Abducted, Raped, and Murdered - The Story of Kristin Smart
Young College Student is Murdered Her Freshman Year
Sending children off to college can be stressful. Especially where fraternity parties are concerned. A lot of kids have gone to college parties and ended up overdosing, raped, or dead from drunken antics, drug abuse, and even abduction. This is what happened to Kristin Smart, aged 19, one night on Memorial Day weekend, 1996.
A Girl with Potential
Kristin Smart was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany in 1977, to Stan and Denise Smart, both teachers to children whose parents served in the US military. When she was young, the Smart family moved to Stockton California, where Kristin graduated from Lincoln High School in 1995. She spent a summer as an exchange student in Venezuela, another perfecting her bike riding at UCSB, and the summer after her senior year as a camp counselor and lifeguard at Camp Mokuleia, Hawaii. She was the kind of girl who wanted to see the world and brought joy to anyone she graced with her presence.
The Last Supper
Kristin enrolled in California Polytechnic State University in 1996. On May 25, she attended a birthday party at an unofficial fraternity house where she knew nobody. Her friend, who didn’t want to attend, dropped her off. At around 2 am, she was found passed out by two fellow students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, on the lawn of one of the neighbors. They roused her and offered to take her home, as she was in no condition to go alone. A third student at the party, Paul Flores, offered to help out, and the students helped Kristin walk to her dorm. One by one, the students peeled off as they approached their respective residences. Davis was first, as he lived off-campus and needed to get home. Then it was Anderson who lived in a dorm further away than Flores did. Flores walked her as far as his dorm. In an interview with the authorities, Flores claimed to have reached his dorm building and decided that Kristin could make her way back to her dorm on her own. That was the last time anyone saw her.
The Investigation
University police were slow to report a missing person - taking them over a week - as it was assumed Kristin took an unannounced vacation over the holiday as many students do, even though her parents had called the police days earlier.
Another murder case, that of Laci Peterson in 2002, sparked unfounded rumors that her husband Scott was involved in Kristin's disappearance, due to both attending the party at Cal. Polytechnic. Peterson was ruled out as a suspect by police after a brief inquiry where he denied any involvement. Searches continued with the use of cadaver dogs and other various methods, but nothing has turned up in over two decades until recently.
Smart was declared legally dead in 2005, and her parents filed a civil case of wrongful death against Paul Flores, one of the students that walked her back to her dorm. The suit was dropped due to lack of evidence after Flores pleaded to the 5th amendment. The Flores Family retaliated by filing a lawsuit against the Smarts for emotional distress. The lawsuit was deemed to not have enough evidence and never received justice.
The San Luis Obispo County sheriff’s office invested thousands of hours and dollars on the search between 2011 and 2016, and the FBI filed Kristin’s case as a high priority missing person investigation, offering a reward of $75,000 for finding her, or information leading to a resolution.
On Feb. 11, 2021, Paul Flores was arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm - a felony in itself - by the Los Angeles police department. A search warrant was issued on March 15, to search the house of Paul’s father Ruben, including the use of cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar. Father and son were both taken into the custody of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Department on April 13, where Paul was charged with murder, and Ruben with being an accessory to murder. Investigations after this concluded that Paul Flores attempted to rape Kristin Smart, and although the statute of limitations has expired on a sexual assault charge, murder during rape, or in attempting it justified first-degree murder charges. As it turns out, the cadaver dogs discovered that Smart had been buried in Ruben’s back yard, but was recently dug up and moved. The body’s current location is unknown.
In September 2021, it was ruled that there was sufficient evidence of guilt for the case to proceed to trial. The trial is set to take place on April 25, 2022.
Final Thoughts on the Matter
Far too many innocent young women end up in these situations, and far too many young men get away with it. Luckily this is not one of those cases. Paul Flores will be taken to court and found guilty of the murder of Kristin Smart, and thankfully, the full weight of the American justice system will fall upon him. The trial is sure to be an interesting watch, and we couldn’t recommend keeping up-to-date enough. This is a triumph for justice and some well-deserved closure for the Smart Family.