Smart's body has never been found since she went missing in 1996.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 9:06PM Nearly 30 years after 19-year-old Kristin Smart disappeared, California investigators conducted new search warrants as part of their ongoing probe into the location of her body.
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday that deputies executed a search warrant at the 500 block of East Branch Street.
"The Sheriff's Office remains committed to bringing Kristin home to her family. No further information is available," it said in a statement. Smart attended an off-campus party at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she was a freshman, on May 24, 1996, but never returned to her dormitory.
Investigators declared Smart legally dead in 2002 and the case remained cold until 17 years later, when the true crime podcast "In 2021, investigators arrested and charged Paul Flores, who was a student at the college at the time of Smart's disappearance. Detectives said that some classmates found Smart passed out during the early morning hours of May 25, 1996, and Flores appeared out of nowhere.
He claimed to the other classmates that he knew where she lived and offered to help her to her dorm, detectives said.belonging to Flores' father, Ruben Flores, and allegedly found human blood and fibers in the dirt that matched the colors of the clothing Smart had been wearing when she went missing. Ruben Flores was charged with being an accessory to murder; however, a jury acquitted him on those charges.
Paul Flores appealed his conviction, but in January, the California Supreme Court denied his petition for review of his conviction. Driver takes off after hit-and-run crash kills man and baby in Playa del Rey, LAPD says
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