{"id":308766,"date":"2026-05-10T08:34:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308766\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T08:34:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:34:20","slug":"california-authorities-have-not-found-the-remains-of-disappeared-college-student-kristin-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308766\/","title":{"rendered":"California authorities have not found the remains of disappeared college student Kristin Smart"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Authorities did not find the remains of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college student who went missing in 1996, officials said Saturday after finishing a search of a home tied to the man convicted of killing her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff\u2019s Office said it completed a search of Susan Flores\u2019 property<\/a> in the Central Coast town of Arroyo Grande, more than 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. Paul Flores, her son, was convicted in 2022 of killing Smart, whose body has never been found.<\/p>\n

Authorities declined to provide additional information. Authorities said this week that evidence suggested human remains were present at the home and scientists specializing in human decomposition and soil took samples from the ground<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sheriff\u2019s Office remains fully committed to finding Kristin and bringing her home to her family,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996. Prosecutors alleged that she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Paul Flores, a fellow student. She was declared legally dead in 2002.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Scientists<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Scientists<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Flores was convicted in October 2022 of Smart\u2019s murder and sentenced<\/a> the following year to 25 years to life.<\/p>\n

The decades-old case has captivated the public, fueled in part by a podcaster who helped investigators by bringing forward additional witnesses. Chris Lambert of the \u201c Your Own Backyard<\/a> \u201d podcast first reported the search of the home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Authorities did not find the remains of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college student…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,129591,18,127842,47,128076,128077,17],"class_list":["post-308766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-chris-lambert","tag-general-news","tag-kristin-smart","tag-los-angeles","tag-paul-flores","tag-susan-flores","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}