New search warrant in Kristin Smart case, decades after 19-year-old disappeared
Nearly 30 years after 19-year-old Kristin Smart disappeared, California investigators conducted new search warrants as part of their ongoing probe into the location of her body.
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced Wednesday that deputies executed a search warrant at the 500 block of East Branch Street.
Sheriff Ian Parkinson told reporters Friday that the search of the premises, which belongs to Susan Flores, the mother of the man convicted in Smart's death, was still ongoing but investigators did not find any remains.
Parkinson said that the house was previously searched in 1996, and the investigators are using new forensic technology, including soil analysis.
"We will dig anywhere the evidence shows us," he said.
Smart attended an off-campus party at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she was a freshman, on May 24, 1996, but never returned to her dormitory.
Investigators declared Smart legally dead in 2002 and the case remained cold until 17 years later, when the true crime podcast "Your Own Backyard" launched and helped investigators get new witnesses and evidence.
In 2021, investigators arrested and charged Paul Flores, who was a student at the college at the time of Smart's disappearance.
Detectives said that some classmates found Smart passed out during the early morning hours of May 25, 1996, and Flores appeared out of nowhere. He claimed to the other classmates that he knew where she lived and offered to help her to her dorm, detectives said.
Flores was interviewed by officers following Smart's disappearance, but he was not charged.
In 2021, police searched the home belonging to Flores' father, Ruben Flores, and allegedly found human blood and fibers in the dirt that matched the colors of the clothing Smart had been wearing when she went missing.
A jury convicted Paul Flores in October 2022 of first-degree murder and he was sentenced in 2023 to 25 years to life.
Ruben Flores was charged with being an accessory to murder, however, a jury acquitted him on those charges.
Paul Flores appealed his conviction, but in January, the California Supreme Court denied his petition for review of his conviction.
Smart's family released a statement Friday thanking detectives for staying on the case.
"We remain hopeful that this current search will be successful and look forward to the outcome," they said.
-ABC News' Vera Drymon and Bennett Garcia contributed to this report.
