Disappearance of Kristin Smart

On January 18, 2020, the Stockton Record reported that the FBI informed Smart's family that additional news about her disappearance would be coming and that the family "might want to get away for a while" but did not provide any specific information. However, on January 22, 2020, The Record issued a correction: the FBI did not contact the Smart family; rather, a retired FBI agent who had been in contact with the family for years was the source of the advice. On January 29, the San Luis Obispo police department confirmed that two trucks owned by Flores had been taken in as evidence. On February 5, 2020, search warrants were served for "specific items of evidence" at four different locations – two in San Luis Obispo, one in Washington state, and at a home in Los Angeles County. Flores was briefly detained during the search.

On April 22, 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported that a search warrant was served at the home of Paul Flores in San Pedro, California. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department assisted detectives from San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Department in the search.

Smart's disappearance remains an unsolved case, although compelling evidence was discovered that points to Paul Flores knowing what happened to her. Although her body was never discovered, Smart’s bloody earring was found by a tenant at the former residence of Paul Flores’s mother. This earring has since been lost by the police. Between 1996 and 2007, various searches for her remains and other evidence were conducted, some using police dogs trained to detect the scent of human remains, including searches of properties owned by the Flores family. No useful leads were found for nearly two decades.

Beginning September 30, 2019, Chris Lambert released a series of seven podcast episodes. The podcast recounts, in detail, the publicly available information about Kristin's abduction and subsequent death at the hands of another student on the campus of California Polytechnic State University over 23 years ago. The podcast was downloaded over two million times in its first 4 months. Renewed public interest led to a new billboard being put up in Arroyo Grande in January 2020 to replace the original, which had been up since 1997.

On September 6, 2016, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff Department reported it had received information about the possible location of Smart's remains, resulting in a hillside excavation on the Cal Poly campus. After five days of digging, bones were recovered from at least one excavation site. However, it was initially unclear if the findings were animal or human, and forensic analysis may take months to determine.

On September 6, 2016, officials from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced they were investigating a new lead in the case. Cadaver dogs from the FBI were brought in and investigators were preparing to spend approximately four days excavating an area on the Cal Poly campus. After three days, items were found at all three dig sites located on the same hillside near Smart's dorm. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said, "The items are being analyzed to see whether they are connected to the case, which could take days, weeks or months". The items uncovered are still being investigated as of 2020.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office still reviews the case regularly, having spent thousands of hours and dollars in the last five years (2011–2016). The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a Delta-area man, offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body.

Smart was declared legally dead on May 25, 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance. Her parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case of wrongful death against Flores, one of the three students who walked Smart to her dorm, in 2005. Flores has denied any involvement in the disappearance. The Flores family had also filed a lawsuit against the Smart family for emotional distress.

Smart's disappearance and slow response by the campus police resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act being written and sponsored by State Senator Mike Thompson, passed 61–0 by the California State Legislature, and signed into effect by then-Governor Pete Wilson on August 19, 1998. The law took effect on January 1, 1999, and requires all public colleges and publicly funded educational institutions to have their security services make agreements with local police departments about reporting cases involving or possibly involving violence against students, including missing students.

Smart was enrolled at California Polytechnic State University, or Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, California. On the night she disappeared, which fell on Memorial Day weekend, Smart attended a birthday party for a fellow student. At approximately 2:00 a.m. on May 25, 1996, she was found passed out on a neighbor's lawn by two fellow students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, who both had just left the party. They helped Smart to her feet and decided to walk her back to her nearby dormitory. Another student from the party, Paul Flores, joined their group and offered to help the two return Smart to her dorm room safely.

Kristin Denise Smart (born February 20, 1977, legally presumed dead May 25, 2002) is an American woman who is presumed to have been abducted and killed at the end of her freshman year of college, May 25, 1996, on the campus of California Polytechnic State University. Three fellow students escorted Smart back to her hall of residence after an off-campus party. Her death is an actively investigated missing person case.

Kristin Denise Smart was born February 20, 1977, in Augsburg, Germany, to Stan and Denise Smart, both teachers. She had one brother and one sister. Smart's family relocated to the United States during her childhood, where she was raised in Stockton, California.