Kristin Smart true crime special investigates ‘new lead and a new search’
A new true crime special on the murder of Kristin Smart was released on two national streaming networks on Thursday.
“Killer on Campus” is an episode from ABC News Studios’ Impact X Nightline streaming now on Hulu and Disney+ that investigates “a new lead and a new search” in the decades-old case.
Smart went missing on Memorial Day weekend 1996 when she was a first year student at Cal Poly. She was last seen walking home from an off-campus party with Paul Flores, another first year student at the time.
In 2022, Flores was convicted of murdering Smart — but her body was never found.
The 36-minute episode features interviews with the Smart family, local San Luis Obispo County law enforcement and a former Tribune reporter who covered Flores’ trial.
The special dropped a week and a half after the 30th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance and a month after SLO County Sheriff’s Office investigators served a surprise search warrant to the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, Paul’s mother, where some theorized Smart may have at one time or another been buried.
“We had some new information on possible leads,” Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Det. Clint Cole said in an interview for the special.
Over the course of four days from May 6 to 9, soil vapor scientists and investigators searched and sampled the home and backyard, focusing on a “3- to 4-foot section” in Flores’ side yard where they used ground-generating radar and excavated the cement to dig under the walkway, Cole said.
He said investigators took everything out of the garage and went underneath a crawl space under the house.
A Tribune reporter saw a Sheriff’s Office investigator unload at least three shovels from a county vehicle and bring at least two into the backyard during the search.
Test results from the soil scientists came back “very strong” for evidence of decomposing human remains in the side yard.
“I believe we have a chance” of finding Kristin’s body, Cole told interviewers on the episode.
In its most recent update about the search, the Sheriff’s Office said it “recovered several items considered evidentiary in nature” during the search.
“We have still some analysis to do,” Sheriff Ian Parkinson said on the special. “I’m not stopping until this is over, until we have Kristin back.”
The special also interviewed siblings Matthew Smart and Lindsey Smart Stewart.
Smart Stewart was in eighth grade when her sister disappeared. Now, a lifetime later, she is married with four children. She remembers her sister as “a bright, light joy.”
“She was that nurturing caring person who built others up and built their siblings up,” she said.
Smart Stewart hopes her sister’s DNA will be found the results of the Sheriff’s Office analysis to finally bring closure to their family about what happened to Kristin.
“One thing that I could tell Paul Flores and the Flores family: We will never stop,” she said.
