On Wednesday morning, as police served a warrant to search her home in relation to the death of student Kristin Smart, Susan Flores stood at her front door and flipped off a photographer.
Nearly four years have passed since her son Paul Flores was found guilty of killing 19-year-old Smart during an attempted rape on the California Polytechnic State University campus in May 1996.
Even while a decades-long mystery was solved by his conviction, one unanswered issue about the case has persisted: where is Kristin Smart buried?
Investigators now think they are close to providing an answer to that query.
Ian Parkinson, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff, declared on Friday that evidence of human remains had been found during this current search of Susan’s Arroyo Grande residence.
“This is a long time coming,” Trevor Boelter, a fellow student of Smart who met both her and Flores on the night of her murder, told the Daily Mail. “I have always believed this was a family affair.” For many, including one of the last people to see Smart alive, this unexpected breakthrough had been anticipated for years—30 to be exact. Paul Flores is not the only one involved. It was an all-hands-on-deck situation, in my opinion. “Paul could not have done this alone.”
After going to an off-campus party, California Polytechnic State University freshman Kristin Smart disappeared in May 1996.
On Wednesday morning, Susan Flores flipped off a photojournalist at her front door as police executed a search warrant.
Four years after her son Paul Flores’ imprisonment, a fresh search related to Smart’s murder is now centred on Susan Flores’s house.
Smart vanished from a house party close to the Cal Poly campus on May 25, 1996, Memorial Day weekend.
Boelter, a 20-year-old student at the time, recalls Smart approaching him with assurance that evening, kissing him, and dragging him into the lavatory.
Smart’s self-assurance gave way to unease inside. “She asked me to leave the toilet, and I walked out the door to a guy standing directly in my face: It was Paul Flores,” Boelter told the Daily Mail. “After asking him if she was ugly, she talked to him about two students she was interested in.”
At the time, Boelter had no idea who Flores was. However, he recalls Flores harshly questioning him about his activities with Smart.
Boelter claimed that Flores must be Smart’s boyfriend based on his actions. “It was so weird, it was almost as if he thought he owned this girl or something,” Boelter stated.
He said Flores laughed in his face when he assured him that “nothing happened” between them.
That evening, Boelter saw Smart twice more. He claims that the last time he saw her, she was stumbling into the house through a door.
After seeing Smart unconscious on the grass, two classmates offered to assist her in returning to her hostel.
Flores, however, insisted on walking her back by herself.
She was never seen alive again.
Flores, who was 19 at the time, was soon identified as the main suspect. After that night, he was the last person seen with Smart and had scratches on his knees and a black eye.
Since Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart, suspicions were raised right away. But it would take 25 years for him to be arrested.
On May 6, 2026, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office searched Susan Flores’s property.
Soil samples are collected by scientists from a nearby garden.Using ground-penetrating radar and focusing on soil samples, the search is anticipated to take several days.
He challenged the police during an interview, saying, “If you’re so smart, then tell me where the body is.”
Investigators are still unable to accomplish this.
No sign of the deceased freshman has ever been discovered despite several searches conducted over the last thirty years in the vicinity of Cal Poly and at the residences of Flores’s parents, Susan and Ruben Flores.
Law enforcement then raided Susan’s house once more on Wednesday, focusing on soil samples and employing ground-penetrating radar to look for potential signs of human remains.
In 2023, scientists used enhanced soil vapour sampling in a neighbor’s yard and found organic chemicals that point to human decomposition.
“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 told reporters two days into the search.
Parkinson stressed that the hunt for Smart is still ongoing but refrained from disclosing exactly what was discovered.
“I believe it’s safe to say we haven’t found Kristin yet, but our search continues,” he stated.
One of the last persons to see Kristin Smart alive was Trevor Boelter, who had a terrifying encounter with Flores the night she vanished.
Despite numerous searches and Paul Flores’s conviction, Kristin Smart’s remains have never been located.
Parkinson promised that search teams would stay on the site until every possibility was explored.
According to Parkinson, investigators have been pursuing Susan and her Branch Street residence for a considerable amount of time. Although no arrest has been made, Susan is being considered a person of interest in the case. Susan has been contacted by The Daily Mail for comment.
Additionally, Parkinson did not rule out further prosecution of Paul Flores’s father, Ruben Flores, who was charged with murder but ultimately found not guilty in 2022. Double jeopardy laws, however, prohibit persons from being tried for the same offence more than once, making it more difficult to pursue further accusations in the future.
Human blood and a “burial site” where officials suspect Smart’s remains were kept for years before being transported were discovered during a search of Ruben’s house in 2021.
If the evidence suggests it, search teams might potentially go back to Ruben’s house, according to Parkinson.
“Everything is open.” “We don’t know how many times or where Kristin has been moved,” he stated.
“I hope it finds irrefutable proof of Kristin, whether it is her body, clothing, earrings or personal effects,” Boelter, Smart’s Cal Poly classmate who was among the last to see her alive and had a terrifying encounter with Flores the night she vanished, said. “But at the very least, I think this could apply pressure on the person or persons involved or who knows something to finally tell the truth and lead police to Kristin’s body.”
In 2021, police may be seen swarming Paul Flores’ mother’s Arroyo Grande home.
In 2024, Flores was ordered to reimburse Smart’s family $350,000 for expenses they incurred following her death; however, they offered to forego the payment provided he disclosed the location of her remains. “He’s created a nightmare for her family for the past 30 years,” Flores said, refusing to back down and maintaining his innocence. Boelter stated, “He has a chance to put an end to the nightmare by taking action to start making amends for his ultimate wrong by telling her family what happened and where she is. They deserve that.” Kristin should be at home so that her family can grieve and she can be buried properly.
Boelter feels that if investigators don’t find Smart’s remains at Susan’s house, the search may put pressure on or activate the conscience of someone else who knows something, even if he doesn’t think Flores will ever come clean. Hopefully, this will put pressure on someone who may have wanted to share their story but has always been reluctant to do so.
Investigators have long suspected that Flores’ parents, Susan and Ruben, assisted him in getting rid of Smart’s body and evidence.
Ruben was also detained for aiding in Smart’s body’s concealment when Flores was charged in 2021.
Flores received a 25-year to life sentence after being found guilty of murder.
For hiding Smart’s body, Ruben Flores was accused of accessory after the fact. However, he was found not guilty at the trial.
In March 2021, members of the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office dug in Ruben Flores’ property.
During the trial, Ruben was found not guilty of aiding and abetting murder.In the meantime, Susan has never faced any charges related to the case.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Flores and Ruben buried Smart’s remains beneath Ruben’s Arroyo Grande house’s deck.
In 2021, dirt stains that proved positive for blood were discovered during an excavation of Ruben’s house using cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar.
During the trial, prosecutors said that in February 2020, when the investigation was intensifying and a new search was conducted at Ruben’s house, Susan and her boyfriend Mike McConville might have assisted in moving Smart’s body from Ruben’s property to another site.
Ruben’s neighbours saw odd behaviour at his house at the time, including a cargo trailer backed up into the garage, yelling and Susan’s car being there all night.
Additionally, McConville was never prosecuted in connection with the crime and has since died.
A few months after Smart vanished, Susan’s tenant Mary Lassiter discovered a bloody earring in the driveway, which is how her house initially came to light.
The sheriff’s office received it, but for some reason it got lost.
Later, Lassiter revealed on the Your Own Backyard podcast that every morning at 4:20 a.m., a beeping sound resembling an alarm from a digital watch would wake her up.
With the exception of a few earth planter boxes, the yard was covered in concrete.
Lassiter looked everywhere, but she was unable to locate the source of the noise.
When Flores was initially questioned by police, he had scratches on his knees and a black eye.
Flores during his trial for murder. He is presently incarcerated for a term ranging from 25 to life.
The sound abruptly vanished a few months later.
Smart was a lifeguard at Cal Poly’s recreation facility at the time of her disappearance, and she would set her alarm at 4.20 a.m. in preparation for her 5 a.m. shift.
Derrick Tse, Flores’s college flatmate, also testified during Flores’s trial on a disturbing remark Flores made at the time of Smart’s disappearance. According to his testimony, Flores made jokes about killing her and said, “She’s at my mom’s house right now.”
Those involved in the case have long been perplexed by the fact that despite searches of Susan’s house in 2000, 2007, and 2020, the concrete yard has never been dug up.
Dennis Mahon, a friend of the Smart family who started the Son of Susan website, frequently protested outside Susan’s house and openly called for investigators to dig up her property for years.
Boelter remembered that he would stand outside with a placard that read, “Dig up her garden.” “I do wonder what the delay was” in carrying out a comprehensive search of Susan’s property, Boelter continued. “Dennis spent a lot of years yelling into a void.”
He’s not the only one who wonders why it’s taken so long.
From the day she vanished, justice for Smart was postponed.
It has taken Kristin Smart’s family thirty years to locate the 19-year-old freshman and bring her home.
Police didn’t start a search for her until three days after she was reported missing. The earring and other evidence were lost. And her murderer was free for twenty-five years.
On that fatal night, Boelter, a 20-year-old student, met Smart and her murderer. He is a parent to a daughter who is only a few years younger than Smart, and he is currently close to fifty.
As a parent, he sympathises with her family’s continuous struggle to get their daughter back.
I can’t even begin to picture what it would be like if my daughter vanished during her first year of college and I had no real explanation for thirty years. I would lose my mind. “My heart goes out to the Smart family,” he remarked. “I think any parent would.”
However, Boelter thinks that this most recent search demonstrates that Smart’s case is still very much alive and that the police are dedicated to finding her permanently, despite the passage of time.
“I think part of the reason they are doing this is because Paul did not do this alone, so I think investigators are going to make sure that those who helped him are also held accountable,” Boelter stated. “Sheriff Parkinson made a promise to the Smarts that he was going to bring Kristin home and he hasn’t rested, which shows that it’s 100% still an active case.”
