# Legally Brunette: The Disappearance of Kristin Smart

An episode of [Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1477524410), 2 Jun 2026, 45 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/28/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b85867f1-c5ec-44e0-9f79-b34d0160000c/efabd247-abe7-4d13-bd12-b45c01853502/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=59f37943-e628-4810-8c3b-ae2b00156477

The 30th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance was last week, so Emily and Shane are breaking down all of the details, including a discovery that was made just last month. Kristin’s body has never been found… How did they convict her killer? Was his family allegedly in on the crime? What were the most crucial mistakes made throughout this investigation? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Welcome to an episode Illegally Brunette. I'll be
[0:05] Speaker 1: your host today, Emily Simpson with Shane Shane. All right, Shane,
[0:11] Speaker 1: we are going to talk about a case that just
[0:15] Speaker 1: now reached its thirtieth anniversary over Memorial Day weekend. I
[0:20] Speaker 1: don't know if you remember it because you are from California,
[0:23] Speaker 1: but back in nineteen ninety six.
[0:26] Speaker 2: Wait, well, okay, now I don't know. Well, I haven't
[0:29] Speaker 2: even said what it is yet.
[0:30] Speaker 3: I didn't live in the country in ninety six, so
[0:31] Speaker 3: I have no idea what's going on and going.
[0:33] Speaker 1: Oh you mean you weren't around in nineteen ninety six, Well,
[0:35] Speaker 1: you still might remember it. So the case is Kristen Smart,
[0:39] Speaker 1: who was a nineteen year old college freshman at cal
[0:41] Speaker 1: Poly San Louis Obispo. Now you know that school because
[0:45] Speaker 1: your niece enough you both went there and graduated from there,
[0:47] Speaker 1: right right.
[0:49] Speaker 3: Also referred to as slow and they're the Mustangs.
[0:52] Speaker 2: They're slow and they're the Mustangs. I've actually that was
[0:54] Speaker 2: l slow sl Right. I've been on the campus. Oh
[0:57] Speaker 2: that's right, you went there, Yeah, a few.
[0:59] Speaker 1: Years ago, and my niece first started going to cal Poly,
[1:03] Speaker 1: and I remembered the Kristen Smart case, and I remembered
[1:07] Speaker 1: that she was in the dorm called Mirror Hall, and
[1:09] Speaker 1: so I made sure to check it out to take
[1:13] Speaker 1: a little look at it while I was on campus.
[1:16] Speaker 1: Kristin Smart disappeared on Memorial Day weekend in nineteen ninety six.
[1:20] Speaker 1: She was last seen by cal Poly's student Paul Flores,
[1:24] Speaker 1: who walked her home that night from a college party.
[1:26] Speaker 1: After relentless searching, her body has never been discovered. Even
[1:30] Speaker 1: though we'll talk about in a little bit, this case
[1:33] Speaker 1: has been. Why it came up in my mind again
[1:35] Speaker 1: was because there's been renewed attention on this case because
[1:39] Speaker 1: recently the police had been investigating because her body's ever
[1:45] Speaker 1: been found, so they had been they had gotten police
[1:48] Speaker 1: warrants to search Paul Flores's mother's home, Susan Flores. After
[1:53] Speaker 1: relentless searching, her body was never found and the case
[1:56] Speaker 1: went cold for over two decades. In twenty twenty one,
[1:59] Speaker 1: the case took a turn when investigators were finally able
[2:02] Speaker 1: to narrow in on two suspects and arrest them for
[2:05] Speaker 1: Kristen's murder, which ends up being Paul Flores and his father,
[2:10] Speaker 1: Reuben Flores. All right, let's just go through the background
[2:14] Speaker 1: a little bit and give a little early life in
[2:17] Speaker 1: college years on Kristen so we can learn a little
[2:19] Speaker 1: bit about her. So on February twentieth, the nineteen seventy seven,
[2:23] Speaker 1: Kristin Denise Smart was born in Augsburg, Germany, to Stan
[2:27] Speaker 1: and Denise Smart, who were both teachers working on a
[2:30] Speaker 1: US military base. She later grew up in Stockton, California.
[2:34] Speaker 1: Have you ever been to Stockton?
[2:36] Speaker 4: No?
[2:37] Speaker 2: You? Yeah.
[2:38] Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it was as lovely as where we
[2:42] Speaker 1: currently live, but it's northern California, and is this judgment
[2:46] Speaker 1: has no judgment, and is described by friends and family
[2:49] Speaker 1: as outgoing, friendly, and athletic. Kristin eventually enrolls in cal
[2:54] Speaker 1: Poly San Luis Obispo in nineteen ninety five as a freshman,
[2:58] Speaker 1: majoring in architecture. All right, so, the way I understand
[3:02] Speaker 1: it is she loved to travel the world. I think
[3:06] Speaker 1: she'd spent like a summer camp in Hawaii. She'd also
[3:08] Speaker 1: been a foreign exchange student, I believe in Venezuela or
[3:11] Speaker 1: something like that. So she was quite the traveler at
[3:13] Speaker 1: such a young age. Then she starts cal Poly San
[3:18] Speaker 1: Louis Obispo, and I believe that she was having a
[3:21] Speaker 1: hard time, wanted to come home, wasn't really making friends,
[3:26] Speaker 1: and felt kind of isolated and alone. So we get
[3:30] Speaker 1: to May of nineteen ninety six. This is a Memorial
[3:33] Speaker 1: Day weekend, thirty years ago. So on May twenty fourth,
[3:36] Speaker 1: Kristen attends an off campus birthday party near cal Poly.
[3:40] Speaker 1: This is Memorial Day weekend, so most of the students
[3:42] Speaker 1: are gone.
[3:43] Speaker 2: She didn't go home.
[3:45] Speaker 1: She talks it's not her roommate, but it's a neighbor
[3:48] Speaker 1: in her hall in mirror hall, into going out with
[3:50] Speaker 1: her to a party because she knows that she needs
[3:54] Speaker 1: to try to acclimate more.
[3:56] Speaker 2: Okay, just making an effort, she's making an ef to
[3:59] Speaker 2: be social.
[4:00] Speaker 1: So she talks to Margarita into going to a party
[4:02] Speaker 1: with her. They end up going to a party, and
[4:04] Speaker 1: I believe the first place they go to isn't really
[4:07] Speaker 1: much of a party. It's just like a couple of
[4:09] Speaker 1: students and they're playing video games or something.
[4:11] Speaker 3: So in retrospect, yeah, she probably should have been better.
[4:15] Speaker 3: Doesn't always have to be a big, raging party.
[4:17] Speaker 1: So then she goes from that party to another party
[4:21] Speaker 1: with her friend Margarita, Okay. The next party she goes
[4:25] Speaker 1: to is where I don't know if she drank or
[4:27] Speaker 1: if she took a drug, or if someone slipped something
[4:29] Speaker 1: into her drink. But this next stop that she makes,
[4:32] Speaker 1: Margarita doesn't go with her. Margarita wants to go back
[4:35] Speaker 1: to the dorm rooms and tries to talk her into
[4:37] Speaker 1: going back to the dorms.
[4:38] Speaker 3: So they both leave one party to go to another,
[4:41] Speaker 3: but Marguerite says, no, Let's go to the dorms, and
[4:43] Speaker 3: then they separate.
[4:44] Speaker 2: They separate, and Margeriti goes back to the dorms.
[4:46] Speaker 1: Margarita goes back to the dorms and she says, the
[4:48] Speaker 1: last thing she saw was Kristen standing against the wall
[4:51] Speaker 1: outside I don't know these other dorms and saying come on,
[4:55] Speaker 1: come on, just come with me, come with me, And
[4:56] Speaker 1: she's like, no, I don't really want to, I'm tired,
[4:58] Speaker 1: I'm going to go back to the dorm end up separating.
[5:01] Speaker 1: Then Kristin goes to a second party where she becomes
[5:04] Speaker 1: extremely drunk, almost so drunk that she's having trouble.
[5:08] Speaker 3: Does she do we know if she was a drinker
[5:10] Speaker 3: or is this like out of her element?
[5:12] Speaker 1: I don't know if she drank a lot because she
[5:13] Speaker 1: was uncomfortable, or she's trying to make friends, or she's
[5:15] Speaker 1: trying to fit in, so she goes to the second
[5:17] Speaker 1: party and she drinks a lot, or if she was
[5:19] Speaker 1: slipped some type of drug and her alcohol I don't know,
[5:24] Speaker 1: but she's so inebriated that they end up some other
[5:27] Speaker 1: students end up finding her face down laying in a
[5:30] Speaker 1: yard like out front of this party. So friends later
[5:34] Speaker 1: say that she had been drinking heavily and appeared extremely
[5:36] Speaker 1: intoxicated by the end of the night. Multiple students at
[5:40] Speaker 1: the second party later report noticing another student, Paul Flores,
[5:43] Speaker 1: paying attention to Kristen throughout the night. So then we
[5:47] Speaker 1: get to about two am. This is on May twenty fifth,
[5:50] Speaker 1: Kristin is found passed out on a nearby lawn by
[5:53] Speaker 1: students Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis after leaving this party.
[5:58] Speaker 3: I can't fathom saying out till two am.
[6:01] Speaker 2: Well, in college, you didn't stay out, Oh probably, But
[6:04] Speaker 2: I'm talking about today. Oh today.
[6:06] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, as a fifty year old with five children,
[6:08] Speaker 1: you can't imaginate out.
[6:09] Speaker 2: Last night at two am.
[6:10] Speaker 3: I was upset. I couldn't fall asleep past right. I
[6:14] Speaker 3: was like, must have more sleep.
[6:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely different between nineteen and fifty. Yes, two
[6:23] Speaker 1: students help Kristen start to walk back towards her dorm
[6:27] Speaker 1: because she is struggling to stand and she's struggling to
[6:30] Speaker 1: walk on her own. So this is a male and
[6:33] Speaker 1: a female. Those are the two people that found her.
[6:35] Speaker 1: So it's they're holding her arms. The way I understand
[6:38] Speaker 1: it is like they have her by the arms and
[6:40] Speaker 1: they're helping her walk back.
[6:42] Speaker 2: To her dorm. Okay.
[6:44] Speaker 1: Then as they're walking her back to her dorm, they
[6:47] Speaker 1: pass Paul Flores and he says to them, hey, don't
[6:52] Speaker 1: worry about it.
[6:53] Speaker 2: I got her. I'll take her back to her dorm.
[6:56] Speaker 1: That never works out, no, So they say okay, and
[6:59] Speaker 1: then a girl says basically, it.
[7:01] Speaker 3: Was like, is that a drunk female? Let me let
[7:05] Speaker 3: me take her?
[7:05] Speaker 2: Yes?
[7:06] Speaker 1: Is that a drunkenee bread and female who is unable
[7:08] Speaker 1: to walk on her own.
[7:09] Speaker 2: You guys can leave. I will now take over and
[7:13] Speaker 2: take her back to her dorm room. And they knew
[7:14] Speaker 2: who Flores was they, Yeah, they were familiar with I.
[7:18] Speaker 1: Believe that they knew who he was, and I believe
[7:19] Speaker 1: the girl said made him promise that he was going
[7:22] Speaker 1: to take her back to the dorm.
[7:23] Speaker 3: And also then well if he made her if he
[7:26] Speaker 3: made promise right, exactly, So she's relieved of all responsibilities
[7:32] Speaker 3: at that point.
[7:32] Speaker 1: Yes, So he takes her himself and heads back towards
[7:37] Speaker 1: the dorm.
[7:39] Speaker 2: I'm sorry, he's a student, right, he is a student? Yeah?
[7:41] Speaker 1: Okay, Cheryl Anderson, that is a girl leaves when they
[7:45] Speaker 1: approach her dormhall, and Paul Flores assures Cheryl that he
[7:48] Speaker 1: will quote get Kristen home safely.
[7:51] Speaker 3: So you know that's like has has anyone ever said, oh,
[7:54] Speaker 3: you're right, I planned on assaulting and killing her. I
[7:59] Speaker 3: cannot take her off your hands. No, I have been caught.
[8:02] Speaker 3: I cannot keep that promise.
[8:04] Speaker 1: This is where you know, when I study this this story,
[8:07] Speaker 1: there's two instances. And I don't want to blame these
[8:10] Speaker 1: other girls, but there's two. There's versus Margarito that leaves
[8:14] Speaker 1: her alone, and I know she wanted to go back
[8:16] Speaker 1: to the dorm. She's the one that ends up giving
[8:18] Speaker 1: the dorm room keys, or not the dorm room, but
[8:21] Speaker 1: the dorm, you know, the outside dorm to get into it.
[8:23] Speaker 2: There's a key.
[8:24] Speaker 1: This is probably to open the building. She gives her
[8:27] Speaker 1: keys to Kristen so that Kristen can come back whenever
[8:30] Speaker 1: she wants. But that is mistake number one. Never split up.
[8:33] Speaker 1: We've talked about this before. If you're even like remember
[8:37] Speaker 1: like Natalie Holloway, when she's.
[8:38] Speaker 2: Out with friends, she met a guy and went off
[8:41] Speaker 2: on her own. Rule number one.
[8:43] Speaker 1: And I can't instill this enough in our own children,
[8:47] Speaker 1: daughters especially, don't ever split up ever, Just don't do it.
[8:51] Speaker 2: Just stay together. There's safety in numbers. There's two critical.
[8:55] Speaker 1: Mistakes here where Kristin Smart could still be alive. Either
[8:58] Speaker 1: Margarita doesn't leave her, in stays with her, or Marguerita
[9:01] Speaker 1: talks her into going back to the dorm. Or the
[9:04] Speaker 1: next two people that find her in the front yard,
[9:06] Speaker 1: Cheryl and Tim, they don't leave her. They make sure
[9:09] Speaker 1: she gets back to the door. I wouldn't fault Margarita
[9:11] Speaker 1: for leaving.
[9:12] Speaker 2: I don't.
[9:13] Speaker 3: I wouldn't say she should have stayed. It would have
[9:15] Speaker 3: been better had she stayed. Possibly, but you know, maybe
[9:19] Speaker 3: she would have gotten herself in trouble. I mean, she
[9:20] Speaker 3: made the choice. If I want to go home, I'm
[9:22] Speaker 3: not comfortable being out anymore.
[9:24] Speaker 2: I want to go home.
[9:25] Speaker 3: So she had every right to try to go to
[9:28] Speaker 3: leave and go home despite her friend not wanting to leave, unfortunately,
[9:33] Speaker 3: But her friend is the one that the lesson should
[9:35] Speaker 3: have been taught of stinging together, right, So the lesson
[9:39] Speaker 3: to be taught is even if it means leaving the
[9:41] Speaker 3: party yourself because your friends want to go home and
[9:44] Speaker 3: not stay, that you should go exactly.
[9:46] Speaker 1: I don't care you still want to stay and party
[9:48] Speaker 1: too bad, go home with your friends. Dividing up is
[9:52] Speaker 1: that this is where people that there's just when you
[9:55] Speaker 1: watch that, when you look at this case, there's just
[9:57] Speaker 1: specific time periods where you know that the case could
[10:01] Speaker 1: have been different, and that's one of them.
[10:10] Speaker 2: All right.
[10:10] Speaker 1: So the night that Paul Flores takes over and takes her, well,
[10:16] Speaker 1: we don't know where she went.
[10:17] Speaker 2: I'll take sure what not to her dorm room. Not
[10:19] Speaker 2: to her dorm room.
[10:19] Speaker 1: But that is the last confirmed sighting of Kristin smart Alive.
[10:24] Speaker 1: So no one has ever seen her since on the
[10:25] Speaker 1: morning of May twenty fifth, So this is now the
[10:27] Speaker 1: next morning Kristin never returns to her dorm room at
[10:30] Speaker 1: Mirror Hall, her belongings, including her purse, ID and other
[10:34] Speaker 1: personal items, are later found inside her dorm room and
[10:37] Speaker 1: they're untouched.
[10:37] Speaker 3: Wow, way her stuff was in her dorm room.
[10:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I don't really understand.
[10:41] Speaker 1: But that night she went out, she went out on campus,
[10:44] Speaker 1: so I assume that she didn't feel like she needed.
[10:46] Speaker 3: To take Maybe it was there all along, they were
[10:49] Speaker 3: always return No, she.
[10:50] Speaker 2: Didn't have them when she went out that night, which
[10:52] Speaker 2: also means.
[10:53] Speaker 3: She couldn't leave them anywhere as breadcrumbs for detectives to
[10:57] Speaker 3: find her.
[10:57] Speaker 1: Right, she had nothing on her. I assume because she
[11:00] Speaker 1: was going out on campus, she thought, I don't need
[11:02] Speaker 1: my ID, I don't need my purse, I don't need money.
[11:04] Speaker 1: I'm just going to like these local campus parties. Friends
[11:08] Speaker 1: initially assumed that she may have stayed elsewhere for the
[11:10] Speaker 1: night because it is Memorial Day weekend on May twenty seventh.
[11:14] Speaker 1: Now we're at two days later. Kristen is officially reported
[11:17] Speaker 1: missing after she didn't attend her planned activities and she
[11:21] Speaker 1: does not contact her family. I believe she normally contacts
[11:24] Speaker 1: her mom on Sundays. She always calls home on Sundays,
[11:27] Speaker 1: and she doesn't call home campus police and local law
[11:30] Speaker 1: enforcement began searching the poll area. It's actually not local
[11:35] Speaker 1: law on diforcement at first, it's just the campus.
[11:38] Speaker 3: Police, you know, in nineteen ninety six, right, yeah, nineteen
[11:42] Speaker 3: ninety twenty years ago.
[11:43] Speaker 2: Wow, no, actually thirty ago. Thirty years ago.
[11:46] Speaker 3: Does that mean I graduated over thirty years?
[11:48] Speaker 2: Yes, I graduated.
[11:49] Speaker 3: You.
[11:49] Speaker 1: I graduated in nineteen ninety four from high school. So yeah,
[11:52] Speaker 1: we're talking about over thirty years.
[11:54] Speaker 2: You know.
[11:54] Speaker 3: Had it been obviously twenty twenty six and the same
[11:57] Speaker 3: set of circumstances, would she have had.
[12:00] Speaker 2: With her or she would have had a cell phone, right,
[12:03] Speaker 2: and then they could track they could they find her
[12:06] Speaker 2: cell phone, right.
[12:06] Speaker 3: There'd be more well you might be able to triangulate
[12:09] Speaker 3: and all that stuff.
[12:10] Speaker 2: But there would have been more.
[12:11] Speaker 3: Whether there would have been text messages possibly, there just
[12:14] Speaker 3: would have been more.
[12:16] Speaker 1: A digital print, more of a footprint, yeah right, yeah,
[12:19] Speaker 1: footprint and fingerprint, digital footprint, don't you think digital prints? Okay,
[12:25] Speaker 1: digital prints. There would have been digital But this is
[12:27] Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, so I'm telling you, she it's like
[12:29] Speaker 1: she disappeared off the face of the earth.
[12:30] Speaker 2: There is no analog ages.
[12:32] Speaker 1: There's there is nothing. We don't know what happened at
[12:36] Speaker 1: that point. Obviously we can assume what happened, but to
[12:40] Speaker 1: this day, we don't know exactly what happened.
[12:43] Speaker 3: Well, let's keep going. Let's find out what happened to Flores.
[12:45] Speaker 2: All right.
[12:45] Speaker 1: First of all, campus police botched this. This is one
[12:48] Speaker 1: of the biggest problems with this case. The campus police
[12:52] Speaker 1: didn't take when they when she was reported missing, they
[12:54] Speaker 1: did not take it seriously.
[12:56] Speaker 2: I'm going to take a stab at it.
[12:57] Speaker 3: Yeah, probably because they haven't faced murder crime scenes in
[13:02] Speaker 3: a very long time, or if at all, because I
[13:05] Speaker 3: haven't been there, but you've been there, and it's kind
[13:08] Speaker 3: of a boutique, charming little town, right. They don't even
[13:12] Speaker 3: have franchises there, I remember. They just want mom and
[13:15] Speaker 3: pop places, So they probably don't really come across a
[13:19] Speaker 3: lot of crime like that. So now you have a
[13:20] Speaker 3: crime scene, Well, what is a murder? And the campus
[13:24] Speaker 3: police probably don't even recognize as.
[13:25] Speaker 2: A murder or treat it like a murder. No, they don't.
[13:28] Speaker 2: They don't take it seriously at all.
[13:29] Speaker 3: Right, because I've seen cases where they don't know if
[13:32] Speaker 3: it's a murder or if it's an accident. But they
[13:33] Speaker 3: treat it like a crime scene until they determine I
[13:37] Speaker 3: just saw that last night when I was watching some
[13:39] Speaker 3: true crime.
[13:39] Speaker 1: Well, what happens here is the campus police don't take
[13:42] Speaker 1: it seriously. They don't even contact her parents initially. I
[13:45] Speaker 1: think they contact them days later. They don't search, they
[13:49] Speaker 1: don't do anything. They just think, what do they do?
[13:51] Speaker 2: How about? What did they do? Nothing?
[13:52] Speaker 1: They just assume that she probably went camping or something.
[13:55] Speaker 1: I think that's what they said. So nothing really happens.
[13:59] Speaker 2: Then what then? The problem is it's the end of
[14:02] Speaker 2: the school year.
[14:03] Speaker 3: Right, Wait, so what would they do something for if,
[14:06] Speaker 3: I mean, if someone's missing and doesn't come home, and
[14:09] Speaker 3: then they just treat it like, oh, well, s she
[14:11] Speaker 3: probably went camping.
[14:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's how they treat it the first few days.
[14:14] Speaker 1: I mean, this is a critical time period when like
[14:16] Speaker 1: his dorm room should be searched, right yeah, But what
[14:19] Speaker 1: happens is it's the end of the school year. They
[14:21] Speaker 1: don't take it seriously and the dorms end up being
[14:25] Speaker 1: completely cleaned and sanitized and everyone moves out. So his
[14:31] Speaker 1: dorm room is never searched. It isn't until I believe
[14:35] Speaker 1: weeks later, weeks later that the sand Luis Obispo Police
[14:41] Speaker 1: Department becomes involved in the investigation.
[14:44] Speaker 3: So it's a couple of weeks for them to say, well, okay,
[14:46] Speaker 3: maybe she didn't go camping.
[14:47] Speaker 2: Right, that's exactly right. Wow.
[14:51] Speaker 1: So initially investigators zone in on Paul Flores because he
[14:54] Speaker 1: is the last known person to be seen with Kristen.
[14:57] Speaker 1: When Paul is brought in for questioning, police notice that
[15:00] Speaker 1: he has a black eye. Paul again, this is a
[15:03] Speaker 1: couple weeks later.
[15:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the scratches, other things that could have
[15:09] Speaker 3: healed in a couple of weeks.
[15:10] Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if this is a couple weeks
[15:12] Speaker 1: or a couple of days.
[15:14] Speaker 2: I don't know exactly. Evernetheless, it wasn't the next day. No.
[15:18] Speaker 1: It took a while for them to interview people, to
[15:21] Speaker 1: get Paul Flores's name, to figure.
[15:23] Speaker 3: Out training classes, and learn how to investigate a crime scene.
[15:28] Speaker 1: Paul gives different explanations for the injury, initially claiming he
[15:31] Speaker 1: got it while playing basketball, then later saying he got
[15:34] Speaker 1: it while working on his truck. Paul agrees to do
[15:37] Speaker 1: a polygraph test. Then we get to June of nineteen
[15:41] Speaker 1: ninety six, after school has ended in the dorm rooms
[15:44] Speaker 1: have been cleaned out. Police use cadaver dogs to sniff
[15:47] Speaker 1: out Paul Flores's dorm. Multiple dogs head straight towards his
[15:52] Speaker 1: room and go right to where his bed was. Search
[15:56] Speaker 1: teams conduct large scale searches of surrounding areas, including what
[16:00] Speaker 1: regions and campus land, but Kristen is never found. They
[16:03] Speaker 1: show lots of video and images of this college campus,
[16:08] Speaker 1: and it is really beautiful and it is kind of
[16:10] Speaker 1: just tucked away, and it's just valleys and mountains and
[16:13] Speaker 1: valleys and mountains. This is kind of tucked in like
[16:15] Speaker 1: a valley. So I don't know.
[16:18] Speaker 2: The question is, since we know that she didn't.
[16:22] Speaker 1: Make it to her dorm room, we can only assume
[16:25] Speaker 1: that he took her into his dorm room.
[16:27] Speaker 3: Wait, I'm sorry, okay, you might have said this, but
[16:29] Speaker 3: when the transfer took place to mister Flores, yeah, where
[16:34] Speaker 3: was that they were out?
[16:36] Speaker 1: They were heading towards their dorms. His dorm was right
[16:39] Speaker 1: next to hers. Way to understand that to each other.
[16:42] Speaker 2: On the same path.
[16:44] Speaker 1: So I assume that Paul Flora is kind of intervened.
[16:47] Speaker 1: Before they were coming up to those dorms. He said,
[16:50] Speaker 1: I'll take her from here.
[16:51] Speaker 2: And then is his dorm in the same building. No,
[16:54] Speaker 2: it's different buildings, but they're next to each other.
[16:56] Speaker 3: Okay, so his his dorm rooms in a completely different building.
[16:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I believe I mean.
[17:01] Speaker 3: My video cameras for the entryway.
[17:04] Speaker 1: There's no security cameras on zero nothing, because you don't
[17:10] Speaker 1: know what happened to her. I would assume now, I
[17:12] Speaker 1: would like to know this if anyone goes to the school.
[17:14] Speaker 1: Are there security cameras out there now?
[17:16] Speaker 3: Because one, they're cheaper technology, they're more common, insurance might
[17:22] Speaker 3: require it, you know, for protection, and then this crime.
[17:26] Speaker 2: You know, right, so the least the reasons why.
[17:29] Speaker 1: I assume now they're security cameras that show who's going
[17:31] Speaker 1: in and out at all times. So the dogs, the
[17:36] Speaker 1: cadver dogs head straight to his room and to where
[17:38] Speaker 1: his bed is. Search teams conduct large scales, large scale
[17:42] Speaker 1: searches of surrounding areas, and but Kristen's body has never
[17:46] Speaker 1: been found. Paul Flores is now refusing to fully cooperate
[17:49] Speaker 1: with investigators and frequently invokes his right to remain silent.
[17:53] Speaker 1: This is when they don't have enough evidence to charge
[17:56] Speaker 1: him with murder, so they can't charge him, but he's
[17:59] Speaker 1: definitely it all like them the prime society.
[18:02] Speaker 2: Is a suspect or a person of interest, whatever you
[18:04] Speaker 2: want to call it. But there's no one else on
[18:06] Speaker 2: the radar. Guilty.
[18:07] Speaker 3: I'll call him guilty. Guilty, you call him a predicting
[18:10] Speaker 3: this one.
[18:10] Speaker 1: So they can't charge him, So what the smarts? Christen
[18:15] Speaker 1: Smart's family, mom and dad. They hire an attorney who
[18:19] Speaker 1: ends up suing him for wrongful death in a civil action.
[18:23] Speaker 2: So they take a deposition or whatever it.
[18:25] Speaker 3: Was that strategy to pursue something criminally, like maybe they
[18:29] Speaker 3: would get evidence.
[18:29] Speaker 1: And probably I just feel like they didn't. They just
[18:32] Speaker 1: felt lost in all of this.
[18:34] Speaker 2: They don't know what that was a way to dig
[18:36] Speaker 2: and figure out what's going on? Right, right, So they
[18:38] Speaker 2: do it.
[18:39] Speaker 1: The their attorney representing them does a deposition to Paul
[18:43] Speaker 1: Flores and he invokes his right to the Fifth Amendment
[18:45] Speaker 1: like twenty seven times. He never he never answers any questions.
[18:49] Speaker 3: Wait, he pled the Fifth pled the Fifth on that
[18:51] Speaker 3: on a civil case. It's a civil case, it's not
[18:53] Speaker 3: a criminal case.
[18:54] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[18:55] Speaker 3: The Fifth Amendment protects you from self incrimination, not civil suits.
[19:02] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[19:02] Speaker 1: They sue him civilly for wrongful death because they cannot
[19:06] Speaker 1: charge him criminally because they don't have anything I understand.
[19:09] Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just saying, is the guy's played in the
[19:11] Speaker 3: fifth That makes no.
[19:13] Speaker 2: It has no binding. I don't know.
[19:17] Speaker 1: Kristen's disappearance receives major media attention throughout California, and many
[19:21] Speaker 1: students and community members start to believe Paul Flores knows
[19:24] Speaker 1: more than.
[19:25] Speaker 2: He is admitting.
[19:26] Speaker 1: Despite widespread suspicion, investigators do not yet have enough physical
[19:30] Speaker 1: evidence to arrest him. Investigators continue periodically searching properties connected
[19:36] Speaker 1: to the Flores family. There are let me just say this,
[19:39] Speaker 1: there are three different properties. So Paul Flores's mother and
[19:44] Speaker 1: father are divorced. There is Susan Flores who is the mother,
[19:47] Speaker 1: and there is Reuben Flores, who is the father. They
[19:50] Speaker 1: each have their own property and their properties are both
[19:54] Speaker 1: searched because investigators believe that there's no way that Paul
[19:58] Speaker 1: Flores could have have abducted her, taken her to his
[20:02] Speaker 1: dorm room, sexually assaulted her, and murdered her, and then
[20:08] Speaker 1: gotten her out of the dorm room without being seen
[20:11] Speaker 1: unless he had some type of help.
[20:14] Speaker 3: Right because usually just transferring like the body to the
[20:17] Speaker 3: back of the car and the driveway is a challenge
[20:20] Speaker 3: and people might see it or there'll be some type
[20:22] Speaker 3: of evidence. Right, this is like, I assume he's not
[20:25] Speaker 3: even on the first floor, you know multiple I think
[20:29] Speaker 3: the first floor. Okay, fine, Still he has to pass people, well,
[20:35] Speaker 3: potentially run into people.
[20:36] Speaker 2: People see him.
[20:37] Speaker 3: Again, where are the security cameras a body?
[20:40] Speaker 1: I know, I'm sorry there's no security cameras, but you know,
[20:43] Speaker 1: I still keep thinking. I understand that it's Memorial Day weekend,
[20:46] Speaker 1: so they're not a lot of kids on this campus,
[20:48] Speaker 1: But how does someone get a body out of their
[20:51] Speaker 1: dorm room, down the hallway, out the door, and then
[20:55] Speaker 1: where and then what you got to You've got to
[20:57] Speaker 1: drag it or take it to a parking lot to
[20:59] Speaker 1: put it into a truck to then transport it somewhere.
[21:03] Speaker 1: So this guy, she's also over six foot tall. Really yeah,
[21:08] Speaker 1: so how does he where is the body? How does
[21:11] Speaker 1: no one see it? No one notices? I mean, it
[21:13] Speaker 1: is crazy, that's the thing. You're assuming no one saw.
[21:16] Speaker 1: Sometimes people seen, they don't want to say anything. All
[21:18] Speaker 1: I know is it's been thirty years and there has
[21:20] Speaker 1: never been any witness that's come forward that has seen anything.
[21:23] Speaker 2: That's why they don't know where the body is.
[21:24] Speaker 1: And it is crazy to me whether maybe I'm wrong,
[21:27] Speaker 1: Maybe it didn't happen in his dorm room. Maybe he
[21:29] Speaker 1: drug her behind the dorms and did.
[21:32] Speaker 3: Say it's like he committed the perfect crime. Oh except
[21:36] Speaker 3: the fact that we know he did it. But he
[21:38] Speaker 3: almost committed the perfect crime, except the circumstances were just
[21:42] Speaker 3: in his favor, like cleaning of the dorm room, the
[21:44] Speaker 3: campus police not doing any Yeah.
[21:47] Speaker 1: So rumors circulate throughout San Luis Obispo County that Kristen's
[21:50] Speaker 1: body may have been buried and moved multiple times. Kristin's
[21:54] Speaker 1: family continues publicly advocating for answers and keeping attention on
[21:57] Speaker 1: the case. On May twenty fifth of two thousand and two,
[22:00] Speaker 1: this is the sixth anniversary of her disappearance. Kristin Smart
[22:04] Speaker 1: is declared legally dead now between two thousand and twenty ten.
[22:10] Speaker 1: The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office continues investigating the
[22:13] Speaker 1: case for years. Detectives repeatedly revisit evidence and conduct additional
[22:18] Speaker 1: searches connected to the Flores family Kristen's parents remain outspoken
[22:23] Speaker 1: and continue pressuring authorities not to let the case go cold.
[22:26] Speaker 1: I also know the attorney that was representing the Smart
[22:29] Speaker 1: family in the civil suit. He has a huge sign
[22:33] Speaker 1: outside of his law office that has Kristen's picture on
[22:36] Speaker 1: it if you have a phone number, and he said
[22:39] Speaker 1: he will leave it up until she is found. Now
[22:44] Speaker 1: we get to twenty nineteen. Now this case goes cold
[22:48] Speaker 1: obviously for many many years because the body is never
[22:51] Speaker 1: found and they don't have enough evidence to charge Paul Flores. However,
[22:56] Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, this is a catalyst for bringing more
[23:00] Speaker 1: attention to this case and actually getting it to the
[23:02] Speaker 1: point where Paul Flores is eventually charged. But it's because
[23:06] Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen there was a local musician and a
[23:09] Speaker 1: podcaster named Chris Lambert who comes out with a podcast
[23:13] Speaker 1: called Your Own Backyard which focuses only on the Kristen
[23:17] Speaker 1: Smart disappearance. So this guy's name is Chris Lambert. He
[23:20] Speaker 1: grew up in sam Luis Obispo. He had heard about
[23:23] Speaker 1: the Kristin Smart case.
[23:25] Speaker 2: He knew about it, but he was young.
[23:26] Speaker 1: I think he was like eight when she disappeared or
[23:28] Speaker 1: something like that, but he like when but he would
[23:31] Speaker 1: see I think he would probably come across some of
[23:34] Speaker 1: the signs there, you know, saying like if you have
[23:36] Speaker 1: information about Kristen Smart, and he was thinking.
[23:38] Speaker 2: Whatever happened with stop right?
[23:41] Speaker 1: So then he decided to quit his job and just
[23:44] Speaker 1: do a podcast full time on just the Kristen Smart case.
[23:48] Speaker 1: And I'd have to say he did such a great job.
[23:51] Speaker 1: It really went wide. His podcast was really well received.
[23:54] Speaker 1: I believe it was like globally. It it was a
[23:57] Speaker 1: catalyst of having renewed interests in this case. A lot
[24:00] Speaker 1: of people were listening to it, and people started coming
[24:03] Speaker 1: forward and giving him evidence and and statements and things,
[24:08] Speaker 1: and then he was passing along evidence to THEE How
[24:11] Speaker 1: he how he.
[24:12] Speaker 3: Got everyone's attention because the NY signed didn't do anything.
[24:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I just think he was I think
[24:18] Speaker 1: he was very thorough. I think he went back to
[24:20] Speaker 1: the beginning. I think he just to reach out to people.
[24:22] Speaker 1: I guess if you can investigate, I don't know. Yeah,
[24:24] Speaker 1: maybe local news areas kind of picked up his story.
[24:27] Speaker 2: I don't know how he got it out there, but
[24:29] Speaker 2: I think he just did did.
[24:31] Speaker 1: Obviously, the podcast becomes massively popular and introduces the case
[24:34] Speaker 1: to a whole new generation of listeners. New witnesses reportedly
[24:39] Speaker 1: come forward after hearing the podcast. Now there's also a
[24:42] Speaker 1: new sheriff.
[24:43] Speaker 2: I like this.
[24:44] Speaker 1: It's like a new sheriff in town. There's a new
[24:46] Speaker 1: sheriff in town. His name's Ian Parkinson, who later acknowledges
[24:49] Speaker 1: that the podcast helped generate new leads. Then we get
[24:54] Speaker 1: to February of twenty twenty. In February twenty twenty, investigators
[24:58] Speaker 1: executed his search warrant at Paul Flores's home in San Pedro, California.
[25:04] Speaker 1: I don't know what instigated their ability to get a
[25:08] Speaker 1: search warrant, because you know, you have to have probable
[25:10] Speaker 1: cause in order to get a search warrant. So I
[25:13] Speaker 1: don't know exactly what new evidence came forward that gave
[25:17] Speaker 1: them the probable cause to search his property.
[25:20] Speaker 2: I think they keep that under wraps.
[25:21] Speaker 1: Because I couldn't really find a lot of information about that. Also,
[25:24] Speaker 1: there are so many different searches of all these different
[25:28] Speaker 1: Flores properties that it's hard to keep track of all
[25:32] Speaker 1: the different searches. But the first one I believe is
[25:34] Speaker 1: in twenty twenty February. It's Paul Flores' home. Authorities reportedly
[25:40] Speaker 1: sees electronics, vehicles, possible biological evidence, digital material, and other
[25:46] Speaker 1: items of interest. Later court records reveal investigators allegedly discovered
[25:50] Speaker 1: evidence suggesting Paul had a long history of predatory behavior
[25:54] Speaker 1: towards women. That was another thing that when we talked
[25:57] Speaker 1: about earlier about the campus police not investigating it thoroughly,
[26:01] Speaker 1: I read that there were other women that had come
[26:04] Speaker 1: forward on the campus and had complained about Paul Flores,
[26:09] Speaker 1: saying that he had, you know, touched them inappropriately or
[26:13] Speaker 1: harassed them or followed them like stalking type of behavior. Also,
[26:18] Speaker 1: he had a nickname that people called him Chester the Molester.
[26:23] Speaker 1: That's how weird and off and inappropriate he was towards
[26:27] Speaker 1: women that.
[26:28] Speaker 3: They changed his name to Chester that they could rhyme.
[26:31] Speaker 2: So that they could rhyme it with molester.
[26:33] Speaker 1: They referred to him as Chester the Molester, and they
[26:35] Speaker 1: said he was creepy. Now, my question is when those
[26:39] Speaker 1: two people handed him handed Kristen off to Paul Flores
[26:46] Speaker 1: and he was Chester the Molester, and that he had
[26:49] Speaker 1: a history of harassing and stalking women and being inappropriate
[26:53] Speaker 1: with women when they gladly or just willingly handed Kristin
[26:56] Speaker 1: smart Off.
[26:57] Speaker 2: Inside it was Flores. They didn't know.
[27:00] Speaker 3: I probably thought Chester was named Chester, so they're like,
[27:02] Speaker 3: this is not Chester, this is mister Paul Flores.
[27:06] Speaker 1: Also, this podcast was the catalyst for several other women
[27:10] Speaker 1: coming forward and contacting Chris Lambert, who does this in
[27:14] Speaker 1: your Own Backyard podcast. They came forward and gave accounts
[27:18] Speaker 1: of later in life dating Paul Flores and saying that
[27:22] Speaker 1: he was violent towards women, that he was harassing and inappropriate,
[27:28] Speaker 1: and so there's many instances.
[27:31] Speaker 2: Then we get to.
[27:31] Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty one and they search under Now
[27:35] Speaker 1: they have a warrant to search under Reuben Flores's deck. Now,
[27:39] Speaker 1: Ruben Flores, remember is the dad, and investigators and police
[27:43] Speaker 1: have always believed that the dad was an accessory. They
[27:46] Speaker 1: always believed that Paul had help. So investigators searched the
[27:50] Speaker 1: Arroyo ground de home of Paul's father, Ruben Flores, using
[27:53] Speaker 1: cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar. That ground penetrating radar
[27:58] Speaker 1: is really interesting. Do you understand that works? Do they
[28:01] Speaker 1: shoot I guess they shoot radar into the.
[28:04] Speaker 2: Ground and then if it if it was on the.
[28:06] Speaker 1: Jurassic Park, remember, no, I don't remember, you know, and
[28:10] Speaker 1: the original Jurassic Park, I don't remember that.
[28:12] Speaker 2: They dig down a little bit and they like shoot.
[28:16] Speaker 3: Some waves out and then they run to the computer
[28:20] Speaker 3: and they go look at the screen and it tells
[28:21] Speaker 3: them where like the.
[28:22] Speaker 2: T rexes and stuff, because the ground is like.
[28:25] Speaker 3: My guess is back then it was not really okay, yeah, yeah.
[28:29] Speaker 2: But now it is. Now.
[28:30] Speaker 1: They use the radar and I assume they're looking for
[28:33] Speaker 1: anomalies or something underground, right, like like hitting something strange,
[28:38] Speaker 1: like a casket or something.
[28:39] Speaker 2: Right, is that?
[28:40] Speaker 3: Yeah, probably something that's not natural, right, And it's a
[28:43] Speaker 3: Royal Grande is fifteen to.
[28:44] Speaker 2: Twenty miles away from San Luis, bit okay.
[28:46] Speaker 1: So we're all still like in the same area, all right.
[28:48] Speaker 1: Authorities using this ground penetrating radar discover a six foot
[28:54] Speaker 1: by four foot anomaly beneath the deck area. So that's
[28:59] Speaker 1: an size six feet by a four feet. Prosecutors later
[29:05] Speaker 1: claimed that evidence suggests that Kristen's body had once been
[29:08] Speaker 1: buried there before being moved. They've always believed that that
[29:12] Speaker 1: she was buried there and then they ended up moving
[29:14] Speaker 1: the body.
[29:15] Speaker 2: When investigators were.
[29:16] Speaker 3: You know, I get frustrated when like I do something
[29:18] Speaker 3: then I have to redo it. Yeah, I can't imagine
[29:20] Speaker 3: bearing a body and then you have to rebury it.
[29:22] Speaker 1: Right, soil samples allegedly contain evidence of human blood decomposition.
[29:29] Speaker 2: They couldn't, they said it. They couldn't get DNA. It
[29:31] Speaker 2: wasn't testable. It wasn't testable for DNA today it might be,
[29:34] Speaker 2: but no, this is recently that they did this.
[29:36] Speaker 1: Oh, that's right, It wasn't ninety six. Yeah, this is
[29:38] Speaker 1: we're talking about DNA from ninety six. Is DNA from
[29:41] Speaker 1: ninety six possibly technology They couldn't There isn't enough DNA wative.
[29:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, really made the difference. All right.
[29:56] Speaker 1: Now we get to April thirteenth of twenty twenty one.
[29:59] Speaker 1: This is nearly twenty five years after Kristen's first disappearance.
[30:02] Speaker 1: Paul Flores is arrested and charged with her murder, and
[30:05] Speaker 1: Reuben Flores, his father, is arrested in charged as an
[30:08] Speaker 1: accessory after the fact for allegedly helping conceal Kristen's body
[30:13] Speaker 1: I assume helping him remove it, conceal it, bury it.
[30:17] Speaker 1: Prosecutors announced that they believe Kristen was killed during the
[30:19] Speaker 1: commission or attempted commission of rape. Because of California's Statute
[30:24] Speaker 1: of Limitations, Paul cannot be separately charged with rape. However,
[30:28] Speaker 1: prosecutors use the attempted rape allegation as the basis for
[30:31] Speaker 1: a first degree felony murder charge. You understand that, right,
[30:36] Speaker 1: the statute of limitations ran out on rape, so he
[30:38] Speaker 1: can't be charged with rape. However, he committed murder.
[30:42] Speaker 2: There's no statute, no.
[30:43] Speaker 1: Statute of limitations on murder, and they're claiming that he
[30:46] Speaker 1: murdered her in the commission of trying to rape her.
[30:49] Speaker 1: Therefore it's a felony murder charge. He goes to trial
[30:54] Speaker 1: in the summer of twenty twenty two, and due to
[30:57] Speaker 1: extensive publicity surrounding the case, the trial is from San
[31:00] Speaker 1: Luis Obispo County to Monterey County, separate juries. Simultaneously, hear
[31:05] Speaker 1: the cases against Paul Flores and his father, Reuben Flores.
[31:09] Speaker 1: Prosecutors argue that Paul Flores attempted to rape Kristin after
[31:13] Speaker 1: walking her home that night, that he killed her, and
[31:17] Speaker 1: members of the Flores family later helped him hide and
[31:20] Speaker 1: move her body. All right, so the prosecutor's key evidence
[31:24] Speaker 1: that they had during the trial. There was witness testimony
[31:27] Speaker 1: placing Paul as the last person with Kristin, cadaver dog
[31:32] Speaker 1: dogs alerted in Paul's dorm room and near his mattress,
[31:36] Speaker 1: testimony about Paul's suspicious behavior and changing stories after Kristen disappeared.
[31:41] Speaker 1: Soil evidence beneath Reuben Flores's deck suggested that a body
[31:46] Speaker 1: had once decomposed. There evidence that Kristin's remains may have
[31:50] Speaker 1: later been moved from the burial location, and additional testimony
[31:54] Speaker 1: from women alleging that Paul Flores had engaged in predatory
[31:59] Speaker 1: or sexually aggressive behavior over many years. So obviously they're
[32:02] Speaker 1: establishing a pattern of behavior. There's also this is another
[32:10] Speaker 1: just an indication of how this isn't the campus police,
[32:14] Speaker 1: but another indication of how this case is got botched
[32:17] Speaker 1: and there were so many opportunities that were failed. There
[32:21] Speaker 1: was also an earring that was found lost. Well, there
[32:27] Speaker 1: was an earring that was found on Susan Flores, that's
[32:30] Speaker 1: the mother, that's Paul's mother driveway, and.
[32:34] Speaker 2: It was given to police.
[32:36] Speaker 1: It had like a red stain on the back of
[32:37] Speaker 1: it that supposedly or allegedly could have been blood. It
[32:40] Speaker 1: was found in her driveway, and then it was said
[32:43] Speaker 1: to have matched a necklace that she's wearing and a photo,
[32:46] Speaker 1: so like the ear rings, and the next it was
[32:48] Speaker 1: like a set. The problem is they gave it to
[32:51] Speaker 1: investigators and what happened lost They lost it.
[32:54] Speaker 2: I think I saw that somewhere.
[32:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, can you imagine what a critical piece of evidence?
[32:58] Speaker 2: Now? Where did I put that? That's shellcasing, that's somewhere
[33:02] Speaker 2: over here. I mean, if you're telling you.
[33:04] Speaker 1: About an earring with blood on it that owned in
[33:08] Speaker 1: a driveway, it's likely.
[33:10] Speaker 2: That blood was hers in his on their property.
[33:14] Speaker 1: And her parents never had the opportunity to look at
[33:17] Speaker 1: it and determine whether it was hers, or test the
[33:21] Speaker 1: DNA and the blood on the back of it, or
[33:24] Speaker 1: see if it matched the necklace that she has, or
[33:27] Speaker 1: it's a critical piece of evidence. It puts that her
[33:31] Speaker 1: body at Susan Flores's home, and it's lost, not to
[33:36] Speaker 1: be recovered. No idea where it is, what happened to it?
[33:39] Speaker 1: Craigslist Craigslist in ninety sixty six. Probably there was no
[33:46] Speaker 1: Craigslist in nineteen ninety six. I don't think so.
[33:49] Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was AOL. Yeah, AOL shopper, all right.
[33:53] Speaker 1: The defense claims that Paul Flores's argument, So the defense's
[33:58] Speaker 1: argument is that there is no there is no murder weapon,
[34:02] Speaker 1: or any direct forensic evidence conclusively proving that Kristen was killed.
[34:06] Speaker 1: The defense repeatedly emphasizes that no one witnessed Kristin's death
[34:11] Speaker 1: and that Reuben Flores's attorneys deny that he helped conceal
[34:14] Speaker 1: a body or commit any crime. On October eighteenth of
[34:18] Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, the verdict comes out. After decades of
[34:22] Speaker 1: speculation and investigation, Paul Flores is finally found guilty of
[34:26] Speaker 1: first degree murder in Kristen Smart's death. Reuben Flores, his father,
[34:31] Speaker 1: is found not guilty of being an accessory. After the fact,
[34:35] Speaker 1: Kristen's family releases emotional statements thanking investigators and supporters who
[34:40] Speaker 1: never gave up on the case. Here's I don't like
[34:43] Speaker 1: the sentencing though. He is sentenced on March tenth of
[34:46] Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. Well, he's sentenced to twenty five years
[34:50] Speaker 1: to life in prison. Okay, it just twenty five just
[34:52] Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a lot to me.
[34:55] Speaker 3: Well, it's twenty five to life right, which means he's
[34:57] Speaker 3: eligible at twenty five.
[34:59] Speaker 2: Right, which I don't know. I don't like it.
[35:02] Speaker 1: What if he's on good behavior and he does all
[35:04] Speaker 1: the things he's supposed to do in prison for twenty
[35:05] Speaker 1: five years and then he gets out on parole in
[35:07] Speaker 1: twenty five years. I don't feel like that's very long
[35:09] Speaker 1: to have spend.
[35:10] Speaker 4: No.
[35:10] Speaker 3: I think if you murder someone, that's the end of it.
[35:12] Speaker 3: You should just go to jail forever. I don't understand
[35:14] Speaker 3: why this life and these circumstances are seventeen years and
[35:18] Speaker 3: these ones are, you know, two sentences of twelve years consecutive,
[35:22] Speaker 3: and this one's concurrent. It's just a life for a
[35:26] Speaker 3: life man.
[35:26] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[35:27] Speaker 1: Prosecutors state that although Kristen's body has never been recovered,
[35:30] Speaker 1: the evidence clearly showed that she was murdered, and authorities
[35:33] Speaker 1: continue actively searching for Kristen's remains even after Paul has
[35:37] Speaker 1: been convicted. Investigators believe her body was moved multiple times
[35:41] Speaker 1: over the years.
[35:42] Speaker 2: Multiple times multiple Why would it be multiple.
[35:45] Speaker 3: Times or do they mean just moved like when he
[35:49] Speaker 3: first got her, then he took.
[35:50] Speaker 2: Her to the dorm room, then he took her to
[35:51] Speaker 2: the barrier, they reburied or sure.
[35:54] Speaker 1: This is a little bit I learned when I was
[35:57] Speaker 1: doing more research trying to understand all these different search
[36:01] Speaker 1: So in February fifth, at twenty twenty, the FBI get
[36:03] Speaker 1: to search warrant for Reuben Flores's home. We talked about that. However,
[36:08] Speaker 1: after that search, so here's what I think. I think
[36:11] Speaker 1: they searched his home in February of twenty twenty, and
[36:15] Speaker 1: the family becomes very scared that they know that they're
[36:19] Speaker 1: searching for the body again. It's been renewed, right, so
[36:22] Speaker 1: they're on notice. Right. Then after they search, on February
[36:26] Speaker 1: fifth of twenty twenty, two key witnesses come forward. One
[36:30] Speaker 1: is David Stone, who is Reuben Flores's ex roommate of
[36:36] Speaker 1: ten years, so he used to live with Reuben Flores.
[36:39] Speaker 2: Rubin is the dad. He claims that.
[36:43] Speaker 1: No one was allowed to go near the deck of
[36:46] Speaker 1: this house, even plumber like, even if there was any
[36:49] Speaker 1: work that needed to be done, that no one was
[36:51] Speaker 1: allowed near this deck on the back of the house.
[36:53] Speaker 1: That's why investigators think that she's buried under this deck
[36:57] Speaker 1: right right, I'd be like, you.
[36:59] Speaker 3: Want to go in your kid's room and they're like,
[37:01] Speaker 3: you can look everywhere, but don't look in this drawer, right,
[37:04] Speaker 3: You cannot look in this drawer, right, So no reason,
[37:07] Speaker 3: just don't look in this drawer, in.
[37:09] Speaker 2: That drawer, right, I'm going to look in the drawer.
[37:11] Speaker 1: Then there's also a second witness that came forward named
[37:14] Speaker 1: Jamelin Holman, who is a neighbor of Reuben Flores, and
[37:18] Speaker 1: she claims she gave a statement that a few days
[37:22] Speaker 1: after this February fifth, twenty twenty search of his property,
[37:26] Speaker 1: that right after that that they she saw in the
[37:33] Speaker 1: middle of the night a trailer pull up and people
[37:36] Speaker 1: out in the yard by the deck in the middle
[37:38] Speaker 1: of the night arguing, and there was a trailer off
[37:41] Speaker 1: to the side. So these statements that these people gave
[37:45] Speaker 1: after the fact, after that first initial search in twenty twenty,
[37:50] Speaker 1: allowed them to get another search warrant, because now they
[37:54] Speaker 1: have more evidence that there's a body. So I guess
[37:58] Speaker 1: you can only assume that whenever they're in the middle
[37:59] Speaker 1: of who has a trailer out by your deck in
[38:01] Speaker 1: the middle of the night. I mean to me, murderers
[38:04] Speaker 1: do right, they're moving the body, And I guess the
[38:07] Speaker 1: people that were there was the dad room and flores,
[38:11] Speaker 1: but also the mother and her boyfriend that's allegiate.
[38:14] Speaker 3: What kind of household is it where the dad's like, okay, let.
[38:17] Speaker 2: Me help you hide the body.
[38:18] Speaker 3: I know, because you always say that the dad doesn't
[38:21] Speaker 3: isn't like a historically like you know, known murder or
[38:25] Speaker 3: something like. Let's say he's he's just a regular too
[38:27] Speaker 3: that might commit little crimes here and there, right like
[38:29] Speaker 3: cheat the system or whatever, so he's kind of shady,
[38:31] Speaker 3: but murder. Let's say he's not a murder, he's not violent.
[38:35] Speaker 3: What kind of household is it where you're just gonna help?
[38:39] Speaker 2: I don't get that. I don't know, but you know
[38:40] Speaker 2: that we've done several cases. Want to have to help
[38:42] Speaker 2: my kids clean their room like you clean it? Yeah,
[38:45] Speaker 2: and now it's like there's a dead body.
[38:46] Speaker 1: And we know Shane as a father is never going
[38:49] Speaker 1: to help any of our children hide a body.
[38:51] Speaker 2: He will be, yes, he will. He is a moral man.
[38:56] Speaker 3: Like I need to sign up get a public defender place.
[38:58] Speaker 3: I'm not even paying for this else public defender for you.
[39:02] Speaker 1: Yes, well, you know we have done several cases where
[39:06] Speaker 1: the parents are a real problem. I mean, we talked
[39:07] Speaker 1: about Mackenzie Charilla, and we talked about what a problem
[39:10] Speaker 1: her parents were with the no accountability.
[39:13] Speaker 2: You know another do you remember this mother? She was
[39:15] Speaker 2: a real real peach. It was the Gabby Patito case.
[39:19] Speaker 2: Remember Brian the.
[39:20] Speaker 1: Boyfriend, boyfriend's mom, boyfriend's mom and dad. Remember they wouldn't cooperate,
[39:25] Speaker 1: they wouldn't open the door.
[39:26] Speaker 3: Well didn't you even suspect that that the mom was
[39:32] Speaker 3: might have like wrote the letter or something, right, or
[39:35] Speaker 3: she was or she was a part of like his
[39:38] Speaker 3: running away and then you know, ultimately killing himself.
[39:41] Speaker 2: Right was she?
[39:42] Speaker 1: You remember she wrote him a letter? She wrote Brian
[39:44] Speaker 1: a letter and said, I'll help you hide a body.
[39:47] Speaker 1: I'll give you like a knife in a cake if
[39:49] Speaker 1: you go to prison like something.
[39:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, not that you committed murder, but if you did
[39:56] Speaker 3: really she said all that.
[39:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, she wrote a letter to him and said all that.
[40:00] Speaker 3: Well, what kind of childhood do these kids have? If
[40:04] Speaker 3: the parent is willing to hide the body for them,
[40:07] Speaker 3: what else do they do? I mean, these kids might
[40:10] Speaker 3: have to lift a finger ever, I know, but.
[40:12] Speaker 1: My kids don't really lift much of a finger. I
[40:14] Speaker 1: got to get on them more. They have to start
[40:16] Speaker 1: doing their own laundry.
[40:17] Speaker 2: That's my take away. You're not going to hide the body.
[40:19] Speaker 1: I'm not hiding any bodies, and Shane definitely isn't. And
[40:22] Speaker 1: Shane's giving them a public defender. He's not even going
[40:24] Speaker 1: to pay for the defense. So yeah, I'm going to
[40:25] Speaker 1: look for evidence. Yeah, Shane's going to help the investigator. Yes,
[40:29] Speaker 1: that's the kind of Shane.
[40:30] Speaker 2: Is this justice? All right?
[40:33] Speaker 1: This case most recently came back in the news. This
[40:36] Speaker 1: was during May six, twenty twenty six, so this was
[40:38] Speaker 1: just recently a couple of weeks ago that they searched.
[40:41] Speaker 1: Investigators search Susan Flores's home. They did a soil extraction,
[40:46] Speaker 1: which is soil vapor testing. I believe they were looking
[40:50] Speaker 1: for I don't know, decomposition, DNA something in the soil.
[40:56] Speaker 1: They're also they did a four day search, but they
[40:59] Speaker 1: didn't come up with any conclusive evidence that they could
[41:01] Speaker 1: charge you know, the mom or the dad or anything with.
[41:04] Speaker 1: And they didn't find a body, so we're still back.
[41:06] Speaker 1: They said they found like evidence of decomposition, so they
[41:09] Speaker 1: do believe that there was a body there at some point.
[41:12] Speaker 1: But again, here we are, thirty years later, they're still
[41:15] Speaker 1: searching the Flores's properties, and we still have no body.
[41:20] Speaker 2: Because they may not be on the property. I don't know,
[41:22] Speaker 2: I do.
[41:23] Speaker 1: I do believe that they've probably moved it at least once, maybe.
[41:27] Speaker 2: More, probably to put it with the other bodies. The
[41:29] Speaker 2: other bodies. Yeah, all right, So here's my takeaway from
[41:33] Speaker 2: this really. First of all, I.
[41:35] Speaker 1: Think it's just a very good life lesson again to
[41:38] Speaker 1: talk about how not to separate, especially in college. You know,
[41:40] Speaker 1: you have you have a daughter in college. Do you
[41:42] Speaker 1: talk to her about not separating?
[41:45] Speaker 2: Well, she's doing a remote school.
[41:47] Speaker 4: She's at home, all right, Well, so she's getting your master's.
[41:51] Speaker 4: But it's I'm not talking about Shelby. I'm talking about Snell.
[41:53] Speaker 4: She's on yeah, oh yeah, absolutely yecause she's on campus.
[41:57] Speaker 4: You know what I tell the kids too. You go
[41:58] Speaker 4: to target, one of your kids want to steal, you
[42:01] Speaker 4: ask them not to.
[42:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, and if they're going to do it anyway, because
[42:04] Speaker 3: they probably will, they say, Okay, I'm going to go
[42:06] Speaker 3: wait outside, and you separate yourself from that person immediately
[42:10] Speaker 3: because when they walk out, and if you walk out
[42:12] Speaker 3: with them, they will nab you just the same.
[42:15] Speaker 2: Oh where do you went from? You went? I went?
[42:18] Speaker 1: You went from walking in pairs and groups. Now we're
[42:21] Speaker 1: at target.
[42:21] Speaker 3: Still because I'm saying, like, you have to separate yourself
[42:24] Speaker 3: from you have to recognize scenarios that you're going to
[42:27] Speaker 3: get in trouble, and that's one of them because I've seen.
[42:30] Speaker 2: That happen because I was a target investigator. Yes, I know.
[42:32] Speaker 3: And then some of the target investigators think, well, I'll
[42:34] Speaker 3: get two for the price of one because they know
[42:36] Speaker 3: that both of them were crooked, so they nab them both.
[42:39] Speaker 2: Okay, So your rules for children or teens or.
[42:44] Speaker 1: Young adults hang out with criminals, not to hang right,
[42:46] Speaker 1: not to hang out with criminals, stick together, and to
[42:49] Speaker 1: stick together on college campus parties and things like that.
[42:52] Speaker 3: Many times they call me and then I say, is
[42:55] Speaker 3: everything okay, Like at ten o'clock a night or whatever,
[42:57] Speaker 3: leven or whatever, and they say, yeah, I'm just walking
[42:59] Speaker 3: to my car alone and I just wanted to talk
[43:01] Speaker 3: to someone while I walk. And then the worst part
[43:04] Speaker 3: is when I wake up in the morning it says
[43:06] Speaker 3: miss call, and I'm like oh, And then I call
[43:08] Speaker 3: it next sdaying like oh, I just needed to talk
[43:10] Speaker 3: to someone, and I feel terrible.
[43:11] Speaker 2: But then they'll be like, oh, I called so and so,
[43:13] Speaker 2: and they picked up and so all right, yeah that's important. Yeah,
[43:17] Speaker 2: all right.
[43:17] Speaker 1: Again, here's what my hope is, because I spent a
[43:20] Speaker 1: lot of time researching Kristin Smart and at you know,
[43:23] Speaker 1: it kind of reminds me of like John Benet, where
[43:25] Speaker 1: we just don't have the answers. And I would hope
[43:28] Speaker 1: that in my lifetime, at some point that they do
[43:30] Speaker 1: recover Kristen Smart's body. I would hope for the family's sake,
[43:34] Speaker 1: that they do have some final closure, even though.
[43:37] Speaker 3: Something to end the story, something.
[43:39] Speaker 1: To know that, like they found her remains, they can
[43:42] Speaker 1: bury her and be done with it. And so I
[43:44] Speaker 1: really hope that happens at.
[43:46] Speaker 2: Some point, you know.
[43:47] Speaker 1: And I was thinking about John Beney too. I wonder
[43:50] Speaker 1: if that will ever get solved. I hope that's become
[43:52] Speaker 1: solved in my lifetime as well.
[43:53] Speaker 2: I really need to know answers. We've talked about that
[43:55] Speaker 2: ever since I've known you, John Benney, Yeah, that is
[43:58] Speaker 2: that on your tour list? Oh yeah, that's definitely on
[44:01] Speaker 2: the tour.
[44:02] Speaker 1: I have not done the Jompinay case yet because it
[44:06] Speaker 1: is so complex. It's its own podcast. It's its own podcast.
[44:09] Speaker 1: I don't even think I could do it in one episode.
[44:11] Speaker 1: I think it would have to be like a three
[44:12] Speaker 1: parter and it would take me weeks and weeks. I
[44:14] Speaker 1: know a lot about it, but it would take weeks
[44:16] Speaker 1: and weeks to like nail down the details and really
[44:19] Speaker 1: understand it and have a thorough, you know, grasp on it.
[44:22] Speaker 2: That's why.
[44:22] Speaker 1: And the same with Scott Peterson. I want to do
[44:24] Speaker 1: Scott Peterson too, but I have to have time to
[44:26] Speaker 1: really because we'd have to go into the innocence project
[44:30] Speaker 1: and why they took up his case and the new
[44:32] Speaker 1: evidence in all of those things. So anyway, those will
[44:35] Speaker 1: be coming eventually. I just have to have the time
[44:38] Speaker 1: to do the research on those. But anyway, Chris and Smart,
[44:42] Speaker 1: if anyone has any information out.
[44:44] Speaker 2: There, anyone went to p yeah at that time.
[44:47] Speaker 1: And has anything or has anything to add, please dm me.
[44:50] Speaker 1: I love to hear from you, guys. Thank you so
[44:52] Speaker 1: much for listening to Legally Brunette. As always, you can
[44:54] Speaker 1: follow us anywhere you listen to podcasts. Make sure you
[44:57] Speaker 1: tell your friends and family, and if you have any
[45:00] Speaker 1: cases that you would like to recommend, please reach out
[45:02] Speaker 1: to me on Instagram. I love to hear from you guys.
[45:04] Speaker 1: And again, if you went to cal Poly or you
[45:06] Speaker 1: know anything about the Kristen smart case, or you were
[45:08] Speaker 1: on campus in nineteen ninety six, or if you're there
[45:11] Speaker 1: currently and you know there're security cameras, now let us know.
[45:15] Speaker 1: We love to hear from you guys, so thank you,

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