assembled reporters: “There’s a lot of information I cannot share with you, and certainly at some point I will explain some of the reasons why.”
He then shared a bit of information about his own history with the case, going back to meeting with the Smart family ahead of his election as sheriff in 2011.
By that point, the case was already 14 years old, he said, and eventually he was able to bring on cold case Det. Clint Cole to focus upon the case.
Fast-forward to after Paul Flores’ 2022 conviction, and the Sheriff’s Office still remained committed to finding Kristin Smart’s body.
“These things, they never close. They give some peace,” he said. “But peace would never be had until we recovered Kristin.”
Parkinson said in recent years his office has been able to get new evidence that enabled it to secure a new search warrant at Susan Flores’ home.
“The issue is, where is Kristin?” he said. “For those that have followed it, know the case, it’s been a roller coaster. There’s always ups, and when you think you’re on to something, and it drops to nothing. That’s the way this case is.”
What to know about Kristin Smart case
In a news release Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said it was conducting an investigation into the property in the 500 block of East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande.
The investigation was “the result of a search warrant signed by a Superior Court judge,” the release said.
“The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family,” the release said.
Denise Smart, Kristin Smart’s mother, has previously said that the case will not be over for the family until her daughter’s remains are found and returned home.
“There’s no finality for us,” she told The Tribune in January following Paul Flores’ final appeal being denied.
In recent years, Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home has become a prominent point of interest in the push to find Kristin Smart’s remains — especially after a group of scientists in 2023 announced a soil vapor sampling study saying they had discovered evidence of a “human decomposition event” emitting from the property’s yard.
On Wednesday and Thursday, many of those scientists including Hoyt, environmental engineer Tim Nelligan and former FBI chemist Brian Eckenrode were at the scene conducting sampling tests of the soil. They collected samples from the home’s backyard as well as its front yard and from a neighboring property.
Hoyt told The Tribune the group brought its initial 2023 findings to the Sheriff’s Office and after some back and forth and finetuning of the science, “they decided to move forward.”
The Tribune has called the lawyers of both Susan Flores and Paul Flores’ father Ruben Flores multiple times this week to request a comment on the search and gotten no response.
Ruben Flores faced trial at the same time as his son for allegedly helping hide the body, but a separate jury found him not guilty.
When a reporter went to Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home seeking comment on Thursday, Susan Flores told the reporter to leave and did not offer further comment on the situation.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 8:57 AM.
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