Investigators ended the search for Kristin Smart’s body at the home of her killer’s mother Saturday, a day after Sheriff Ian Parkinson said soil tests revealed the presence of human remains.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputies, accompanied by soil scientists and ground radar experts and armed with a search warrant, have been at Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home since Wednesday. Investigators are trying to determine whether convicted murderer Paul Flores hid the body of his victim in his home after killing her nearly 30 years ago.
“We have not recovered Kristin Smart,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday after the search ended in the 500 block of East Branch Street. “Detectives will evaluate any evidence we recover to assist the investigation.”
Parkinson’s office reiterated what it has heard since Paul Flores was sentenced to life in prison three years ago. “The Sheriff’s Office is fully committed to finding Kristin and returning her to her family. No further information is available.”
Parkinson revealed on Friday that soil tests were positive for residue.
He said, “We believe, based on what we’re seeing, the evidence, intelligent scientific evidence, that human remains were there at one time.” “So we can’t call it that, Kristin, but you know, we think there’s evidence supporting human remains there.”
Investigators believe Smart’s body may have been moved multiple times.
People familiar with the investigation told The Times that vast amounts of data had been collected and needed to be analyzed.
Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart as the two headed to her dorm at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after a 1996 Memorial Day weekend party.
The public’s on-again, off-again interest kept Smart’s disappearance sporadically in the news, but a podcast called “Your Own Backyard” started in 2019 by Chris Lambert shed new light on the cold case.
Paul Flores was arrested in 2021 after a renewed investigation into the murder. After a long trial he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Three years ago, a group of scientists working from the backyard of Susan Flores’ neighbors used soil steam samples to detect the presence of volatile organic compounds that they say may be linked to the decomposition of human remains.
The work being done there this week was similar, but more advanced.
In November 2019, soil engineer Tim Neeligan, a former FBI chemist, began researching how bodies decompose in soil. Two months later, he recruited Steve Hoyt, another Cal Poly graduate with a doctorate in environmental science who has built a business testing soil samples on the Central Coast. Brian Eckenrode, a retired FBI forensic scientist and expert on human decomposition, joined them in 2021.
“We’re looking for answers,” Neligan told The Times this week. “We all want to give (parents) Dennis and Stan Smart some peace after all these years.”
Authorities had repeatedly searched the backyards of homes personally owned by Paul Flores’ parents. Sheriff’s deputies also used ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to search her father Ruben Flores’ property in Arroyo Grande in 2021. No remains were found, but a month later, both of Flores’ men were arrested and charged in connection with Smart’s murder.
Ruben Flores, who was accused of helping dispose of Smart’s remains, was found not guilty of being an accessory to a crime.
