- 7 hours ago
Dateline: Unforgettable - Season 7 Episode 4 -
Justice For Kristin Smart
Justice For Kristin Smart
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FunTranscript
00:00:00These are unforgettable this is one of them
00:00:04Young vibrant 19 year old women don't just vanish into thin air. It just doesn't happen
00:00:11It kind of consumes you guys as a mother my mission will always be to bring Kristin home
00:00:17When you cover murders for a living you see the best and the worst of police work this story had both
00:00:24I told the authorities back then there is no way. She just took off by the time
00:00:30Investigators started the solid evidence was gone
00:00:33I'm retracing Kristen smarts last known steps this podcast sort of raised this case to a national level
00:00:41I think it haunts everybody that's involved in this case. He had planned this he had stalked her
00:00:46This kid was a one-man crime wife. He was I was like holy smokes
00:00:51This is the guy the only suspect in Kristin smarts disappearance had stayed just beyond the reach of police for decades
00:00:59He was free to assault you and other women do yes the reason why?
00:01:06Might make you as angry as it does me. There's a belong out in the street. We need to get this done. That was terrifying to have to face them
00:01:14I just kept thinking you have to do this for Kristin
00:01:21This is Dateline unforgettable
00:01:25I'm Josh Mankiewicz with a fresh look at justice for Kristin smart
00:01:39Time does not heal all wounds that's a lie we like to tell ourselves
00:01:44They took
00:01:4926 years of our life or we have been having to fight
00:01:55For the smart family time has been torture
00:01:59Their daughter Kristen was just 19 when she vanished
00:02:04That was more than a quarter century ago
00:02:07Here are two more truths about time when someone goes missing a delay in the investigation is time lost forever and
00:02:25Sometimes a kind of investigative momentum vanishes along with it and if you're trying to cover up a crime that delay is a gift that buys you time
00:02:36Both of those facts had devastating consequences for Kristin smarts family and for other women who later became prey for a predator
00:02:45I think that my worst nightmare was that there was a lot of victims
00:02:52Kristen smart also known as Roxy
00:02:5519 year old Kristen smart never made it home
00:02:58It's a mystery that leaves the smart family haunted
00:03:01For those of us above a certain age
00:03:151996 doesn't sound like that long ago
00:03:18Of course, it was a different time a simpler time
00:03:21There was no Instagram tick-tock or texting
00:03:25Friendships were made and cultivated in person
00:03:31Her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo
00:03:38Vanessa Shields started a great friendship
00:03:42She was two doors down for me and we just bunch of us girls all became friends and kind of became inseparable
00:03:48She was Kristin smart from Stockton, California and also a freshman at Cal Poly
00:03:56She inspired me by her independence and that's why we befriended each other
00:04:00Margarita Campos lived in the room next door to Kristen
00:04:05At that time I was just I was much more shelter than she was so she was fascinating to me and different and curious
00:04:15We were you know studying each other's rooms listening music going to parties going to eat going to work out a lot of silly stuff
00:04:23Just hanging out talking that's a school where you can always find a party always yeah even on a holiday weekend
00:04:28Yeah, including that Memorial Day weekend on Friday, May 24th 1996
00:04:36Plenty of students headed out of town for the holiday
00:04:41Vanessa went home for the weekend
00:04:43Kristen and Margarita stayed
00:04:48The two women drove with some other friends to an off-campus party
00:04:52It was just a really mellow like chill party. It wasn't very vivacious in any sort of way and that was a great disappointment to Kristen
00:05:00Because like that was just too low energy for her. She thought party
00:05:06lively
00:05:08So they left
00:05:10Kristen and Margarita were dropped off in a neighborhood where a lot of students lived on the outskirts of campus
00:05:15They walked for a bit Kristen wanted to find another party
00:05:21Margarita did not
00:05:23She just was standing with her arms crossed and was like come on you have to come with me and I just I
00:05:29Was like I really don't want to go and then
00:05:33She was like come on and it was at the push and pull of of two independent women
00:05:38Kristen had gone out without her keys her purse or even a jacket
00:05:46She wore a t-shirt surf shorts and tennis shoes
00:05:50Margarita gave Kristen her key so she could get back in the dorm
00:05:55I think she put it in her shoe
00:05:58Because she didn't really have she didn't have any pockets in her board shorts
00:06:01She watched Kristen walk toward the houses on Crandall Way
00:06:05She was not gonna turn around and walk back with me to the dorms that I knew
00:06:09That's when I last left her
00:06:16The next day Margarita was surprised when Kristen didn't stop by to tell her how the evening went
00:06:23I knocked on her door
00:06:25I thought she was maybe still sleeping didn't see her for gosh the whole day
00:06:31When Kristen's roommate returned Saturday of Memorial Day weekend
00:06:35She and other women on the floor realized something was wrong
00:06:41All of Kristen's belongings were in the room her backpack ID makeup
00:06:47They called campus police right away
00:06:53And then the campus police were like well are you sure she didn't go on a trip over the weekend because it's Memorial weekend
00:07:00Camping we're like no all her stuff is here and they were like well she's over 18 so we have to wait for 24 hours
00:07:09Vanessa shields returned Monday evening to her panic dorm mates
00:07:13And a missing friend and then I'm like where's Kristen
00:07:19Kristen's friends notified the resident advisor in the dorm and again spoke with campus police
00:07:26They just thought she just took off she thought she just went on a fun trip and that's what was frustrating because we knew she wouldn't just take off
00:07:36We knew she wouldn't do that if she were planning to take a mini vacation
00:07:39Or go home or run off anywhere you would have known about it myself and a lot of the other girls would have known
00:07:45Yeah, Kristen was very vocal about what she was doing or where she was going
00:07:50And then the phone rang at the Stockton home of Stan and Denise smart
00:07:55It was Cal Poly campus police
00:07:58They said your daughter's not at school
00:08:01Did she go home?
00:08:01We think she has gone camping
00:08:04And that's the first time we ever heard that
00:08:06And they didn't know where she was
00:08:09And I was immediately fearful
00:08:12Because that it's just not her
00:08:14She's not going to leave on a last-minute camping trip
00:08:17No
00:08:19Stan smart got in his car and drove the four and a half hours to san luis obispo
00:08:25Her friends in the dorm waited and hoped for answers
00:08:31Even though we had this feeling that something was wrong. I don't think we
00:08:34Could grasp at that moment how bad it could be
00:08:38She was right no one knew how bad it could be or how long it would take
00:08:44For the amount of time that i've invested into telling this story
00:08:47It's a fraction of a fraction of living through it
00:08:52This is an ordeal most people would fold under
00:08:56Your children are part of who you are so you're fighting for them
00:09:01You're fighting for justice
00:09:04And fighting against time
00:09:06Years lost
00:09:08And no idea yet what a terrible price would be paid
00:09:12Because he wasn't locked up from early on
00:09:15He had the opportunity to do other things
00:09:18Absolutely correct
00:09:19I think it haunts everybody that's involved in this case
00:09:22Stan smart raced to san luis obispo when he learned his oldest daughter kristen
00:09:42Had not been seen on her college campus for days
00:09:45You're thinking what during that drive when i get there she'll already be back
00:09:53Well, hopefully yeah that i just uh talked to her
00:09:56Sam disappointed
00:09:57That did not happen
00:10:02They were saying oh, well, you know she probably went away and she's disappeared and has she ever run away before and then so on forth
00:10:11Back home in stockton california kristen's mom denise camped out by the phone waiting for updates
00:10:19My hopes would have been that the nightmare would be over once he got there and she would be there but i was
00:10:25I
00:10:27I just knew something wasn't right
00:10:31Kristen had struggled a bit at cal poly
00:10:34She was less than completely happy with her decision to enroll there
00:10:39One of the things that we shared with each other was our
00:10:44disenchantment with cal poly
00:10:47Denise responded to some of her daughter's complaints in a letter she wrote
00:10:51Just a few weeks before kristen disappeared
00:10:55Wake up and smell the roses she wrote
00:10:58You have a world of opportunities
00:11:01at your fingertips
00:11:04You're kind of telling her suck it up buttercup time to start acting like a grown-up right
00:11:11She had no doubt kristen would get through this rough patch
00:11:14She was never one to shy away from a challenge or an adventure
00:11:20Well, she loved travel and she loved exploring
00:11:25She was always instrumental in helping us plan a vacation writing it all up going to triple-a because you know
00:11:31there was no google at that time
00:11:34She spent summers in london venezuela and hawaii
00:11:37Matt smart is kristen's younger brother to you she was like a star well yeah
00:11:46She was an artist she was an adventure she was an individual who was just full of life
00:11:51get out there and get it done
00:11:54She arrived at cal poly in the fall of 1995 excited to start college life
00:12:01And the campus certainly seemed a safe place
00:12:04You feel like you're in a kind of sheltered community because you know it's really kind of away from town
00:12:11It was still hard for her little brother to say goodbye
00:12:16It's like so we just leave her here
00:12:19It's a lot of trust that you're putting in that trust that she'll make the right choices
00:12:24And that those around her will particularly because at 18 or 19
00:12:29college freshmen are just on the cusp of adulthood
00:12:33For kristen that brought a time of reinvention and she began going by other names like roxy
00:12:41What was the deal with her calling herself roxy?
00:12:43It was a nickname she gave herself
00:12:45I think it's just kind of like this alter ego she kind of just wanted to have fun and play with it
00:12:51As much as kristen was exploring her new independent self her ties to home remained strong
00:12:59She called you guys every sunday every sunday
00:13:02Kristen left a message on her parents answering machine the friday of memorial day weekend
00:13:10They weren't home
00:13:12You know you know your children's voice and there was so much
00:13:15laughter and levity in it that she was so happy that
00:13:19you know
00:13:19That was the last i heard from her
00:13:27No call that sunday
00:13:30It was tuesday three days after she'd been last seen
00:13:33That campus police took an official missing persons report
00:13:38Remember by this time kristen's dorm mates had already called campus police twice
00:13:43Everyone who knew kristen realized right away something was wrong
00:13:47However campus police were slow to start an investigation we see this a lot for police the concern of a family member or friend
00:13:57Is frequently discounted if the person who is missing is legally an adult even or maybe especially if they're a college student
00:14:06It was clear that they weren't really concerned they still thought she could have been a runaway they thought she could have just you know been out having fun
00:14:13Soon cal poly was buzzing about the missing freshman
00:14:19And what happened at an off-campus party?
00:14:24I didn't want him near her i just didn't want him near her i didn't i didn't like it
00:14:28i don't really want him near anybody you had a bad feeling
00:14:31yeah
00:14:43It is probably not terribly surprising that a search for a missing college student might lead investigators to a party one of my girlfriends was
00:14:55Like let's go out tonight and we just ended up there
00:15:00Long ago kendra coed was herself an 18 year old college student who happened to end up at an off-campus party
00:15:08here on the evening of friday may 24th
00:15:121996
00:15:15It was just a party i remember going in and it was
00:15:19boring i guess
00:15:21Kendra said she was walking around asking if anyone had a piece of gum
00:15:26remember she was 18
00:15:29i know that sounds so silly but i was looking for gum and then i ran into a guy who said yes i've got some gum
00:15:35And we started talking and then at one point we're sort of in the
00:15:40sort of in the center of the room and he grabs me and he starts to kiss me and it was
00:15:45very weird and i
00:15:46took a minute and i stepped back and i pushed him away but
00:15:49Not before somebody i was like yelling in the background get a room and i was so embarrassed
00:15:55You ever seen this guy before nope i'd never seen him before
00:15:58Still she was determined to get some gum
00:16:03He said he had some in his car
00:16:06And i walked around to the side of the house
00:16:09And then he grabbed me again and started to kiss me again and i pushed him back this time and i said dude no
00:16:16No bye i'm leaving and i walked back to where my friends were and i was like that guy is so weird
00:16:22Just he's weird
00:16:25Trevor bolter had a weird experience of his own that night at the crandle way party
00:16:30He was a sophomore at cal poly at the time
00:16:34This very tall very attractive girl wearing shorts and a t-shirt
00:16:39Walks up to me and says hi i'm roxy
00:16:43Okay and i go hi
00:16:45He didn't know it but that was kristen smart
00:16:48The newly minted adult now road testing her new nickname roxy
00:16:54This was the party kristen found after leaving her friend margarita
00:16:59To trevor she seemed confident flirty
00:17:03She grabs my hand and she takes me to the bathroom
00:17:07Okay so my head's spinning a little bit
00:17:10Inside the bathroom they talked a bit and she goes okay i have to use the bathroom now
00:17:15I'm like okay
00:17:16So i walk out of the bathroom
00:17:19And that's when he says he had another strange encounter
00:17:23This guy that i've never seen before
00:17:27Like is right in my face and he's like what i'd like to know is what you did with her in the bathroom
00:17:32And i was like oh god is that her boyfriend i'm like what have i got myself into you know i'm like
00:17:38my head's spinning and i go
00:17:40Nothing man absolutely nothing and then he goes oh laughs he goes oh cool
00:17:45Kendra koha did not know kristen smart
00:17:48But she definitely noticed the tall young woman walk into the party
00:17:52And she also remembers the moment less than an hour later
00:17:57When she saw her fall to the floor
00:18:02For whatever reason i'm not even sure why i did it i didn't know her
00:18:05But i stood up and i walked across the room and she was on the ground and this guy that had kissed me was
00:18:11Sort of hovering over her
00:18:14She learned the guy was named paul
00:18:17He was also the same person who'd confronted trevor outside of the bathroom
00:18:22And i was like just go away and me and a couple other people helped pick her up
00:18:25And i took her outside
00:18:29She had a cup in her hand
00:18:31So her and i went outside went out the front and sat on the porch
00:18:34And i just sort of sat with her for a few minutes and i said are you okay stay away from that guy
00:18:40Did she seem drunk she did seem very out of it
00:18:44She smelled like alcohol i don't recall
00:18:46But i do know that when i saw her walk in she seemed okay
00:18:50And by the time that she fell down and i picked her up and took her outside she did not seem okay anymore
00:18:56By the early morning hours kristin was in bad shape
00:19:02She was in the front yard and seemingly unable to stand up
00:19:07And i recognized her obviously as the girl that i had tried to help earlier and i asked her if she needed someone to walk her home
00:19:14She's lying down at this point lying down yes and she says and she says no i've got a ride
00:19:19And i'm sure i said are you sure um and
00:19:26Eventually we walked away
00:19:28Kendra could not have known what would happen later, but she would be thinking about that moment for a long time
00:19:35The obvious victims and stories like this are the people who are no longer here
00:19:39But the people i meet are the victims who get left behind people who were tortured by what they did or maybe did not do years and sometimes decades ago
00:19:49i should have dragged her up and walked her home
00:19:52i just wish i'd done something differently
00:19:55hindsight right
00:19:59Stories about that party would be told again and again the question was
00:20:05Who was telling the truth and how did you end up with uh with ronson um i don't even know
00:20:18um
00:20:25Memorial day weekend was over
00:20:28students at cal poly were back on campus and back to class
00:20:33word was spreading about a young woman who hadn't been seen
00:20:37since the early morning hours of saturday may 25th
00:20:41kristin smart
00:20:43it was about 2 a.m saturday morning when kristin smart also known as roxy said good night to friends
00:20:49no one has seen the 19 year old since i think i saw it on the news
00:20:55where this girl kristin was missing and i
00:20:58saw her face and i was like oh my god that's the girl
00:21:01ever since that party kendra had been thinking about her interactions with the young woman she only knew
00:21:07as roxy and the guy she knew as paul
00:21:11she called campus police tell me about that call
00:21:15i just i relayed the whole story was at the party i had this encounter with paul at the beginning
00:21:19i had this encounter with kristin
00:21:22in the driveway and you know on the porch and saw paul leaning over her and
00:21:27i told him everything you told police that paul seemed creepy
00:21:31yes and that he tried to kiss you yes a couple of times yes and that he'd shown some interest in
00:21:36her yes their response was okay we'll be in touch and how long until they were in touch
00:21:44never maybe she didn't hear back because campus police had spoken with other students from the
00:21:50party turns out kristin did not have a ride home as she told kendra apparently she'd walked back to
00:21:57campus with some other party goers one of them was paul full name paul flores a cal poly freshman
00:22:05majoring in food science he'd grown up in nearby arroyo grande
00:22:10thanks for coming down i'm not this is it's not a criminal matter cal poly police asked paul flores
00:22:18to come in so you were drinking let's see you were drinking in the residence halls
00:22:24uh-huh paul told police the evening began for him with a few beers in the dorm before the party
00:22:31how did you get to the party i walked in they were feeling the effects of the alcohol with that
00:22:35yeah i was pretty good paul said that at the party kristen aka roxy approached him like i talked
00:22:44to her one time at the party and she said hi i'm roxy you know how do you like me or something like
00:22:50that did you find uh roxy attractive no not really how come she was drunk she was taller than me
00:22:59paul told investigators that after the party he and another female student walked most of the way
00:23:04back to the dorms with kristen other students said that was around 2 a.m how did you end up with uh
00:23:11with roxy i don't even know just we were just all leaving at the same time i guess when you were
00:23:18walking were you helping her physically walk home no she wasn't leaning on you no she was walking just
00:23:24fine a couple of times gave her a hug when she said she was cold did she say anything was she feeling
00:23:31sick or anything on the way home no paul lived in the building right across this walkway from kristen
00:23:38the other young woman left to go home and paul said he and kristen split off
00:23:43here a few steps away from her dorm where was she going was she walking was she standing still was she
00:23:51laying down she was walking he said he returned to his room threw up from too much drinking then took a
00:23:59shower around 5 a.m so it's very important that you realize you know how important this investigation
00:24:06is yeah yeah you're grasping this she hasn't surfaced we haven't had any sightings of her
00:24:13uh at this point you're the last person in the car as they spoke something caught the investigator's
00:24:20attention take your hand off for a second what happened to your eye i got a little thing that's
00:24:25the one paul flores had a black eye a shiner he said he got on memorial day the monday after the party
00:24:33you've been completely honest here with everything that you told us okay as far as your injuries and
00:24:40that sort of thing yeah and that was that paul flores was sent on his way okay paul thanks for coming
00:24:48down all right we don't know what campus police made of paul flores's story we do know that the next
00:24:57time he sat down with investigators paul flores was saying something different you lied to us though right
00:25:04june 1996 cal poly students were packing up for summer break and lingering over those last days of the
00:25:24semester was a huge unanswered question what had happened to missing freshman kristen smart we'd gone over
00:25:33out around the campus talking to people her father stan was still there in san luis obispo every day
00:25:40walking the campus and the surrounding community he wasn't leaving without his daughter people were
00:25:46really nice no one ever turned me away if there was a locked gate they would unlock it and say you go
00:25:51ahead and look you know we feel for you but they didn't have any information they didn't have any
00:25:55information that's right campus police were talking with people too with some help from san luis obispo
00:26:02da detective bill hanley nearly one month after kristen disappeared hanley and his partner asked paul
00:26:09flores to come in for a second interview what do you think happened to roxy what's your best your best
00:26:17guess as to what happened to her my best guess is maybe she know because her dorm was by the parking lot
00:26:24over there so then i would figure my best guess is she went off with someone it was clear
00:26:32that he possibly was the last one to see her okay uh a stranger or what i it could have been just
00:26:40someone she knows you know someone might have gone you know hey hey let's go to taco bell or something
00:26:46once again he told them about his walk back to the dorms with kristen
00:26:50i went up to my dorm because the walkway goes that way towards my dorm and then she started
00:26:54walking that way by now investigators had been asking around about paul flores remember he said
00:27:01he'd gotten that black eye at a basketball game monday well a friend told police he noticed it
00:27:08earlier that weekend last time we talked to you he had a black eye and what did you tell us i told you
00:27:14i got to play basketball investigators knew he was lying and now came a different story where did you
00:27:22get in my car because i was um uninstalling my radio because i'm selling my truck and how did you get
00:27:28the black eye i hit the steering wheel why didn't you tell us that because it doesn't sound like a very
00:27:34likely thing well you liked yourself right well i guess you can call it a little white life but how you
00:27:40got your black eyes and white life yeah so what's going on here this is a guy covering his tracks
00:27:47yes and not very effectively because you smell it he showed visible signs of being nervous he had a
00:27:55a white t-shirt on he kind of put his arms inside of the shirt sleeves you're actually gonna rip your
00:28:01t-shirt up no i'm just i'm gonna just got an inch off all right look he's protecting himself that's
00:28:06correct suspicious yes enough for an arrest not close well we know he's not being truthful
00:28:16that we're positive of and that was the frustrating thing in fact one day after this interview
00:28:23the campus newspaper the mustang put it bluntly investigators parents remain clueless
00:28:30about missing poly student the newspaper even quoted campus police as saying there is no evidence
00:28:37of any criminal activity it doesn't look like she was the victim of a crime a strange comment
00:28:45given that cal poly pd then handed over the case to the san luis obispo county sheriff's department
00:28:51for further investigation that was nearly one month after kristen disappeared i find it unfortunate that
00:28:59they didn't reach out for some additional help the investigation definitely got off to a slow start
00:29:06pat hedges was a commander in the sheriff's patrol division back in 1996 he was not assigned to the
00:29:13case at the time he is familiar with the investigation conducted by cal poly pd and the criticisms that
00:29:20followed it when we assumed the investigation 30 days later we weren't able to just start it at square
00:29:27square square one we were like in a negative number campus police did look around paul floris's dorm room
00:29:35early on what they didn't do was take any photos seize any evidence nothing that could be tested for
00:29:42blood or dna or some trace that kristen had ever been there failing to process paul's room as a potential
00:29:51crime scene early in their investigation suggests campus police were not equipped to handle a case
00:29:57like this actually that's being polite it was a huge mistake that could not be fixed any evidence that
00:30:05may have existed could have been removed degraded or in this case simply scrubbed away by the time the
00:30:13sheriff's department took over the case students had moved out for the summer and the dorm had been
00:30:19thoroughly cleaned all the dorm rooms had been sanitized so we were at a bit a bit of a disadvantage
00:30:26on that because that might be your crime scene most likely everything indicated that that was at least
00:30:32a significant scene there may have been others but that would have been a place to start kristen's
00:30:38family says campus police never should have been in charge of such a serious investigation to begin with
00:30:45they had background and if you're a double parked or you're drinking and underage or your bicycle got
00:30:51stolen right and there was something else from the start some of those interviewed including kristen's
00:30:59friend margarita remember campus police focusing on what kristen wore and what she drank so campus
00:31:07police were asking us like how much did she drink did she drink every night you know sort of personality
00:31:13profiling her they also wanted to know about kristen's sex life the type of questions that they would
00:31:20ask me were like really explicit in relation to sex we looked at the first audio interview with paul
00:31:28flores just a few days into the investigation the unredacted transcript shows campus police calling
00:31:36kristen promiscuous or massively promiscuous three times an interrogation technique maybe but there's
00:31:46no reason to talk that way to kristen's friend i remember one of the campus police was like oh well
00:31:51she was sexually promiscuous the cal poly police took me aside and said you know your daughter was
00:31:57uh doing some things that would put her at risk and that she'd gone to a party and she drank alcohol
00:32:07like that was unusual for college kids to go to a party and drink alcohol and that she was scantily
00:32:14dressed and i listened to all this and he was portraying to me that our daughter disappeared and if she
00:32:22was dead she'd brought it onto herself which was totally wrong i mean you think that you think they
00:32:27would have worked on it differently if she'd you know been coming back from the library and never had
00:32:33any boyfriends and you know was wearing a hazmat suit i i would have been definitely would have been
00:32:38different because it was a different era and there was a lot of victim shaming and it's like women get
00:32:46what you know what they're asking for now one month in the case was in new hands and with some new sniffing
00:32:56around they were about to discover something huge these dogs indicated that there had been a deceased person
00:33:05in that room
00:33:16i'm
00:33:18vanessa shields went home for the summer heartbroken over her missing friend and dorm mate kristen smart
00:33:26she was replaying memories when it hit her that party on crandall way was not the first time
00:33:32kristen ever met paul flores we were at a party and i just remember looking over and seeing this guy kind
00:33:39of you know behind staring staring at kristen staring at kristen it was just a kind of very serious
00:33:44kind of intense and direct you know just kind of staring now she says that memory gave her chills
00:33:51then you saw him again another party out about a few weeks later he actually came up to us and
00:33:58that's when he introduced himself and talked to her what did he say when he talked to you guys you
00:34:02could just tell he was like kind of nervous but yet he had this little confidence to come up to her
00:34:06i was kind of surprised that he thought he had a chance with her because she was a really beautiful
00:34:09girl and you know he just wasn't her type the sheriff's office was now playing serious catch-up
00:34:17on an investigation they'd inherited from campus police are you operating under the presumption
00:34:23that she's no longer alive i i would say that would be a a safe assumption even though paul flores had
00:34:31moved out his dorm room cleaned detectives decided to go back in this time with cadaver dogs
00:34:40out of the 113 rooms in santa lucia hall all four dogs detected human decomposition
00:34:47in the same place the now vacant room of paul flores that was progress just not enough
00:34:58that in and of itself is not that's not enough to go forward you can't arrest anybody on the basis of
00:35:04that well no not really it indicated that there had been a a situation there at some point in time
00:35:11it doesn't give enough for the prosecutors to prosecute a case it was all quite provocative
00:35:19but where was kristen team number three behind the squad leader with his hand up please
00:35:25hundreds of volunteers searched the cal poly campus and its surrounding hillsides keep your eyes
00:35:31on the ground you're looking for anything that looks out of place the smart family met with local
00:35:37politicians asking for more to be done and at one of those meetings someone tried to offer denise smart
00:35:45some advice he said mrs smart he said this perpetrator took your daughter's life
00:35:55don't let him take another life don't let him take your husband don't let him take your children
00:36:00be present for your children and your husband i was so infuriated with him how dare he tell me
00:36:08that my daughter had died right we're we're still looking for her yeah we're 30 days in and we've not
00:36:14given up we're going to find her and i'm so mad at him and upset by this time paul flores had stopped
00:36:23talking with police he ended up dropping out of cal poly and moving back home denise smart knew flores was
00:36:32the last person seen with her daughter now her desperation led her to do something unusual she
00:36:39decided to reach out to paul's mother susan mom to mom with a campaign to present the story of her
00:36:47daughter's life i need to send their family this is who kristen is so i made several pages of pictures
00:36:55of kristen that this is who we're missing and that we would love to have could they please help us and
00:37:01so you send all this to the florist family yeah and it was returned she sent it back she said we have
00:37:07our own pictures which tells me she opened it and then sealed it and then sent it back
00:37:14stan smart drove to the florist home in arroyo grande
00:37:17to try to speak with paul's father reuben so i drove up there and there was a fellow out in the
00:37:24front and i remember stepping out of my truck and introducing who i was and he didn't want to talk
00:37:31that was reuben that was reuben and you said i'm staying smart i'm looking for my daughter yeah yeah
00:37:36and i'd like to talk he did not want to talk he indicated that uh i should leave or someone's
00:37:43happy to get shot well uh that's silly talk immature talk so i got back my vehicle and i left
00:37:53reuben florist denies saying that to stan stan and denise say the attitude of the florist family
00:38:00was all about protecting their son and then it was memorial day weekend again one year had gone by
00:38:11so by may 1997 they really hadn't made a lot of progress in the investigation chloe jones is the
00:38:19courts and crime reporter for the san luis obispo tribune all they had at the time were the cadaver
00:38:25dog alerts and evidence that paul flores lied about having a black eye on the anniversary of her
00:38:32disappearance the sheriff showed his hand and it looked like a losing one ed williams the sheriff at
00:38:40the time told the tribune that they had no other suspects in the case and that all roads lead to
00:38:45paul flores and they needed paul flores to tell them what happened that's pretty much like a memo
00:38:49to paul flores saying if you keep your mouth shut you have nothing to worry about it's like what are
00:38:55you saying do you understand what you're saying that was in the newspaper you are telling us that he
00:38:59is the suspect and if the suspect doesn't talk then the case isn't solved paul flores continued to keep
00:39:08quiet and the smarts hopes for a break in the case faded when it went to the sheriff's department we
00:39:17were very hopeful that it was going to be moving forward and that we would have answers but that
00:39:23was short-lived i didn't know denise and stan smart before we did this story the more i learned about
00:39:29them the more impressed i was they repeatedly banged on law enforcement's door but not in a confrontational
00:39:36way they didn't give up and when it looked as if the investigation had stalled they did not depend
00:39:42on others to make things happen instead they figured out a way to get paul flores to talk
00:39:49why did you file the wrongful death lawsuit to solicit information because we weren't getting any
00:39:54information in a civil case their attorney could do what detectives could not question paul flores
00:40:03not in an interrogation but in a videotaped deposition could you provide me with the names of the persons
00:40:11with whom you have discussed the kristin smart case well sort of i refuse to answer that question
00:40:20based on the fifth amendment fifth amendment the fifth amendment that's how he answered nearly every
00:40:26question taking the fifth perhaps knowing this civil deposition could later be used by criminal
00:40:34prosecutors the united states constitution went back to the house the attorney for the smarts also
00:40:40deposed paul flores's father reuben has your son ever told you that he did not kill kristen smart
00:40:49we never asked that question paul's dad was questioned because investigators believed kristen's
00:40:58murder happened in paul's dorm room and her body was moved after that was there a law enforcement theory
00:41:06of how he got her body out of the dorm and and what he might have done with it there were
00:41:11several theories one that he had helped taken her from the college paul did not have a car on campus
00:41:21and the morning after that party he made one phone call to his parents house investigators and the smart
00:41:28suspected his family was involved in helping paul cover up the murder do you have any information
00:41:36whatsoever as to where kristen's smarts body may be no the depositions provided a lot to interpret but
00:41:43not hard evidence kristen's family decided to put their lawsuit on hold they tried something else
00:41:51about a mile from the florist home the smarts lawyer put up a billboard offering a reward for
00:41:57the missing cal poly student and then years went by and with them the answers the smart family
00:42:05sought seemed to slip away paul flores may have thought the kristen smart investigation was behind
00:42:13him if he did he was wrong law enforcement kept eyes on him and ears they're hoping he says well i did kill
00:42:23this girl
00:42:33the most difficult part of my job is seeing the toll of losing a child
00:42:38no parent chooses what denise and stand smart have endured they've grown older with each passing
00:42:43year and their first born child is forever 19. would kristen have kept the nickname roxy would she have
00:42:51stayed at cal poly what career would she have pursued the smarts will never know for more than a quarter of a
00:42:58century they have poured their energy into seeking justice for what was stolen from them i have seen
00:43:06couples driven apart by something like this it can ruin a marriage it can wreck a family that didn't happen
00:43:13with you well we had two children that i think we were the glue to keep us together remember that
00:43:21unsolicited advice about being present the advice which so infuriated denise back when kristen was just
00:43:2930 days gone it kept ringing in her ears and it helped i remember that conversation to this day
00:43:39and i did try to be present i went to their swim meets and basketball games and soccer games and i
00:43:45and i sat there you know for them and i thought you know kristen's not here i need to be here for both of
00:43:52us so the smart family tried to live their lives without her kristen's friend vanessa did the same
00:44:01i graduated moved back down to san diego and was in medical research and then i uh got married got
00:44:09divorced all the ups and downs of life that kristen never got to have i was always thinking about her
00:44:17especially around memorial day weekend since leaving cal poly margarita has struggled knowing she didn't
00:44:25stay with kristen that night i had a lot of guilt and a lot of shame and humiliation my friend
00:44:32disappeared because i left her alone the way i got over my guilt and shame was
00:44:42kristen's mom she told me that if i would have stayed with kristen that night it might have been two
00:44:48girls and not one over the next decade paul flores finished school at community college
00:44:57the smarts saw him as the only suspect and so did law enforcement except stan and denise
00:45:04say they heard less and less from the sheriff's department you get the impression after a while
00:45:09that not much is going on but we knew and they had told us they couldn't share everything with us
00:45:15and after a while it gets a little draining i i can't tell you how many times i wrote letters and
00:45:20i said will you just call us once a week and say we're working on something this week okay and use
00:45:28her name i had to tell them to use her name the smarts are complaining about the san luis obispo county
00:45:36sheriff's department under pat hedges he had taken over the top job in 1998. the smart family has this
00:45:45strong sense that there was a period during the time that you were sheriff when no work was being
00:45:51done in this case in which law enforcement's eyes were essentially off of paul flores are they right
00:45:56about that no no they weren't right we conducted both covert and overt surveillance on him
00:46:04detectives had obtained warrants for wiretaps on the flores family phones perhaps we could get family
00:46:11talking about the case they didn't overhear anything unusual sheriff hedges also brought in undercover
00:46:19fbi agents to cozy up the paul and get him talking about his past they're hoping he says well i did kill
00:46:27this girl but he didn't do it he was one of the toughest nuts to crack if you will sheriff hedges
00:46:38left office in 2010 no closer to solving the kristen smart case than investigators before him
00:46:46do you think you did a good enough job of keeping the smart family informed
00:46:50because they don't think so yeah in retrospect uh we probably could have done a better job
00:47:01then someone else started investigating the kristen smart case
00:47:04someone who'd been intrigued by that face on that billboard after all of these years
00:47:11and his interest would change everything i've driven by a thousand times and i was suddenly hooked
00:47:19and needed to know more
00:47:33chris lambert grew up more than a half an hour south of san luis obispo
00:47:38when kristen smart disappeared in 1996 chris was eight years old
00:47:43over the years he drove past those billboards and the fading photos of kristen smart
00:47:53and each time i would pass it i would go that girl's still missing i live in los angeles and i
00:47:57saw the same billboards whenever i drove up the coast they were impossible to miss chris lambert told me
00:48:04seeing them again and again jarred something in him i started asking friends and family members
00:48:10do you remember the kristen smart story and what came out was that a lot of people didn't know the
00:48:15details or were confused about who she was chris had never investigated any crime he was a musician
00:48:24not a journalist he wasn't even a friend of the smart family he did however have an idea i wonder if
00:48:32this is the kind of story that i could put together in a way that people would consume in podcast form
00:48:37in 2018 he began cold calling anyone connected to the kristen smart case and people talked he
00:48:46started putting together the first episodes of a podcast not sure what would happen one of my
00:48:54biggest fears early on is when i reach out to kristen smart's parents they might say we don't want
00:48:59you to tell this story chris attended a memorial the following year for what would have been kristen's
00:49:0542nd birthday and he approached denise smart hi i'm here to learn about your daughter and i think
00:49:12that they could see early on that i wasn't like anybody else that had approached them up to this
00:49:17point we've had people who wanted to write books people who wanted to write stories and and you've
00:49:21turned them down oh they didn't feel right and very calmly as chris does he just sort of
00:49:29told me about an idea for a podcast it was an idea the smart family liked it happened in my own backyard
00:49:38which is why i named the podcast your own backyard i'm retracing missing cal poly student kristen smart's
00:49:45last known steps it is how many around here either learned of or remembered the story of the young woman on the billboard
00:49:53and the story of the man suspected of taking her away what chris did not see coming was that the
00:50:00podcast made more people want to talk with him how many people contacted you and said i have some
00:50:06personal knowledge of this case i think hundreds if not thousands by this point chris heard stories
00:50:13from people who knew paul floris as a little kid some of them not very flattering there's an incident
00:50:19where he's swimming in the family pool at some point there's a girl that he gets into a fight with
00:50:24and suddenly he's holding her down under the pool so she can't breathe finally an adult has to pull him
00:50:29off chris learned that in the years after kristen disappeared paul floris had moved south to los
00:50:35angeles county he worked for a while at a coca-cola bottling plant and was a regular at the local bars he
00:50:42was also arrested multiple times for drunk driving chris interviewed one of paul's girlfriends during that time
00:50:50there was something always odd about him and his family there was always lots of lots of secrets he
00:50:56didn't have very many friends at first chris expected only locals would listen to his podcast
00:51:04that wasn't the way it played out no it blew up
00:51:09your own backyard podcast gained millions of listeners it's different when someone goes missing
00:51:16in your own backyard it caught the attention of the latest sheriff in town ian parkinson
00:51:24chris told the story that people didn't know and he opened the eyes across the country
00:51:30to to kristen sheriff parkinson had been in office for eight years by then he'd run on a promise to
00:51:39make cold cases like kristen's a priority i promised that i would do everything i could
00:51:45to find kristen and prosecute those that were responsible he just really cared we felt movement we
00:51:55felt progress and there was communication the smarts say parkinson and his cold case investigator clint cole
00:52:04stayed in regular touch returned their calls and ran down tips that still trickled into the family
00:52:11none of that led to immediate answers it did make the smarts feel they had two real allies
00:52:17a podcaster and a detective working together in an unorthodox relationship chris is a good guy he gave
00:52:26us some valuable information sharing information with the podcaster that's uh that's not in the manual
00:52:34is it no it's not it's a risk but we met with him and we got a good vibe from him detective clint cole
00:52:42was now focusing on the florist family he got warrants for new wiretaps and started monitoring
00:52:49their phone calls i heard you ordered some cookies yeah but i had them mailed yeah the florist family
00:52:55is very cautious they're very careful as cole listened he heard something interesting the other
00:53:03thing i need to do is to start listening to the podcast on the wiretap susan paul's mom says to him i
00:53:11i need you to start listening to the podcast i need you to listen to everything they say so we
00:53:16could punch holes in it um wherever we can punch holes maybe we can't you you're the one that can
00:53:24tell me that told me that he's involved why else would he be able to poke holes in the in the podcast
00:53:34and he doesn't respond to that question he doesn't say why i don't know why i didn't do anything
00:53:38detective cole found that very suspicious investigators also discovered the florist
00:53:45family had started secretly communicating using encrypted messaging applications
00:53:52together it was enough to get new search warrants on properties owned by the florist family
00:53:57including the home paul floris owned in los angeles it was a total hoarder house filthy
00:54:04black mold it was such a mess amid the mess investigators seized paul floris's electronic
00:54:13equipment computers phones hard drives we were looking for any correspondence or text messages any any
00:54:24evidence that could be related to the crime and those devices had stories to tell stories about what paul
00:54:32floris had been doing in the years since kristen smart vanished at the time did you suspect that you
00:54:38might be drugged no
00:54:52from the beginning investigators heard paul floris had a reputation he was awkward made some women
00:55:00uncomfortable and there was more chris lambert spoke with women who knew him in the years before
00:55:06kristen smart vanished they described him as frightening well his nickname was scary paul you
00:55:14wouldn't want to be alone in a room with him you wouldn't let any of your friends be drunk around him
00:55:19in 2020 investigators say they confirmed that and more when they scoured those computers and hard drives
00:55:26they were seized from paul floris's home in san pedro a waterfront neighborhood of los angeles
00:55:33we found paul's search history and we found downloads of pornography film about raping drunk college students
00:55:45that he'd saved and in a file labeled practice they discovered paul floris had stored some videos
00:55:55starring himself they show paul floris having sex with girls that
00:56:03are passed out they're clearly not in any state to give consent no not at all i watched two of them
00:56:09partially and it was enough to make me sick that somebody could do that to somebody this is date rape
00:56:15that he's videotaping absolutely investigators learned floris would approach women at bars in his l.a
00:56:22neighborhood around closing time that's where this woman says she met him in 2015. he noticed you
00:56:31uh i i guess so yes we agreed to conceal this woman's identity and call her sam
00:56:37before we hear more from her here is how we found her producers ann prisman and stephanie barber put in
00:56:43long hours and miles of legwork on this story we knew paul floris had lost his driver's license
00:56:49and he'd been walking to bars near his home so we sent stephanie to those bars with paul's photo
00:56:55to ask if anyone recognized him sam did and she told a story that sounded as if it could have been
00:57:02told by any of the women in the videos paul recorded it was late sam says and she was tipsy and waiting
00:57:10for a ride outside a bar when floris approached her he asked if he could take me home um you know like
00:57:18i could take you home it's you know it's fine and um he was very persistent describe him he was awkward
00:57:27and he seemed um meek that's how i felt like oh he's just you know it's one in the morning and he just
00:57:34wants to hang out and he's being awkward about it but let's go get something to eat she says she got
00:57:39into floris's car and they drove to a restaurant after which she agreed to go back to his place
00:57:47and when he opens the door it was just a hoarding mess and i thought what in the world did you get
00:57:56yourself into she says that on his couch she tried to think of an exit strategy he offers me water and we
00:58:06still talk he's not doing anything other than talking yeah he's not aggressive or anything but
00:58:12i know that i wanted to leave and i don't know why i didn't muster up the energy or voice i want to go
00:58:22which because you would have had no trouble saying that no never i'm very um i'm feisty if i don't like
00:58:30something you'll know what happens next we go to his bedroom and then we have relations
00:58:41that i'm not participating in meaning he's forcing himself on you not forcing it's just um i'm just laying
00:58:48there and um just thinking to myself i want this to be over i want to go home but i never vocally said
00:58:57it afterwards sam says she passed out woke up a few hours later and went home feeling groggy all of
00:59:06which was weird she says because she hadn't had any alcohol for several hours it was about
00:59:121 a.m when i had my last drink and then just had water at the restaurant and at his house sam was
00:59:19not one of the women in paul floris's videos however when investigators saw those videos they suspected
00:59:27floris was drugging and raping women from the search warrant they found meds in his house we found
00:59:35flexoril and tramadol and speaking to a local doctor he said that tramadol and flexoril mixed together
00:59:45with alcohol could produce a sedative state of mind for someone who ingested them a sedative state of
00:59:54mind similar to what you see on those videos with those women correct years after her encounter with
01:00:01paul floris sam listened to chris's podcast and started connecting the dots oh my gosh now it all
01:00:09makes sense why everything happened the way it did sam flashed back to that glass of water paul floris
01:00:17handed her at his place he went to the kitchen and grabbed me a glass of water that i did not see
01:00:24so he was alone with your glass of water for yes a few seconds um as well as when i was at the
01:00:29restaurant with him i did get up to go to the restroom twice that brings us back to a detail
01:00:36on the night kristen went missing despite all the talk about her being intoxicated people didn't report
01:00:44seeing her drink much i left her around like 10 30 or 11 dead sober by the way i never saw her actually
01:00:53drinking but she was definitely under the influence of something all these years later a clear picture
01:00:59was starting to emerge for investigators they believe in all likelihood paul drugged kristen the night
01:01:05she disappeared and went on to do it to other women again and again and again if paul floris is guilty
01:01:14of kristen smart's murder then he wasn't prosecuted for it back when it happened and he was free then yes to
01:01:24assault you chemically and literally and other women too yes all because of the inaction of law
01:01:34enforcement back then yeah they dropped the ball when you see paul flores essentially assaulting women
01:01:41who cannot resist you got to know that's the price of not arresting him up here yep yep and that told us
01:01:49that we need we need to get this done right he doesn't belong down the street investigators hoped
01:01:58this would be their shot to finally lock up paul floris if not for kristen's murder then maybe on
01:02:05rape charges so we involved um lapd to help to identify these women we had crimes that we were witnessing
01:02:14we had many many conversations with lapd and los angeles da's office those attempts to build a rape
01:02:23prosecution against flores in la were unsuccessful he was still out there free to walk the streets
01:02:31or go to any bar and 24 years later the smarts still had no answers what investigators really needed
01:02:39was to dig up some new evidence and in 2021 they quite literally did i was sitting right there heart
01:02:50pounding thinking we were gonna find her
01:02:54more than two decades after kristen smarts disappearance paul flores was still a free man
01:03:11then in 2021 a tip came in relayed by podcaster chris lambert chris told detectives that a guy who
01:03:20rented a room on ruben floris's property had moved out and he was now talking he told us that no one was
01:03:29allowed underneath the deck of the house for any reason and to the naked eye what was under the deck
01:03:36just some yard tools nothing really but it was off limits it was off limits according to this renter who
01:03:45lived there for 10 years on march 15 2021 cole's team served another search warrant at ruben flores's
01:03:54home this time they came equipped with cadaver dogs a couple of archaeologists and some ground
01:04:01penetrating radar the search lasted two days they found a very suspicious location underneath the deck
01:04:10six foot by four feet deep even to the uneducated eye you could tell that that was a a hole that had
01:04:17recently been dug yes you could see actual shovel marks in some of the areas and then as we got down
01:04:23about 18 to 24 inches we started seeing very suspicious staining that the archaeologist who was
01:04:30helping us said was consistent with human decomposition fluid they kept digging i was sitting right at the
01:04:38hole heart pounding thinking we were going to find her this is it this is it except it wasn't if kristin
01:04:48smart had been buried under that deck she was there no longer before they left investigators took samples of
01:04:56those stains
01:05:01and then paul floris's mother susan agreed to talk on camera
01:05:05with a reporter from nbc affiliate ksby but they keep trying to find the answers with us and they
01:05:14keep failing because the answers aren't here yeah it was surprising they've always been very quiet not
01:05:21wanting to discuss things so when i saw that tape i was i was shocked this is ridiculous what happened
01:05:28here today they took his life away from him too susan flores said she had no idea what happened to kristin
01:05:37smart and that her family was being targeted unfairly and were you guys anticipating this were you guys
01:05:45surprised at all no i'm not surprised at anything they do they're harassing maniacs
01:05:52it's not going to change the fact that we can't help this family find their child
01:05:59the woman denise smart had once tried to reach mother to mother still had nothing to offer
01:06:07investigators rushed those stain samples from the dig to the lab and finally
01:06:13a break they tested it it's positive for human blood four feet down that blood was too degraded for
01:06:22a dna test yes it was too degraded but who has blood in their soil four feet down with human decomp
01:06:31stains and a previously dug area if that's not kristin smart then who is it who else did you have
01:06:37buried in your backyard that's what finally gets you over the arrest hurdle yes that finally got us to
01:06:43a point where we felt the case was chargeable and winnable on april 13 2021 almost 25 years after
01:06:56kristin smart disappeared detectives made the more than 200 mile trek from san luis obispo to paul flores
01:07:04is home in san pedro and finally put him in cuffs when it finally happened it was that surreal moment it's
01:07:13like they really arrested him they really arrested him i didn't really know how i should feel or how
01:07:21to process it but of course it seemed like a fantastic outcome i was so happy and relieved to know that
01:07:30a day that i had hoped would happen for years finally came so i was just relieved that someone
01:07:35i felt was violent was yeah off the streets the charge against paul flores murder during the
01:07:41commission or attempted commission of rape and that same day the sheriff's office made a second arrest
01:07:50ruben flores was charged as an accessory after the fact accused of helping his son conceal
01:07:57kristen smart's body then we found out they'd arrested ruben and it's like it was a good day it was a good
01:08:05day ruben flores's attorney said his arrest was simply a tactic to try to pry a confession out of his son paul
01:08:15so would paul flores finally talk or maybe he already had he just words this out yes no smirk
01:08:26no smile no oh i'm screwing with you he just says it straight face
01:08:45for 26 years the smart family waited and waited and hoped for this day
01:08:53july 18 2022 the criminal trials of paul flores and ruben flores began paul was 45 the same age
01:09:03kristen would have been during the trial the judge allowed still photography but no audio or video
01:09:10father and son would be tried in the same courtroom at the same time but with separate juries prosecutor
01:09:18chris poovrell young vibrant 19 year old women don't just vanish into thin air and leave all of
01:09:25their earthly possessions and belongings behind it just doesn't happen the case against paul flores was
01:09:31almost entirely circumstantial no dna no eyewitnesses and of course no body and i'm trying to build that
01:09:41circumstantial evidence to show there's just no other explanation for what happened to kristen
01:09:47the prosecutors spun a decades-long narrative from the night kristen disappeared all the way to those
01:09:54searches at the florist's home party goers and kristen's friends like vanessa shields took the
01:10:01stand what's it like to walk in that courtroom and he's there that was terrifying i was anxious i was
01:10:08nervous but then i just kept thinking you know you have to do this for kristen the jurors watched that
01:10:141996 interview with paul flores why was it so hard for you to tell us that you got that black eye hit in
01:10:21the stern it didn't really matter they listened to his changing explanations of his black eye and they
01:10:28saw what investigators believed was telling body language the backbone of the prosecution's case was
01:10:36the forensics starting with the cadaver dogs alerting at the door and then decades later the discovery
01:10:44under ruben floris's deck the prosecution brought in a scientist to explain something called a ham
01:10:50direct test that determined the samples were human blood were you worried at all the jurors weren't
01:10:58gonna really grasp the the technical stuff i feel like people today were really pretty savvy thanks to
01:11:04shows like yours i think people understand that if you test for human blood it's human blood the state's
01:11:11theory was that floris murdered kristen while raping her part of a pattern of sexual assault that continued
01:11:17for years prosecutors documented numerous rapes they believe paul flores committed by drugging and
01:11:24assaulting women and then recording it on video the judge allowed two of those women to testify anonymously
01:11:33they said they met paul at a bar and they went home with him they were given a drink and then they don't
01:11:39remember anything besides bits and pieces of being assaulted they gave very emotional very very powerful
01:11:45testimonies to the point that even some jurors cried during it prosecutor pavrell saved one witness
01:11:51until the last days of his case this woman her name is jennifer hudson she says she met paul flores in 1996
01:12:02just weeks after kristen disappeared we were at a skateboard ramp someone's house college kid's house
01:12:10jennifer was just 19 then hanging out with friends this guy comes up and sits across from
01:12:17a buddy and myself someone had the radio playing and after a few songs a like public outreach commercial
01:12:25came on uh looking for kristen mentions kristen smart by name right right she says that guy had a
01:12:32dramatic reaction to hearing the name kristen smart and says uh the bitch was a tease and i'm sick of
01:12:42dealing with her uh so i put her under a ramp at his place in wasna wasna is a rural area not far
01:12:51from where the floris family lived the implication being that kristen was buried there near a skate
01:12:58ramp you believe him a thousand percent you know when a person has a soul he did not and that that's
01:13:05what made me believe him she says she later saw a story on the kristen smart case and recognized paul
01:13:13floris however she did not go to police back then because she says she was scared and she didn't think
01:13:22it would do any good had i gone to the law on my own and said at any point i ran into this guy and this
01:13:31is what he said would that have been enough to arrest him no and you would have felt in danger absolutely
01:13:37the one person that i did tell in 2002 was a roommate of mine that roommate later left a tip
01:13:46on a website dedicated to finding kristen years later chris lambert saw that post and tracked down
01:13:53jennifer and he passed her name to detective clint cole which is how jennifer ended up telling her story
01:14:00in court more than 25 years later if chris lambert had not created his podcast and if sheriff
01:14:07parkinson had not been open to collaborating paul flores might never have ended up in that courtroom
01:14:13chris was not a journalist or a detective but information was coming to him and he was also
01:14:19digging it up and the sheriff was willing to listen and act on it over the years countless times we've
01:14:27seen the opposite law enforcement turning down information because it did not come from the right source
01:14:33jennifer hudson wants to apologize to the smarts for not speaking up sooner also bothers me if it
01:14:41didn't bug me i'd be as evil as paul is over three months the prosecution built its case while the defense
01:14:51argued the whole thing was shaky i mean it was hocus pocus the verdict is passed up to the judge your heart
01:14:58starts pounding out of your chest the trials of ruben and paul flores lasted months at the defense
01:15:21table father and son sat side by side the two defendants were represented by separate attorneys
01:15:29robert sanger defended paul flores ruben's attorney was harold music what was your strategy going into
01:15:37trial uh attack the prosecution's lack of evidence prosecution was very deft in this case they took
01:15:44what little they had and they spun quite a story his central focus was on the forensics the evidence
01:15:53dug up on the florist property i mean it was hocus pocus what was buried under there if it wasn't
01:15:59kristin smart nothing was buried under there it was just disturbed soil from a tree being pulled out
01:16:06so when the prosecution says they have tests confirming human blood in the soil what they're they're lying
01:16:11about that they misused the heme direct test it was specifically not approved or validated for use
01:16:19to discover soil in blood to hear the defense tell it if the case against paul flores was weak
01:16:26the case against his father was virtually non-existent certainly ruben would do anything for his son but
01:16:33ruben didn't have to do anything for his son there was never a body in ruben's yard ever
01:16:39also not credible to the defense the prevailing notion that over the years the florist family
01:16:48protected paul they're a sweet family they've been totally mischaracterized in the press why do you
01:16:54think the florist family this sweet kind family would be so antagonistic and so unwilling to help
01:17:02the smart family when they reached out for help for their missing daughter they were approached in a
01:17:07way that they were this evil crime family that caused the disappearance of a young girl and that's
01:17:14just not true in court mesick echoed a theory campus police had pursued more than a quarter century
01:17:21earlier maybe kristen just took off what i said was without a body we can't be sure she's dead
01:17:30and i know that's hurtful maybe to hear the smart family but ruben's not a part of this
01:17:37and we don't know where kristen is you're a smart guy i don't even think you believe kristen smart's
01:17:43alive somewhere i do believe with all my heart that she may be alive it may be a slim chance
01:17:50but there's a chance that's why we need a body let me ask you the question why do you believe she's dead
01:17:57because she's missing no she's not not just that she's missing she hasn't contacted her family she
01:18:04didn't contact any of her friends she wasn't the sort of person to just up and disappear if she had
01:18:10disappeared she would have taken her stuff with her and she was last seen in the company of a guy who
01:18:17previously had a history of weird sexual behavior towards women and later was accused of a number of
01:18:24rapes and of drugging women and having sex with them and he was the last person to see her alive
01:18:31that's why i don't think she's around the defense concedes none of that the evidence in this case
01:18:37again is weak insufficient and i'm gonna get a lot of heat for that but uh i'm a defense attorney so i get
01:18:43a lot of heat after four days of deliberation the juries were back in the courtroom this time with
01:18:51verdicts paul flores guilty of first degree murder i mean i just kind of doubled up even though i wanted
01:19:01it it was just it was so unreal that this jury had actually listened ruben flores's jury found him not
01:19:12guilty we got the elephant we didn't get the mouse can you live with that do we have an option you have a
01:19:19choice this is a parent's worst nightmare the smarts came to paul flores's sentencing and spoke one by one
01:19:30and we have waited long enough for this day they addressed the judge and flores and they fought back
01:19:38tears denise was last to speak with one final appeal to paul flores return kristin to her family it is
01:19:51clearly too late for us but paul is not too late for you to tell the truth to free your soul and your
01:20:00heart from the weight it must be carrying you are after all a human being during that paul flores didn't
01:20:08do as much as turn his head he's he's just a soulless the soulless creature the judge agreed you have been
01:20:19a cancer to society you are committed to the maximum sentence that i can impose by law an indeterminate
01:20:28term of 25 years to life if it were up to the smarts his sentence would be longer my next mission
01:20:36in life is to ensure that there is an enhancement for those who murder someone and harbor their body
01:20:43how would that help you it would help us because there would be an incentive for him
01:20:48to come forward and tell us where kristen is if they added 10 years to his sentence
01:20:53it's probable that he might give this a second thought another mission in the wake of their
01:21:01frustration with cal poly campus police the smarts took action they helped pass the kristen smart safety act
01:21:08in california requiring campus police to coordinate with local law enforcement now they want that expanded
01:21:18well it should be nationwide we're not training campus police officers to deal with homicides
01:21:25or kidnappings in response to our requests for an interview after the verdict the cal poly administration
01:21:32said kristen's case was an anomaly and said terrible things can and do still happen in safe places
01:21:41the university also said that it is never appropriate to describe a victim as promiscuous
01:21:48and it runs completely counter to our practices and procedures in may of 2023 27 years after kristen
01:21:58disappeared cal poly's president issued the school's first apology to the smarts we are very sorry for what the
01:22:06smart family has endured while it is a different administration now than was in place in 1996
01:22:13we recognize that things should have been done differently the smarts sued cal poly for negligence
01:22:21and wrongful death cal poly argues the two-year statute of limitations has long passed and that under california law
01:22:30the smarts cannot sue the university because it is not liable for an injury caused by the act of another
01:22:38person the case is still pending chris lambert released the final episodes of his podcast
01:22:49very much aware of what his curiosity helped bring about anyway i've been absolutely devastated
01:22:57by the loss of somebody i never even got to meet and i can't imagine had it been my own family member
01:23:02time has not dulled the smarts memories of kristen she just always believed in her future she just knew
01:23:14what she wanted to do she had wonderful hugs and smiles and she was a cheerleader for other two children
01:23:21long ago the smarts found a way to navigate their loss to take that advice to be present for one another
01:23:29i'm glad you listened to that well i wasn't happy at the time but
01:23:38in retrospect it was the right thing right thing to hear
01:23:42a strong family a happy one that love fuels the smarts
01:23:47even though they still don't have a daughter to bury
01:23:51it's impossible to know if anyone could have prevented what happened to kristen smart
01:23:56here's what's certain the way campus police responded made it harder to build a forensic
01:24:01case against paul floris at the crossbar hotel where he now lives paul has been attacked more
01:24:08than once his throat slashed he is every bit as unpopular inside prison as he was outside
01:24:16and denise and stan smart are serving a different kind of sentence theirs are for life
01:24:22you know there's this feeling out there in the world by people who don't know you that now we're
01:24:30at the end you know he's been locked up you should be okay now it's not the end yeah and this doesn't
01:24:38go away does it no you know as a as a mother i feel like i have a piece of her within me so it's you
01:24:48know it's a death that is never going to go away
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