A reveal for a mother who lost her child for more than two decades. As from Stockton Record, Denise Smart, the mother of Kristin Smart, was contacted by the FBI and told her, “Be ready. This is going to be something you don’t expect.”
Kristin Smart was a freshman at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis. She was only 19 years old by then in 1996, and the last time she was seen was when she left a party from out of the campus.
In the record, the FBI told her family that maybe they “might want to get away for a while” and get a family representative instead.
The California Polytechnic had a statement as well, “offers its thoughts to the Smart family along with its continued hopes for a resolution in the disappearance of Kristin Smart… the university has not been made aware of any new or additional information.”
After that, her disappearance became a mystery for an extended 24-year. In 2016, there was a tip to the investigators, and they excavated a Cal Poly hillside, but nothing came up. Her neighbor in the dorm called the university police and was the one informing them that she has not returned. Other students thought she might have gone camping.
The authorities didn’t declare her a missing person until on the 3rd day.
She went home at around 2 A.M. on the Memorial Day weekend with three others. Two went back to their residences. The student whom she left with, Paul Flores, from the party was questioned, and his home was searched, but there was nothing found.
He wasn’t arrested or charged for anything. He said he dropped her off at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Perimeter Road in San Luis Obispo. Over the last months, the case received a lot of attention after a true-crime podcase was released “Your Own Backyard.” It was focused on Flores, who was the primary suspect.
In 1998, the focus of the investigation was about Flores. The authorities recorded that he had a black eye the day after her disappearance and had an alibi that it was from a basketball game and during an accident while fixing his car. Several months after, the scent dogs which were trained for smelling human remains went to the dorm room of Flores, but nothing was found.
The Smart family kept an eye on Flores. They believe that he knows more about the disappearance of their daughter. They sent articles linking to Flores to his employers. The Navy declined his application after learning of the said disappearance case.
In 2002, it was officially declared that Smart was dead as there was nobody found.
During an interview in 1998, the mother exclaimed, “It’s been like having an open wound and having someone continually pouring salt in it Having a missing child is just not something that gets better over time. It’s another dimension, and it just can’t heal.”
Currently, there is a California Law, the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act of 1998, which requires university police to be definite as to when they should call the outside authorities for investigation on crimes.
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