SAN LUIS OBISPO — Investigators at the home of the mother of Kristin Smart’s killer have detected the presence of human remains but have not found a body, authorities said Friday.
Authorities have been at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores in San Luis Obispo County this week, scanning the ground for any signs of human decomposition. Their results have been “positive,” meaning remains have been detected, but that’s it so far, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday.
Parkinson said, “We believe that, based on what we’re looking at, evidence, wise scientific evidence, that a human remains were there at one time,” he said. “So we can’t call it Kristin but you know, we think there’s, there’s evidence to support human remains there.”
But, Parkinson added, investigators won’t leave until they are sure they’ve done all they can.
“Our search goes on, and I don’t know how long we’re going to be there,” he said at a press conference updating the public on this week’s search efforts. “The warrant that we obtained … means the occupants of the residence, once we serve it, have to depart and cannot return to the residence. It’s not unusual.”
If anything is ultimately found, authorities will return to dig, which would require another warrant, which means “you are going to see some delays,” he said.
Earlier this week, sheriff’s investigators along with experts in human decomposition descended on the home of the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing Smart after she disappeared in 1996. They’ve been searching the land for signs of her body.
Parkinson said he does not know when search with soil testing and ground penetrating radar will be done.
“We don’t know if it’s going to conclude today, as I mentioned, it’s a methodical step each each time we get something, we go in another direction. We get something, we pursue that,” he said.
Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart as the two walked toward her dormitory at Cal State San Luis Obispo after a 1996 Memorial Day weekend party. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison three years ago forSmart’s murder. But her body has never been found.
Three years ago, a group of scientists working from Susan Flores’ neighbors’ backyard using soil vapor sampling detected the presence of volatile organic compounds that they say may be associated with decomposing human remains.
The public’s on-again, off-again interest kept Smart’s disappearance in the news sporadically, but a podcast called “Your Own Backyard,” begun in 2019 by Chris Lambert, shined a new spotlight on the cold case.
In November 2019, he began researching how bodies decompose in soil. Two months later, he recruited Steve Hoyt, another Cal Poly grad with a doctorate in environmental science, who has built a business on the Central Coast testing soil samples. Brian Eckenrode, a retired FBI forensic scientist and expert in human decomposition, joined them in 2021.
Authorities had repeatedly searched the backyards of homes owned individually by the parents of Paul Flores. Sheriff’s deputies even used ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to search Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande property in 2021. No remains were uncovered, but a month later, both Flores men were arrested and charged in connection with Smart’s murder.
Smart, then 19, of Stockton, disappeared on Memorial Day weekend 1996.
About 8:30 p.m. on May 24, she and three companions left their dorms, a staggered row of brick and concrete buildings set against a steep incline known as Poly Hill.
They grabbed a ride in a truck to a party at an unofficial fraternity house near campus. Her friends did not want to go to the party, so they dropped Smart off a couple of blocks away.
Tim Davis, a senior who helped stage the party, told investigators he was shooing away the last stragglers about 2 a.m. when he spotted a tall girl later identified as Smart sprawled on a lawn next door, apparently passed out. He roused her. She was in no condition to walk home alone.
Davis and Cheryl Anderson were going to walk her home when Flores, a 19-year-old from the nearby town of Arroyo Grande, volunteered to help. Smart was last seen walking home with him, authorities said.
Busloads of volunteers, horses and ground-penetrating radar were called in for a search after Smart went missing.
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