Person Of Interest In Kristin Smart Disappearance Arrested

SAN PEDRO, CA — Los Angeles Police arrested a San Pedro man named a person of interest in the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart on a weapons charge stemming from the cold case investigation.

Authorities announced the arrest of Paul Flores on suspicion of possessing a firearm as a felon. The gun charge stems from information found during a search warrant served last year in connection with the Smart case. Police arrested Flores at about 9:45 a.m., according to Officer Tony Im with the Los Angeles Police Department. It's the first arrest stemming from the nearly 25 year-old case that has remained in the public's awareness largely thanks a campaign by Smart's mother to find justice for her daughter.

Paul Flores was taken into custody about 9:45 a.m. near Summerland and Western avenues said Officer Tony Im with the Los Angeles Police Department.

In the spring, deputies with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department served several search warrants in California and Washington in connection with the investigation, including at Flores' Upland Avenue home. Tony Cipolla of the sheriff's department said in April Flores "continues to be a person of interest in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996," and said the search warrant served that month was "for specific items of evidence at the Los Angeles County home of Paul Flores."

Investigators left few hints as to what they were looking for and what prompted the searches nearly 25 years after Smart vanished on her way home from an off-campus get together while walking with Flores on Memorial Day weekend in 1996. Flores was a classmate of Smart and the last person to see her before she disappeared, according to police. The high profile case gained renewed attention with a series of podcasts released last year and the raid on properties owned by the Flores family in February. Over the years, Smart’s mother commissioned billboards seeking information about her disappearance, and the images of the smiling blond teen along California highways has helped to keep her case in the public eye.

But after decades without an arrest, federal investigators last year announced a break in the case and questioned Flores in front of his San Pedro home for hours.

According to the Sacramento Bee, authorities recently confirmed that new evidence was discovered that was tied to Smart's disappearance, including two trucks that belonged to members of the family of Flores in 1996. Flores has been a prime suspect in the case since the early days of the investigation. The case has long been a controversial one because of delays in initiating the investigation in the crucial first days of Smart's disappearance. Last year's Your Own Backyard podcast by Chris Lambert explores the decades-long battle for justice and helped renew public interest in the case.

Since 2011, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's office has served search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches, submitted evidence items from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing, recovered more than 100 new items of evidence, conducted more than 90 in-person interviews and written more than 360 supplemental reports, the newspaper said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Flores has been sued by Smart's family, but never charged with a crime.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.