KRISTIN SMART KILLER CONVICTED
CASES UPDATE
Aformer classmate of US teenager Kristin Smart has been convicted of her murder after 26 years. Paul Flores – who went to the same college as 19-year-old Kristin – was found guilty at trial last month, where jurors heard that Kristin most likely died during an attempted rape. Flores’ father Ruben was acquitted of helping his son cover up the crime by concealing Kristin’s body in the garden of their home.
Kristin was last seen leaving a campus party at California Polytechnic State University, where both she and Flores were students, on 25 May 1996. Witnesses saw her being escorted away by Flores, and it is believed she died in his dorm room later that night as he tried to sexually assault the intoxicated teenager. Kristin’s remains were never found, and she was declared legally dead in 2002, six years after her disappearance.
Flores was questioned at the time, but investigators had little to go on, and he was not charged. Over the years, police continued to search for evidence, and in March 2021, found blood and disturbed soil at the home of Ruben Flores. It was alleged that Kristin had been buried there, then moved, and both father and son were arrested the next month. Although investigators were unable to get DNA from the blood, the case continued and both men went on trial in July this year. Last month, all 12 jurors at Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas found Flores, now 45, guilty of murder. Ruben, 81, was acquitted of being an accessory after the fact.
Speaking at a press conference after the verdict was announced, Kristin’s father Stan said, “This has been an agonisingly long journey with more downs than ups. Without Kristin, there is no joy or happiness in this verdict.” Flores is due to be sentenced in December.