When Kristin Smart disappeared, Paul Flores's parents Susan and Ruben were separated and living apart. But soon Flores took his shot with Jane after another drop-off at her moms house. I remember thinking: If my moms not home Im going to die right here.. Kristin did not have a purse, money, her I.D. Chris Lambert: It's mostly frat guys from the Kappa Chi fraternity. After Smarts disappearance, the car was transferred into their parents names. James Murphy: So why would Susan Flores, her boyfriend, and Ruben Flores be up all night long working under that deck. Multiple attempts to reach Flores and his parents to comment on the new accusations were unsuccessful. Ruben Flores, 80, will be facing trial in April 2022 alongside his son as he was charged with accessory to murder after the fact. PODCAST EPISODE 4: So, I walk him up to his sister's apartment, and all of a sudden, he just like picked me up, carried me inside, turned around and shut the apartment door, and locked it. I have this PTSD fear of someone kicking the door in.. But as Chris Lambert learned, campus police did not act right away. Flores was imprisoned at Santa Barbara County Jail for a time. For more than two decades, her family, friends, and supporters searched for answers and for justice. He says they are Ruben's ex-wife Susan and her boyfriend. or even her keys. Chris Lambert: Around the time Kristin disappeared, they cut out planter boxes in the backyard, so they cut out big chunks of concrete and filled it in with soil. Chris Lambert: And that's when they're told that earring has been misplaced. Back then, Jane remembered Flores pulling up to her on multiple occasions behind the wheel of a green pickup truck. The two girls walked to an area off campus where there were fraternities, sororities and residential housing for students. Alexandra Wallace June 11, 2022. Be part of the news. Jonathan Vigliotti: Was this case, given the evidence that was lost early on, doomed from the very beginning? PODCAST EPISODE 4: And he had like a butter knife and he like held it to my neck. Denise Pearce: Kristin hasn't come home And we're not sure where she is We don't know anything. The mother is washing her car in the driveway at one point. He threw [my cousin] to the ground and got on top of her and putting his hands down her top even after he got his wallet. Arroyo Grande High School graduate Paul Flores was the last person to see Kristin Smart on the night she disappeared. And for a few moments Jane came to and saw Flores having his way with her. A month later, Thomas home was reportedly one of four Flores family homes searched by authorities. suddenly major pieces of evidence came forward. Chris Lambert was just 8 years old when Kristin Smart vanished on her way home from a college party in San Luis Obispo, California. His father, Ruben, is charged as an accessory, accused of helping cover up the crime. In October 2022, Paul Flores, the man long suspected in her disappearance, was found guilty of murder. During a camping trip in Fresno, California, in the early 1990s, Floress female cousins playfully swiped and hid his wallet while walking en route to a liquor store to purchase slush puppies. We only want our daughter back. At the time of the article, Flores was living in Southern California. Margarita Campos: they were, like, "are you sure she didn't go out of town?" On May 25, 1996, Paul Flores was the last person known to have seen Kristin Smart before her disappearance from the Cal Poly campus. I remember being home watching the news about Kristin Smart and there goes Paul, she recalled. Flores wasn't talking. Greg Fisher and Michelle Fanucci are the development producers. Flores dropped out of Cal Poly during the summer of 1996. The next morning, Margarita waited to hear from Kristin. I think they're just waiting to see what the outcome is going to be. That witness initially came forward to Chris Lambert, who passed the information to the sheriff's office and Murphy. Chris Lambert: As they describe it, Paul Flores just sort of appears out of nowhere. At the time of Smart's disappearance, the vehicle belonged to Paul Flores' sister, Ermelinda Flores, who lived near Cal Poly. Galambos says the letters referred to several crimes that Thomas may have committed, including being a possible accessory after the fact, or destruction of evidence, or even mishandling human remains., Galambos argument, in part, states that when trying to secure Thomas as a witness, the DAs Office fails to state which defendants actions or statements she witnessed and it fails to identify what actions and statements she witnessed. We both were kids at the same school and so I felt comfortable. He would tiptoe around everything. Nothing in this portion of the documents states Thomas accepted the offer of immunity or provided any information to authorities. ", Although suspicion 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: "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.". And had law enforcement drilled a handful of holes in Floress mothers backyard to search for evidence that Smart might be buried there, perhaps Floress alleged serial sexual assaults would have been prevented. He was staring at my face looking at me and he was enjoying himself.. Chris Lambert: I didn't know the scale. Lambert said in January 2019, I believe that Paul Flores is responsible for her death and I believe that he knows where she is currently located. Flores was among those students and was the last to see Smart alive. I now know for sure he is, and Kristin is dead, and so do you.. Ruben Flores and his estranged wife Susan have always denied any role in Kristin Smart's disappearance. The moment still haunts her. Just days after taking over the investigation, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office brought several dogs trained to detect human remains, to the Cal Poly dorms. Jonathan Vigliotti: You look at Kristin Smart every day. With them is a group of FBI evidence response team members and a search warrant. Four Women Say the Man Suspected of Murdering a College Student Sexually Assaulted Them JUSTICE DENIED Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished in 1996. By Richard Bastian At that time, the car belonged to Paul Flores' sister Ermelinda Flores, who lived near Cal Poly. Smart has long been suspected to have been abducted and killed in May 1996, while she was a freshman at California. Investigators searched his father's home a month later, and named Paul a suspect for the first time. In January 2020, Smarts mother, Denise Smart, told the Stockton Record that she had been contacted by the FBI regarding her daughters disappearance. That was a huge judgment error. In order to produce the documentary, Lambert quit his job to devote himself to the podcast. Flores wasn't amused. Unblurred are Paul Flores (top center) and Ermelinda Flores (top right). Just five months before Kristin disappeared, San Luis Obispo Police received a call from a student living off campus. Chris Lambert: I remember seeing it on the news it was something scary and they were talking about it pretty regularly. Cole also states, this could have very well been an accident that night while telling Thomas he believes she knows what happened and had some involvement by being a good sister., Cole offers Thomas full immunity in exchange for her telling the truth about what she knows. Please come with me." After Smart's disappearance, the car was transferred into their parent's names. People are watching Ruben Flores and Susan Flores and Paul Flores. His room was finally searched when the sheriff took over the case and at that point Paul had moved off campus and Cal Poly had deep cleaned his room, destroying any available evidence. JAMES MURPHY: What is the name of your father? Charges filed against homeowner in shooting of Black teen, U.S. diplomatic convoy fired on in Sudan as intense fighting continues, Ohio officers won't face state charges in fatal shooting of Jayland Walker, Family in mourning after deadly Sweet 16 party shooting in Alabama, Nikki Haley's first-quarter fundraising came in lower than campaign claimed, Justice Department to seek longest sentence in any Jan. 6 case so far, Poll: Most say congressional GOP should let Trump probes run their course, Ron DeSantis unveils legislative move targeting Disney, U.S. arrests 2 over alleged secret Chinese police outpost in New York. and I was like, "Noooo.". Chris Lambert: They just have never given up and are never going to give up on their daughter. Cal Poly PD, led by incompetent detective Mike Kennedy, refused to investigate her disappearance initially, suggesting that she probably just left town despite her having no car nor leaving any other signs she left town. The report said, citing police records, that Flores had a black eye on the day after Smarts disappearance. She returned to the United. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Would you? IF they knew he was out there murdering, raping etc. 0:41. Flores claimed he walked Smart to her dorm at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo on May 25, 1996 after a night of binge drinking. Kristin's mother, Denise Smart, spent Memorial Day weekend at a swim meet with her two younger kids. Ruben faces a maximum of three years in jail. Chris Lambert: They're hopeful, but they've also been let down so many times before. Ian Parkinson: Yes. Stop! and then it became Stop!!!!!. Paul is very soon going to be in a position where he needs to tell us his story, this case will be solved soon. DAN DOW [press conference]: The allegation against Ruben is that he helped to conceal Kristen's body after the murder was committed. James Murphy: That suggests that something bad happened in Paul Flores's dorm room. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. A hundred percent that was happening. He apparently would tag along with a sloshed friend, crashing off-campus parties together wherever she was. 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. We just, "do you know anything about it". Denise Smart told the Examiner in 1998, Were not after Paul Flores; were not trying to persecute Paul Flores. But I've seen it. And that's what I've been doing for a long, long time, along with a lot of other people. Smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Almost all knew nothing about it, thanks to Poly. Clockwise from left, Kristin, Denise, Stan, Matt and Lindsey. But he entreated each woman who came forward to tell their story to The Daily Beast to reach out to his department. Lindsey Smart Stewart: It just amazes me the amount of evidence that's available, yet nothing has happened. These new allegations against Paul Flores are very troubling and deserve to be thoroughly investigated. Any tidbit of information or recollection could make the difference in the recovery of our beloved Kristin., disappearance of another woman under almost identical circumstances: Kristin Smart. By the time they called the Cal Poly campus police, Kristin had been missing for more than 48 hours. Even worse they never sealed his dorm room. School was over, so campus police found an empty room that had been sanitized by the university's cleaning crew. The woman, whom well call Jane, believes she was roofied, raped, and discarded by Paul Flores and his nameless friend when she was a 15-year-old high-school sophomore in 1994. Ian Parkinson: I committed to them that I was going to go back to the beginning and re-examine every piece of evidence that we had. When he arrived she stayed at home while Janes father hightailed it to Arroyo Grande Community Hospital. Thomas did not testify during the preliminary hearing nor has she been called yet as a witness during fer father and brothers murder trial currently underway in Salinas. But Murphy says there were other incidents that should have raised alarm bells about him with law enforcement from the very beginning. But one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived. Authorities dug up areas around the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, Paul Flores mother, in May 2007 but turned up no evidence of Smarts whereabouts, the Santa Maria Times reported. JAMES MURPHY: Your husband have information as to where Kristin Smart's body is located? Chris Lambert: It was never marked as evidence apparently. Nothing ever mentioned to any of them. 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