Surprise Kristin Smart search targets home of killer’s mother. What’s happened so far
For the first time in years, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office thinks it may have a new lead on the whereabouts of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart’s remains — and the evidence to do something about it.
In a surprise announcement Wednesday, dozens of Sheriff’s Office investigators and scientists swarmed the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, whose son Paul Flores was convicted in 2022 of Smart’s murder.
Smart went missing Memorial Day weekend of 1996 while she was in her first year at Cal Poly. Her body has never been found.
Now law enforcement is actively searching the East Branch Street home of Susan Flores after new information indicated there may be evidence of human decomposition on the property.
In a press conference Friday, Parkinson confirmed the office has been using ground penetrating radar out 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.”
“I think it’s safe to say we have not recovered Kristin yet,” he added, “but our search goes on.”
Where is Kristin Smart? Sheriff says evidence of human decomposition at Arroyo Grande property
Even after Paul Flores was convicted in 2022, the question remained: Where are Kristin Smart’s remains?
The official theory — and the one Paul Flores was convicted on — was that at some point Smart was buried beneath the deck at the home of Paul Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, before her body was moved in February 2020.
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.
So far, however, investigators have been unsuccessful at locating her final resting place.
After Paul Flores lost his final appeal earlier this year, cementing his conviction, Denise Smart, Kristin Smart’s mother, 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.
Spokesman John Segale shared a statement from the Smart family Friday.
“We remain hopeful that this current search will be successful and look forward to the outcome,” it 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.”
In recent years, Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home has become a prominent point of interest in the push to find the 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.
During Friday’s press conference, Parkinson said 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.
He said in recent years, however, his office was able to get new evidence that warranted getting a search warrant at the home.
Enter this week’s search.
Parkinson confirmed that across the several days of the latest investigation, the office has been using ground penetrating radar out 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.”
And it may be paying off.
Parkinson said his office believes that there is evidence of human remains at the site, though he could not specify that it was Kristin Smart.
“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,” he said.
He also confirmed 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.
What are soil scientists testing at Arroyo Grande home?
During the press conference, Parkinson said he was unable to share specific details about what sparked the search at the site, though he did point to new advancements in soil testing and ground penetrating radar.
During the several days of the search so far, a group of scientists could be seen on site sampling soil vapor around both the Flores home and a neighboring property.
On Wednesday and Thursday, those scientists included environmental chemist Steve Hoyt, who told The Tribune on Thursday that they were again searching for evidence of human remains, which they’d identified near Flores’ yard in recent years.
Their new method tests for gas molecules in soil known as volatile organic compounds, certain types of which can be emitted from the natural decomposition process of living organisms — including human bodies.
The same process was used to help identify the location of two bodies in a murder case in Washington, where the scientists found elevated levels of the same decomposing human body compounds as they did near Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande yard.
Environmental engineer Timothy Nelligan has worked on the technology for many years. He went to Cal Poly at the same time as Smart and was inspired to use his expertise to help with the case later in his career alongside Hoyt, former FBI chemist Brian Eckenrode and former federal prosecutor Tim Perry.
The team previously tested Flores’ neighbors’ soil in December 2020, August 2021 and March 2023.
Hoyt, Nelligan and Eckenrode were all once again at the scene conducting sampling tests of the soil this week..
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.”
Hoyt said the results of the sampling would likely take between 24 and 48 hours to get back, though it was unclear when that time might start.
New tarps cover part of Flores house, shovels taking into yard
Activity Wednesday and Thursday at the site was focused largely around soil vapor sampling and ground penetrating radar, as well as a search of the home.
Friday, however, saw some new developments.
Tarps were installed along several edges of the Branch Street property early Friday morning, blocking off the view of portions of Susan Flores’ backyard from view.
During the media conference Friday morning, Parkinson said those were in place 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.”
At 11 a.m., a Sheriff’s Office investigator unloaded at least three shovels from a county vehicle and brought at least two into the backyard.
During the press conference, Parkinson said that any digging up of the yard would require a new, separate “piggyback” search warrant signed by a judge.
“A judge is giving you permission to do certain things,” Parkinson said. “You have to find probable cause to do the next step.”
It’s unclear how much longer law enforcement will be at the site.
On Friday, Parkinson said the search could continue into the weekend, though an exact timeline will continue to depend on the evidence found.
No matter what, he said his office plans to remain there as long as it needs to fulfill the full extent of its search warrant.
“We are not leaving that house until we are sure that we have checked everything,” he said.
Mother of Paul Flores is ‘person of interest’ in search, Sheriff says
Parkinson said Susan Flores remains a “person of interest” in the case “as she always has been,” but he 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. 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.
“We’re looking for any clues about the whereabouts of Kristin’s remains,” District Attorney Dan Dow told The Tribune on Thursday. “That’s the most important thing for both the sheriff and my office, is our commitment to the Smart family and our community to bring Kristin home.”
He noted that Ruben, because he was already acquitted of allegedly helping his son to 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 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 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.
When a reporter went to Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home seeking comment, Susan Flores told the reporter to leave and did not offer further comment on the situation.
Sheriff urges public to continue to come forward with information
During the wide-ranging press conference Friday, Parkinson also addressed one of the many elephants in the room in regard to the Smart case: the intense public interest and scrutiny and the plethora of opinions out there about the case.
“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,” Parkinson 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.”
Even as investigators swarmed the Arroyo Grande property, eager onlookers have flocked to the neighborhood to watch.
Some even drove past over the days of the search, yelling things like “Justice!” and “Get ‘em!”
Among those at the scene Wednesday watching the latest developments was Chris Lambert, the creator of the immensely popular true-crime podcast “Your Own Backyard,” who called the property “overlooked” in the scope of the search for Smart’s remains.
“Kristin’s parents have been waiting all this time to learn what happened to her remains — regardless of where they are today — to just know where they ended up and what happened to them,” Lambert told The Tribune. “So hopefully, every time a search like this happens, the hope is that they are going to finally recover her, and if they don’t, then something they recover here will lead them to those answers.”
Parkinson 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 asked 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.”
Ultimately, he said, it is all about bringing Kristin Smart’s remains home.
“These things, they never close, they give some peace,” he said. “But peace would never be had until we recovered Kristin.”
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