Kristin Smart’s body is not found, the search ends at the home tied to the killer despite the remains
Investigators completed the search for the body of Kristin Smart at the home of her killer’s mother on Saturday without finding a body, a day after Sheriff Ian Parkinson said soil tests revealed human remains.
San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s deputies joined by soil scientists and ground radar experts and armed with a search warrant have been at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores since Wednesday. Investigators are trying to determine if killer Paul Flores hid his victim’s body in his home after killing her nearly 30 years ago.
“We did not find Kristin Smart,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement Saturday after the search was completed in the 500 block of East Branch Street. “Detectives will be examining any evidence we have found to assist in the investigation.”
Parkinson’s office reiterated the denials heard since Paul Flores was sentenced to life in prison three years ago. “The Sheriff’s Office is fully committed to finding Kristin and bringing her home to her family. No other information is available.”
Parkinson on Friday revealed that tests of the soil had turned up residues.
“We believe that, based on what we’re looking at, the evidence, the scientific evidence that human remains were there at one time,” he said. “So we’re not going to call it Kristin, but you know, we think there’s, there’s evidence to support human remains there.”
Investigators believe Smart’s body may have been moved multiple times.
People familiar with the investigation told The Times newspaper that a large amount of information has been collected and needs to be analyzed.
Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart as the two went to his residence at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after a party on Memorial Day weekend 1996.
The public’s interest is there again, no longer and kept Smart’s disappearance from the news from time to time, but a podcast called “Your Yard,” started in 2019 by Chris Lambert, illuminated a new area in the cold case.
Paul Flores was arrested in 2021 after a new investigation into the murder. After a lengthy trial, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Three years ago, a team of scientists working in the backyard of Susan Flores’ neighbors using soil vapor samples discovered the presence of volatile organic compounds that they said could be associated with decaying human remains.
The work done there this week was similar, but much improved.
In November 2019, soil engineer Tim Neiligan, a former FBI chemist, began researching how bodies decompose in soil. Two months later, he hired Steve Hoyt, another Cal Poly grad with a doctorate in environmental science, who had built a soil sampling business for the Central Coast. Brian Eckenrode, a retired FBI scientist and human decomposition expert, joined them in 2021.
“We’re looking for answers,” Nelligan told The Times this week. “We all want to deliver [parents] Denise and Stan Smart are at peace after all these years. “
Authorities had repeatedly searched the grounds of Paul Flores’ parents’ homes. Sheriff’s deputies even used radar and ground-penetrating cadaver dogs to search the property of his father, Ruben Flores, in Arroyo Grande in 2021. No remains were found, but a month later, both Flores men were arrested and charged in connection with Smart’s murder.
Ruben Flores, accused of helping dispose of Smart’s remains, was found not guilty of being an accessory to the crime.
