Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Gorgeous Co-ed DISAPPEARS walking to dorm after party, cadaver dogs hit. Where's Kristin?

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Gorgeous Co-ed DISAPPEARS walking to dorm after party, cadaver dogs hit. Where's Kristin? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: In the last hours investigators using ground penetrating radar in
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the search for a beautiful college student Kristen Smart. First
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of all, take a listen to this. Kristin Smart was
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: a typical college student. She was enrolled at California Polytechnic
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: State University or cal Poly. As a Memorial Day weekend
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: rolled around, Smart made plans to attend a birthday party
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: for a fellow student. After midnight, students Cheryl Anderson and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Tim Davis walk Smart back to her norm Along the way,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: another student from the party, Paul Flores, joins the group.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: He offers to help Smart get to her dorm room safely.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Tim Davis leaves the group first, he lives off campus
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and drove to the party. Cheryl Anderson broke off, heading
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: to her dorm, Sierra Modre Hall. According to Flores, he
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: walked Smart as far as his normatory and then allowed
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: her to walk back to myrhall alone. This was the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: last known sighting of her. Smart head no money or
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: credit cards with her at the time she went missing.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Interesting he offered to walk her to her dorm, but
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: yet he didn't. Interesting never thought of that. Curiosity with
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: me an all star panel to break it down and
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: put it back together again. Where is Kristen Smart? Gorgeous
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen year old girl studying leaves an off campus party
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: to head back to her dorm, never seen again with me.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Veteran trial lawyer joining me out of the LA. Jurisdiction
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Defense attorney Troy Slayton on Twitter. You can find him
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: at Troy Slayton, Psychoanalysts to the Stars, Joining me from LA.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany Marshall, star of a new Netflix show Blinging Empire,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and you can find her at doctor Bethany Marshall dot com.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Former FBI star a Facebook TV show Curse of Akacre,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Bobby account at Bobby checkon FBI retired dot com. But
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: first to Crime Stories investigative reporter Jennifer Zikowski. Jennifer, it's
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: great to have you with us. Let's talk about how
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Kristen Smart went missing. To start with, who, where? When? Why?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Do it? You're away, Jennifer, what happened? Sure? Okay? So
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Kristen Smart. She was an absolutely stunningly gorgeous nineteen year
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: old freshman at cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: She went to a birthday party the weekend of Memorial Day,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: on May twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six, was the last
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: time that she was reportedly seen. Hold On, Jennifer, hold
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on just a moment, you know, out to you, Troice Leyton,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: you're joining me along with Bethany from LA. I remember
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: when my sister first moved to California. She's in northern California,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and she would talk about Saint Louis Obispo, how beautiful
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: it is. And I'm just trying to get in my mind.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Kristen's smart, living the life at cal Polytech. Tell me
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: about Saint Louis Obispo, Troy. It's a beautiful town north
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: of Santa Barbara where there are oh wait, Santa Barbara. Now,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: isn't that where Megan and Harry lives. That is that's
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: that must be a beautiful area because that's where all
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the stars are. There's um Oprah. I don't even know
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: who lives there, but I know it must be really.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Of course you and I will never you know, nah,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: forget it. Okay, So back to Saint Louis Obispo. Tell
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: me about that. And I remember when my sister first
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: told me about it. She was she said, Oh, Nancy's
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful place I've ever seen, And that really
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: struck me because she's been all over the place. So
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: what were you saying, Troy, Like I was saying. A
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: beautiful place north of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara, and it's
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: famous for its old Spanish missions and Spanish architecture. It's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: got beautiful weather, great little restaurants. People go to vacation
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: there from Los Angeles to escape the hustle and bustle.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: People will often head up to San Luis Obispo just
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to get away because of its beautiful weather, beautiful views,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and great little restaurants and stuff like that. What's your
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: take on it, doctor Bethany, Well, my father and my
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: niece attended cow Poly San Luis Obispo. I spent a
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: lot of time there. There is not one place in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that little town where you can't sit and look at
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the foothills. It is so beautiful and idyllic. Imagine kind
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: of like the wine country in northern California. You go
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to a little restaurant, they'll have picnic tables outside, gourmet food.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: The weather will be warm, balmy, and you look around
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: you and you see not huge mountains, not pastures, but
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: beautiful foothills with California oaks, that kind of shrubbery do
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: you see around the mid part of California. And I
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: was actually in a Royal grand day a few months
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: ago and I saw the Missin's person billboard for Kristen
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Smart and I didn't realize until we did started talking
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: about it today. I kept looking at her picture, thinking
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: that girl is so gorgeous, young, beautiful. Who is she?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Why is this billboard here in a royal grand Day?
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: But I just now put it together that she's been
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: on that billboard for the past twenty years because she's
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a treasured part of that community, you know, as you
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Bethany and Troy, we're talking and then about Saint Lucibisbo
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and you mentioned Wine Country. You know. As a prosecutor
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: in the DA's office, working two night jobs, I got
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: three vacations a year. One was Christmas. We have Friday
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: off after thanks didn't have an Easter holiday, we had Sunday.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: But I take a week off during the summer and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: would traditionally just just go to the beach, the closest
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: one we could get to and come back. It was
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: only during shutter the Scott Peterson trial when I went
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: to live out in Redwood City to cover the case
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: every day that on a couple of weekends we would
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: go look and I finally got to see Wine Country,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and I've never seen anything like it before. Just beautiful.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: It looks like what you might think heaven would be.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It's just so idyllic, so beautiful. As a matter of fact,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Bethany David, my now husband, and I were driving back
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: from Wine Country back to Redwood City from Monday morning
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: trial and we heard a bluegrass greenp on the radio
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: singing John the Revelator very fast, and we would always
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: sing it after that, and that's how we named John
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Day after that song. Yes, so I have a lot
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: of really good memories about Wine Got You. But I'm
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: thinking about what Jennifer Skowsky, I know, I went off
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: on a tangent just said they had been to a
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: birthday party she had. It was May twenty five. It
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: was in the evening, and I can just feel how
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: warm yet in the evening, you know, it starts to
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: cool down, and with all the blooming flowers in Saint
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Louis Obispo walking back to her dorm where all the
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: other girls were The dichotomy of her going missing in
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: that moment is very, very severe. The dichotomy of the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: surrounding that you three have described for us, and then
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: suddenly she's just gone and her parents think everything's okay.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: They have no idea anything is wrong. Take a listen
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: to who I consider to be a friend, Kristen's dad
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: speaking to me. This is stand smart. Listen. Initially, the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: campus police thought our daughter had gone camping with friends,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: and this is why should not return to campus, that
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: she had overstayed in the vacation time, and so initially
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I was a little upset, and although after a week,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it appeared that something horrible had happened, and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: so I had gone down there to take a look
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: and meet with the campus police. And the campus police
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: were very ill equipped to deal with a missing person.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I think probably they would be able to handle students
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: that had been drinking, or if there had been a
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: party or a car parked where it shouldn't be, but
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: they had no idea what to do for an investigation
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: into a missing person, and so I was rather disappointed.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: And they were real quick to point out that it
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: was our daughter who had made an error, had got
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: to a party, like many students going to college and
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: away from home, and that she gotten into trouble and disappeared,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and so they left early to blame with, you know,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: with us, with our daughter climb stories with Nancy Grace.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: They were real quick to point out that it was
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: our daughter who had made an error, had gone to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a party like many students going to college and away
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: from home, and that she gotten into trouble and disappeared,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and so they left early to blame with, you know,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: with us with her daughter. When Stan Smart told me
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: that I will never forget, I was speechless. And of course,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you know, to you, Troice Layton, we as lawyers, as
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: trial lawyers, you give me speechless. If you're you know,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: looking up real estate titles, you don't have to say anything,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: which is terrible thing. I had to do that as
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a law clerk. Oh, looking at real estate titles just
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the worst. But I was speechless, Troy, speechless that this
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: campus security police blamed Kristen and the family. To not
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: bring in police investigators immediately was a huge mistake and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: could have caused spoilation of evidence, loss of evidence. Things
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: can get missing, things can get removed, and in fact,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: when police finally went to in department ten days later,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: things that he had moved everything out. Wait a minute,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I missed that fact now I remember that now to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Jennifer Otsikowski joining US Crime Stories investigative reporter, Jennifer, I
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: forgot that part. Choice Layne is absolutely correct. I've got
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: so many facts in my head about Kristen Smart. He's right.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: It was ten days and they went and moved things out,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: totally destroying any potential crime scene. What happened giving the
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: time sequence, Yeah, so no, they didn't have any idea
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: at that time. And not only that is it, you know,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the ten days, but also other students coming in cleaning
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: before those students came in. The forensic evidence that was
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: lost during that timeframe is it's unheard of. I mean
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: it's it's horrible the way that the entire case was
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: treated by these campus police. Jennifer. The school actually had
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: cleaners come in. Now wait a minute, though, before I
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: totally attack the school. It was May twenty five when
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: she went missing. By the time the school sitting cleaners
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: say ten days later, I bet you anything school was over.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Nobody knew what the other party was doing. Campus security
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: police didn't know what the school cleaners were doing, didn't
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: know what the police were doing. Nobody knew anything to Bobby. Checkon, Bobby,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I'd like to take it out on you since you're
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: here representing law enforcement. You know you're the former FBI
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: star FBI agent, Bobby. I mean, could it have been
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: any more than right hand doesn't know what left hand
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: is doing? I mean, oh, I feel so bad for
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: the Smarts family. Yeah, I agree with Nancy. I mean this.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: You know, you often see the FBI jackets and stuff
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: immediately upon you know an incident happening. We throw resources
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: at a problem as quickly as we can get people
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: down range. We pull it agents from other cities because
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: it's Bobby. Yeah, it's a very manpower intensive thing. In
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: time is definitely of the essence you are missing person's case.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: We know hour by hour by hour the outcomes go
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: lower and lower and lower for a successful resolution. So
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you have to get on it quickly. You have to,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: even if you have to borrow manpower. It's time to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: put your ego away and ask for help if you
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: need it, from neighboring jurisdictions, from federal and state authorities,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: from whatever you need. You know, you need to get
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: on it as quickly as possible, not only for you know,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: evidence preservation, like Troy said, but also, like you said,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: because the person, the victim might still be alive. So
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: so really in these cases, you know, and I you know,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I don't understand the attitude of a campus police saying, oh,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: it's just another student disappears. It's probably you know, she's
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: probably joy riding or whatever, you know, to blame the villain. Well,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: even for one day, Nancy, even for two days, if
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you talk to her roommates, so talk to the family
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and say, this is very unusual for her, this has
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: never happened. Do you have to get on it right away?
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: I mean within hours, you know, and she doesn't show
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: up the next morning, you have to jump right on it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: And even if it's you know, you don't think there's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: a case, you have to start looking for this person.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: It's really u it's important to let it go that long,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: from from every type of consideration in a case like this,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: And if I can, I'm jan Look, guys, for those
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: of you just joining us, we're talking about just a
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: recent technique that was used to trying to find this
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: gorgeous young girl, Kristen smart who goes missing at age nineteen.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Ground penetrating radar. I've been on many crime scenes where
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: it's used. It's almost have you ever seen those people
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: going up and down the beach looking for metal? It's
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: something like that, except it can go like size scan
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: sonar is used to water searches and like you know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: on a ship or a boat, a boat where you
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: can look at your radar and even see the fish
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: down there. Okay, they don't have a chance, you know.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: It's not really a sporting event, but it's kind of
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: like that, except for the ground, the dirt that's happening
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: right now. But we're circling back to how this whole
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: thing started. So Jennifer Zikowski's jumping and jump in. Guys.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: There's no formality here whatsoever, unless it's Bobby's going off
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: us at him. But Jennifer, what about the horses rear end?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Campus security cop that blamed the family and blamed Kristen.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Oh just awful. I mean, can you imagine being put
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: in that situation your your daughter is missing and she
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: was a responsible girl. Kristen was known to be very responsible,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and she went to a party. She may have drink
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: some alcohol, and to just completely demolish her reputation for
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: going to a party like every college student usually does.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: That that's just ridiculous. And taking time days to get
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: into her apartment. That's really crazy to me as well,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: because her person belongings were found in the apartment, so
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: obviously a girl of nineteen years old is not going
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to leave those items behind. Grahams. We didn't have cell
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: phones back then. I was about Christian's age at that time.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: But believe me, anywhere I went my purse was in
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: belonging to You know that we're with me or at
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: least exactly or you know a credit carter. Guys, she's right,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: She's absolutely right. Now. Also, once you take a listen
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: to Christian's mother, who again I consider to be a
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: friend after all this time, here is Denise, miss Smart
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: speaking to me. Listen. Day Obviously, we didn't know the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: first day, we didn't know the second day, we didn't
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: know the third day because cal Poly did not take
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: a request from her friends to look for her. So
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: by the time Monday evening came around, which was she
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: disappeared Friday night, we didn't hear anything till Monday evening
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and we got a call from the campus if we
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: knew where she was. And you know, I think every
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: parent will tell you have a gut reaction when you
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: know something's not right and someone calling you out of
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the blue and saying do you know where your daughter
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: is and she's two hundred miles away? Bumps again, just
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: going back to there. I think it says you referenced
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that it comes back. It just always comes back, and
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: whenever you hear about a missing child, you relive it
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: for that family as well. I'll never, ever, as long
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: as I live, forget that moment when miss Smart told
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: me that that every time she hears about a missing person,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: missing child, a missing student, she really lives when Kristen
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: went missing, just those poor people. So what happened? Let's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: forget about the campus cops screwing everything up. Let's focus
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: on what we do know. Crime stories with Nancy Grace,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: guys were talking about the disappearance of just a wonderful
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: young girl, christ And Smart, just nineteen years old. What happened?
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Take a listen now to our friends at k s
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: B Y. This is NBC six. Megan Heley me twenty fifth,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six. That's when Smart left an off campus
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: fraternity party around two am and was walked back to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: her Mure Haul dorm by several people. Paul Flores was
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: one of them and the last person to be seen
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: with her, according to witnesses. Two days later, May twenty seventh,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Kristen's resident hall neighbor reported her missing. Nearly a month
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: after her disappearance. How Poly police turned the case over
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office, and hundreds
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of volunteers went on an organized search for Kristen on
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: June twenty ninth. In July nineteen ninety six, investigators named
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Paul Flora's a key witness. Christen's parents stand in Denise
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Smart have filed several lawsuits against Flora's starting just months
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: after she went missing. In this November nineteen ninety seven deposition,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: you can hear James Murphy, the Smart family's attorney, asking
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Flora's about his parents, name, place of work, are you
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: presently employed, and Christen's disappearance, but Flora's refused to answer
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: each question except to say this, on the advice of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. So he
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: wasn't helpful, and I gotta wonder why and also just
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: come and since Bobby Chakov FBI he says, oh, yes, Um,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I walked her to her dorm, but I quit walking
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: when we got to my dorm and just let her
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: go the rest of the way on her own. That
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't even make sense. No, it doesn't. None of his
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: behavior makes any sense. Taking the Fifth Amendment, you know,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: supposedly on an investigation into a friend's disappearance, doesn't make sense,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: you know. So you know, it's frustrating. I'm sure for
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: them that that that, you know, for the state police
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: or the county sheriff who was called in a month later,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that they did month later, June twenty nineth, they should
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: have been out there in May twenty six, you know.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: And so evidence preserved, and you have more, you have
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: more ammunition to use in those interviews. Now that you've
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: given him the time to clean his apartment to get
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: rid of any you know, any clothing, anything that might
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: be evidence. Um, now he's sitting in the driver's seat
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and he can sit back there and he can take
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the Fifth Amendment because he knows that he was allowed
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: to that time to you know, up any potential crime scene,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: cleanup any potential evidence, you know, and so you go
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: into those interviews, you know, a month later, with a
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: lot less ammunition as an investigator to confront this person.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: And really, I think that the delay, I mean they
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: call them a you know, a person of interest. Now
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: they're calling up a prime suspect. I think they've known
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: from the beginning that this is likely the person who
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: may have done this. But that delay in the very
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: early hours and days is what's costs them all this time,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: a solid month before they handed it over to police. Well,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: there are some clues left behind. You can clean all
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: you want to, but it's hard to clean this away taken.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Listen to our friends at Vanished. So it has to
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: be someone in the room who has touched or been
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: near that scent of death, all the dorm rooms, all
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the veterans, the beds. They went to the corner of
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: his bed in the trash can. The Smarts believe the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: odds that a couldaver dog would have incorrectly picked up
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: the scent of Kristen's remains as slim and suggests that
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: either Kristen died in that particular location or died at
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the hands of someone who had recently been in that
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: dorm room. Paul's roommate on the weekend she disappeared was gone,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and therefore Paul would know that he would have unfettered
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: access to use his room, and therefore Paul had an
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: opportunity to get a girl that was under the influence
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: back to his room. Police insiders believe that Kristen Smart
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: was taken to Paul Flores's room. What happened then, no
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: one knows, but we can imagine. I know this. Cadaver
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: dogs went to the corner of Flores's bed in his
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: room and to his trash can Okay, you know, back
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to you, Bobby Chicone, A cadaver dog is not going
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to hit unless it gets a scent of dead human tissue.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: That's exactly the right dogs or they're like machines. I mean,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I were my partner and the FBI was a dog handler,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: so I worked with a dog every day and I
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: watched them work together. I've worked with ground pendet training
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: radar for years and side scan sonar obviously is the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: head of the DIYE team. These these devices, this technology,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and you have to look at a dog as a
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: piece of technology. I mean, they are one hundred percent
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: and they that you know, they give you an honest,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: objective piece of information and they tell you the scent
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: is right here. Because a dog doesn't have any interest
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: in the case, right The dog doesn't have any biases.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: The dog just knows what to do, and it's trained
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: to do and the sense of smell and the dog
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: is equivalent to a computer or things like that. It's
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: so good. We can't even comprehend being able to scent
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: like a dog can. And so that piece of evidence
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: is an objective piece of evidence, just like a fingerprint
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: or anything else that we treat it as solid, one
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: hundred percent evidence that could have a dog more than
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: one were dogs got to Flores's room and hit on
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: his bed and his trash can. So I don't understand,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: do you, Troye Layton? Why didn't they just arrest him
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: right then? However great the dog evidence may be, and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: it could very well be great, isn't enough to make
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: a murder case, And it isn't enough to arrest somebody,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: even on the very low burden of probable cause for arrest. Now,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the San Louis Obispo Sheriff's Department over the last ten years,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: has collected over one hundred and forty pieces of evidence.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: They've served eighteen search warrants, thirty seven pieces of evidence
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: from the early stages of the investigation resubmitted for DNA,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and they still don't have enough at this point, even
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: though they're calling him a suspect to arrest him for
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the murder or disappearance of Kristen. You know, Steele goes on,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: but nobody you know, the old saying, the nursery rhyme,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: put Humpty together again that one month delay, And as
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: our esteem friend Bobby Coombs telling us even the first
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: three days that delay, it's really hard to put a
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: case back together again. To doctor Bethany Marshall, I mean,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: if I was sitting on a jury and somebody tells
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: me he's the last one with her, his story doesn't
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: make sense, and cadaverdogs hit in his bedroom while his
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: roommate was away. Of course, the jury will never know
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: he took the Fifth Amendment on every question, including you
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: know what's your d ob? They won't know that, But
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: that alone tells me it was him, Nancy. I just
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: had a flashback about six years ago. I was on
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: your show on ahelm, The Nancy Grace Show, and I
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: got a call from my niece sobbing from San Louis
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: cal Poly, San Louis Obispo. I ripped my mic off
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the minute the show was over. I drove all the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: way up there, and she had gone to a party
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: on campus the night before. Sweet girl, nineteen years old,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: had never really been out in the world, sheltered very
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Christian's family youth group leader. And at the party, people
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: handed her a water bottle and it had vodka in it.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: She had no idea took a drink. She didn't even
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: want to drink alcohol. And then the party took a turn.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: The girlfriends who brought her there abandoned her, went somewhere else.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: She got a little disoriented, and I remember spending hours
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the next day talking to her about, Okay, who were
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: these girls, who were these friends, who were the guys
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: helping to piece together the tangled web of relationships, to
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: sort out who's your friend, who's not your friend? Not
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to take a drink from other people people, And that's
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: just one nineteen year old beloved niece at a party
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: on the San Luisibe's boot campus. I'll never forget that.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: I spent a couple of days there. We called her parents.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about Kristen Smart and what might have happened.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: There's so many relationships at that party represented and a
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: month later, those kids are either going to be frightened,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: they will have talked to their parents, they will have
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: constructed different stories in their minds, had guilt for maybe
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: abandoning her there. And this Paul Reuben is that his name?
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: The last person who saw her, Paul Flora Herman. Let's
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: not confuse my bad as a friend, and I don't
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: want you to drive the past. But Paul Flories, let's
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: just say if he had bad intentions, it's like, uh,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: it's like a salmon fisher with sam salmon um swimming upstream.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: You know, go to a party with girls who have
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: never drunk alcohol before. That's where you're going to be
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: able to commit a rape or pick off the weakest member,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: if that's what you wanted. Okay, I was just gonna say,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: we can't forget that Paul Flores had a black eye
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the day after Kristen went missing. That was apparently discovered
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: after he turned himself in on a dui charge, and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: then his story kept changing about how he got it.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: He said he got it playing basketball, then he said
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: he was fixing his car and received this black eye,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: So he he was obviously hiding something from from the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: get go. I wonder if they're in the rooms around
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: his room, anyone heard anything Climb stories with Nancy Grace.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Guys were talking about the disappearance of Christens Smart. Her
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: parents have accepted that she is no longer with us.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: She's dead. I want you to take a listen deference
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: at casey r A. This is NBC three reporter Edie Lambert.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: The San Louis Obispo County Sheriff's Office has had a
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: team of investigators workeding actively on this case. They've recently
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: been fielding a lot of calls from the media, so
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: that's what prompted them to release all this information. So
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: they're now saying since two thou eleven deputies have served
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: eighteen search warrants, they conducted physical evidence searches at nine
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: separate locations. They have also re examined every item of
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: physical evidence seized by all agencies involved in this case.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Deputies have entered thirty seven items of evidence from the
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: early days of this case for modern DNA testing, and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: they have recovered one hundred and forty new items of evidence.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Deputies are now revealing they have two trucks and evidence
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: that belonged to the family of Paul Flores. He was
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a former cal Poly student and witnesses say he was
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the last person to see kristin the night she went missing.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: He's never been charging her disappearance. Over these past nine years.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: The Sheriff's office says they invested more than seventy five
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: hundred employee hours looking into this case. Well, I'm glad
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: they finally got the vehicles, but it's a daylight of
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: dollars short. It's years later. Who else has been in
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the truck? How do you expect to find fiber evidence
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: or one of Kristen's hairs there? But he transported her
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: body wherever he took it. Guys, let's fast forward to write.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Now take a listen to our cut thirteen. This is
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Rachel Kim CBSLA authority served a search warrant at the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: San Pedro home of Paul Flores early this morning. It's
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the second time this year. Investigators say he continues to
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: be a person of interest in the nineteen ninety six
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: disappearance of cal Poly sand Luisbeispos student Kristen Smart. The
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: San Luisabisco County Sheriff's Office said, with the help of
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the La County Sheriff's Department, they went to look for
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: specific items of evidence, but they couldn't release any details
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: because the warrant is sealed by the court. I don't
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: see anything in this morning, but I noticed the second
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: time they've been here. Last time we were here with
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: the FBI. This neighbor named Mike, who doesn't want his
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: face shown, is talking about the first time a warrant
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was served here. That was just this past February, when
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Paul Floras sat in a sheriff's car while FBI agents
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: carried out bins and boxes from his home. He was
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: questioned then released. We did not see Flores at his
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: home today. Nothing goes on in this neighborhood like that,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: so I was shot when I saw that action. It's
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: pretty quiet. He never really talks to anybody. Comes out
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: as as trash, doesn't talk to anybody. Sounds like a
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: loaner of sorts only seeing when he comes out to
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: throw out his trash. Now that was a search. Another
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: search on the home now of Paul Flores. But what
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: about his father? Take a listen to Katie Johnson's CBSLA.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Investigators are at Paul Flores' father's home today. Flores is
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the prime suspect in the decades old disappearance of Kristen Smart.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Authorities are rating Reuben Flores' is San Luis Obispo County home.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: The Sheriff's office says they're using cadaver dogs and ground
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: penetrating radar in this search. In May nineteen ninety six,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Kristen Smart disappeared after an off campus party near cal
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: Poly San Luis Obispo. Paul Flores is believed to be
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: the last person known to see Smart alive. Her body
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: has never been found. Flores was arrested last month on
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: an unrelated weapons charge. Unrelated weapons charge choice Layton. That's
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: a big red flag to me because when they arrested Flores,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the sun in this case, Paul Flores on a weapons charge,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: the PC probably cause him. That arrest warrant was based
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: on a sur they had done like a year before,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and now now they arrest him on that weapon's charge.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: It was possession of a firearm by convicted felon. That
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: underlying felony was I believe felony duy. So why based
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: on evidence they saw a year ago do they arrest
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: him now for possession firearm convicted felons? Well, the evidence
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: that the San Luis Obispo Sheriff along with La County
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Sheriff's deputies when they conducted the search of his home,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: obviously they saw a handgun. Didn't feel like it was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a year ago, yes, but didn't feel like they wanted
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: to arrest them at that point. Maybe now a year later,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: after they've done further investigation, knew that they had probable
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: cause to arrest him for the weapons charge and wanted
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to rattle him. Maybe they were hoping that he would
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: get into custody and say something to somebody else custody
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: in the jailhouse that because they could have arrested him
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: right then when they saw the weapon, but they didn't.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: They waited. Do I have the dates right? Jennifer Sagaski
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: joining mess joining us a Crime Stories investigative reporter. What
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: do we know about the arrest of the suspect? Paul Flores,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: but not for Christian Smart's murder. That is that is
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: all that I know. That's all they're letting out there
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: for the weapon. You're right, they're being very very and
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering about the strategy. The tactic of sitting
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: on that arrest for a possession of a fire and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: by convictive felon and then executing the arrests weren't months
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: and months and months later. Very curious. But you're jumping Bobby,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: what is that time? Yeah, And Nancy, you're exactly right.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: It is a strategy. It's a tactical, investigative move that
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: could be any number of reasons you would do this.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: For example, if they've developed someone close to him that
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: they're talking to that's providing them information and now they
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: feel if they arres him on this, he will go
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: back and talk to that other person. Or if they've
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: gotten you know, and this is just conjecture on my part,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: if they've gotten a wiretap on one of his phones
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: and they arrest him to see if he's going to
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: make any phone calls and what he's going to talk about.
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: So there are this is a strategic investigative move. There
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: is a reason why they did At this time, we
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: don't know what that reason is. But as an investigator,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: I can tell you there's a number of different possibilities
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: in my head of why they would do this and
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: how strategic right. Very often in cases where a suspect
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: is someone's believed to be a suspect in a very
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: serious case, let's just say a murder, you'll see him
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: picked up on let's just say an outstanding bond forfeiture
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: or an outstanding probation violation and put him in jail.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And it's a tactic. And I think there's a tactic here,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: but I don't know what they're thinking is take a
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: listen to Keith Carl's News Channel three KYT the morning
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Saint Elizabethsville County Sheriff's Department deputies crime scene investigators could
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: ever go and ground penetrating radar scoured the residential property
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: here in a Grande believed to belong to Reuben Flores,
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: off of James Way in Royal Grande. A vehicle was
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: towed away by the Sheriff's office. The residential property remains
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: sealed off, with crime scene tape surrounding the perimeter. The
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: San Loos Visconi Sheriff's Office expects to remain out here
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: for the remainder of the day and possibly into tomorrow.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: With all of this technology that they're using to scour
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the landscape. Here at this home behind me, what if
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: anything is going down on the father's property. Take a
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: listen to Megan Healey Ksbyns with shovels in hand. Investigators
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: dug underneath rubin floors as a Royal Grande home and
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: at specific locations in the backyard. A neighbor sent me
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: this video showing a part of the excavation site. I mean,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it's really nice to see that they're finally making moves
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: on it. You know, it's taking so long for them
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: to dig up this backyard. You could see deputies camped
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: out near the house, going underneath the deck at two
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: entry points with shovels. A panel of this lattice wall
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: was removed to get underneath the house. These areas were
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: extensively searched with cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar. Monday
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and Tuesday. Crews also moved this blue pop up tent
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: to another section of the backyard, where they dug for
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: about an hour. Thick foliage around the property made it
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: difficult to see the activity. By two pm, yellow tape
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: around the floors his home was taken down, the Flores
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: family returning just thirty minutes later. I just hope they
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: find her soon. And guys, in case you're wondering what
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the Flores family has to say about this, remember this
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: is the suspects father's home being searched property. Take a
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: listen to Susan Flora speaking to KSB. What led you
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to talking with us today and letting me into the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: back room. I know, man, because they took the Volkswagon.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: That's my little restoration project. You know, people restore old
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: cars all the time. I'm a real card. I'd love cars.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: I'd love old things. You know. It's like, no, I
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: wanted to do a restoration on that car. They didn't
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: need to take it. They wanted to take it. Now
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: they're gonna take oh yeah, the warrant says they can
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: take it apart, so god knows what it'll look like,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: you know, but it's I don't know, it's private. They're
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: coming in, they're taking your stuff. So the suspect's appearents
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: whining that cops took the vehicle the old Volkswagen that
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: she was going to restore someday, whining that it was private.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: There is a girl kidnapped and murdered. Suck it up,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: little sister. Nancy Grace Crime Story, signing off goodbye friend,