Nearly three decades after Kristin Smart vanished, investigators in California conducted a new search warrant at a home in hopes of recovering the woman's body.
Smart, a Stockton native and then California Polytechnic State University student, vanished after attending an off-campus party on May 25, 1996.
Her body was never found, but a true crime podcast reignited interest in the cold case, leading prosecutors to charge Paul Flores with killing Smart during a rape or attempted rape. Flores was convicted of Smart's murder in October 2022, more than 25 years after she disappeared.
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The morning of May 6, deputies with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at a house in the 500 block of East Branch Street. The agency confirmed in a statement the investigation stemmed from a search warrant signed by a Superior Court judge and was related to Smart's disappearance.
"The Sheriff’s Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family," the agency wrote in a news release. "No further information is available."
Photos released by the agency show investigators scouring the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores.
According to the podcast, "Your Own Backyard," which investigated Smart's disappearance, deputies served the woman on her doorstep at 7:05 a.m.
The podcast, as well as a 48 Hours episode, helped bring forward new witnesses, but law enforcement also had collected evidence in the months after her disappearance.
Who was Kristin Smart?
Smart was a freshman studying communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, according to her loved ones. She dreamed of traveling the world before she disappeared without a trace while walking back to her dorm room.
She was last seen leaving a party near her dorm on Memorial Day weekend in 1996 in the company of a fellow student, Flores.
He was the last person with Smart before she vanished.
Although her body has not been found, she was declared legally dead in 2002.
Who is Paul Flores?
Prosecutors say Paul Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape in his Cal Poly dorm room.
In March 2021, property belonging to Flores' father, Ruben Flores, was searched with ground penetrating radar and resulted in the arrest of both Flores men, according to the podcast. The father was arrested as an accessory to murder but later acquitted of the charge.
During the search, a 6-foot by 4-foot void was found under Ruben Flores’ deck and yielded several soil samples. The samples tested positive for the presence of human blood, according to the podcast.
Prosecutors believed Smart’s body was removed from that location some time prior to 2021.
A California judge sentenced Paul Flores to 25 years to life in prison in March 2023 calling him "a cancer to society."
Now 49, he remains incarcerated at California's Corcoran State Prison.
Online California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records show Flores is eligible for parole in June 2037.
Anyone with information about the case or the whereabouts of Smart's body is asked to call the sheriff's office at 805-781-4550.
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New search warrant in Kristin Smart case 30 years after she vanished
