A very close-knit family. PODCAST EPISODE 2 [LAMBERT READING REPORT] Smart does not have any close friends at Cal Poly. When approached about Janes rape claim, an Arroyo Grande Police Department administrator said in an email that their search revealed no such records exist; therefore, there are no responsive documents. Before their findings, another administrator told The Daily Beast on the phone that because the matter was a sexual assault case it fell under a non-disclosure category and therefore they wouldnt be providing any specific information about it. Resides in Blue Bell, PA. A jury acquitted Ruben Flores of the charge of being an accessory after the fact. A student named Paul Flores, Susan's son, volunteered to take her back. The dogs were trained and certified to detect human remains. This boy walked up to me and said Oh hey, you need to be careful of that Paul Flores, I think hes stalking you. Remember, Flores's room had been emptied and thoroughly cleaned. Paul Flores lives in San Pedro, CA; previous city include Arroyo Grande CA. Susan's house was finally searched in March 1997 nine months after Kristin disappeared but nothing was found. PODCAST | EPISODE 1: At least once a day I asked myself what are you doing? Podcaster Chris Lambert says that after 24 years, "I think it's time [for Flores] to talk." At the time of Smart's disappearance, Flores was a 19-year-old food science major at Cal-Poly. They were soon joined by another partygoer, Paul Flores. She regretfully denounced them as cruel rumors at the time. She was gone. Since Parkinson came on the scene, investigators have dug up hillsides; searched the homes and properties of all the Flores'; collected evidence; seized Paul Flores' computers; monitored his cell phone and text messages, and found new witnesses -- some with the help of Chris Lambert. After almost 25 years of suspicion, on April 13, 2021, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson announced the arrest ofPaul Flores in the disappearance of Kristin Smart. Guardar . Im good, he said in response to questions about Smarts disappearance. But one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived. What happens next? Chris Lambert told Jonathan Vigliotti, "It drove [Mary Lassiter] crazy and she went out there many times in the middle of the night to try to find it with sticks, sticking down into the planter boxes down in the soil." But I've seen it. And these girls are inviting us out. I was like It wasnt. I called my mom. Once the dogs were let inside the room, they alerted to a corner of Flores bed mattress. Margarita Campos: To this day, like, I was like, why why did I just let her go by herself? Ermelinda Flores After a wonderful life, Ermelinda Correa-Flores, 89, entered an eternal rest in her own home in Richland, MO on Sunday, June 19, 2022.<br>Ermelinda was born on June 29, 1932, in San Perlita, Texas to Rafela Posada. Flores father is now charged with helping cover up the homicide by burying Smarts body in his Arroyo Grande homes backyard. This is about the facts. As of this date, Paul is single. 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Flores said he suffered the black eye during a basketball game he played with friends in Arroyo Grande on Monday. Jane said she kept this secret for yearseven from her husband. Investigators could have excavated the yard, but their decision not to was a crushing blow for the Smart family. Mike McHugh is the producer-editor. Jonathan Vigliotti: What toll over time did this have on your parents? D.A. He promised the Smarts that solving Kristin's case would be a priority. Paul Flores did not have a car on campus, so Murphy surmises he had to have had help. He'd go through tunnels, under bridges, looking for his daughter and expecting best case scenario. The backyard was all concrete except for a couple of areas where planter boxes had been created by cutting out the concrete and filling them with soil. DAN DOW [press conference]: But the allegation that he was committing or attempting to commit a rape when he killed her, is the basis for which we are able to file first-degree felony murder charges. Not at all. It is also what the Smarts have been waiting for for more than a quarter of a century. A single woman's earring. James Murphy: To see them in custody was a feeling of great joy for me. Paul Flores spotted July 29,2017, in Food4Less grocery store located in Arroyo Grande, CA. However hard she and her father fought back, there was no chance they were going to get beyond the he said, she said. I was drunk and he had a witness and I didnt, Jane said. It's fine. He was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet. On October 18, 2022, Paul Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder. Instead, Flores and his family were sued in 2002 by the Smarts in civil court for intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon the parents of Kristin Smart by taking the body of Kristin Smart and secreting and/or destroying the body in a hidden place in the County of San Luis Obispo. The Flores family countersued for emotional distress. Both suits were shelved by a judge until Smarts remains are found. He never expected it would be a hit, but his podcast caught the attention of millions of listeners and sparked new interest in this decades-old unsolved case. The woman, whom we'll call Jane, believes she was roofied, raped, and discarded by Paul Flores and his nameless friend when she was a 15-year-old high-school sophomore in 1994. A . In the fall of 1996, a young mother named Mary Lassiter was looking for a house to rent in Arroyo Grande, California. Classes were difficult, she was trying to fit in, and she missed her family. All four dogs, including one who was considered the best of the best, separately signaled an alert indicating the presence of human remain odors only in Flores room. After the four students had walked about halfway back to the dorms, Paul Flores told Davis and Anderson, Dont worry I got her, Ill take her from here, according to prosecutors. But while campus police weren't doing much, Kristin's parents were doing whatever they could to find their daughter. DAN DOW [press conference]: We don't have evidence sufficient to charge anyone else at this time. Thats when everyone got involved, she said. Ermelinda Flores' property in Washington state has been searched by investigators in February 2020. Two years later Smart would go missing and when suspicion quickly fell on Flores, Jane decided then and there that she may have been one of the lucky ones. Four months after that futile search, Paul Flores was brought before a grand jury. Meanwhile, three other women told The Daily Beast that Flores sexually assaulted them after Janes assault and Smarts disappearance. And it was only 250 miles from Stockton, California, where she grew up with Lindsey and their brother Matt. That could have been me.. Margarita Campos: I was a little bit more introverted and inhibited and she was like, "no, we have to go out and we have to go like live life." But a massive search did not happen until she'd been gone for more than a month. That would be Susan Flores, the owner of the home where Flores is suspected to have buried Smart. Ann-Marie Christian: Her parents reminded me of my parents. We would highly recommend that those people get in contact with us as soon as possible so we could investigate this further, he said. Chris Lambert says they're cautiously optimistic. In June of 1996, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office brought in four cadaver dogs to sniff dorms on campus. They're known for being a really safe school.". Susan Flores's backyard has been the focus of widespread speculation. It wasn't until Kristin's roommate returned to their dorm room, that Margarita realized Kristin never came home. Susan Flores, an Arroyo Grande resident whose son Paul is the prime suspect in Smart's disappearance, broke her silence after new searches in the haunting case last week. The day after my sister disappeared, Paul Flores had a black eye and scratches on him. The investigation seemed to be hampered from the start by a series of missteps by campus police beginning with their assumption that Kristin was off having fun and ignoring worried friends who said she was missing. They have not been able to proceed with the civil case while there was an ongoing criminal investigation, but that didn't stop them from following every lead and preparing for an eventual trial. She never saw accepting the rides as anything but wholesome. Back in San Luis Obispo, the Smarts, feeling ignored by the sheriff's office, continued a relentless campaign to get them to do more to find their daughter. Im fine. Our roommate came in and yelled Leave her alone. In October 2022, Paul Flores, the man long suspected in her disappearance, was found guilty of murder. And might have connected Kristin to Susan Flores's house, says James Murphy. But was there evidence possibly placing Kristin Smart at his mother's home? People who were there have said she was intoxicated. They had become close friends despite their differences. Ken Blum is the editor. The sheriff's office still wasn't convinced they had enough evidence against Flores. Chris Lambert: I brought them a number of witnesses that they were very interested in. All of Kristin's personal belongings including her purse, her money, her I.D. The duplex was located up the same street from where her mom resided. For more than two decades, her family, friends, and supporters searched for answers and for justice. And it all came back to me. So, when they were invited to a party that Friday night, Kristin was excited to go. Despite Flores sporting a black eye the next day (which he admitted to investigators he lied about) and despite police dogs picking up the scent of human decay in his dorm room, Flores was never charged. PODCAST EPISODE 2 | WOMAN #2: You wouldn't want to be alone in a room with him. We were standing by the washer and dryer and we were arguing and he shouted, No! and slapped my arm, Laura said. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 27 times. Sheriff Ian Parkinson was able to confirm that forensic physical evidence that authorities believe is linked to Kristin was located at, at least two homes. The Kristin Smart disappearance: After 26 years, Paul Flores is convicted of murder. Chris Lambert: At that point I don't think they had ever dealt with a missing person, a possibly murdered person. Smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Lambert says Kristin could not stand on her own, so fellow student Cheryl Anderson who was also at the party began helping her back to campus. Murphy has filed a new civil suit against Ruben Flores for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. In October 1996, Mary and her family moved in. Jonathan Vigliotti found Flores outside his home in Southern California and asked him a number of questions about Kristin's disappearance. Denise Pearce | Longtime family friend: Things were gonna get better and, you know, and and they did. San Luis Obispo County. They believe they can prove Paul Flores is responsible for the disappearance of Kristin Smart. PODCAST EPISODE 2: So, with Cheryl's account alone, we have an unsettling picture of Paul . San Luis Obispo County. Little is known since the proceedings are kept secret, but no charges were ever filed. In high school he was known as a loner. Murphy alleges four nights later, strange activity was seen at Ruben's house. Acerca; Prensa; I think they're just waiting to see what the outcome is going to be. To think that you're going to finally get some resolution, and then it doesn't happen the way it's supposed to. Devastating. November 27, 2020 / 8:14 AM In the months after Kristin's disappearance, one truck was traded in and the other was reported stolen. Flores told campus police that he never talked to Smart at the house party, but multiple witnesses who were at the party saw the two talking together next to a tiki bar inside the house. James Murphy: There has been no other suspect. Jonathan Vigliotti | CBS News correspondent: You wanted to go home, and you were trying to find a way to break it to your friend. Like the Smart's civil case, theirs also has been on hold. Denise Pearce: Kristin hasn't come home And we're not sure where she is We don't know anything. . In the fall of 1996, a young mother named Mary Lassiter was looking for a house to rent in Arroyo Grande, California. Paul Flores - Cal Poly student and Food Science major, Paul Flores lived on campus in room #128 of Santa Lucia Hall Dormitory. Alicia Tejada is the field producer and Addison Briley is the associate producer. At the time, she was a 19-year-old freshman at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, who'd grown up in Stockton, Calif. On the night of her disappearance, she was spotted at a house party, which she left with three people. Ermelinda Flores' property in Washington state has been searched by investigators in February 2020. They might have found evidence in those vehicles. Critics called. [emotional] I will go outside at nighttime and I'll look up at the full moon and I'll think that that kid's buried somewhere real close. Flores has never been charged in this case. James Murphy: they let the dog in, the dog makes a beeline to the bed of Paul Flores. Personal details about Paul include: political affiliation is unknown; ethnicity is Hispanic American; and religious views are listed as Christian. Smarts body has never been found. James Murphy: Somebody found an earring that they say was Kristin Smart's jewelry in the driveway. My mom opened the door and she cries, Oh my God!. He wouldn't answer a single thing. Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Firefighter dies battling blaze in downtown Buffalo, mayor says, Prosecution wraps its case at Alex Murdaugh murder trial, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Ex-Georgia star Jalen Carter was racing in deadly crash, arrest warrants allege, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students, Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment. They alerted to a corner of Flores bed mattress remains are found that Flores sexually assaulted them Janes., I was like, I was like, why why did I let... Have said she was intoxicated of Kristin Smart 's jewelry in the fall 1996! 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