Law eforcement executed a search warrant on an Arroyo Grande home Wednesday in the investigation to find the body of Kristin Smart, the Cal Poly student who went missing 30 years ago this month, according to the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office.
San Luis Obispo County DA Dan Dow released a statement Wednesday saying that sheriff’s office personnel searched the Arroyo Grande residence of Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted of murdering the 19-year-old Smart in 2022. SLO Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Cipolla issued a statement on Wednesday saying that a county judge authorized the warrant to search the home in the 500 block of East Branch Street.
Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart near the Santa Lucia Hall dorm on Cal Poly’s campus while walking back from a party during the early morning hours of May 25, 1996, according to police investigators. Hours later, Smart was reported missing and her body was never recovered. She was declared legally dead in 2002.
“Since the jury convicted Paul Flores for the murder of Kristin Smart,” Dow said in his statement, “the District Attorney’s Office has continued working in coordination with the Sheriff’s Office to fulfill our shared commitment to the Smart family and this community: to bring Kristin home.”
Investigators alleged that Paul Flores, who was also a student at Cal Poly, killed the heavily intoxicated Smart while attempting to rape her at his Santa Lucia Hall dorm. Police previously alleged that Flores’ family, including his father, hid Smart’s body.
Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in April 2021 and charged in connection with Smart’s murder. Paul Flores was charged with first-degree murder, while his father was charged with accessory to murder after the fact.
A SLO County Superior Court judge transferred the case to Monterey County due to concerns the father and son wouldn’t receive a fair trial. Following a roughly three-month trial in Salinas, a jury convicted Paul Flores, but acquitted Ruben Flores, who has denied any involvement with Smart’s disappearance.
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In 2023, Paul Flores was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison. The California Supreme Court upheld Paul Flores’ first-degree murder conviction in January.
Following the arrest of Ruben Flores, SLO Sheriff’s personnel searched his home in April 2021. During the search at Flores’ home, located in the 700 block of White Court in Arroyo Grande, investigators using ground penetrating radar located a portion of soil underneath the back porch that appeared to have been recently disturbed, which police believed was a temporary grave for Smart’s body.
A forensic archaeologist deployed to the site did not locate a body, but obtained soil samples that she believed indicated the presence of human decomposition. A test on the soil indicated the presence of human blood, although DNA wasn’t recovered, according to trial testimony.
It’s unclear what led the judge to authorize a search on Susan Flores’ home on Wednesday. SLO County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth told the Santa Maria Times on Wednesday that the search warrant affidavit is still sealed by the court.
In 2023, two environmental scientists reportedly detected soil vapors they believed were consistent with human decomposition near the fenceline of Susant Flores’ yard.
A SLO County lawsuit filed by Smart’s parents in 2021 alleged that Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville helped Ruben Flores relocate Smart’s remains following a search warrant in February 2020.
Susan Flores and McConville have not been charged with a crime. They could not be reached on Wednesday.
