Sheriff’s Office Searches Susan Flores Home Linked to Paul Flores’ Killing of Kristin Smart

Investigators served a search warrant Wednesday at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted in 2022 of killing Kristin Smart in 1996.

“Search warrant served at home connected to killer of California college student Kristin Smart Search warrant served at home connected to killer of California college student Kristin Smart SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif”

Associated Press

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said the search in the central coast town of Arroyo Grande is related to the ongoing investigation into Smart’s disappearance, with the search continuing Wednesday afternoon.

Associated Press

The home is on the 500 block of East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande, and authorities said the search was authorized by a Superior Court judge.

The case centers on Smart, a 19-year-old Cal Poly student who vanished during Memorial Day weekend in 1996 and was legally declared dead in 2002, but whose remains have never been found.

The sheriff’s office said, “The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family,” and added, “No further information is available.”

District Attorney Dan Dow said his office continues working in coordination with the Sheriff’s Office, stating, “Since the jury convicted Paul Flores for the murder of Kristin Smart, 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.”

KRON4

The “Your Own Backyard” podcast, which “helped investigators crack the cold case,” first reported the search and said the home belongs to Flores’ mother.

Investigators also tied the renewed activity to scientific detection of potential remains, with the Los Angeles Times reporting that the warrant followed soil vapor sampling that detected volatile organic compounds potentially associated with decomposing human remains.

The search comes nearly three decades after Smart’s disappearance and follows prior searches of multiple family properties, with the Independent noting that her body has never been found despite those efforts.

“Three years after Paul Flores was convicted in the 1996 disappearance and murder of then-Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, law enforcement is once again searching for her remains — this time, at the home of Flores’ mother in San Luis Obispo County”

KTLA

Paul Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in March 2023, and the Independent reported that a judge in 2024 ruled Paul Flores must pay just over $350,000 to Smart’s family for costs incurred after her death.

The family has said it would forgo restitution if Flores would tell them where Smart’s body was, while Flores’ attorney, Harold Mesick, said in 2024 that the defense did not know where her remains are.

With the search expected to last two days, the Los Angeles Times said investigators were preparing to scan and sample the grounds for remains at the Susan Flores property, where Sheriff’s investigators served the warrant shortly after 7 a.m.

Wednesday.