Susan Flores should do what’s right and allow search for Kristin Smart’s remains | Opinion

Imagine the pain of not only having a beloved child taken from you by an act of violence but also waiting nearly three decades for your loved one’s remains to be found.

That is what life has been like for Stan and Denise Smart, the parents of murdered Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, who disappeared from campus on May 25, 1996.

Now, a new scientific technique may shed light on what happened to Kristin’s remains.

Multiple analyses of soil vapors near the backyard belonging to the mother of convicted killer Paul Flores indicated the presence of human decomposition molecules. The testing was conducted on a next-door neighbor’s property, near a fence that separates the two homes.

But will investigators ever be able to dig for Smart’s remains at Susan Flores’ property, located on East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande?

Search warrant needed

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office has said it can’t comment on the case because it’s on appeal and is still considered an active investigation.

However, Sheriff’s Det. Greg Smith told The Tribune that he’s looking into the science of the soil analysis.

“My job is to either validate what they’re saying or find another expert to say that what they’re doing is correct or what they’re doing is sound science or not,” he said. “And that’s where we are in the process.”

The Smart family has not made a public appeal for another search of Flores’ yard, though they offered this comment via text to a Tribune reporter: “We long to lie her to rest in the presence of those who love and cherish her along with those who continue to work to this day to bring her home. Our hope is that NO stone will be left unturned!”

Legal experts contacted by Tribune reporter Chloe Jones said that judges are generally inclined to grant search warrants requested by law enforcement, though one cautioned that since there has already been a conviction, a judge may be reluctant to issue a warrant.

“It’s an already solved crime with a conviction,” said Loyola Marymount University Law School professor Stanley Goldman. “It may be that judges aren’t as flexible when it comes to matters that are not themselves still under investigation in terms of the criminality of it.”

Yet criminality should not be the sole concern; if we’re to do right by victims and their families, recovery of missing remains should also be a high priority.

At this point, though, It’s safe to say there will be no digging — and no answers — anytime soon.

Unless, that is, Susan Flores were to preemptively agree to a search.

‘If it was my daughter, I’d want the answers’

Yes, it’s more than a long shot — so much so that it may appear foolish to even suggest it.

But if Susan Flores truly believes her son is innocent — and if the entire family knows nothing about what happened to Kristin, as she has said — she would welcome a search of her property.

Susan Flores has not been talking to the media. When Jones went to her home to give her the opportunity to respond to this latest development, Flores’ boyfriend threatened to call police.

Yet in a rare interview Flores gave to KSBY News in March 2021, she said, “I would like to see the family have their answers. If it was my daughter, I’d want the answers.”

In that same interview, she denied the Flores family — including son Paul — had anything to do with Smart’s disappearance from the Cal Poly campus.

“We have no responsibility in her disappearance or (in) what happened to that young woman. No. And I’ve said it in the court of law,” she said then.

Yet Paul Flores was convicted of first-degree murder on Oct. 18, 2022, and later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

His father, Ruben Flores, was found not guilty of being an accessory after the fact. He was accused of helping to hide Smart’s body, which was believed to have been buried under the deck of Ruben Flores’ home on White Court and later moved. (During the trial an expert witness testified that human blood was found under the deck.)

Parents’ lawsuit: Kristin Smart’s body was discarded ‘like human garbage’

Smart’s parents, Stan and Denise, filed a civil suit against Ruben Flores in April 2021, accusing him of removing Kristin’s body from beneath the deck “under cover of darkness” and the remains them to another location. Susan Flores and her boyfriend, Mike McConville, were later added to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit describes of not being able to bury their daughter’s body.

“Had Kristin’s remains not been hidden, re-hidden and then moved yet again, it is reasonably likely plaintiffs could have been reunited with the remains of their daughter and would have been permitted the opportunity to conduct a burial service at which their daughter could be laid to rest in a place of honor and dignity, as opposed to the present circumstances where their daughter’s body was discarded like human garbage.”

Prior searches of Susan Flores’ house

The Flores yard on East Branch Street has been searched before — a search in 2000 in connection to the criminal case and a 2007 search for a civil case.

“I let them dig up my yard in 2007. They could have had a field day there,” Flores said in her KSBY interview. They chose (ground-penetrating radar) and did this and did that and found a couple of anomalies and a piece of metal fitting. ... They could have taken out the whole yard, but their insurance wouldn’t pay for it.”

Yet there was never any digging in the location near the fence bordering the neighbor’s property.

That’s also the area where concrete planters were installed in the Flores yard shortly after Smart’s disappearance, fueling speculation that her remains or other evidence, such as clothing, could have been buried there at least temporarily.

Since the news of the soil study, there’s been more chatter on social media, with many posters saying that it’s doubtful that Smart’s remains would be in the yard at this point.

Still, there would be value in ruling out that location, if for no other reason than to allow law enforcement to concentrate on other possibilities, especially since Sheriff Ian Parkinson has vowed that he won’t stop until Kristin Smart’s body has been found.

“There is no true justice until Kristin is reunited with her family. This investigation will not be closed until we find Kristin. This case will not be over until Kristin is returned home,” Parkinson said following Paul Flores’ conviction.

At one time, before her son’s conviction, Susan Flores seemed to sympathize with the Smart family — at least in front of the TV camera.

“I imagine Denise Smart’s a fighter, you know,” said told KSBY. “You know, you’d hate to think that maybe she’s not going to get an answer, but maybe she won’t. Maybe she’s just gonna have to wait. Someday, we’ll all be gone and we’ll be up there with God and she’ll get to see her daughter. I believe that. I believe in the ever after.”

Then she added: “It’s a long time to wait.”

It is, indeed, and if there’s anything Susan Flores can do to bring closure for the Smarts, she should.