Killer Finally Convicted in Cold Case That Has Haunted California
After 25 years of mystery surrounding the disappearance of Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student who went missing after a party, a jury on Tuesday finally convicted a man of killing her.
Paul Flores, now 45, was convicted of her murder, while the fate of his father, 81-year-old Ruben Flores, who is accused of helping his son hide Smart’s body, will be read later Tuesday by a separate jury.
Tuesday’s decision puts to rest two-and-a-half decades of speculation into what happened to Smart, who was last seen alive as she walked alongside Paul Flores by university residence halls on May 25, 1996, after a Memorial Day weekend party where the teen became “incapacitated” by something she drank.