Suspect Arrested In Kristin Smart Disappearance

LONG BEACH, CA — Twenty-five years after Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart disappeared, law enforcement arrested the prime suspect on suspicion of murder Tuesday. They also arrested his 80-year-old father on suspicion of being an accessory.

It was a stunning development in a case that has gripped the tightknit college town and capped an investigation that spanned decades and several states.

Paul Flores, 44, of San Pedro was taken into custody along with his father, Ruben Flores of Arroyo Grande, by San Luis Obispo County sheriff's officials Tuesday. Investigators then spent the morning tearing up the deck behind the elder Flores' home, according to KSBY. Smart's body has never been recovered, and on Tuesday, San Luis Obispo sheriff's officials vowed to bring her home to her family.

"We are not going t0 stop until Kristen has been recovered no matter what the cost, no matter what the time," San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. "We will find Kristen."

In a statement released after the arrests, 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."

In announcing the arrests, sheriff's officials remained tight-lipped about the details of the case against the father and son. Parkinson revealed little about the new evidence uncovered that lead to the two arrests. 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.

"Forensic physical evidence was located, and, yes, we believe it's linked to Kristen, 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 Kristen Smart."

Bail for the father was set at $250,000, San Luis Obispo jail records showed. No booking information was listed for the son as of mid-morning.

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.

John Segale, a Smart family spokesperson, told CNN that law enforcement officials notified the family that Paul Flores and his father were arrested.

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

The sheriff's office planned to reveal "major developments in the investigation into Kristin Smart's disappearance" at a 2 p.m. news conference by San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson, the department said Tuesday morning in a Twitter post.

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, where authorities served a search warrant at his Upland Avenue home last April in a quest "for specific items of evidence" related to the investigation into Smart's disappearance, a San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office spokesman said at the time.

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.

In 2016, federal investigators dug up a hillside near the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus, looking for remains. They also searched the yard of a home.

Smart's family sued Flores in civil court. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before a grand jury and in a civil deposition.

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, according to media reports.

City News Service and Patch staffers Ashley Ludwig and Paige Austin contributed to this report.