Kristin Smart: The Last Walk Home

(00:00:00) The Last Walk Home
(00:01:19) Who was Kristin?
(00:03:33) The night of May 24, 1996
(00:05:28) Early investigation missteps
(00:05:55) Who is Paul Flores?
(00:08:47) A family that wouldn’t stop
(00:09:52) A podcast changes everything
(00:10:45) A new interest
(00:11:07) Backyard searches & secret recordings
(00:11:55) Flores family secrets
(00:12:24) The push for justice
(00:16:05) What really happened?

Kristin Smart left a Cal Poly frat party and was never seen again. The nineteen-year-old freshman was last spotted walking back to campus with fellow student Paul Flores, who claimed he left her near his dorm. Kristin's face was soon splashed across missing-person posters and billboards as her family desperately searched for answers. Rumors swirled, leads dried up, and Paul stayed silent. 

It would take a relentless community, a backyard excavation, and secret recordings to finally bring new attention to the case — and push authorities closer to the truth.

What really happened to Kristin Smart that night — and why did it take decades for the truth to start coming out?



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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A cal Poly college freshman vanishes after a frat party.
She left the party alone just half a mile from
her campus dorm room, but nineteen year old Kristen Smart
never made it home. She was last seen walking on
campus with a fellow student guiding her down the sidewalk.
He claimed they parted ways near his dorm building. However,

(00:21):
that was the last time anyone saw Kristin alive Abnormia. Hey,
what's up everyone. I'm your host Mattie and this is
murder You. Thanks for listening last week and for checking
out the new murder You YouTube channel if you haven't
yet smashed that follow and subscribe button and share the
show with your friends. It's the best way to help

(00:43):
us reach even more true crime fans. Each week, the
cases get darker, the truth's more unsettling. A girl vanishes
while walking home to a frat party. Here's last walk home.
Welcome to Murder You, an Abnormia original. For over two decades,

(01:21):
Kristen Smart's face remained frozen in time, plastered on missing posters,
freeway billboards, and banners throughout downtown San Luis Obispo. Her
family never ceased searching, and her community never stopped asking.
The man she was last seen with never uttered a word.
It would take a hit podcast, a backyard excavation, and

(01:44):
a secret recording to finally break the silence. Kristin Denise
Smart was born on February twentieth, nineteen seventy seven, in Augsburg, Bavaria,
West Germany, to Stan and Denise Smart, who were both
teachers for children of American Mility terry personnel stationed overseas.
She was the eldest of three siblings and spent her

(02:05):
early years in Germany before the family relocated to Stockton, California.
In Stockton, Kristin attended Lincoln High School, graduating in nineteen
ninety five. During her high school years, she was known
for her tall, stature, athleticism, and artistic talents. Kristin had
a passion for adventure and travel. She spent a summer

(02:27):
studying near London with family friends, participated in a student
exchange program in Venezuela to become fluent in Spanish, and
attended an honors program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The summer before college, she worked as a lifeguard and
camp counselor at Camp Mochuleya in Hawaii, a role she
described as her dream job. Kristin's early life was marked

(02:50):
by her love for the ocean and a deep curiosity
about the world. These experiences and qualities left a lasting
impression on those who knew her. Kristin graduated from Lincoln
High School in nineteen ninety five and enrolled at California
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She initially pursued architecture,

(03:12):
but later shifted to communication studies, aspiring to become a
broadcast journalist and travel the world. In May nineteen ninety six,
Kristin was wrapping up her freshman year at California Polytechnic
State University cal POLY in San Luis Obispo, and she
already had big dreams. That Friday night, May twenty fourth,

(03:35):
nineteen ninety six, marked the beginning of Memorial Day weekend,
when the campus became quiet. Some students return home, while
others head to the beach. Parties kick off early and
continue late into the night. Kristin and a friend decided
to attend a party at the Sigma Chi fraternity house.
It wasn't a huge event, more of a low key

(03:56):
gathering a few blocks from campus. Kristin wore black running shorts,
a gray crop top, and a red Adida sweatshirt. She
didn't bring her purse or any money, just herself. Multiple
witnesses said Kristin didn't seem steady on her feet as
she left the party. She looked disoriented, unwell, like someone

(04:16):
who shouldn't have been walking home alone. Whether it was alcohol, exhaustion,
or something else entirely, the consensus was clear she needed
help getting back to her room. Around two am, after
attending an off campus party near cal Poly's campus, Kristin
Smart was seen lying on a lawn near the intersection
of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue. Fellow students Cheryl Anderson

(04:41):
and Tim Davis found her and helped her to her feet.
Davis left shortly after because he lived off campus. Anderson
continued walking Kristen back toward her dorm when Paul Flores,
another student who also attended the party, offered to help.
Paul walked the rest of the way with Kristin, and
later told investigators that he left her when he reached

(05:03):
Santa Lucia Hall, the dorm where he resided. Forest said
Kristin continued walking to her own dorm as they parted ways. However,
Kristin Smart never made it to her room. She didn't
call her parents that weekend, and when Monday morning came,
no one had seen her. When Kristin didn't show up
for a planned activity that weekend, her friends were worried,

(05:26):
but campus police weren't. It was Memorial Day, a long weekend.
Students were coming and going, and she was a nineteen
year old independent woman. Maybe she left town, they said,
Maybe she needed space. This lackadaisical attitude towards a potentially
missing student would have significant repercussions. It would be days

(05:47):
before the search really began. By then, the trail was
already cold. But from the start, one name stood out.
Paul Flores, the last known person to see christ alive,
the student who said he walked her to the corner
by his dorm, The very person the other students trusted
to see Kristin home safely. Mind you, I don't want

(06:11):
to assign blame to those students. It's easy to forget.
There are dangerous predators lurking around campus, and Paul Flores
seemed like the perfect gentleman. Paul Flores was born in
nineteen seventy six and raised in a Arroyo Grande, California.
He attended a Royo Grande High School, where he was
known to be a somewhat quiet and socially awkward student.

(06:34):
After graduating, he enrolled at California Polytechnic State University in
San Luis Obispo in nineteen ninety five, where he majored
in food science. Before Kristen Smart vanished, there were already
signs that Paul Flores made women uncomfortable. Several former classmates
from a Royo Grande High School and cal Pauly later

(06:54):
came forward, describing him as creepy and overly aggressive, particularly
toward women. Some said Flores would lurk near parties or
social gatherings, often trying to force unwonted attention on girls.
One cow Poly student recalled that Flores had a reputation
for following women and making inappropriate comments on campus. Though

(07:17):
no formal reports were filed at the time, these early
red flags painted a picture of someone who routinely crossed
boundaries and whose behavior, in hindsight, raised serious concerns. When
campus police interviewed Flores, he told them he barely knew Kristen,
and that he had said good night before letting her
walk off on her own. However, investigators noticed something strange.

(07:41):
He had a black eye. He claimed it happened during
a basketball game, then later said he didn't know how
he got it and suggested that maybe he hit his
head on a car. Different stories, all slightly off, kind
of like Paul Flores himself. Cadaver dogs were brought in
to search the dorms. All four dogs independently alerted to

(08:02):
one spot, Paul Flores's room, more specifically to his mattress.
And yet when police collected the mattress in the room,
it wasn't the right one. The university had already removed
the original mattress during end of semester room cleanups. What
police tested wasn't the mattress that had been there when
Kristin disappeared early on, Paul's dorm room wasn't treated as

(08:25):
a crime scene, nor was there a forensic sweep to
preserve potential evidence. By the time law enforcement began digging deeper,
Flores had lowyered up, as they say, and stopped talking.
Investigators still had no body or physical evidence of any kind,
just a missing girl and a growing sense that the
clock was running out. The case languished, leads dried up,

(08:50):
and though Kristin's parents pushed tirelessly for answers, had often
felt like the system had moved on without them. In
two thousand and two, six years out after she vanished,
Kristin Smart was legally declared dead. Her family held no funeral.
They had no grave to visit, no closure, only a
billboard that loomed over downtown San Luis Obispo, bearing her name,

(09:14):
her face, and a plea for answers. Paul Flores stayed
in the area for a while before moving back in
with his parents. He got a series of jobs and
kept to himself, but rumors followed him everywhere, Whispers on
campus online forums, the guy who walked Kristin Smart home,
the last person to see her alive. Still, no charges

(09:37):
were filed. For most people, the case had faded from
the headlines. But for Kristin's family and the tight knit
community that had once embraced her, the silence was unbearable.
Someone knew something, someone had to and eventually someone talked.
By twenty nineteen, Kristin Smart's case had turned into one

(09:59):
of the nationstion's most infamous unsolved campus disappearances, as well
as one of the most exasperating cold cases. It felt
like everyone was aware of who was behind it, they
just lacked the evidence to confirm it. But then someone
unexpected stepped in. Not a cop or a lawyer or
even a journalist. It was just a local guy with

(10:21):
a mic. Chris Lambert, a musician and podcaster living in
the area, began investigating the case on his own time.
What began as a personal side project turned into Your
Own Backyard, a podcast that re examined Kristen's disappearance step
by step with empathy, precision, and something the official investigation

(10:41):
had long since lost momentum. Lambert interviewed former classmates, tracked
down timelines, and uncovered new witnesses, people who said they
had been afraid to speak up before, or who'd never
been asked in the first place. His podcasts didn't just
go viral, it re lit a fire under the case.

(11:01):
Suddenly people were paying attention again, and so was law enforcement.
In early twenty twenty, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's
Office confirmed that they had conducted over one hundred new
interviews they were searching properties, they found evidence things were
finally moving, which makes you wonder why did it take

(11:24):
a podcaster to pressure law enforcement into doing their job.
That same year, authorities got a cord approved wire tap.
Paul Flora's phone was tapped, and so was his father's.
Investigators also monitored conversations between Paul and his mother. The
goal wasn't just surveillance, it was to get them talking.
Something must have worked, because in twenty twenty one, police

(11:46):
served search warrants on multiple properties connected to the Flores family,
including Paul's home and his parents' home in Arroyo Grande.
It was at his father, Reuben's house that they found
something beneath a deck. Behind them the house, investigators uncovered
soil that had been disturbed. Ground penetrating radar detected anomalies
in the soil. Cadaver dogs were brought in, and forensic

(12:10):
testing suggested that a human body had once been buried
in that exact spot. The composition of the soil showed
signs consistent with human decomposition. They didn't find Christen's remains,
but they found what looked like the grave that was
used to hold her. That was enough in April of
twenty twenty one, Paul Flores was arrested and charged with

(12:34):
the murder of Kristen Smart. His father, Reuben, was charged
with being an accessory after the fact, accused of helping
to hide Christen's body. For Kristin's family, it was the
moment they had waited twenty five years for, but there
were still concerns that Paul and his father could escape justice.
The Smart family still had to endure a highly publicized trial.

(12:58):
The trial of Paul Flores began in July twenty twenty two.
After years of whispers, theories, and accusations, the case and
evidence were finally going before a jury. But there was
a problem from the start, and that was the location.
San Luis Obispo, was too small and saturated with the
story and all the rumors that came with it. Everyone

(13:20):
knew someone, who knew someone, Everyone had an opinion, So
the trial was moved to Monterey County where a new
jury pool could be selected without the same community connections.
Inside the courtroom, prosecutors laid out their theory that Paul
Flores had tried to sexually assault Kristen Smart in his
dorm room and when she resisted he killed her. They

(13:42):
didn't have a body or a murder weapon. What they
had was a pattern and a mountain of disturbing behavior.
Several women took the stand to describe what they said
was a clear and dangerous pattern of predatory conduct. One
woman said Flores followed her into a bathroom and assaulted her.
Another said he stalked her for weeks, even after she

(14:04):
told him to stop. These weren't incidents from nineteen ninety six.
These were more recent, and they painted a portrait of
someone who preyed on intoxicated or vulnerable women and had
been doing so for decades. Then came the wiretap evidence.
The recorded conversations didn't contain a confession, but they showed

(14:25):
something else. A family circling the wagons, carefully chosen words,
evasive responses, a tone of anxiety anytime Kristin's name came up.
And then there was the soil experts testified that the
backyard behind Reuben Flora's home had been disturbed sometime after
Kristen's disappearance, and that the soil samples contained traces consistent

(14:48):
with human decomposition. Although no remains were found, The science
indicated that a body had once been there and was
later removed. The defense tried to chip away at the
state case. They argued there was no physical evidence linking
Flores to a murder, that no one saw him kill her,
and the soil samples weren't definitive proof of anything. They

(15:10):
pushed back on the women's testimony, saying it was prejudicial,
not proof, and they reminded the jury that this case
had gone unsolved for more than two decades for a reason.
It wasn't solid, but it didn't matter. After nearly three
months of testimony and three days of deliberation, the jury
returned with their verdict guilty. Paul Flores was convicted of

(15:34):
first degree murder in the death of Christen Smart. Unfortunately,
his father, Reuben Flores, was acquitted of the accessory charge.
The jury didn't believe the state had proven beyond a
reasonable doubt that he had helped hide the body. But
for Kristin's family, what mattered most was that their daughter's
killer was held accountable. They had waited twenty six years

(15:58):
to see justice done, and while Kristin still hadn't been found,
the truth had finally come out inside a courtroom under oath.
Paul Flores was sentenced to twenty five years to life
in prison. Kristin Smart was never found. Paul Flores may
have finally been convicted, but for her family, there was

(16:18):
still no closure. They still hoped to one day bring
their daughter home. After the verdict, Denise Smart stood outside
the courthouse and thanked the jurors. She said they'd made
the right choice. She said she could finally rest, but
behind the calm there was still pain and the knowledge
that her daughter's body was still out there somewhere. For years,

(16:41):
the Smart family carried the weight of Kristin's story on
their backs. They took on the media, filed civil lawsuits,
endured the uncertainty and decades of unanswered questions, but they
never stopped, and that persistence forced investigators to keep looking
long after others had moved on. In twenty twenty three,

(17:03):
Paul Flores filed a notice of appeal. It's still pending,
but unless something dramatic happens, he will spend the rest
of his life in prison. The location of Christen's remains
is still unknown. Authorities believe her body may have been
moved multiple times. The Christian Smart cold case struck a
nerve with the public and stayed in the media for

(17:24):
so long because it's one of the few cases where
everyone knows who did it, yet there's not enough evidence
or effort to bring the killer to justice. It's about
a campus police department that waited too long and a
criminal justice system that took decades to catch up. However,
it's also about community and one podcaster's obsession with finding

(17:46):
the truth. This case reminds us that justice isn't always
swift and it's not always complete. The billboard that once
bore Christen Smart's face has come down. The signs have faded,
but her name matters. Her case changed policies, inspired reform,
and most importantly, reminded people that even without a body,

(18:09):
a victim's voice can still be heard. Kristen Smart was
more than a missing poster. She was a daughter, a sister,
and a student who wanted to see the world. When
she stepped out into the night on May twenty fourth,
nineteen ninety six, she had no idea that her final
walk home would become a decades long struggle for justice.

(18:31):
Thank you for joining me for this episode, and please
remember if you are someone you know needs help. Advocates
that the national Domestic Violence Hotline are available to speak
confidentially with anyone in the United States who is experiencing
domestic violence, seeking resources or information, or questioning unhealthy aspects
of their relationship. Call one eight hundred seventy nine nine

(18:53):
safe seven two three three. Be sure to like and
subscribe to the Murder You podcast and one watch on
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