She's Been Missing For 30 Years.. Kristin Smart Deep Dive & NEW Updates

- It's a story that we hear about all too often. A young girl goes to a party, looking to just have some fun with friends, not knowing that there's a monster at that party with sinister intentions. - Hey, Paul, do you have any information on that missing girl? What'd you do with her? - 30 years ago, Kristin Smart went to a college party on her campus one Friday night to celebrate the end for freshman year and has never been seen alive since. - Were you involved in the disappearance of Kristin Smart? - Paul, can you tell us what happened that night between you and Kristin? - Go, fuck yourself. - For 30 years, one family has been left wondering what happened to their daughter. While another family for 30 years has allegedly been covering up what their son did to Kristin Smart. This is the disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Kristin Smart. My name is Brianna and I'm hot on the case. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even there. Meet new, grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours with flexible all-day comfy grip. No tightness, no stickiness, no residue. Just plump, dewy, hydrated skin. That still feels like your skin. Try new, grippy setting mist from Mavily New York. - Maybe it's Mabling. - Two very important people in this case are Denise and Stan Smart. Denise and Stan Smart were a married couple of educators who were teaching children of American military personnel in Germany during the mid to late 1970s. After several months of trying to conceive their first child, Denise and Stan were actually looking into adoption agencies in Germany when they found out that they were pregnant. And on February 20th, 1977, they welcomed their daughter, Kristen Denise Smart, into the world. And after three years in Germany, the family would move back to the United States. After thinking that they might never conceive a child, Kristen was a miracle to them. And that miracle would multiply by two more after the family welcomed their son Matthew and their second daughter, Lindsay. The family would then settle down in Stockton, California. Kristen Smart was an exceptional, extraordinary child that was walking and talking way earlier than most children do. She was a bright student and overachiever who worked really, really hard in school, especially considering that Kristen Smart was diagnosed with ADHD, which makes all of her achievements even more impressive. And I can say that 100% because I was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child. And I remember school being really, really hard on me. Kristen was an amazing big sister who always made time to play with her younger brother and her sister. Where most teenagers might wanna just do their own thing, she would always make time to play games with her younger brother and sister. She would also work as a babysitter throughout high school because she just loved kids so much. And the parents of these children at Kristen with babysit really loved Kristen because she would actually spend time with their children and wouldn't just be like watching TV while the kids ran 'em up throughout the house. Kristen would be on the volleyball team throughout school but her true love was the water, anything water. She loved the ocean, she loved swimming, she loved surfing and Kristen was extremely adventurous. She just loved to travel during high school. Kristen spent a summer in London with one of her friends and a year as an exchange student in Venezuela which is so cool. Kristen graduated high school in 1995 and not summer after graduating high school. She worked as a camp counselor and a life guard in Hawaii which again, it's just so, so cool. She's like so much cooler than me. And Kristen remembers that that summer in Hawaii just being like one of the best summers ever. She really, really loved her time in Hawaii. Kristen was a very tall, beautiful girl with long blonde hair and she was a very tall girl. She was actually over six feet tall like six foot one and she also had this like boho with surfer girl style. She loved to wear fun, colorful jewelry and accessories and always put these cute little braids in her hair. And then in September 1995, Kristen started her first semester at college, at California Polytechnic State University or better known as Cal Poly. In high school, Kristen smart really loved architecture and she would even spend a lot of her free time drawing different like building designs which again, I think is really, really cool. And that's what she thought. She wanted to get her degree in architecture but she quickly changed her major to communications because she decided that her real dream was to be a traveling journalist. She honestly just seems like the coolest person in the world like someone that you would want to be friends with. And completely unrelated to the Kristen smart case, I just thought this was really interesting considering the true crime connection. Kristen smart was enrolled at Cal Poly at the exact same time as Scott and Lacey Peterson who we just did an episode on in like May of last year. When Kristen started her freshman year at Cal Poly, she was actually really disappointed because there wasn't any room for her in any of the dorms and she thought that she was going to miss out on a lot of the college experience living in an off campus apartment. But after the first semester and the holiday break, a spot actually opened up in one of the dorms for Kristen and Kristen moved into room 120 in Mirror Hall. Kristen was really excited living the dorms now, thinking she was going to have more of that typical college experience but still Kristen's freshman year at Cal Poly was really hard on her and she struggled a lot. For one thing, Kristen had a lot on her plate. She was working as a lifeguard to bring in a little extra spending money and one of the requirements for this lifeguard job was that she had to go to the pool at 5 a.m. to swim and practice and just keep up her skills. So Kristen would wake up every single morning between 420 and 430 to be at the pool by 5 a.m. She would then have to swim for an hour, then go back, shower, get ready for all of her classes and then in the evening, she would go back to her dorm where she had to study and do more homework. Kristen just felt like she didn't have a lot of time for fun or for herself and all of this on her plate didn't really leave her with much opportunity to make a lot of close friends. Kristen really was like that free spirit, like really chill vibe. So on top of that, Kristen was also not feeling like the people she did meet. She really clicked with or were anything like her. She would say that everyone at Cal Poly was exactly the same. And on top of that, Kristen was really struggling, keeping up with her workload and she was feeling just extremely overwhelmed. And during her freshman year, Kristen would actually reach out to our parents and she would beg them to let her drop out of school or to transfer to a school in either Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, somewhere where she felt like she would get more of like that chill beach vibe that she had when she spent her summer in Hawaii. But Kristen's mother Denise really urged her daughter just like stick through it. It was only her freshman year and it's always a big adjustment going off to college and she assured her daughter that things would get better. During Kristen's freshman year of college, she was really experimenting. She dyed her blonde hair a darker brown color. She would also introduce herself by different names. Sometimes she would tell people that her name was Roxy. Sometimes she would tell them that her name was Marisol. Sometimes she would call herself Kayana or Trixie. Kristen was really just trying to find herself, which is what college really is all about other than getting an education. And Kristen was really trying to find a sort of independence that comes with being a new adult in the adult world. Her and her family were really, really close and that absolutely did not change, but Kristen did warn her parents when she went off to college that she wasn't going to be calling them five times a day and constantly checking in with them. She wanted a little bit of independence and give herself an opportunity to figure things out for herself. But they did come to a bit of a compromise and they had a scheduled call every single Sunday night where Kristen could call her parents and she could say what was going on with her during the week and then she could hear what was going on back home with her parents and her younger siblings, which brings us to Memorial Day weekend, 1996. On that Friday, May 24th in 1996, around 5 PM, Kristen called her parents and left them a voicemail telling them that she had great news. They would later find out that that great news was at a class that Kristen thought that she was going to fail. She actually wasn't going to fail. She thought she was gonna fail the semester, but she wasn't, she was going to pass, which was a big deal for her, especially considering that she thought she couldn't keep up with the workload. She hung up that voicemail telling her parents that she would call them on Sunday like she always did and they could talk about everything then. But that call would never come. That Friday night, Kristen really wanted to go out and celebrate her great news and also celebrate the Friday night. fact that the end of the school year was coming really, really soon. She finished her freshman year. She got through it. She persevered just like her mother wanted her to do. She also wanted to go out to celebrate the long weekend because they were going to have, you know, all Friday, off after the rest of the classes, then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And Kristen wanted to celebrate this really tough year for her about to come to an end by going out and maybe going to a few parties. Kristen was not a big drinker by any means. I really wasn't her scene, but that doesn't mean that she can't go out and party and, you know, socialize and stuff like that. She was a really outgoing, bubbly girl who could really make friends anywhere she went. And we all know that she really wanted to have this fun, carefree, typical college experience. So going to a party, I mean, that's part of the college experience for most people. Kristen met up with one of her friends, a girl named Margarita Campos that was living in the dorm next to hers. The sea if Margarita would go out with her that night. Margarita was up studying for a very big test and was actually really, really tired. So at first, Margarita turned it down. Kristen's offer to go out partying that night, but Kristen was pretty persistent and she convinced Margarita to go out. So the two girls went out and they met up with some of their other friends at what they thought was a party. But the party was apparently really lame. The two girls actually called it a dud. It was just the two of them standing around watching a bunch of guys play video games. And I don't know about you, but that's not the way that I ever want to spend my Friday night. So after finishing each one beer, they both had one beer that they were just kind of holding, trying to find an excuse to get out of this party. So after finishing that one beer, they left. The two girls are going around with a group of their other friends looking for a party and then eventually Margarita and Kristen, they get away from the group and they're just looking for a party just the two of them. But the campus was really, really empty for Friday night. I guess a lot of the students had actually left campus for the long holiday weekend. So the two girls were actually having a really hard time finding a party. And it was also pretty cold that night considering, I mean, it's a May night in California. So I don't know how cold it actually was. But for these, California girls, they were getting pretty cold. And Margarita was already tired and she didn't really want to go out in the first place. So after a while, she told Kristen, hey, I'm tired. And I think it's time that we call it a night and we go back to the dorm. Kristen really Imagine setting your makeup. Then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new groupie setting mist from Mavily New York. 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Kristen had actually lost her dorm key not too long ago and considering that she would be out later than Margarita and there would probably be someone up for Margarita to let her into the dorm. Margarita gave Kristen her dorm key and then she started heading back to the dorm. And this would be the last time that Margarita ever saw her friend Kristen smart. And there's definitely a lot of guilt that Margarita felt leaving her friend out alone like this. I know I always preach if you are going out as a group. You should always stay as a group and leave as a group. I'm in no way blaming Margarita for what happened. There's only one person to blame for what happened to Kristen smart. But I understand why she felt a lot of guilt. But I really want to say directly to Margarita and to anyone that might want to blame her that you are in no way responsible. But Margarita would later say quote, I was a girl scout for many years. You're supposed to use the buddy system. And I was just tired that night and she didn't come back. After a little while of walking around by herself, Kristen actually did stumble on a party. It was a birthday party at some unofficial frat house for two frat guys that I don't think Kristen even knew. She definitely wasn't invited to this party but that's just kind of the way that college parties go. At first, there were only 20 people there. By the end of the night, there was 80 people there. Kristen really liked her outfit that night. She was wearing a gray crop top, a pair of Roxy brand board shorts, and also a pair of red Puma shoes. And the second Kristen walks into this party. She can tell that people are maybe already kind of looking at her. I know that people have said that they noticed Kristen right away. She's a very tall girl and she's very, very beautiful. And that night, Kristen was introducing herself by one of her aliases. She was telling people that her name was Roxy to all the people that she met at the party that night. And even though Kristen wasn't a big drinker and we know that she only had one beer and that was at least an hour ago within one hour of arriving at this frat party, other people say that Kristen was appearing heavily intoxicated. And when that party ended around 2am, two party goers that were leaving the home Tim Davis and Cheryl Anderson found Kristen passed out on the front lawn. Tim Davis and Cheryl Anderson did not know Kristen's smart but they still helped her up because that's the right thing to do and they found out what dorm building she lived in and started walking her back. Which was pretty difficult because Kristen could barely stand up, let alone walk and she definitely couldn't walk by herself. So as the three of them began slowly walking back to the dorms, a third Cal Poly student runs over to help. A 19 year old boy named Paul Flores. The four of them walk about a half mile before Tim Davis is the first one to break off from the group, leaving Kristen with Cheryl and Paul. And by the time the group got to Cheryl's dorm room, Paul had convinced Cheryl that he could get Kristen to her dorm safely. Paul and Kristen's dorms were actually just like a few feet away from each other like his dorm rooms here and right across a little bit of grass is where Kristen's dorm was. So Cheryl turns, she walks the opposite direction that Paul and Kristen are walking and she goes to her dorm. And that was the last time that anyone saw 19 year old Kristen's smart alive. Kristen's roommate Crystal, pretty similar name, but Kristen's roommate Crystal was off campus that Friday night, but she returned the following morning on Saturday and Kristen was not there. But all of Kristen's belongings were still in her room. She did not bring her wallet or her ID or any of like her other things with her. She went out just with what she had on that night. And Crystal could also notice that Kristen never slept in her bed the night before because her bed was still littered in all of Kristen's makeup from getting ready to go out the night before. The entirety of Saturday passed and by Sunday and Kristen never came back to the dorm, Crystal went and she talked to Margarita, who she knew Kristen was hanging out with on Friday night. The sea of maybe Kristen had just crashed at Margarita's dorm for the past two nights. This arguably made a little bit of sense because Margarita and Kristen actually made plans for Kristen to sleep over in Margarita's dorm after she came back from going to these parties. But when Kristen never came back to Margarita's dorm, she thought that maybe Kristen was just still annoyed with her for ditching her. But after Margarita hears from Kristen's roommate Crystal that Kristen never came back. Now both girls Margarita and Crystal are really, really worried. They went all over campus asking all of their friends or anyone they knew if anyone had seen Kristen since Friday night or into the early morning hours of Saturdays and the party ended, you know, around 2 a.m. and no one saw Kristen after that party by Monday. And there were still no signs of Kristen. A group of her female friends had formed trying to figure out what they should do next. So one of the girls, a girl named Jennifer calls the campus police and reported Kristen missing. But the campus police then referred to the girls to the San Luis Obispo Police Department. But then they were instructed to call the campus police. So the girls are just getting the runaround, which I'm sure was really, really frustrating. So they comply in the group of girls called the campus police once again and the campus police tells Kristen's friends that she either went on some kind of trip or went home for the three-day holiday weekend. So the campus police calls Kristen's parents to see if she was there. Kristen's parents were actually already pretty worried about their daughter before this call from campus police even came in. The day before Sunday came and went without Kristen calling them. So they were concerned but they were still trying to give her her space and her independence when they got that call from the Cal Poly campus police. A call that no parent ever wants to get. That no one can find your daughter. The Cal Poly campus police tried to assure Kristen's parents that their daughter likely went off with friends for a long weekend trip and would be back soon and just told them not to worry about it. This theory that the Cal Poly campus police had didn't really make a lot of sense. Kristen was adventurous, but that doesn't mean she's a kind of girl to run off and not tell anyone. And on top of that, Kristen left all of her belongings behind. She didn't bring her clothes, her wallet, her ID, any of her money. So either this is the most spontaneous trip of all time, or it's foul play. It wouldn't be until Tuesday, May 28th, nearly five days since anyone had seen Kristen that the campus police would finally file her missing persons report. And the fact that a student was missing from their campus wasn't reported in the school newspaper until she was already missing for nearly an entire week. Kristen's parents were just completely panicked by this point and honestly very frustrated with the investigation or the lack of an investigation. Kristen's parents, Denise and Stan spent that entire week calling up anyone that their daughter had ever even interacted with to see if there were any signs of her daughter anywhere. And then her father drove up the campus to put up missing person flyers of his daughter by himself. During the early days of the investigation, campus police tried to put together a timeline by talking to different witnesses, particularly anyone that saw Kristen that Friday night into the early morning hours of that Saturday morning when she vanished. They spoke with Tim Davis, Cheryl Anderson and Paul Flores, the last three people that ever saw Kristen smart and for the most part, their stories were exactly the same. Paul said that Tim and Cheryl left the group first and he walked Kristen the rest of the way back and then he went to his dorm but he stood about maybe 40 feet back to watch Kristen get into her dorm safely. Paul told the police that he did not know Kristen smart before that night and he didn't even interact with her at the party and he was just trying to do the right thing helping the squirrel get home safe. He's like the hero in this story. But other people were telling a very different story. Tim Davis said at the party he heard a loud bang and when he looked to see what this bang was, he saw Kristen smart lying on the ground and Paul Flores was on top of her trying to kiss her. Cheryl said that after Tim left the group, Paul was holding up Kristen by himself. He did not want Cheryl's help and he had his arm wrapped around Kristen's bare waist touching her skin and as they were walking back, Paul and Kristen were much slower than Cheryl obviously because Kristen couldn't really walk and Cheryl remembers feeling like Paul was trying to get rid of her like kept telling her to just walk back by herself and he had Kristen. She could just go but Cheryl made sure every single time it seemed like Paul was kind of trying to hang back to lose Cheryl that she would stop and let them catch up because even though she did not know Kristen, she did know Paul Flores and she got the creeps from him. Cheryl and her friends would actually refer to Paul as "Chester, the molester" because he was always so weird and creepy and predatory around girls. But by the time the group got to Cheryl's apartment, Paul did convince Cheryl that he could get Kristen back safely. Paul and Kristen's dorms, like I said, were right across from each other and Cheryl was really, really tired and she was really, really cold so she agreed to let Paul walk Kristen home against her better judgment. Before walking into her dorm, Paul tried to kiss her. He said he wanted a good night kiss from Cheryl which she refused. He then tried to get a hug from Cheryl which she also refused. There was another guy at the party that night named Trevor and he said that Kristen was kind of flirting with him throughout the party and actually took him into the bathroom with her. Trevor thought maybe he was going to get some action but instead in the bathroom Kristen told Trevor that she actually had a crush on some other guy at the party. It was some basketball player that from as far as I can tell has no connection in this case because he actually later denied her at the party but she was just kind of using Trevor to make this guy that she had a crush on jealous. She then told Trevor to leave the bathroom so she could use the bathroom. And when Trevor left the bathroom, Paul Flores was waiting outside the bathroom for him and asked Trevor what he was doing with Kristen in the bathroom. Trevor thought that maybe Paul was like Kristen's boyfriend so he told Paul that nothing happened which was true and then Paul just kind of laughed it off being like haha yeah whatever whatever dude. There were multiple girls at that party that night that said Paul tried to kiss them or was groping them at the party. 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Never even, I don't remember doing anything like that. I mean this is where just one person told us several people saw this. So I was wondering what happened as far as you and Rossy were concerned there. Was she kind of pulling you down on the ground? I don't remember even doing anything like that. Nothing like that happened. Nothing. Why do you think these four or five people would tell us? There was an Australian exchange student at Kaapali that was walking home around the exact same time that Paul and Kristen would have been walking back to their dorm rooms by themselves. And he said that on that night between where Sheryl's dorm room was and where Paul and Kristen's dorm room was. There was a shorter guy with blonde hair and a tall girl fighting like she was trying to push him off and he has said that he believes that that was Paul Flores and that was Kristen smart. So this is not looking good at all. Paul was interviewed many times and during one of his first interviews, police noticed that he had several injuries. He had injuries to the back of his knees. He had scratches all over his hands and he had a black eye. They unfortunately did not take photos of Paul's injuries that time for whatever reason. But Paul was actually arrested the evening after Kristen was last seen for failing to appear in court for an unrelated DUI. So this mug shot is the only evidence we have of this black eye. And unfortunately because of the flash photography that is used in these mug shots, it's kind of hard to see but you can definitely see that it is there. When police asked Paul how he got the black eye, he said that he got it playing basketball with some of his friends on Sunday night, which would have been a full day since Kristen was last seen. But his friends that he played basketball with told police that Paul had that black eye when he showed up to play basketball. And many other people reported seeing this black eye on Paul all of Saturday. But he did not have it Friday night at the party or while walking Kristen home Saturday morning. Police followed up with Paul to see why he lied and he admitted that he lied. He said that he lied because he was embarrassed about how he got the black eye. He got it by accidentally hitting himself while changing the stereo in his car. Where did you get it? In my car? What car? My ranger. My ranger. When did it happen? I'm more than a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, or a day, whatever it was. Monday? Yeah. Having about 2 o'clock in the morning should be 2 o'clock in the morning. Because I was uninstalled in my radio because I'm selling my truck. And where were you working on your car? Him and Raj. And how did you get to black eye? I hit the stereo wall. That's about it. But like how often people hit their eye in the stereo wall? So I don't know. See? He was like right here so then I wouldn't like that popped up and then why didn't she tell us that? Because it doesn't sound very likely thin. That's exactly my point. You see my point now when I'm getting about all this other stuff to have? When you tell us something like that and it doesn't make sense, see how bad it looks? Yeah. But that was days later anyway. So. Oh no. Why was it so hard for you to tell us that you got that black eye hit in the stereo wall? It didn't really matter. What do you mean it didn't matter? It was days later. So what would it be? If it didn't matter, then why did you lie about it? Well, well, it doesn't matter, I leave out little details. What does matter who I was even with that day, though? I mean, like the Labor Day weekend or Memorial Day weekend. See, I don't even figure that out. Why does it matter? Yeah. Because that's how we found out you didn't get the black back wearing basketball. But it doesn't make any big deal, son. But why would you lie about that? Now, how do we know that everything that he told us so far, you don't really think it matters? So that's why you're telling us some of the things. And maybe what you're telling us is really the truth. How do we know now that you've lied to us? Well, well, that wasn't important, though. Sure does. That's important. Sure, it's important. What if Roxy punched you in the eye? Yeah, say why it's important? What if Roxy punched in the eye? No, I'm people like that. It's not a big old one. One of my best sons. Let me ask you this. Are you telling this is the truth? How you got that black eye? Yep. What if somebody tells us that they saw you with that black eye, Saturday night? Nope. I didn't have a Saturday night. Well, you got somebody that'll say you did have a Saturday night. Nope. That would do. In fact, you know them extremely well. I have a black eye. Saturday night? There's no way I had that black eye. Saturday night? No. Why would this person lie to us? I did not have-- it might have been the week following. How could it be the week following when we see you? No, no, no, no, no. Now this obviously does not explain how he got all of his other injuries. I'm definitely concerned, but the fact that he had scratches all over his hands, it definitely looks like defensive wounds to me. But for some reason, when Paul was asked all of Memorial Day weekend how he got this black eye, he kept telling people that he didn't remember. He wasn't until several days over a week later that he started using this basketball excuse or this stereo excuse. We're trying to make it this-- yeah, we're not making it this stuff up, okay? It's-- we see you with a black eye. You know how he sees you with a black eye? Friends of yours sees you with a black eye. In fact, one of your friends asked you how it happened. And you know what you say to him? I said, I got it. Oh, my basketball. No. No. Absolutely not. Unless they're black eye. You're conspiracy against Paul. I don't think so. And you said, I don't know Paul, I know it. Jack Words. I don't know. I might have said that, but I know. I know I didn't want to take it on my stereo mode, though. Why? Because I don't make any sound of the clutch. Can you see where we're coming from? Yeah. If you're going to tell us a lie about something that means nothing about a black eye, then what else am I to be truthful about? Say? Well, I know I did not have it Saturday night, though. We know you did. Okay. That was impossible. May I ask you instead of Jeremy, so you're on it? Jeremy who? Your friend Jeremy. I didn't see him Saturday night. He saw you Saturday night. I was at the movies. No, he didn't. I didn't see him till, um, till Monday. He saw you. No. Who'd you go to the movies with? My friend, Javier. How are you? I've no idea. Can I go to the front of yours? Yeah. It's, uh, begin to the scene. Where is he? Look at me. Relax. You're going to rip your t-shirt out. No, I'm just going to just get an inch in on, all right? During another interview on June 19th, police realized during this entire interaction that Paul Flores seemed very nervous and very anxious. And during the entire interview, he didn't want to answer any questions and just kept asking to leave, like asking to leave over and over again repeatedly. So finally, police asked him, where do you have to go so bad that you don't want to sit here and talk to us? And Paul replied that he had to go help his mom clean up some concrete at her house. And if you watched last week's episode, some wheels might start turning in your head. And the more you look into this case, the more you see a deeply disturbed young man and his parents that ignored a lot of red flags and just kept covering up for their son. Paul Flores has always had a very disturbing reputation of being a dangerous, creepy individual. Growing up, Paul always had a very noticeable stutter any time he was ever nervous. What do you think happened to rock two? What's your best guess as to what happened to her? My best guess is maybe she knows because her dorm is by the park or not over there. So then I would figure my best guess is she went off with someone, I don't know, she decided you know. And as a child, he had very intense anger issues. One time he got so angry that he tried to drown a little girl at the community pool. In middle school, people always said he was very creepy and weird and that exact same thing would follow him through middle school, the high school to college. At 16 years old, Paul got into a physical fight with a 13 year old boy, which is already so weird, like, hit on someone your own size, Paul. But in this fight, Paul, 16 years old, a high school student, stomps on this 13 year old boy's head and put him in the hospital for five days. He was in such a critical condition that he couldn't even remember what year it was for three entire days. Following putting a 13 year old boy in the hospital for five days, the court system suggested that Paul go to like an anger management class, which his parents refused, citing that their son didn't have anger issues and there was nothing wrong with their boy. His parents, Susan and Ruben Flores have always made excuses for their one and only son, Paul. Paul once in a high school body slammed a girl just because she said she wasn't interested in him. In school, Paul didn't have any friends, like he wasn't a part of a friend group because people were so creeped out by him and honestly, he was kind of a jerk. And since he never had a friend group, he was always a kind of guy that would just like show up. He would kind of just try to hang out around people that so clearly didn't want him around. And he was never invited to parties, but would somehow always just show up. And that's actually how he ended up at that party where he ran into a Christian smart. Yeah, he wasn't invited to that party, which was very typical for him. Imagine setting your makeup, then forgetting it's even theirs. Meet new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Gel to mist technology locks in your look for up to 24 hours, with flexible all day come to the grip. Clump, Dewey hydrated skin that still feels like your skin. Try new grippy setting mist from Maybelline, New York. Maybe it's Maybelline. And along with the nickname that Paul got in college, Chester, the molester, girls growing up would also call Paul creepy Paul, scary Paul, or psychopal apparently a Paul school. There was a book that had all of the different students' home phone numbers in it. And Paul would always call up the phones of the girls that he thought were pretty. He would call them constantly, it was very harassing, but a lot of the time he would call them and just breathe heavily on the line, which is like very much like serial killer behavior. And Paul would stalk and harass a lot of the girls that went to his school. He would even follow them home. In December of 1999, during his freshman year at Cal Poly, the winter before Christen disappeared, Paul got the police called on him for looking through women's windows in the middle of the night. And even though the police were called, they didn't really do anything. They just told Paul to leave. But within months, three other women reported that Paul was harassing and stalking them. Christen's smart parents were very frustrated by how little information they were getting from the police about their daughter's disappearance. They were nearing one month since their daughter vanished and it felt like the campus police were treating their missing daughter's case like they would treat a missing bike. It also felt to them and a lot of other people that the campus police were really victim-shaming and victim-blaming Christen, blaming her for her own disappearance, even though they would adamantly deny ever doing that. And it seemed like because she was a college girl that went to a college party and may or may not have consumed alcohol as a college student at a college party, that somehow, that may have caused her own disappearance. In their official police report, one officer wrote, quote, "She lives in her own way, not conforming to 10. typical teenage behavior, and that her behavior provides a picture of her conduct on the night that she went missing. On June 20th, investigators spoke with the school newspaper and were quoted saying, "There is no evidence of criminal activity. It doesn't look like she was the victim of a crime." It's very clear that the campus police were not equipped to handle this investigation. So after Kristen Smart had already been missing for an entire month, that's just so much time wasted. We all know that the first 24 hours, first 48 hours in a disappearance, that that is the most critical time, especially to find that person alive. It has now been a month and it seems like that time was completely wasted. So after Kristen Smart was already missing for an entire month, the campus police handed over her investigation to the San Luisa Obispo Police Department. And now, an actual investigation and an actual search could begin, including large-scale searches of the Cal Poly campus with over 400 volunteers, helicopters and cadaver dogs. Definitely, things that would have been nice as soon as Kristen Smart disappeared, but am thankful that they happened eventually. But unfortunately, by the time that these searches happened, it was summer break, meaning none of the students were on campus anymore. And even worse, janitors had already gone into each and every single dorm room and completely cleaned them top to bottom. So any evidence that might have possibly been there was now gone forever. As part of these large-scale searches of the Cal Poly campus, four separate cadaver dogs were brought on to the Cal Poly campus with different handlers. The dog's handlers weren't told any information about the investigation other than they were looking for a missing girl. Just to not sway the handlers to maybe see alerts from the dogs that might not be there. The four separate cadaver dogs were there on campus, obviously looking for signs of human decomposition. Even if a body was there, and the body was now gone somewhere else, the dogs would still alert if there was a dead body in a room or on a piece of furniture, stuff like that. The dogs were also all brought onto campus separately, and they were taken to every single dorm hall and every single dorm room. And each of those four dogs all alerted to the exact same dorm room, room 128 at Santa Lucia Hall. And in this college campus, these dorm rooms were shared by two individuals. So there was a bed on the left-hand side of the room and a bed on the right-hand side. So not only did each of the four dogs alert to the exact same room, but they all alerted to the bed that was on the left side of the room. And this alert told their handlers that somebody died on that bed. In addition, the dogs also all alerted to the trash can that was in this dorm room. To double check this finding, they took the trash can out of room 128, and they put it into the hallway and surrounded it by different trash cans from other dorm rooms. And still, all four dogs alerted to that trash can, the one in 128. And the dorm that these dogs all alerted to was shared by two boys, Derek Say, and his roommate, Paul Flores. And I bet you guys can all guess which bed, Paul Flores slept in. Paul's roommate, Derek Say, was off campus that weekend, so Paul had the room all to himself. When Derek returned to campus after the weekend, he claims that Paul told him that he walked this drunk girl home on Friday night. And Derek apparently joked to his roommate Paul by saying, "What did you do to her?" Weird, weird joke, Derek. And Derek claims Paul responded by saying, "She's at my house, having lunch with my mom." A weird way of saying that he, I guess, got lucky. Paul's parents had legally separated about two months before Chris and disappeared. They both had their own home, but Paul's mother Susan would occasionally stay at her soon-to-be ex-husband's Rubens house. And when Paul wasn't at school, he would also choose to stay at his father Rubens home. Unfortunately, at this time, police apparently did not know that Paul's parents had two separate homes. So when Paul said during that one interrogation that he had to clean concrete at his mother's house, police did not know that he was talking about a totally different house. So on July 22, 1996, they brought a search warrant to the home of Rubens Flores at this point they did not search the home of Susan Flores. And this search was not an extensive one by any means. They did not bring a forensic team or cadaver dogs or anything like that. This was more of a visual search. Just looking around to see if there was anything weird on the property. They also chose not to search any of the vehicles that were on the property, which might have been a misstep, for sure. Rubens also had an avocado grove on his property that was at least one, but could have been two acres of land that police also chose not to search. In this search investigation, they did not find anything conclusively damning, but they did find something very, very odd, multiple newspaper clippings about Christmas, smarts, disappearance in different parts of the home. One was located in Rubens kitchen and more were found under the mattresses of Rubens Flores and Paul Flores, which is like serial killer behavior again, right? That's totally weird. It's like, like it's a trophy. Like I said, even though Paul's parents were legally separated, his mother, Susan, would still occasionally spend the night at our soon to be ex-husband Rubens' home. And she was actually staying over at Rubens' home during Memorial Day weekend, the weekend that Christmas smart disappeared. According to one of Susan Flores' co-workers, Susan was really annoyed with Rubens during the Memorial Day weekend. Apparently, in the middle of the night, Rubens got a phone call. And then he left. He left for the night and didn't come back for several hours. I worked with her and she shared with me that Rubens in the middle of the night had gotten a phone call and he just, you know, took off and she was very puzzled by that. And when he later did return, he returned with her son Paul, who now had a black eye and when Susan asked Paul why he had a black eye, he told her that he couldn't remember but remember he later claims to remember how he got it. And Susan had a feeling that Rubens and Paul were keeping something from her, but whatever that is is very likely that she knows what it is now. During that summer, Susan started planning to rent out her home to a very nice young family. Mary and Joe Lasseter and their young son. Mary and Joe Lasseter were really excited about renting out Susan Flores's home because it was actually the house right next to Mary's mother's home. And all three of them also all worked at the same place so they could carpool and it just all seemed perfect. They moved in on October 1st, 1996, with a few months after Chris and Smart disappeared. And when they moved there, there was a metal trash can in the yard. Susan gave them a strict order not to touch the trash can, don't go near the trash can, don't throw anything away in the trash can. And Rubens came over the next day and he went and he picked it up. The Lasseter's definitely thought it was weird for people to be so weird about a trash can and have such strict rules surrounding a trash can, but they tried not to think much about it. And at this point, they didn't know anything about this family's link, their new landlord's link, to a missing person's case. But they really started to realize that there was something going on with this house and this family. After they moved in, they started receiving threatening notes in their mailbox, obviously directed at Paul's parents, telling them to come forward and to stop covering up for their son. One day, while cleaning out her trash can, Mary Lasseter found a silver and turquoise earring in the driveway that was apparently right where that mysterious trash can once stood. And on the back of the earring, there appeared to be a reddish, brownish smudge that possibly might have looked like blood. She held onto this earring for a little bit. She put in a little plastic bag, but later handed it over to investigators when investigators came to ask them a few questions about living in Susan Flores's home. By this point, Paul and his family members completely stopped cooperating with investigators. So the investigators called a grand jury, so Paul and his family would have to appear for a deposition and answer questions under oath. This was all four members of the Flores family, so Paul, both of his parents and his older sister. During the deposition, Paul's family answered every question that was asked to them. Although there was some sketchy stuff surrounding the family's vehicles, Rubin got caught in quite a few lies about which of his family members drove each of the cars. Like he claimed that Paul never drove a Nissan truck that the family owned, even though pretty much every single person that ever saw Paul knew that that was the vehicle that he drove. It was like the only vehicle that he drove any time he went to his part-time job, and that was the car that he also brought with him to college. Unfortunately, this questioning happened after Rubin sold his truck, which was a Ford Ranger, and after Paul's Nissan was reported stolen. So coincidentally, at this point, both of their trucks are gone. But when it was Paul's turn, Paul's car was stolen. to answer questions for his deposition under oath, Paul pled the fifth to each and every single question. Let's start asking the questions. Did you report your 85 Nissan trucks stolen in San Diego recently? On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on the fifth amendment of the United States Constitution. In May of '96, were you a student at Cal Poly? Please provide me with the employment positions that you have held since you started high school. Are you presently employed? Where do you presently reside? Where did you attend high school? What is the name of your father? What is your mother's name? What is your sister's name? Paul Flores chose to drop out of Cal Poly after Kristen Smart disappeared and instead enrolled in the Navy. The Smart family felt like it was Paul trying to escape the investigation by leaving the country. So they filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores to keep him from being able to leave the country, but he ended up being rejected by the Navy anyway. But this lawsuit gave Kristen's family a lot of information that they did not know. And a lot of that information came from Susan Flores' new tenants, Mary and Joe Lasseter. This was the first time that Kristen Smart's family heard that an earring was found and given to investigators with possibly blood on it. The Smart's asked to see this earring to see if maybe they could identify it as one that their daughter would wear, but after requesting to see it for over a month, the police department admitted that they had lost the earring. Unfortunately they also claimed they only did a visual inspection of the earring, so no forensic test was done to see if the red smudge on the earring was blood. And they just decided that the earring was not relevant to Kristen Smart's disappearance. But Mary Lasseter really wanted to help Kristen's parents, so she started searching high and low to see if she could buy an earring that was similar to the one that she found, and she actually did buy one that she said was nearly identical to the one she found in Susan Flores' driveway. Interesting thing about this earring that she ends up buying, it matches almost exactly to the necklace that Kristen Smart is wearing in her missing person's poster. And this wasn't the only insane information that the Lasseter's had to share. So in the backyard of Susan Flores, that the Lasseter's been out renting, there were multiple planter boxes. A few of these planter boxes were a bit smaller, but the largest one was over 6 feet, 6 feet, okay, long, and about 3 feet wide. Mary and Jolasseter tried to plant flowers and all of the planter boxes, but the ones that they planted in the largest box, they all died, no matter what they did. So they inspected the soil to see if there was something wrong with that, and they found that there was a concrete slab underneath the dirt in only that planter box. Which is absolutely bizarre. I've done some gardening in my life, and because, you know, it's a new skill, I've searched the internet for gardening tips. And I've never seen any gardening tips suggest pouring concrete where you plan to plant flowers, because obviously roots can't grow. If you put concrete a few feet down from where the flowers are supposed to grow, I mean, it's absolutely bizarre. It's also really bizarre that it's only in the planter box, the concrete's only in the planter box that is about human size. According to neighbors of Susan Flores, there was a lot going on in that backyard shortly after Kristen Smart disappeared. They confirmed that those planter boxes weren't there before Kristen Smart disappeared, and were put there. In the summer of 1996, right after Kristen Smart disappeared. Neighbors also said that they saw Paul and Ruben digging in the backyard for five hours in the middle of the night, and then buried something that looked like it was rolled in carpet and then poured down concrete, and then they built a garage on top of where they dug and poured concrete. And this seemed to be backed up by Paul Flores' own questioning where he said he had to leave, and he was super anxious because he had to go help his mom with some concrete at her house. The lacitors also reported something else strange that would happen every single night after they moved in to Susan Flores' home. They were called, being woken up every single night, at 4.20 a.m. to the sound of a watch alarm going off. And they would wake up so easily because the sound was coming from outside their bedroom window right where those planter boxes were. And this is a very dark fact, very disturbing thought that think about, considering that if you remember, Kristen Smart used to have to wake up around 4.24.30 a.m. to go to the pool for her lifeguard job at 5.00 a.m. So it's very possible that that alarm they heard every single night that would wake them up was Kristen Smart's watch alarm going off. And either her watch, or maybe even Kristen Smart wearing her watch, is buried in that backyard. Eventually the sound did stop and they thought that it was just the fact that the batteries died in the watch. When Susan Flores found out that her tenants were talking to the police and talking to Kristen Smart's parents, she got really mad and actually evicted them from her home. But legally the placeters had 30 days to vacate the property. So they used those 30 days to let Kristen Smart's family and the police into the home without a search warrant because they're the legal tenants to do whatever kind of searches or tests they wanted to do in Susan Flores' backyard. On March 3rd, a whole team came in and performed a grand penetrating sweep of the backyard. They found several anomalies in the area where Paul and Ruben allegedly buried something and built a garage on top, but the results were inconclusive. They also did note that there was a large dirt stain up against the house that looked like dirt was hiled up against the house like a hole was dug for some reason. After evicting Mary and Joe Lasseter, Susan Flores moved back into her home and never once rented it out again and despite decades of people showing up to her home, yelling as they drive by and receiving harassing and threatening letters, Susan Flores has never left that house. And it seems kind of strange to subject yourself to all of that if you didn't have something to hide. And then in the year 2000, the FBI got involved into Kristen Smart's disappearance and they definitely thought that it was possible that Kristen Smart was buried in Susan Flores' backyard. On June 19th of that year, they once again showed up to Susan Flores' home this time with a search warrant and with more advanced ground penetrating radar, but once again, the results were inconclusive. A gentleman named Dennis Mann, who refers to himself as like a citizen detective, which is pretty similar, I believe to a PI, followed the Kristen Smart case for many, many years and he started working the case independently because he became so obsessed with finding out the truth. He alleges that he asked investigators why they didn't dig up Susan's backyard, specifically dig up the concrete that was poured in her backyard. And he claims that a investigator told him that a group of investigators all voted whether or not they should dig up Susan's backyard and they voted that it was not worth it because it would cost too much to replace all the concrete and cost too much of damages if they didn't find anything. They would, of course, deny ever saying this, but it really does seem like it all comes back to money why they haven't dug up her backyard yet, but they claim they just haven't gotten clearances to allow them to do that. On May 25th of the year 2002, Kristen Denise Smart was legally declared dead. Her family continued to pay for billboards so people won't forget about their daughter as they continued to fight for justice and for answers and to bring their daughter home for a proper burial. One of these billboards was right down the street from where Susan Flores lives. so her community will also not forget Kristen. In 2011, a new sheriff was elected named Ian Partisan, who said he was determined to find answers in Kristen Smart's case. So there was this new resurgence of hope that the ball would start moving in Kristen Smart's case again, but it would be five years later in 2016 that more searches were done, but these were huge searches. And they were done in and around the Cal Poly campus, but news really slowed down after that. It doesn't seem like they found anything. There's a very important man in this case that we have to talk about it. It's a man that fell down the Kristen Smart rabbit hole and has been fighting for her and her family ever since. Chris Lambert, a musician who grew up in the Orkin, California area, was only eight years old when Kristen Smart disappeared, but he grew up constantly seeing billboards about her disappearance. One day while Chris Lambert was at home, falling down different Wikipedia page rabbit holes, he randomly thought about this girl he always saw on this billboard and her case and her disappearance and he was interested if they ever found her. And he was shocked, researching her case and quickly became obsessed with Kristen Smart's case. And he was even more shocked that no one seemed to be talking about her case at this point because it was not that well known at this point. And that no documentaries have been made about the Kristen Smart case. So Chris Lambert spent the next year and a half researching everything there was to know about Kristen Smart's disappearance. And because he was local to the area, he could actually speak with a bunch of people directly linked to the case. He started his own True Crime podcast in 2019 that is all about just the Kristen Smart case called your own backyard. There's a very good chance that if you're into true crime and into true crime podcasts that you have at least heard of this podcast. He originally planned for the podcast to be six episodes but has since grown to I believe 26 episodes. And it's very likely that at least another episode will be coming shortly. And each of those first original six episodes have over one million plays on Spotify. So this is definitely a very popular true crime podcast. And in the podcast, he has interviewed almost every single person with any connection to this case or connections to major players in this case. And as the podcast grew in popularity, even more and more people started reaching out to him with more and more tips. Tips that the actual investigators on Kristen Smart's case hadn't even heard before. There were also a bunch of women that came forward to Chris and tell their stories about what happened to them at the hands of Paul Flores. One woman named Lisa said during the spring of 1996, at the exact same time that Kristen disappeared, she went to a party at Cal Poly where she claims to have seen Paul Flores run out of the bathroom of this house party frantically screaming that a girl needed help. When Lisa went into the bathroom, she saw a girl passed out on the bathroom floor with her pants and her underwear pulled it down. She was foaming from the mouth and she was throwing up which are key signs that someone has been drugged with a daybreak drug. Lisa believes that Paul Flores had drugged this girl and sexually assaulted her but freaked out and panicked when he saw her foaming from the mouth and throwing up. At the time, all she knew about this boy was that he was a blonde guy with a noticeable stutter and that he was not invited to the party. It wasn't until a few months later that she saw the news about Kristen Smart's appearance and saw Paul Flores's photo that she knew that Paul was the guy from that Cal Poly party. More women have also come forward and have spoke with Chris Lambert for the your own backyard podcast and they all have the exact same story about Paul Flores. That between 1998 and the year 2018, they were drugged and sexually assaulted by Paul Flores. One of these girls remembers being drugged by him and that he put a red ball gag in her mouth. All of these women agreed without a doubt that Paul Flores was capable of murder. So by 2019, when this podcast came out, all of the investigators on the case were listening to this true crime podcast to learn more about Kristen Smart's case and we're learning stuff about their own investigation from a true crime podcast. One of Susan Flores' close friends reached out the Chris after this podcast are becoming super popular to tell him that Susan was obsessed with his podcast and was also stalking different support groups for Kristen Smart and her family to see what people were saying about her family and her son. So since someone's now a very popular true crime podcast about the Kristen Smart case and someone connected to the investigation has come forward and said they are obsessively listening to the podcast so they know what the podcast in 2019 a new lead detective named detective Cole was put on the Kristen Smart case and they made a big move. They wire tapped each of the four Flores family members phones since the Kristen Smart case had this new podcast and this new huge resurgence of eyes on her case that they were probably talking about it amongst themselves. In January of 2020 Susan Flores called her son Paul and told him that her and his father put away a bunch of money if he ever needed it for illegal defense. Susan also told her son Paul that they all needed to get their stories straight. Susan also said to Paul, quote, "The other thing I need you to do is to start listening to the podcast. I need you to listen to everything they say so we can punch holes in it whatever we can punch holes in. Maybe we can't, you're the only one that can tell me." Also in January of 2020 detective Cole went to Paul's sister's house and gave her an immunity offer. Telled the police what she knows and she will not be held responsible in the court of law. She slammed the door in detective Cole's face. A few days later on January 5th 2020 all four members of the Flores family's homes were searched and all of their electronic devices were seized and they found something very interesting and very disturbing on the computer of Paul Flores. On Paul's computer they found a folder containing hundreds of photos and videos of women that had clearly been drugged and they were being s-aid with red ballgags in their mouth. Evidence that directly correlates the woman that came forward with their stories and allegations against Paul when they were interviewed by Chris Lambert for their own backyard podcasts. And in this photo we're also hundreds of photos and videos of children and these were C. Sam photos and videos. An ex-Rumay of Paul's came forward with a tip to Chris Lambert saying after the February 2020 raids of the entire Flores family homes, Paul told them that Kristen was buried in his parents yard and the stupid police were standing on top of her and didn't find her. There is a six hour gap on Saturday after Kristen was last seen where no one knows where Paul Flores was. This was after Paul was last seen walking Kristen back to her dorm and when he was arrested for failing to appear in court for his DUI. Chris Lambert and the police on Kristen Smart's case have put together a theory of what they believe happened to Kristen Smart. They believe that after Tim and Cheryl departed from the group walking Kristen home, Paul tried to get Kristen into his dorm room which was on the ground floor of his dorm building. She tried to fight him back but it was sadly unsuccessful. Paul drugged her and then gagged her and attempted to sexually assault her on her bed but since she was drugged and gagged it is believed that Kristen Smart started to throw up and then she choked to death. Sometimes when people tell a lie they sprinkle in bits of the truth. During Paul's first interrogation with police he said after dropping Kristen off at her building he had to take a shower because he was covered in vomit. Chris Lambert and the police believed that they have evidence that after Kristen died Paul panicked and he ran over to his sister's home that was conveniently very close to the Cal Poly campus and there he took a shower because he was covered in Kristen's vomit and they believe that it was Paul's sister that called their father Ruben in the middle of the night having him come off to campus which was the phone call that really upset Susan that Ruben took in the middle of the night and then left. Ruben and Paul then pulled Paul's Nissan truck up to the side of his dorm room and then wrapped Kristen's body in bedsheets and got her out of Paul's dorm through the window and into his truck. This was a similar method that many witnesses saw Paul use to get surfboards and other things out of his dorm room during the school year. He would pull his truck up to the side and then take it out through the window. They then believed that Ruben and Paul hid Kristen's body possibly at Susan's home for some time but it was later moved to Ruben's home under Ruben's deck and then after the February 2020 raids Kristen's body was moved yet again by Ruben, Susan and Susan's boyfriend Mike and they believe this because after the February 2020 raids, neighbors of Ruben's reported that Ruben, Susan and Mike were doing a bunch of stuff under Ruben's deck but Mike pulled his trailer in front of the deck blocking anyone's view of what they were doing. On March 13, 2021, police returned to Ruben's home yet again with a search warrant and this time they brought an entire team and although they did not find Kristen's body, a lot of soil samples were taken and tested and tested positive for human blood and evidence of a human burial site. They also found fabric fibers in the soil that matched what Kristen was wearing the night that she went missing. They believed that Kristen was once buried there but had been dug up and removed. They also believed that Luminol confirmed that Mike's trailer that was still parked on Rubens' property was used to transport Kristen's body. I remember exactly where I was when I got the news on April 13th, 2021 that both Paul Flores and his father Ruben Flores had been arrested. Now 44 and 80 years old. Paul Flores was arrested for the murder of Kristen Smart and his father Ruben was arrested as an accessory after the fact. On July 18th, 2022, their trial began. They had a trial together but they had separate juries. The prosecution's opening statement in the trial was a reference to the scheduled Sunday night phone calls that Kristen Smart had with her parents. 1,359. That's the number of Saturdays I have passed since Kristen spoke with her family. They then told the jury their theory about what they believe happened to Kristen Smart. They also had many witnesses that testified that the fact that Paul said that he did not know Kristen Smart before she disappeared was a total lie. They actually had multiple witnesses testify that Paul was stalking Kristen for several weeks before she went missing. They also had multiple witnesses from the party testify that even though Kristen Smart seemed belligerently drunk within one hour of arriving at the party, no one could testify to seeing her consume any alcohol. So they believe somehow Paul drugged Kristen at that party because he planned to assault her that night that the entire thing was completely planned. The defense's only defense was that all the evidence against the Flores family was part of a widespread conspiracy to convict them of something they did not do. They also made sure to sprinkle in a bunch of victim blaming and victim shaming directly at Kristen Smart blaming her for her own disappearance because she went to a college party and was wearing a crop top. The trial lasted 10 long weeks and then on October 18th 2022, a day I also remember very vividly the jury came back with their verdict. They found Ruben Flores not guilty but they found Paul Flores guilty of the first degree murder of Kristen Smart. More than 26 years after Kristen Smart disappeared there was finally justice. You're continued predatory behavior in the years that you were free, disolving women who were either drugged or intoxicated to the point where they could not consent. This predatory behavior has spanned your adult life. It is necessary to remove you from society so that you can no longer prey on and victimize women. You deserve to spend every day you have left behind bars. You are committed to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation as to count one, a violation of penal code section 187a, murder in the first degree, to the maximum sentence that I can impose by law, an indeterminate term of 25 years to life. Paul Flores was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and I truly believe that if it wasn't for Chris Lambert and his podcast that Paul Flores would not be in prison today. In 2023 and 2024, while behind bars, Paul Flores was attacked and stabbed by other inmates. In August of 2023, his neck and throat were both cut by an inmate and in April of 2024, he was stabbed in the wreck yard but he survived both of these attacks. But unfortunately the fight is not over because we still do not know where Kristen's smart is. And then very recently, I'm sure a lot of you guys saw this on Wednesday, May 6, 26. Police arrived once again at the home of Susan Flores again with a search warrant. They searched her home for three days before the search abruptly ended. Once again, just like at the home of her ex-husband, the soil at Susan Flores's home was also tested. And those tests resulted in evidence of decomposing human remains. They actually said that the evidence was, quote, "very strong in one specific area of the property." But at this time, they still have not found Kristen's smart body. Other than these updates, investigators have been very tight-lipped about what is coming next. It is unknown what other evidence they might have uncovered or what they plan to do next. But it's really important to remember that after that last search of Ruben's home, that search was also abruptly ended and shortly later arrests did come. So it's very, very possible that we might see more charges in this case. And it's very possible that if that does happen, that plea deals might be on the table that will bring information and will bring Kristen's smart home. In 10 days from the date of upload, it will be 30 long years since Kristen's smart disappeared. And I really hope it doesn't take another 30 years to bring Kristen's smart home so she can have a proper burial. This is a case I feel very strongly about. It's a case I have personally been researching and following for the last 10 years, which is just one-third of how long her parents have had to suffer. My heart truly, truly goes out to them. I'm really interested to hear all your thoughts, theories, and opinions in the comments. But while you're there, please always remember to be respectful. Kristen's smart family members are online. They do seek out people's coverages on Kristen's smart's case. So it's very possible that someone that knew and loved Kristen's smart in real life could be in the comments reading your comments. So please always remember to be respectful. And that's all I have for this week's investigation. And I will see you guys all next Friday when we are hot in the the case once again.