The Disappearance of Kristin Smart | Full Episode | Forensic Files

foreign -year-old Christian smart disappeared on Memorial Day weekend of 1996. for more
than two decades her family friends and supporters searched for answers and for justice
in October 2022 the man long suspected in her disappearance was found guilty of murder his father charged with being an
accessory after the fact was found not guilty we take you back to their arrest and how
The Saga began foreign it's a landmark day in this very high profile casual development of Kristen
smart Los Obispo County Sheriff's Office is set to release details about the latest developments today is a day that
many had hoped for wished for and prayed for this is where it all began on the campus of Cal Poly University
the last place that Kristen smart was seen alive it's my hope that we're able to take the
first step toward Justice for the smart family I grew up not far from where Kristen
disappeared the billboard and Arroyo Grande is visible it's got Kristen's photo on it driving past that billboard
was a periodic reminder that oh yeah they still haven't found that girl I'm Chris Lambert I created the podcast
your own backyard which focused on The Disappearance of Kristen smart other students left the party that night
and walked back to their on-campus dormitory buildings we're here surrounded by dorms and yet nobody saw
anything it was a very dead holiday weekend A lot of people had gone home and the amount
of time that they were alone and whatever happened that her life ended I think there was plenty of opportunity to
hide her body without anybody noticing my sister turned 19 in February she disappeared in May
when she disappeared I was about to graduate eighth grade but my parents did a really good job of shielding us Stan
and Denise they're wonderful parents very large group of friends went down to Cal Poly to help search for her the Stan
was there Denise stayed back and I stayed back with her in case Kristen came home never would have dreamed in a
million years that she would not return and Cal Poly is a safe place you do not think of this happening
it's one of my favorites of her with this great smile that she has I just love that it's just to me that's just
that captures her remember her wanting to like travel the world and be an architect
I really miss her she should be here [Music] originally when we first took the case I
was determined I would be able to find her in six months if you've ever been on one of these searches you walk up a
canyon here in San Luis Obispo County and then there's another Canyon off that you get to the end of that one there's
another Canyon there's billions of places to hide a body it's important to explain here that
Kristen's case has never been declared cold a case is only considered cold when law enforcement decides that they've
exhausted all of their leads but what makes it interesting to me is that they've had a suspect since pretty
much day one hi Paul good morning I'm Jonathan Vigliotti with CBS News were you involved in The Disappearance of
Kristen smart Paul can you tell us what happened that night between you and Kristen
it's important that there's an arrest made you gotta move and you've got to do it now I'm here this afternoon to
announce the rest of Paul Flores for the murder of Kristen smart [Music] foreign
after almost 25 years of Suspicion on April 13 2021 San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian
Parkinson announced the arrest of Paul Flores in The Disappearance of Kristen smart it's been a puzzle and it's a very
slow process to find each of those little pieces some of that information came to light
through the podcast that many of you are familiar with in the crowd taking it all
in was that podcaster Chris Lambert it's hard to take too much credit but I was one piece of the puzzle that helped to
make this all come together when it did Lambert was just eight years old when Christian smart vanished on her way home
from a college party in San Luis Obispo California I remember seeing it on the news Chris
freshman at Cal Poly hasn't been to class since before the Memorial Day weekend and Kristen smart left a party
on the Cal Poly campus it was something scary and they were talking about it pretty regularly but 22 years later when
he couldn't find any recent stories about the case he decided to do something it's a cold and cloudy winter afternoon
in San Luis Obispo and I'm retracing missing Cal Poly student Kristen Smart's last known steps
even though he'd never investigated anything before Lambert quit his job to create a podcast at least once a day
I asked myself what are you doing Lambert began looking into what happened to Kristen collecting articles and
documents chasing down leads and tracking down anyone with information I didn't know
the scale I didn't know how many people were going to listen but I knew that I could try to do a small part I Googled
Kristen Smart's name every few years he never expected it would be a hit but his
podcast caught the attention of millions of listeners and sparked new interest and this
decades-old unsolved case back in May 1996 Christian smart was finishing her freshman year at
California Polytechnic State University better known as Cal Poly her younger sister Lindsay says their mother urged
Kristen to go there you should go to Cal Poly they're known for being a really safe School
and it was only 250 miles from Stockton California where she grew up with Lindsay and their brother Matt her
parents Denise and Stan were both Educators who encouraged their kids Passions [Music]
she was who she was because of her parents for sure Anne-Marie Christian became friends with Kristen in
elementary school her parents reminded me of my parents just very involved with their children a very close-knit family
Kristen loves swimming and skiing but Lindsay says her sister was happiest when she was traveling
she had traveled the world before she even made it to College by herself which is pretty amazing she spent a summer in
London was an exchange student in Venezuela and a lifeguard at a camp in Hawaii she definitely like took advantage of
Life seized the day she was super ambitious and was determined you know to find the next adventure to find the next
challenge that turned out to be College like so many freshmen Kristen struggled classes
were difficult she was trying to fit in and she missed her family Kristen broke down begging her mother to
let her drop out and go somewhere else but every Sunday when she called her parents they encouraged her to stick it
out longtime family friend Denise Pierce things were going to get better and you
know and and they did Friday May 24 1996 was the start of the Memorial Day weekend most students had
taken off but Kristen had stayed on campus so had Margarita Campos who lived in the Next Room in your hall they had
become close friends despite their differences I was a little bit more introverted and inhibited and she was
like no we have to go out and we have to go like live life and she was growing as
an individual she was pushing herself out of her comfort zone and I was like no so when they were invited to a party
that Friday night Kristen was excited to go Kristen was like come on let's go let's go and I was like nah I have to
study and so she pulled me into this sort of like oh come on let's socialize and these girls are inviting us out
let's go and I was like but when we got to the house it was pretty dead she was a really it was like
a couple roommates hanging out playing video games and Kristen was like oh gosh there has to be something better than
this [Music] girls walked to an area off campus where there were fraternities sororities and
residential housing for students Margarita soon decided she'd had enough you want to go home and you were trying
to find a way to break it to your friend that's exactly right a lot of this apartment complex
I was like Kristen I'm gonna go back home I'm gonna go back to the dorms you can go and she's like please come with
me please come with me I told her I didn't I didn't want to go Kristen did not have a purse money her
ID or even her keys so before leaving Margarita handed over her keys to get back into Muir Hall she was absolutely
sober when I left her I'll never forget her Shadow against the building this apartment complex just standing like
kind of cross arm with a long leg and she was just kind of like looking at me like you're really walking away now like
you're really you're leaving foreign the next morning Margarita waited to hear from Kristen I was expecting her to
knock on my door and be like Oh Margarita you missed a rager and here's your key
[Music] I knocked on her door and I thought she was just sleeping or she went out and
about you know it wasn't until Christian's roommate returned to their dorm room that Margarita realized
Kristen never came home how did you know she hadn't been back nothing had moved all of Christian's
personal belongings including her purse her money her ID were in the room exactly where she had left them I mean
she was gone she was gone by the time they called the Cal Poly campus police Kristen had been
missing for more than 48 hours but Margarita says the police did not seem concerned the campus police they were
like are you sure she didn't go out of town it's like she has nothing on her how
could she have gone out of town they thought she was off possibly having fun oh yeah but they could not have been
more wrong to this day like I was like why why did I just Let Her Go by herself I did have guilt about that but you have
to understand she's a really independent free spirit [Music] [Music] Kristen's mother Denise smart spent
Memorial Day weekend at his swimming with her two younger kids she was looking forward to hearing from Kristen
that Sunday and that phone call never comes the phone call Never Comes instead on Monday May 27th Denise Pierce
says the smarts got a call from Cal poly's campus police asking if Kristen was with them
Kristen hasn't come home and we're not sure where she is we don't know anything that's when
Denise smart learned her daughter had not been seen all weekend and all her belongings were still in her dorm room
she was becoming more and more alarmed you know she was she was frantic I don't understand this you know what's going on
it is every parent's worst nightmare the smarts say they tried to file a missing
person's Report with the local police but we're told it was too early and the FBI told them Cal Poly police were in
charge but as Chris Lambert learned that campus police did not act right away at
that point I don't think they had ever dealt with a missing person a possibly murdered person
by the time the Cal Poly police began investigating Kristen had been gone for four days
as they soon learned she had ended up at a party at this house it's mostly frat guys from the Kappa Kai
fraternity I don't know if Kristen knew anybody there Chris Lambert who worked as a CBS News consultant pieced together
what he learned from people who were there that night Kristen became incredibly intoxicated
whether she was drugged or whether she just had a lot to drink in a short amount of time
she ends up passed out on the lawn next door Lambert says Christian could not stand
on her own so fellow student Cheryl Anderson who was also at the party began helping her back to campus they were
soon joined by another party goer Paul Flores as they describe it Paul Flores just
sort of appears out of nowhere and offers to help he gets his arm around her torso and her arm around his neck
and he's helping her walk Paul keeps stopping along the way and letting Cheryl Anderson know you can go
on ahead I've got her it's fine she didn't think that was okay so she slowed down and walked with them when
they reached the turn off to Cheryl's dorm she says Flores tried to hug and kiss her she left them only after he
promised to take Kristen back to her dorm I don't think she ever imagined that Kristen would end up dead by the end of
the night Paul and Kristen then make their way here what happens next so if you believe Paul's story he goes
into his dorm room here and he leaves her to walk up this walkway her dorm entrance is right over here
I personally think that wherever Kristen went Paul was there with her I don't think that she went back to her dorm at
all whatever happened in those early hours one thing is indisputable Christian smart has never been seen again
she had just 40 yards to go and yet she vanished that's the upsetting part about it isn't it the
investigation seemed to be hampered from the start by a series of missteps by campus police beginning with their
assumption that Christian was off having fun and ignoring worried friends who said she was missing
so much was lost in those first few days where if that very first phone call was
taken seriously answers might have been uncovered the first week they also did not focus on
Paul Flores immediately waiting six days to formally interview him even worse they never sealed his dorm room there
was a lot of evidence that could have been gathered that wasn't why I wish I knew why they did an interview with the
Cal Poly Mustang daily and explained that they didn't think there was any evidence that a crime had taken place by
the time they inspected flores's room Christian had been gone for 16 days school was over so campus police found
an empty room that had been sanitized by the University's cleaning crew any evidence that might have been there was
long gone the investigation was completely botched by the campus police there's no question about it and while
they did not rush to investigate Flores Christian's family says campus police were very quick to judge her just days
after she disappeared an incident report seemed to imply that Kristen's Behavior
contributed to her disappearance there was a lot of focus on how Christian was drinking
what sounded a lot like victim shaming right a hundred percent that was happening the report said smart does not
have any close friends at Cal Poly smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night smart was
talking with and socializing with several different males at the party but while campus police weren't doing
much Kristen's parents were doing whatever they could to find their daughter Kristen's father would come
down and Hike every Trail he could find on the Central Coast he'd go anywhere he'd go through tunnels under bridges
looking for his daughter and expecting best case scenario he's going to find her body which is awful for a parent
early on a small group of volunteers also looked for Christian but a massive search did not happen until she'd been
gone for more than a month that's when the campus police finally handed the investigation over to the San Luis
Obispo Sheriff's Office but they did not find Kristin [Music] four months after that feudal surge Paul
Flores was brought before a grand jury little is known since the proceedings are kept secret but no charges were ever
filed just Weeks Later Christian's frustrated parents contacted James Murphy a local civil attorney it was
just a sad phone call to have somebody say our daughter disappear and we think she's the victim of Foul Play and we'd
like to pursue the guy that we think is responsible Murphy and his wife Garen Sinclair
agreed to take the case pro bono promising to go after Paul Flores and put pressure on the Sheriff's Office
Murphy immediately filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in civil court and it says wrongful death and not
a good murder putting murder on the lawsuit was sending a message to Paul Flores and his
family that we believe that he killed Kristen and that were coming for him but trying
to get him hasn't been easy it just amazes me the amount of evidence that's available yet nothing has happened
the day after my sister disappeared Paul Flores had a black eye and scratches on
him [Music] [Music] you look at Kristen smart every day every day the Smart's Attorney James
Murphy and his wife and office manager Garen Sinclair have had Kristen's billboard in their front yard since late
1997. it's just a motivator for me I will go outside at night time and I'll look up at the full moon and I'll think
that that kid's buried somewhere real close Murphy and Sinclair promised the smarts the billboard will stay until
their daughter is found I'd love to do anything to end their suffering and that weighs on you
yep is there any doubt in your mind that Paul Flores is responsible for The Disappearance of Kristen smart no no and
Murphy and Sinclair believe they can prove it they were not able to proceed with this civil case while there was an
ongoing criminal investigation but that did not stop them from following every lead and preparing for an eventual trial
there has been no other suspect every piece of evidence points directly at Paul Flores
taken by the Arroyo Grande police just by chance two days after Kristen vanished at the time they did not know
about a missing college student they were after Paul Flores for an outstanding DUI warrant having a black
eye doesn't make you guilty of anything but if the person you were with disappeared from the planet that's
physical evidence Chris Lambert says two days after that when Flores was interviewed by campus police they asked
how he got his black eye as well as scratches on his hands and knees he says he got a black eye playing basketball
with his friends but one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived he told
those friends he just woke up with the black eye when authorities later confronted him
with the two stories Flores admitted lying and offered a new explanation he actually hit his eye on his steering
wheel in the middle of the night while changing his stereo so now you've got three different stories about how he got
that black eye he lied to the police about everything Flores claimed after walking Christian back from the party he
went to his room in Santa Lucia Hall while she walked alone to her dorm but cadaver dogs told a different story
just days after taking over the investigation the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office brought several dogs
like these trained to detect human remains to the Cal Poly dorms they brought in the first dog
and they had the dog go through the dorms there was no reaction until the dog reached Paul flores's room they let the
dog in the dog makes a beeline to the bed of Paul Flores remember flores's room had been emptied
and thoroughly cleaned but remarkably the same thing happened with three more dogs
[Music] that suggests that something bad happened in Paul flores's dorm room the Sheriff's Office still wasn't
convinced they had enough evidence against Flores but Murphy says there were other incidents that should have
raised alarm Bells about him with law enforcement from the very beginning Paul Flores had a reputation amongst the
girls that knew him at Cal Poly as being a creeper that he was always trying to hit on women
Flores to walk Kristin back to her dorm alone told police that her friends called him Chester the Molester because
he was known for groping girls so was Cheryl's account alone we have an unsettling picture of Paul
just five months before Kristen disappeared San Luis Obispo police received a call from a student living
off campus there was a man climbing her trellis and trying to get inside her balcony very intoxicated and refusing to
leave when they showed up it was Paul Flores no charges were filed but Lambert discovered flores's troubles started at
a young age in high school he was known as a loner Chris Lambert spoke with some
women who knew Flores back then they asked him not to use their names well his nickname was scary Paul he wouldn't
want to be alone in a room with him he wouldn't let any of her friends be drunk around him those were kind of unspoken
things and they told Lambert they weren't surprised when they heard about flores's connection to Kristen's
disappearance I wasn't surprised but there's also that shock value of kind of oh my God I knew it although suspicions
surrounded Flores almost from the beginning any hopes for an arrest were dashed in May 1997 when then Sheriff Ed
Williams made an admission to the San Luis Obispo Telegraph quote we need Paul Flores to tell us what happened to
Kristin smart so absent something from Mr Flores I don't see us completing this case how significant was that I think
that might have been the biggest misstep that investigators have made to this day
to declare to the public if you stay quiet you will get away with this and six months later when Flores was deposed
by James Murphy for the Smart's civil suit he kept quiet would you state your full name for the record please Paul
Reuben Flores the only thing he would confirm on tape is that his name is Paul Flores what is your present residence
address on the advice of my attorney I refuse to answer that question based on the Fifth
Amendment of the United States Constitution everything else he took the Fifth Amendment he wouldn't answer a
single thing in May of 96 were you a student at Cal Poly on the advice of my attorney he invoked
the fifth 27 times what is the name of your father on the advice and it worked you just
don't talk and you get away with it Flores wasn't talking but was there evidence possibly placing Kristen smart
at his mother's home somebody found an earring that they say plus Kristen Smart's jewelry in the driveway
an earring that appeared to match the necklace Kristen is wearing on this billboard
foreign what do you think was the biggest misstep in the initial investigation see
more photos from the case on Facebook at 48 hours when Christian smart disappeared Paul
flores's parents Susan and Ruben were separated and living apart four months later while attempting to reconcile
Susan rented out her house in Arroyo Grande a young couple moves into it with their
kid the mother is washing her car in the driveway at one point something shiny catches her eye next to the front
driver's side Tire a single woman's earring that mother Mary Lassiter described it to Chris Lambert it was
like a red thing and it was like a smudge like fingerprinted look on the back just red like Maroon like old
looking and a smudge that it was like a half a fingerprint it was turned over to
a detective with the San Luis Obispo sheriff's office but Garrison Claire says the smarts never knew it existed
until the lassiters were deposed in January 1997. he never once turned to the smart family and said hey we have an
earring we'd like to show it to you to see if it matches any of your daughter's jewelry
the smarts then demanded to see it and that's when they're told that earring has been misplaced misplaced it was
never marked as evidence apparently but Mary Lasseter says the earring matched the necklace Kristen is seen wearing on
this billboard if it was in fact a piece of jewelry that matched Kristen's jewelry it would
have been Blockbuster evidence and might have connected Kristen to Susan flores's
house says James Murphy there's no way to get evidence back once you've lost it [Music]
at the time Kristen disappeared investigators weren't aware that Paul flores's parents were separated and
living apart so they did not immediately get a warrant to search Susan flores's home
even more difficult to understand was why they waited two months to search this house the family home where Paul
Flores was living with his father Reuben and when they did they didn't bring cadaver dogs with them they didn't bring
a forensics team they didn't look at the Flores family's Vehicles they might have
found evidence in those vehicles Paul Flores did not have a car on campus so Murphy surmises he had to have had
help and it's 2 30 and 3 o'clock in the morning at Cal Poly this is not a location from which Paul alone could
easily move a body without a vehicle but Flores is two trucks seemed impossible in the months after Kristen's
disappearance one truck was traded in the other was reported stolen but it's Susan flores's concrete
backyard that initially received a lot of attention it had been the focus of widespread speculation for more than two
decades especially her planter boxes around the time Kristen disappeared they cut out planter boxes in the backyard so
they cut out big chunks of concrete and filled it in with soil in one of Paul's police interviews he mentioned that he
wanted to be let out of the interview because he needed to help clean up concrete at his mom's house so what was
being done in Susan flores's backyard in the weeks after Kristen went missing Susan's house was finally searched in
March 1997 nine months after Kristen disappeared but but nothing was found it would be three more years before the
property was searched again at 8 am on June 19 2000 team of Sheriff's investigators knocks
on the front door of Susan flores's East Branch Street home with them is a group of FBI evidence
response team members and a search warrant that warrant allowed them to dig up the backyard but deputies chose not
to excavate Denise Pierce says that was a crushing blow for the smart family to be almost there to think that you know
you're going to finally get some resolution and then you know it doesn't happen the way it's supposed to
devastating and there would be more disappointment in 2007 after the smarts legal team searched a small portion of
Susan flores's backyard with ground penetrating radar and did not find any evidence they just have never given up
and are never going to give up on their daughter Ruben Flores and his estranged wife
Susan have always denied any role in Christian Smart's disappearance do you have any information as to where Kristen
Smart's body is located of course not your husband have any information as to work with some smarts bodies located no
when they were deposed by James Murphy they also insisted their son was not involved
does your son have any information as to where Kristen Smart's body is located nope has your son ever told you that he
did not kill Kristen smart we never asked that question we just do you know anything about it he
says no through the years the smarts have kept pressure on the Flores family but the
Flores have fought back suing the smarts for intentional infliction of emotional
distress like the smart civil case theirs was also on hold in the meantime Paul Flores moved to
Southern California where he's bounced from job to job but as Chris Lambert learned flores's pattern of behavior
with women didn't stop full time I would take home when he was just come on just give me a kiss
Paul Flores may have wanted a fresh start in Southern California but Chris Lambert says he could not seem to break
old habits Paul worked with a number of women that he made incredibly uncomfortable girls
who he tried to make a pass at sexually girls that he tried to force to kiss him
some of those women who did not want their real names used told Lambert about their encounters with him so I walked
him up to his sister's apartment and all of a sudden he just like picked me up carried me inside turned around he shook
so I said you better turn some lights on right now and let me out or I'm going to
scream So eventually he'd unlocked you know the apartment door and I left Lambert also interviewed a woman who
dated Flores until she says he became physically and verbally abusive when he had like a butter knife and he like held
it to my neck and I was screaming and my roommate actually kicked down the door to make him stop
[Music] but Paul Flores was never charged with any of these incidents back in San Luis Obispo the smarts
feeling ignored by the Sheriff's Office continued a Relentless campaign to get them to do more to find their daughter
what toll over time did this have on your parents I think they're like carrying Boulders on their back then in
2011 Ian Parkinson was elected Sheriff if you were making a film about a new law enforcer who's coming to a small
town to save the day you'd probably cast Parkinson he promised the smarts that solving
Kristen's case would be a priority I committed to them that I was going to go back to the beginning and re-examine
every piece of evidence that we had but Parkinson acknowledges it hasn't been easy there was early mistakes made that
you can't recover from when you're missing those vital pieces is this a case that takes a miracle to solve I
hope not since Parkinson came on the scene investigators have dug up hillsides searched the homes and properties of all
the flores's collected evidence seized Paul flores's computers monitored his cell phone and text messages and found
new Witnesses some with the help of Chris Lambert I brought them a number of witnesses that they were very interested
in I also brought them witnesses that they had no interest in whatsoever and then months and months later they'd
reach back out and say can you get us in touch with this person again in April 2021 investigators finally put the
pieces of the puzzle together and decided they had enough to charge the then 44 year old Paul Flores with
Kristen's murder and his then 80 year old father as being an accessory after the fact
the allegation against Reuben is that he helped to conceal Kristen's body after the murder was committed San Luis
is a district attorney Dan Dao we don't have evidence sufficient to charge anyone else at this time but the
investigation is ongoing and for the first time clues about what may have happened to Kristin smart
forensic physical evidence was located and yes we believe it's it's linked to Kristen and yes we did find physical
evidence at at least two homes like what may have been discovered in March 2021 when investigators searched Ruben
flores's House using cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar they did a significant amount of digging underneath
the house they took in soil I assume for some kind of analysis according to a County Probation bail report obtained by
the San Luis Obispo Tribune biological evidence was found under Reuben's deck the question for decades was well where
did the body go Murphy has filed an additional civil suit against Ruben Flores and others for the intentional
infliction of emotional distress and the complaint has some claims about what led
investigators to focus under rubin's deck in the first place the podcast is out people are watching
Reuben Flores and Susan Flores and Paul Flores suddenly major pieces of evidence
came forward an important tip came in after a February 2020 search of Paul Susan and Ruben's properties Murphy
alleges four nights later strange activity was seen at Reuben's house an eyewitness actually
documented the fact that throughout the night there was activity in the area of the underside of that deck
I'm not at Liberty to describe how it was documented but I've seen it that witness initially came forward to
Chris Lambert who passed the information to the Sheriff's Office and Murphy in his complaint Murphy alleges along with
Reuben there were two other unnamed individuals but he says they are rubin's ex-wife Susan and her boyfriend so why
would Susan Flores her boyfriend and and Reuben Flores be up all night long working under that deck the lawsuit
claims they were moving Christians Remains the location where all this activity occurred is where they found
the biological materials and the body's not there now and there are more horrifying allegations about what may
have happened to Kristen after she was last seen with Paul Flores it is alleged that Mr Flores caused the
death of Kristen smart while in the commission of or attempted rape because of the statute
of limitations Dao says Paul Flores cannot be charged with rape but the allegation that he was committing or
attempting to commit a rape when he killed her is the basis for which we are able to file first degree felony murder
charges authorities made clear that they plan to use flores's alleged predatory behavior against him we intend to use
evidence of other sexual crimes in this prosecution to prove the facts necessary
for the attempted rape in this case and according to that probation report dozens of women have recounted Paul
flores's sexual assaults and predatory behavior that document his 25 years as a serial rapist he has not been charged in
those incidents we have evidence that we do believe there are other people that are not yet identified that have had a
some kind of a criminal act perpetrated on them by Mr Flores 48 Hours has learned these suspicions center around
evidence found during that 2020 search of Paul flores's home sources tell us investigators discovered photographs and
videos on flores's computer showing him engaged in sexual activity with at least
10 different different women apparently in various states of consciousness Paul Flores and his father both pleaded
not guilty to all charges at their arraignment Reuben's attorney Harold Messick dismissed the evidence against
his client as quote so minimal as to shock the conscience he later argued that the biological
evidence found under the deck was not conclusively human blood and DNA evidence could not be found linking any
other evidence to Christian Susan Flores and her boyfriend were never charged in the case Reuben Flores
was released on fifty thousand dollars bail to his ex-wife he was required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet but
Paul Flores remained Behind Bars without bail to see them in custody was a feeling of great joy for me
my job was to hunt them and that's what I've been doing for a long long time along with a lot of other
people that's been our goal it is also what the smarts have been waiting for for more than a quarter of a
century [Music] Chris Lampert says they're cautiously optimistic they're hopeful but they've
also been let down so many times before I think they are just waiting to see what the outcome is going to be they're
interested in seeing Paul Flores get convicted and Reuben floors get held accountable
[Music] most importantly they want to find their daughter foreign [Music] they force themselves in with guns they
take her by force they hooded me as soon as I went into the van a deputy chases them down I opened the rear door of the
van and scared me so I jumped back and I shut the door 48 Hours next on CBS streaming on Paramount Plus

A college student attends a party and is never seen again. A fellow student is long suspected of her murder. 26 years later – a jury speaks. "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

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Brief Summary

The episode details Kristen Smart's disappearance, the investigation, and Paul Flores' trial for her murder.

Key points

The Disappearance of Kristen Smart. Kristen Smart vanished in 1996, leading to a decades-long search for answers.
Arrest of Paul Flores. In 2021, Paul Flores was arrested for Kristen Smart's murder after years of suspicion.
The Role of Chris Lambert. Podcaster Chris Lambert reignited interest in Kristen's case, leading to new developments.
Campus Police Missteps. Initial police response to Kristen's disappearance was criticized for being slow and ineffective.
Evidence Against Paul Flores. Cadaver dogs indicated something bad happened in Paul Flores's dorm room.
The Creeper Reputation. Paul Flores was known as a creeper among girls at Cal Poly, raising red flags.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's important to explain here that Kristen's case has never been declared cold.

Clarifying the status of the investigation into Kristen's disappearance.

3:20WatchOct 26, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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