Who is Paul Flores? Here’s the ‘person of interest’ in Kristin Smart missing person case

In the ongoing missing person case of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart, he’s called a “person of interest.”

But to many law enforcement officials involved over the years — including the former San Luis Obispo County sheriff once leading the investigation — Paul Flores is known as the only suspect in the young woman’s disappearance, more than 20 years ago.

“There are no other suspects,” then-Sheriff Ed Williams said in 1997.

Flores, now 43, was the last person seen with Smart on an early morning in 1996 as he reportedly walked Smart back to her dorm room following a house party.

Flores has refused to cooperate with authorities since an initial interview with investigators at the time of Smart’s disappearance.

He did not reveal details in a 1996 appearance before a San Luis Obispo grand jury, nor a 1997 deposition in which he repeatedly cited his right against self-incrimination, according to Tribune archives.

On Wednesday, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office announced that it and other law enforcement agencies were serving search warrants at two locations in San Luis Obispo County, one in Los Angeles County, and another location in Washington state.

Representatives of the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI searched the home of Flores’ mother, Susan Flores, on East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande on Wednesday morning. Investigators were seen loading various items, including what appeared to be a computer, into a van.

Also on Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies served a search warrant at Paul Flores’ San Pedro home in the 900 block of West Upland Avenue, where public records show he has lived since 2010.

Deputies also searched two “vintage vehicles,” the Associated Press reported, and several electronic items were taken from the San Pedro home.

Flores was briefly detained by authorities while the warrant was served, according to San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla.

A KNX1070 Radio reporter captured video of Flores speaking with sheriff’s deputies outside of a cruiser and going over what appears to be the warrant to search the San Pedro home.

Flores was released to re-enter the home following the search, according to news reports.

It was unclear Wednesday which other San Luis Obispo County property was searched, or exactly where the Washington warrant was served.

Wednesday’s searches were the latest in a string of new or newly announced developments in the case that has mystified San Luis Obispo County for more than two decades.

Officials with the Sheriff’s Office have historically been tight-lipped about progress in the case.

But a podcast created Orcutt resident Chris Lambert, “Your Own Backyard,” has sparked newfound widespread interest in Smart’s disappearance since its release in September 2019.

Over the past two months, the Sheriff’s Office has disclosed new details “in response to the large number of recent public inquiries.”

On Jan. 29, the agency announced it had taken two trucks into evidence that belonged to members of the family of Paul Flores in 1996.

Since 2011, the Sheriff’s Office said, it has served 18 search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches at nine locations, submitted 37 evidence items from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing, recovered 140 new items of evidence, conducted 91 in-person interviews and written 364 supplemental reports.

Who was the last person to see Kristin Smart alive?

Kristin Smart was last seen leaving a house party at 135 Crandall Way near the Cal Poly campus about 2 a.m. May 25, 1996, with Paul Flores and Cheryl Anderson.

Each had been drinking at a Memorial Day weekend house party, and Smart and Flores by all accounts appeared in good spirits.

Anderson later told investigators that she left Smart with Flores at the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue, and continued to her dorm at Sierra Madre Hall.

Smart was to walk back to her Muir Hall dorm, and Flores later told police the two parted ways near his room at Santa Lucia Hall.

On May 27, 1996, Jennifer Phillips, a friend of Smart’s at Muir Hall, reported Smart missing to the Cal Poly University Police Department.

That agency didn’t take a report at the time, and Phillips then contacted the San Luis Obispo Police Department. That agency did take a report, but referred Phillips back to campus police.

Police, DA’s Office question Cal Poly student

Flores was first interviewed by Cal Poly police investigators Ray Barrett and Mike Kennedy on May 30, 1996, the same day the first of several organized searches was conducted on and around the campus.

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office stepped in with two investigators, Bill Hanley and Larry Hobson, who interviewed Flores at the University Police Department.

It wasn’t until June 5, 1996, that Kennedy searched Smart’s dorm room. Five days later, on June 10, 1996, he searched Flores’ room.

By that time, the academic quarter had ended and Flores had moved all of his belongings out of the room.

More than two weeks had passed since Smart disappeared.

On June 19, Hanley and Hobson again interviewed Flores at the Arroyo Grande Police Department.

In the taped interview, Flores admitted to previously lying to investigators when he told them he received a black eye playing basketball. He reportedly told investigators he received the injury while fixing his truck, then abruptly ended the interview and refused to answer any more questions.

After a month of investigation and amid criticism from the Smart family and their supporters, University Police Chief Tom Mitchell formally requested the help of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. Then-Sheriff Ed Williams agreed and took over the case.

Over the weekend of June 29, 1996, about 400 volunteers turned out for a large-scale search of the campus.

Dogs used to search for human remains were also brought in, with four of those independently alerting investigators to Flores’ dorm room — specifically to his stripped mattress.

Investigators then searched Flores’ parents’ Arroyo Grande home, which yielded no clues.

In an unusual move, District Attorney’s Office in October 1996 issued subpoenas for eight people to testify before the county grand jury in Smart’s disappearance. Paul Flores was among those called to testify, as were his parents, Susan and Ruben Flores.

Paul Flores’ confidential testimony lasted about five minutes before he exited the chambers, according to Tribune archives.

Paul Flores sued by family of missing woman

The Smarts filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in November 1996, alleging that Flores murdered Kristin on the Cal Poly campus. The Smarts later added Cal Poly to the lawsuit, alleging the university failed to keep their daughter safe.

During a 1997 deposition for that lawsuit, Paul Flores repeatedly cited the Fifth Amendment when declining to comment.

That lawsuit remains in legal limbo. Subpoenas filed by Murphy have sought the entire Sheriff’s Office investigative report in the criminal case, including interviews with witnesses and Flores, physical evidence, all internal memos and forensic reports.

But those records, necessary to prove the case, remain confidential as the criminal investigation continues.

In response to the Smart family’s lawsuit, Flores’ attorneys in previous filings argued that Smart’s own negligence contributed to her disappearance and that the Smarts “had no facts in support of their contention (that the) defendant caused the death of their daughter,” according to court records.

Arroyo Grande attorney Jim Murphy, representing the Smart family in their lawsuit, says proof of Flores’ civil liability is contained within the Sheriff’s Office records but he and his clients can’t access them, he told The Tribune days before the 20th anniversary of Kristin Smart’s disappearance in May 2016.

Each year, a court hearing in the civil case is held in which a representative from the county will tell the judge that the criminal case remains ongoing, and records requested by the family must remain confidential.

“I would hope there would be a break in the criminal case, but I would like to hold (Flores) accountable civilly,” Murphy said in 2016. “In civil law it’s what’s reasonable based on a preponderance of the evidence, not within a reasonable doubt as in criminal cases. Here, I believe there’s enough circumstantial evidence to prove to a civil jury that Flores is responsible for Kristin’s death.”

Smart was declared presumed dead in 2002.

But she remains a missing person in the eyes of the Sheriff’s Office.