Paul Flores arrested on suspicion of murdering Kristin Smart, sheriff says
Update to this story >> >> It look 24 years for an arrest in the disappearance of Kristin Smart. Here’s how it happened
Update: 4:50 p.m.:
A candlelight vigil in Kristin Smart’s memory will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on the lawn next to Santa Lucia Hall at Cal Poly. Organizer and Poly student Michelle Mueller said anyone is welcome to attend, light a candle and bring flowers. Read more here.
Update 4:05 p.m.:
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow issued a brief statement following the announcement of arrests Tuesday, saying his office is evaluating the investigation.
“We are carefully reviewing the evidence and will provide more information as it becomes available,” he wrote.
Update 2:35 p.m.:
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said the cases of Paul and Ruben Flores, who face murder and accessory charges, respectively, in connection to missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart’s disappearance, have now been turned over to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office for review.
When asked if the case could potentially be tried outside of San Luis Obispo County, Parkinson said that would be a decision left up to the District Attorney’s Office.
Update 2:30 p.m.:
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong spoke during the news conference, thanking the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office for bringing “a measure of relief and hope for resolution” to the Cal Poly community.
“Our Cal Poly and Central Coast communities have watched the case of Kristin Smart’s disappearance closely and hoped for justice for Kristin and resolution for the family for years,” Armstrong said. “The news today of arrest in connection with this, with the case, brings sadness, but also a measure of relief and hope for resolution.”
Update 2:20 p.m.:
Parkinson said he believes the agency is closer to recovering Smart’s body now than it has been previously.
“The answer is yes, I believe we are, but only time will tell,” he said. “It’s safe to say we are checking everywhere possible.”
Parkinson said the reason the case has lingered over decades is because arrests cannot be based on “what we might believe, it has to be based on physical evidence.”
He declined to disclose specifically what new evidence was recovered that tied Paul and Ruben Flores to Smart’s disappearance, but he did clarify that it was “forensic physical evidence.”
“Yes, we believe it’s linked to Kristin, and, yes, we did find physical evidence at at least two homes,” he said.
Update 2 p.m:
In a news conference Tuesday, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said his agency arrested Paul Flores for allegedly murdering Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.
Smart was last seen with Flores leaving a house party Memorial Day weekend of 1996.
“This is where it all began on the campus of Cal Poly university,” Parkinson said during the conference. ”Twenty-four years without a resolution. Until today.”
Parkinson said Paul Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, was also arrested as an accessory to murder.
During the conference, Parkinson said the department was able to interview several new witnesses in 2019, thanks in part to new information brought forth by the podcast, “Your Own Backyard.”
Parkinson said thanks to that new information, and subsequent searches of the Flores’ homes, the department was able to arrest both Paul and Ruben Flores on Tuesday morning.
Parkinson said they have not recovered Smart’s remains.
“We have not recovered Kristin,” he said.
Update 1:55 p.m.:
Roughly three dozen Cal Poly students and other onlookers have laid out blankets on the O’Neill Green ahead of a SLO County Sheriff’s Office press conference regarding updates to the Smart case.
Numerous media outlets have also gathered in the area.
A SLO resident at the press conference, America Vazquez, said she has been following the case since she was 9 or 10 in SLO.
“I was terrified to go out,” Vazquez said. “It was frightening.”
She said she has listened to all of the podcast episodes and believes it has made a huge difference.
“The way Chris Lambert puts it together is amazing,” she said. “I just want justice for Kristin. It’s long overdue.”
Other students who turned out for the news conference said the case was very much on the radar on campus.
“I live two houses down from the Crandall Way house where the party took place.” said senior Emma Blair. “I’ve listened to the podcast and am very much aware of the case.”
Another student, Kylie Varner, said that she and others are cautious at night and walk in groups.
“I knew about this case through my grandparents, who went to Cal Poly,” Varner said. “Kristin was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Students walk back and forth between campus and the neighborhood all the time. SLO is generally safe, but it’s good to walk in groups and be mindful of surroundings.”
To watch the press conference live, go to our story here. The Tribune will also continue to post live updates from the conference here.
Update 1:30 p.m.:
Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier declined to comment on the arrest of a suspect in the Kristin Smart missing persons case on Tuesday afternoon.
Lazier said that the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is “the lead agency on the investigation into Kristin Smart’s disappearance, and all questions about the investigation and today’s press conference should be directed to that department.”
A news conference regarding updates in the case of Smart’s disappearance was scheduled to be held on Cal Poly’s campus at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly students said they are planning a candlelight vigil Tuesday night outside Santa Lucia Hall, the residence hall where Flores lived when Smart went missing on Memorial Day weekend 1996.
Update 12:35 p.m.:
Paul Flores, the prime suspect in the disappearance of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, has been booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail on suspicion of a charge of murder, booking logs show.
Paul Flores was booked just after noon, and bail had not yet been set as of 12:35 p.m. Flores was arrested in San Pedro, according to the log.
Update 11:10 a.m.:
San Luis Obispo County Jail booking logs show that Ruben Flores was booked at 9:38 a.m. in Arroyo Grande on suspicion of a charge of accessory.
An accessory is defined as “a person who, after a felony has been committed, harbors, conceals or aids a principal in such felony, with the intent that said principal may avoid or escape from arrest, trial, conviction or punishment, having knowledge that said principal has committed such felony or has been charged with such felony or convicted thereof.”
Ruben Flores’ bail is set at $250,000, jail records show.
Update 10:30 a.m.:
As San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office investigators searched the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores on Tuesday, people gathered outside to take in the spectacle — some seated in cars and others walking by and livestreaming video of the scene.
Arroyo Grande resident Ali Anderson, who was sitting in her car Tuesday morning, said she heard about what was happening through texts from her friends.
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“Our community is so small,” she told The Tribune. “Everyone is so connected and had a good idea of what was going to happen this week.”
Anderson said the arrests of Flores and his son, Paul Flores, considered the prime suspect in missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart’s disappearance, give her “excitement and hope.” Anderson said she hopes the Smart family can get some closure.
Witnesses outside the home could hear loud cutting machinery and see sparks coming from the garage, and a forensics tent is set up nearby.
Investigators could be seen once again wheeling in ground-penetrating radar, similar to what was used during the investigation of the backyard in March.
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Update 10 a.m.:
Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, according to podcaster Chris Lambert.
Lambert, creator of the “Your Own Backyard” podcast on Smart’s 1996 disappearance, announced on his Instagram account that the two were both arrested on Tuesday morning.
Photos posted online show Paul Flores being taken into custody outside his San Pedro home and Ruben Flores being arrested at his home in Arroyo Grande.
Charges have not been announced.
A request for confirmation of the arrests from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office was denied, with spokesman Tony Cipolla saying the department will release more information at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
KSBY-TV also reported that Paul Flores was taken into custody in San Pedro. Requests for confirmation from the Los Angeles Police Department were directed back to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
Lambert streamed live video from behind Ruben Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande on Tuesday morning, showing Sheriff’s Office deputies once again searching the home and removing a deck from the back of the house. Sheriff’s Office vehicles blocked the driveway and forensics vans were on site, according to Lambert.
The Smart family released a preliminary statement early Tuesday.
“Given that this is an extremely emotional day, the Smart family will not be conducting any interviews and will not be meeting with any reporters today or in the foreseeable future,” they said. “We will be issuing a statement from the family this afternoon around 3:30 p.m. Please respect their desire for privacy and do not call or go to their home.”
Original story:
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is expected to announce more developments in the 1996 missing persons case of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.
Sheriff Ian Parkinson will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. on O’Neill Green, in front of the Orfalea College of Business on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Parkinson is expected to discuss “major developments in the investigation into the disappearance of Kristin Smart,” the release said.
Kristin Smart was last seen Memorial Day weekend, leaving a house party at 135 Crandall Way near the Cal Poly campus at about 2 a.m. on May 25, 1996, with Paul Flores and a friend.
The friend later told investigators that she left Smart with Flores at the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue so that Smart could walk back to her Muir Hall dorm room.
Flores later told police the two parted ways near his room at Santa Lucia Hall.
On May 27, 1996, a friend of Smart’s at Muir Hall, reported Smart missing to the Cal Poly University Police Department.
Over the coming months, numerous local police agencies would become involved in the search, but Smart was never located.
The Smarts filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in November 1996, alleging that Flores murdered Kristin on the Cal Poly campus. The Smarts later added Cal Poly to the lawsuit, alleging the university failed to keep their daughter safe.
Over the years, the case has run mostly lukewarm, never officially going cold. That is, until Chris Lambert launched his “Your Own Backyard” podcast examining the case and sparking new attention.
For many years since Smart’s disappearance, Paul Flores was only referred to as a person of interest.
That changed in March when the Sheriff’s Office executed a new search warrant at Ruben Flores’ home and for the first time labeled Paul Flores as the “prime suspect.”
On March 15 and 16, the Sheriff’s Office investigated the home of Ruben Flores, confiscating a Volkswagen Cabriolet from the driveway and using cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar under a porch and in the backyard.
Officials did not say at the time what if anything was found during that search.
The search of Ruben Flores’ home took place about a month after Paul Flores was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
That arrested “originated as a result of information obtained” during the service of several search warrants in 2020, including one at Flores’ home in San Pedro, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla said at the time.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 8:37 AM with the headline "Paul Flores arrested on suspicion of murdering Kristin Smart, sheriff says."
