Murder of Kristin Smart

Kristin Denise Smart was born February 20, 1977, in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany, to Stan and Denise Smart, both teachers of children of American military personnel. She grew up in Stockton, California, graduated from Lincoln High School there in 1995, and worked as a lifeguard and camp counselor in Hawaii before enrolling that year at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly).

On the night of May 24, 1996, near the end of her first year at Cal Poly, Smart walked alone to an off-campus birthday party where she knew no one. At about 2 a.m. on May 25, two fellow students found her passed out on a neighbor's lawn and began walking her toward her dormitory. A third student, Paul Flores, joined them partway and offered to walk her the rest of the way, since his dormitory was closer to hers. Flores later told investigators he walked Smart only as far as his own dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, before letting her continue alone to hers, Muir Hall — the last reported sighting of her. Smart was not carrying money or identification, and neither she nor her remains have since been found.

Cal Poly's university police initially treated her absence as an unannounced trip and delayed notifying local law enforcement; she was not formally reported missing for about a week despite earlier calls from her family. Volunteer searches did not locate her, and cadaver-dog searches of Flores family properties between 1996 and 2007 produced no useful leads. In September 2016, FBI cadaver dogs helped investigators excavate a hillside near Smart's dormitory, recovering items for forensic analysis. In April 2021, prosecutors announced radar and cadaver-dog evidence indicating Smart's body had been buried beneath the deck of a Flores family home before being exhumed and hidden. In May 2026, soil testing at another Flores family property in Arroyo Grande suggested remains may have been, or still were, present, though none were recovered.

Renewed public attention followed a 2019 podcast series about the case, which drew new tips and a replacement billboard in Arroyo Grande in January 2020. Investigators took two of Flores's trucks as evidence and served warrants at several properties, including his home in San Pedro, where they reported finding date-rape drugs and homemade videos. Flores was separately arrested on a firearms charge in February 2021.

On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores and his father Ruben Flores were arrested in connection with Smart's case. Paul Flores was charged with murder and Ruben Flores with accessory after the fact; investigators concluded Paul Flores had attempted to rape Smart, and prosecutors said felony-murder rules applied because the killing occurred during that assault. After a change of venue to Monterey County, separate juries heard the two cases together starting in June 2022. On October 18, 2022, Paul Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder, and Ruben Flores was found not guilty of accessory after the fact. Paul Flores was sentenced on March 10, 2023, to 25 years to life in prison. An appellate court affirmed his conviction in October 2025, and the California Supreme Court denied further review in January 2026; barring federal relief, he is not parole-eligible before 2047.

Smart's disappearance and the delayed campus police response led to the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act, passed unanimously by the California State Legislature and signed into law in August 1998, effective the following year. It requires public colleges and publicly funded schools in California to formalize agreements between campus security and local police for reporting violence against students, including missing-student cases.