Sheriff Says Soil Tests Suggest Human Remains At Flores Home

Investigators are back at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores because a new forensic clue may point to a place where Kristin Smart’s remains were once kept. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said soil testing from the property produced results consistent with human decomposition, a development that has intensified scrutiny of the backyard connected to Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing Smart.

The search warrant was served Wednesday, May 6, 2026, and the work was still going into its third day by Friday, May 8, 2026, when Parkinson spoke publicly about the findings. Authorities have not said any remains recovered at the home, if there were any, were Smart’s. Even so, the soil evidence has sharpened a question that has shadowed the case for decades: where Smart’s body was taken after her killing.

Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996, when she was 19 and a freshman at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her body has never been found. The lack of recovery has left one of the most painful gaps in a case that moved from a missing-person search to a murder conviction only after a 25-year investigation.

Paul Flores was arrested in 2021, convicted of first-degree murder in 2022 and sentenced in March 2023 to 25 years to life in prison. His conviction answered the criminal question of who was responsible. It did not answer the physical question that still haunts Smart’s family and the broader community in San Luis Obispo County: what happened to her remains.

That is why the new search carries such weight. Soil testing can preserve traces of decomposition even after a body has been moved, buried, or disturbed, and investigators are again working a property tied to the Flores family as they continue to pursue every lead. Chris Lambert, whose podcast Your Own Backyard helped renew public attention in the case, watched as authorities searched Susan Flores’ home.

For Denise and Stan Smart, and for a region that has followed the case for years, the significance of the latest search lies in what it might still reveal after all this time. The conviction in Paul Flores’ case closed one chapter. The search in Arroyo Grande reflects how cold-case work can continue long after trial, using forensic advances to chase the final unanswered fact in the story of Kristin Smart.