The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remains focused on bringing Smart home.
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. — A search at a home connected to the family of convicted murderer Paul Flores ended Saturday without recovering Kristin Smart’s remains, days after officials said soil tests showed possible evidence of human decomposition.
The search brought investigators back to a central question left unresolved after Flores’ conviction: where is Kristin Smart? Smart disappeared in 1996 as a 19-year-old freshman at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Flores was convicted of killing her in 2022, but the trial ended without the recovery of her body.
Deputies served a search warrant May 6 at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, Paul Flores’ mother. The property had drawn attention because scientists had studied soil vapor and other signs that could be tied to decomposition. Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday that testing at the site showed results consistent with human remains. He said investigators had not found Smart, but the work was important to the continuing search.
The Sheriff’s Office later said the search was complete and that Smart’s remains were not found. Officials have not released a full list of items collected, and they have not said whether more searches are planned. Parkinson said the investigation remains active. “We have not discovered Kristin yet, but our search goes on,” he said during the update.
Smart was last seen walking back toward campus after a party over Memorial Day weekend in 1996. Prosecutors said Flores, then a fellow Cal Poly student, was the last person with her and killed her during an attempted rape. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder. He was sentenced in 2023 to 25 years to life in prison. Smart had been declared legally dead more than two decades earlier.
The case has long centered not only on what happened to Smart, but also on what happened to her body. At trial, prosecutors said she had once been buried beneath a deck at Ruben Flores’ home and later moved. Ruben Flores, Paul Flores’ father, was charged with helping hide the body but was acquitted. Susan Flores has not been charged in connection with Smart’s death or disappearance.
The new search came after years of pressure, renewed public attention and fresh investigative work. The podcast “Your Own Backyard” helped revive interest in the case and brought forward witnesses. Law enforcement later reopened parts of the investigation, searched Flores family properties and built a no-body murder case that ended with Paul Flores’ conviction.
For Smart’s family, the latest development brought hope and disappointment at the same time. A statement from the family thanked investigators for continuing the search. Denise Smart has said the family still needs Kristin’s remains returned. The search did not provide that final answer, but it showed that investigators are still pursuing leads nearly three decades after Smart vanished.
No new court hearing or charge has been announced from the Arroyo Grande search. Investigators are expected to review the test results and any evidence collected from the property before deciding what comes next. The Sheriff’s Office said its commitment to finding Smart has not changed.
As of Sunday, the latest search had ended, Paul Flores remained imprisoned, and Smart’s remains were still missing. The next milestone will be any public release from investigators on the testing and evidence review.
Author note: Last updated May 10, 2026.