When Kristin Smart, a student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, didn’t come back to her dorm room in the early hours of May 26, 1996, the police thought something bad had happened. Also, from the start, the police looked into Paul Flores because he was the last person to see Kristin alive. “Dateline: Justice for Kristin Smart” tells the story of this strange event and shows how the police were able to catch the person responsible almost 27 years after Kristin Smart went missing. So, let’s look into the details of the case and see where Paul is right now, shall we?
Who is Paul Flores?
W hen Kristin Smart went missing, Paul Flores was a student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Even though Paul’s friends said he was a loner who mostly kept to himself, there was nothing unusual about him that would have made them think he was violent. So, most people thought he was a normal first-year student. It wasn’t until Kristin went missing that people started to pay attention to him.
People say that on May 25, 1998, Kristin went to a frat party that wasn’t on campus. Kristin was with a friend, but that friend left early to go back to her dorm, leaving the 19-year-old to walk back alone. But sources say that Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, who were at the party, found Kristin passed out on a neighbor’s lawn at 2 a.m. on May 26. Concerned, the other students decided to go back to Kristin’s room with her. Soon, Paul Flores, who lived closest to Kristin’s dorm, joined them. So, Tim was the first to leave the group, followed by Cheryl. Paul said he would get the 19-year-old to safety. But that was the last time anyone saw or heard from Kristin. She vanished into thin air and never made it back to her dorm.
Kristen’s parents knew something was wrong when they couldn’t get their 19-year-old daughter to answer the phone. But the university thought that the first-year student had gone on an unplanned trip, so she was reported missing a few days after the incident. Even though the delay made it harder to find the missing teen from the start, the authorities still did everything they could to find him. Reports say that the police searched the area with cadaver dogs, round-penetrating radar devices, and horseback riders, while Kristin’s picture was shown on TV and in the local news. Detectives even asked anyone who knew anything to come forward, but most of the information they got didn’t lead anywhere.
Since Paul was the last person to see Kristin alive, the police were interested in him as a possible suspect. But in the meantime, they looked into convicted murderer Scott Peterson, who was a student at California Polytechnic State University around the time Kristin went missing. But once Scott was ruled out as a witness, the police turned their attention to Paul and searched his dorm room and other places he lived several times. Reports say that during one of these searches, the police found an earring that looked like the one Kristin was wearing, but it wasn’t kept as evidence.
Where Is Paul Flores Now?
Kristin Smart was legally declared dead on May 25, 2002. Since her parents knew that her case hadn’t moved forward, they sued Paul for wrongful death in 2005. But even though there was a lawsuit and several cash rewards for information that could lead to Kristin’s location, the case moved very slowly for more than 20 years. At this point, the story was getting more attention because Chris Lambert talked about Kristin’s disappearance in his 2019 podcast. Because of all the attention, law enforcement was forced to take action. In April 2020, they searched Paul’s home in San Pedro, California, and found a lot of the date rape drug there, as well as videos of the suspect allegedly raping other young women.
Then, in February 2021, Paul Flores was arrested for having a gun while he was a convicted felon. This gave the police enough reason to search the home of his father, Ruben Flores. The police then noticed that the soil under Ruben’s deck had been moved recently, and forensic tests showed that Kristin’s body had been buried there for a long time. In the days that followed, the police talked to witnesses and did forensic tests to get more evidence, which led to Paul and Ruben Flores being arrested in April 2021.
Even though prosecutors said that Paul had raped Kristin or tried to raped her, they couldn’t charge him because the time limit had passed. So, he was charged with murder, and Ruben Flores was charged with helping him do it. Both Paul and Ruben pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in court. Ruben, on the other hand, was cleared of all charges by a jury. Paul, on the other hand, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison on March 10, 2023. So, he is still in jail at the North Kern State Prison in Delano, California, and he won’t be able to get out until 2038.
