After 30 years, police may finally be close to finding Kristin Smart.
The California college girl who disappeared in 1996 at the age of 19 was declared legally dead in 2002, but it wasn’t until 2022 that a jury convicted Paul Flores of first-degree murder in her case.
Authorities now believe human remains may have been found on the property of Paul’s mother, Susan Flores, in Arroyo Grande, California. Soil testing indicates that human remains are or may have once been on the property, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said at a May 8 press conference.
“We believe that human remains were once there or are still there,” he told reporters. “I won’t go into details about soil testing other than to say it’s about compounds in the soil that are associated with decomposing human bodies.”
Authorities have not determined whether the remains may have been Christine’s.
“I think it’s safe to say we haven’t recovered Christine yet,” the sheriff said. “But our search continues, and we don’t know how long it will be there.”
