Paul Flores Killed Kristin Smart During Rape Attempt, DA Alleges

LONG BEACH, CA — San Pedro resident Paul Flores was trying to rape Kristin Smart when he killed her in 1996, and his father helped him hide her body, keeping his son’s secret for nearly 25 years, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said Wednesday.

Dow’s allegations follow the arrests of Flores, 44, and his father Ruben Flores, 80, on Tuesday. They are the first public account of what investigators believe happened in the moments leading up to the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo freshman’s death on May 25, 1996.

Smart disappeared after walking home from a party with Flores and her body has never been found. Paul Flores was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of first-degree murder, and his father stands accused of being an accessory after the fact.

"These charges mark a milestone. For more than two decades, law enforcement agencies have worked to bring justice for Kristin Smart," Dow said at a Wednesday press conference.

Though both men are in jail awaiting arraignment, the 24-year-old investigation remains ongoing. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s continued to search the elder Flores’ Arroyo Grande home Wednesday morning, searching with ground-penetrating radar and tearing up his back deck area, according to authorities.

Dow called on members of the community to come forward with information about the case. Paul Flores was a fixture in the Los Angeles bar scene and may have additional sexual assault victims, Dow said.

The cases stalled for years until new witnesses came forward, allowing police to obtain warrants to intercept texts and calls made by Flores and his family members, including his mother, father and sister. The search warrants yielded evidence of Smart’s murder, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a press conference Tuesday.

"Forensic physical evidence was located, and, yes, we believe it's linked to Kristin, and, yes, we did find physical evidence at two homes," said Parkinson. "During the search warrant, the detectives recovered evidence related to the murder of Kristin Smart."

The results of searches at several Flores family properties are sealed under court order, he said. However, evidence was found at the San Pedro home of Paul Flores and the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores, Parkinson added.

In a statement released after the arrests Tuesday, the Smart family said, "For over 24 years, we have waited for this bittersweet day. It is impossible to put into words what this day means for our family. We pray it is the first step to bringing our daughter home. While Kristin's loving spirit will always live in our hearts, our life without her hugs, laughs and smiles is a heartache that never abates.

"The knowledge that a father and son, despite our desperate pleas for help, could have withheld this horrible secret for nearly 25 years, denying us the chance to lay our daughter to rest, is an unrelenting and unforgiving pain," their statement says. "We now put our faith in the justice system and move forward, comforted in the knowledge that Kristin has been held in the hearts of so many and that she has not been forgotten ... We are pleased that Kristin's case has now moved to the district attorney's office, where we know we will be in good hands, and look forward to the day when there will be justice for Kristin."

Authorities long considered Paul Flores a prime suspect in Smart's disappearance. He was a former classmate of hers from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and the last person known to see her alive the night she disappeared in 1996.

Smart has been missing and is presumed dead since she was last seen leaving a get-together with Paul Flores as they walked back to their dorms.

When Smart first disappeared, authorities were slow to launch an investigation, and little progress was made in the case for more than a decade. Smart's mother kept her daughters smiling likeness in the public eye with billboards dotting the countryside and media appearances.

Recent podcasts, including Chris Lambert's Your Own Backyard, unearthed witnesses in the case as cold case detectives renewed the investigation.

On Tuesday, the sheriff acknowledged early missteps in the case.

"There were certainly some missteps,” said Parkinson. "There really is no hiding the fact that there were some mistakes early on. And that made the case more difficult.”

Last year, investigators raided Flores' family properties and detained Paul Flores for questioning. But months would go by before an arrest was made; Paul Flores was detained on an unrelated weapons charge stemming from the search of his home.

Read: Person Of Interest In Kristin Smart Disappearance Arrested | Los Angeles, CA Patch

Paul Flores has denied having anything to do with Smart's disappearance. Witnesses reported seeing Flores walking on a path to the college dormitories with her the night she went missing. Law enforcement officers questioned him about Smart's disappearance at the time.

He has lived for more than a decade in San Pedro. In February 2020, San Luis Obispo sheriff's investigators served search warrants in San Pedro, San Luis Obispo County and Washington. Authorities declined to provide specifics about the nature of the searches.