The story of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old California Polytechnic State University student who vanished on May 25, 1996, after attending a party on campus, never to be seen or heard from again, is told in NBC’s “Dateline: Justice For Kristin Smart.” It has long been assumed that she was killed the same night she left the party at the end of her first year of college. Paul Flores, a fellow student who was present when she was last seen alive, has now been found guilty of killing her. The fight against him was spearheaded by Kristin’s parents, so now you can read more about them if you’re interested.
Who Are Kristin Smart’s Parents?
The parents of Kristin Smart, educators Stan and Denise Smart, did everything in their power to assist in the resolution of their daughter’s case and spare other parents from ever going through such a tragedy. They launched a campaign to involve the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office after it was discovered that Paul Flores may have been responsible for her disappearance in 1996, and they were successful as the summer came to an end. In reality, they did it without ever abandoning their other two kids.
Stan and Denise then filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul in November 1996 in an effort to get him to provide important details about what happened to their daughter or maybe locate her remains. They always had a deep-seated conviction that Paul had killed their daughter, and after more than 26 years, that conviction was validated. But, the Smarts eventually added Cal Poly to the same civil complaint, claiming that the university failed to keep Kristin safe, as it was required to do.
Uncertainty surrounds the lawsuit’s outcome, but Stan and Denise, along with their solicitor, made numerous attempts to obtain data from the police department and the officers in charge that would support their claims. Yet, until Paul and his father, Ruben Flores, ultimately went to trial in 2022 for their suspected role in Kristin’s death—they were detained in 2021—these materials remained secret. The pair is happy to receive some closure now that the former has been found guilty of first-degree murder. Despite the fact that they still don’t know what happened to their daughter’s body, they are satisfied that justice was served.
Where Are Kristin Smart’s Parents Now?
The elderly couple Denise and Stan Smart appear to be residing in Stockton, California, with their two remaining children, Matthew and Lindsey, as well as their devoted grandchildren. She currently works as an instructor at the Teacher’s College of San Joaquin, according to her LinkedIn profile, assisting newly licenced teachers as they become role models for children. She reportedly taught for 30 years, first in Marysville and then in the Stockton district of the Lincoln Unified School. Before becoming a counsellor, principal, or trainer, Stan, like his wife, was a teacher. He did, however, retire later.
The Smart family has been working to find solutions to prevent others from going through what they did since they had an unspeakable loss that flipped their entire world upside down. As a result, they exerted pressure on the Californian government to establish stricter safety rules for university students, which eventually resulted in the passing of the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act in 1998. Therefore, to honour their daughter’s memory and celebrate who she was in a positive way, they established the still-running Kristin Smart Scholarship to encourage other young, aspirational women to follow their aspirations without having to worry about money.
The Smart family has been working to find solutions to prevent others from going through what they did since they had an unspeakable loss that