Search of Flores family property finds no Kristin Smart remains, sheriff says

Authorities did not recover Kristin Smart’s remains after a search of the Arroyo Grande home tied to Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores, the man convicted of killing Smart in 2022. The result left one of California’s most closely watched murder cases legally resolved but still missing its defining fact: where Kristin Smart is buried.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday that soil tests and other scientific evidence suggested human remains may have been, or still could be, present at the property. Even so, investigators did not recover Smart’s remains and could not say whether any remains found there were hers. The search took place Wednesday, May 6, 2026, and authorities said it was part of the long-running effort to locate Smart’s body, which has never been found.

Investigators used ground-penetrating radar, soil tests and specialists in human decomposition and soil analysis, reflecting forensic tools that were not available in the same form when Smart disappeared. Parkinson said the technology was more advanced than it was in 1996, when Smart vanished after an off-campus party while attending California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. She was declared legally dead in 2002.

The case has remained alive in the public mind in part because of Chris Lambert’s “Your Own Backyard” podcast, which helped draw out additional witnesses and renewed attention on a disappearance that had gone cold for years. Prosecutors had alleged that Paul Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape and that her body may have been buried under a deck at Ruben Flores’ Arroyo Grande home before being moved. Ruben Flores was acquitted of accessory-after-the-fact charges in 2022.

For Smart’s family, the latest search underscored the limits of closure in a case that has already produced a conviction and a 25-years-to-life sentence for Paul Flores. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said it remains committed to bringing Kristin home, and District Attorney Dan Dow said his office has continued working with investigators to use every lawful tool available to locate her remains and support her family. Even after a verdict, the unanswered question of where Kristin Smart ended up still hangs over the case.