Search of Paul Flores family home uncovers possible remains in Kristin Smart case

Nearly 26 years after Kristin Smart vanished, investigators returned to a key Flores family property with a search warrant and came away with evidence that suggests human remains were once present at the home. The question that still hangs over the case is the one true-crime readers keep coming back to: whether this latest break finally moves authorities closer to recovering Smart’s remains.

On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office searched the Arroyo Grande home in the 500 block of East Branch Street, a property tied to Susan Flores, the 80-year-old mother of convicted killer Paul Flores. Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday that the evidence recovered during the search points to human remains having been present at the property at one time, although investigators cannot yet say those remains were Kristin Smart’s. During the search, scientists specializing in human decomposition and soil testing took samples from the site.

The home has been part of the Smart investigation for decades. Parkinson said the same location was searched with ground-penetrating radar in 1996, but he stressed that the technology available now is far more advanced. That matters in a case where even small forensic gains can reset expectations, especially after nearly three decades of dead ends, tips, searches, and public pressure.

Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996, after attending an off-campus party near Cal Poly’s San Luis Obispo campus. She was 19, a freshman at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and Paul Flores was long regarded as the prime suspect because he was believed to be the last person seen with her. Flores was convicted in 2022 of first-degree murder and sentenced in March 2023 to 25 years to life in prison. His father, Ruben Flores, was acquitted of charges that he helped hide Smart’s body.

The latest search also lands against the backdrop of the family’s push for answers. In June 2024, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Jennifer O’Keefe ordered Paul Flores to pay just over $350,000 in restitution to Smart’s family for travel, a private investigator, billboards seeking information, lost wages, and a celebration of life gathering. Denise Smart has said the family would forgo the money if Flores disclosed where Kristin’s body is. That offer, and Flores’ refusal, has become one of the case’s most painful unresolved threads.

Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said after the 2022 verdict that Kristin Smart’s disappearance remains a tragic part of the university’s history and that the community hoped the ruling would bring some comfort and resolution to her family. For now, authorities say the search remains part of an ongoing investigation, and they remain committed to bringing Kristin home.