Latest / NO FILTER / The Disappearance and Alleged Murder of Kristin Smart(M4A_128K)

Transcript

The Disappearance and Alleged Murder of Kristin Smart(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, you guys. I'm Haley and I'm Andrea, and
0:03
Speaker 1: this is inhuman.
0:26
Speaker 2: This is inhuman. Dun dun du. I'm excited for your case.
0:31
Speaker 1: I know. I'm so excited. I went down a giant
0:36
Speaker 1: like wormhole, not even because it wasn't like I wasn't
0:39
Speaker 1: like finding conspiracies or anything, but I didn't realize how
0:42
Speaker 1: much has happened in this case in literally the last
0:44
Speaker 1: like month. So yesterday I was like watching all the
0:48
Speaker 1: like press conferences and reading like all the court documents
0:52
Speaker 1: and stuff. So I like really went went deep into
0:55
Speaker 1: this case. So I'm excited to share it.
0:57
Speaker 2: I love that there's like new stuff happening because that's
1:01
Speaker 2: like a good sign that it's gonna get solved if
1:03
Speaker 2: it's not already.
1:05
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So you'll find out where we're at with it,
1:09
Speaker 1: but it is a very good news. So if you
1:14
Speaker 1: guys are have listened to the first twelve episodes of
1:18
Speaker 1: this podcast, we were covering one case. It was the
1:23
Speaker 1: Cleveland kidnappings of Michelle Knight, Amanda Barry, and Gina dejes Seuss.
1:28
Speaker 1: So we covered their story in the first twelve episodes,
1:31
Speaker 1: and initially we were gonna kind of do like longer
1:35
Speaker 1: seasons like that. But what we decided is we're just
1:38
Speaker 1: gonna cover cases weekly, So we'll have at least two
1:42
Speaker 1: episodes a week, and we will probably some cases will
1:46
Speaker 1: be multi partiers and it'll like you know, it could
1:49
Speaker 1: be up to like four or five parts. But we're
1:51
Speaker 1: gonna kind of switch to more of like just that,
1:54
Speaker 1: like different cases every week, and each week I will
1:58
Speaker 1: cover one case and Andrea will cover another case. So
2:01
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a large variety of types of cases,
2:03
Speaker 1: big cases, small cases, unsolved solve, all of that. And
2:08
Speaker 1: we're kind of starting off this week with cases that
2:10
Speaker 1: we have both been like intrigued by that have like
2:13
Speaker 1: stuck with us. So this is a case that the
2:17
Speaker 1: one that I'm covering today, it has really stuck with
2:20
Speaker 1: me since I first heard about it, mostly because the
2:24
Speaker 1: place that it happened is somewhere I've been to and
2:27
Speaker 1: is like related to my family. But that's I'm gonna
2:30
Speaker 1: say right now, because I don't want to give it
2:31
Speaker 1: away quite yet. Although if you're listening to this other
2:36
Speaker 1: than Andrea, they probably you probably already know what the
2:39
Speaker 1: case is because I'm probably going to title the episode
2:41
Speaker 1: with the case, but Andrea doesn't know yet, right, Okay.
2:47
Speaker 1: So this is a disappearance and presumed murder case that
2:52
Speaker 1: I think is technically still quote unquote unsolved, but we
2:56
Speaker 1: will get into that. And actually, when I first wrote
3:00
Speaker 1: that sentence, I didn't realize how much has happened, so
3:02
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's technically classified as unsolved anymore.
3:06
Speaker 1: But we'll get into that, Okay. I want to say
3:10
Speaker 1: I first heard about the case on crime Junkie, I believe,
3:13
Speaker 1: back in like twenty nineteen, and then because of where
3:16
Speaker 1: it took place, I was immediately intrigued and tried to
3:19
Speaker 1: find more about it. And so back when I first
3:22
Speaker 1: heard about it, it was still fully unsolved, but then
3:26
Speaker 1: there was movement, like I said, and that's another reason
3:30
Speaker 1: I want to cover it now, all right, so let's
3:32
Speaker 1: get into it. Kristin Denise Smart was born February twentieth,
3:38
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, in Bavaria, West Germany, to her parents
3:43
Speaker 1: Stan and Denise Smart. Do you know this case yet?
3:49
Speaker 2: I do know the case, but I have not heard
3:51
Speaker 2: any of the recent news on it. And it's not
3:54
Speaker 2: the case that I thought you were going to do.
3:55
Speaker 2: But I'm excited, not excited. I hate that word because
3:57
Speaker 2: it's like not the right word. But I'm intrigued, right
4:00
Speaker 2: so that you're doing it because I like, I want
4:02
Speaker 2: to know more about it.
4:03
Speaker 1: Okay, good, good, Okay. So she had two siblings, and
4:07
Speaker 1: her parents were actually teachers in Germany, teaching American children
4:11
Speaker 1: whose family was in the army. And I'm not one
4:14
Speaker 1: hundred percent sure if her parents were actually like American
4:18
Speaker 1: or German, but I want to say they were American
4:21
Speaker 1: and just teaching in Germany because they later moved to Stockton, California.
4:27
Speaker 1: But also don't quote me on that because I'm not
4:29
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure that they were American. They were
4:32
Speaker 1: living in Germany.
4:33
Speaker 2: Okay.
4:34
Speaker 1: So when Kristin was like a kid, they moved to California,
4:39
Speaker 1: where Kristin attended Lincoln High School and graduated in nineteen
4:43
Speaker 1: ninety five. And this part of California is like more
4:46
Speaker 1: of the northern part of California. It's not quite as
4:50
Speaker 1: north as San Francisco, but it's northern. I think I'm
4:53
Speaker 1: really bad with geography, but it is northern.
4:56
Speaker 2: Okay.
4:57
Speaker 1: So Kristin wanted to go to college and she enrolled
5:00
Speaker 1: at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California,
5:05
Speaker 1: or as it's more commonly known, cal Poly Slow. And
5:09
Speaker 1: this is why the case stuck with me because that
5:12
Speaker 1: is where my sister went to college, and I have
5:15
Speaker 1: visited many times. Slow is about six hours south of Stockton,
5:21
Speaker 1: where Kristen's family was living, so she was moving like
5:25
Speaker 1: a decent distance from her family for college. Slow is
5:28
Speaker 1: in central California, so you know, she wasn't like super
5:32
Speaker 1: close by, but she was a drive away. When she
5:36
Speaker 1: was in her freshman year. She would call them every
5:40
Speaker 1: Sunday night to check in and catch up with them.
5:43
Speaker 1: And her freshman year started in September of nineteen ninety five,
5:49
Speaker 1: and for the first few months of college she had
5:51
Speaker 1: a normal life. So fast forward to May twenty fourth,
5:55
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, which was the Friday of Memorial Day
5:59
Speaker 1: weekend when we have, you know, a three day weekend
6:02
Speaker 1: here in America, and Kristin actually decided to call her
6:06
Speaker 1: parents that night to share some good news. Which couldn't
6:09
Speaker 1: find what that news was. I was trying to figure
6:12
Speaker 1: it out, but it doesn't seem like it was anything
6:14
Speaker 1: like super major, you know, maybe she just did well
6:17
Speaker 1: on a test or something like that, but they didn't
6:21
Speaker 1: pick up and they figured that she would call back
6:23
Speaker 1: on Sunday like she normally did. So the next day, Saturday,
6:27
Speaker 1: May twenty fifth, Kristin was attending a party at a
6:29
Speaker 1: fraternity house off campus. Kristin was wearing black running shorts
6:34
Speaker 1: with a cropped T shirt and red athletic shoes. Since
6:37
Speaker 1: it was a warm spring evening. Her and a few
6:40
Speaker 1: friends left their dorm at eight thirty pm. But Kristin's
6:43
Speaker 1: friends didn't want to go to the party, so they
6:46
Speaker 1: dropped Kristin off a couple of blocks away. And I
6:48
Speaker 1: guess it was like a friend's birthday party, but you
6:51
Speaker 1: know how college parties are, like there's a ton of
6:53
Speaker 1: people there, and you know, you don't always know all
6:56
Speaker 1: the people.
6:57
Speaker 2: You probably know someone, but you definitely don't know every exactly.
7:01
Speaker 1: And her like group of friends was not with her.
7:04
Speaker 1: They didn't want to go to the party, so she
7:06
Speaker 1: was like alone. She probably knew people there, but she
7:09
Speaker 1: wasn't like with her group of friends. So around two am,
7:12
Speaker 1: Tim Davis, who was a senior at cal Poly and
7:16
Speaker 1: was one of the hosts of the party, was making
7:18
Speaker 1: sure that everyone was leaving the house when he saw
7:21
Speaker 1: Kristin laying on the lawn passed out. When he tried
7:24
Speaker 1: to wake her up, she was visibly like very impaired,
7:27
Speaker 1: clearly having had a lot to drink, and reports made
7:31
Speaker 1: by people at the party very a ton about how
7:33
Speaker 1: much Kristin was drinking, some saying she was like chugging
7:36
Speaker 1: vodka and some saying she wasn't drinking at all. So
7:40
Speaker 1: it's like unclear how much she actually had to drink,
7:42
Speaker 1: but she was definitely out of it when Tim found her,
7:46
Speaker 1: and he woke her up and decided that she was
7:48
Speaker 1: in no condition to walk home. And let me just
7:52
Speaker 1: say thank goodness. Where people liked Tim? Yeah, because I
7:55
Speaker 1: feel like some people, especially like a senior who sees
7:59
Speaker 1: like a freshman laying on his lawn or his friend's lawn,
8:04
Speaker 1: you know, they would like just have left her or
8:07
Speaker 1: tried to get her to walk home herself or.
8:09
Speaker 2: Something like that, like they don't want to get involved.
8:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So Tim and his friend Cheryl Anderson were
8:17
Speaker 1: beginning to walk Kristin home when another student, Paul Flores,
8:20
Speaker 1: joined them. They were all walking home together. So let's
8:26
Speaker 1: take a quick detour and talk a little bit about
8:28
Speaker 1: Paul Flores. It was pretty much impossible to find many
8:33
Speaker 1: facts about him and his early life, but he was
8:37
Speaker 1: the same age as Kristin and was also a cal
8:39
Speaker 1: Poly student studying food science. In December of the year
8:43
Speaker 1: before Kristen's disappearance, Flores was actually apprehended by the San
8:47
Speaker 1: Luis Obispo Police after being suspected of being a peeping
8:52
Speaker 1: tom or attempting to break into an off campus apartment. Yeah,
8:58
Speaker 1: but he was never arrested and it was never reported
9:01
Speaker 1: to the cal Poly Police department, so nothing really came
9:06
Speaker 1: of that. And then two months before Kristen's disappearance, another
9:09
Speaker 1: report was filed with the Slow Police by the same
9:11
Speaker 1: people who reported harassing phone calls that had been happening
9:15
Speaker 1: for six weeks where the caller would just call, say
9:18
Speaker 1: nothing and hang up, so they and they suspected it
9:22
Speaker 1: with Flora since he was the one that was like
9:25
Speaker 1: being a peeping tom the previous year and trying to
9:27
Speaker 1: break in, But again he was never charged or officially
9:30
Speaker 1: recognized as a suspect. Like, basically nothing came of it.
9:35
Speaker 1: So back to that evening in May nineteen ninety six.
9:38
Speaker 1: Floras was also at the party and they were seen.
9:42
Speaker 1: Him and Kristen were seen briefly talking to each other,
9:44
Speaker 1: but not like hanging out like you would with a friend,
9:48
Speaker 1: just like they knew each other but not friends. And
9:52
Speaker 1: as they were walking home, remember it's Tim, Cheryl and
9:56
Speaker 1: then Paul Floras and Kristen. And as they we were
10:00
Speaker 1: walking home, Flores was helping support Kristin, who could walk
10:04
Speaker 1: on her own but was unstable. Tim left the group
10:08
Speaker 1: first because he lived off campus and like left to
10:11
Speaker 1: go get his car and drive home, and then Cheryl
10:14
Speaker 1: left because her dorm was the next that they passed by.
10:17
Speaker 1: And as far as anyone knows, Cheryl was the last
10:20
Speaker 1: person besides Paul Flores to see Kristin alive, so.
10:23
Speaker 2: They left her with peeping Paul.
10:24
Speaker 1: That's really great, right, but nobody knows that he is right,
10:29
Speaker 1: has been like accused of that at all because he
10:32
Speaker 1: literally like it's been filed, Yeah, exactly. So according to Flores,
10:40
Speaker 1: he offered to walk her to her dorm, I think,
10:43
Speaker 1: but then he later told police that he walked her
10:46
Speaker 1: as far as his dorm, which was Santa Lucia Hall,
10:49
Speaker 1: and then let her walk the rest of the way
10:51
Speaker 1: to her dorm, which was Mure Hall, and I actually
10:53
Speaker 1: asked my sister, like how far apart these dorms are,
10:57
Speaker 1: and she said they're basically part of the same door
11:00
Speaker 1: dorm block area, so they're like three minutes apart, like
11:04
Speaker 1: basically the next building over. So according to him, he
11:09
Speaker 1: walked her to his dorm and then let her go
11:12
Speaker 1: the three minute walk to her dorm.
11:15
Speaker 2: But who knows, you know, we'll see he really knows. Yeah.
11:19
Speaker 1: Yeah. So on May twenty seventh, which was the Monday
11:23
Speaker 1: of that holiday weekend, another cal Poly student, Jennifer Phipps,
11:26
Speaker 1: which I think maybe was Kristen's roommate, but I'm not
11:29
Speaker 1: one hundred percent sure, she called the cal Poly police
11:33
Speaker 1: to report Kristen missing, but at that time they didn't
11:36
Speaker 1: start a report. Kristen wasn't actually reported missing until May
11:41
Speaker 1: twenty eighth, which would have been the following Tuesday. And honestly,
11:46
Speaker 1: that doesn't surprise me because it's like, Okay, it's the weekend,
11:49
Speaker 1: maybe you're not seeing your roommate. Monday you're not seeing
11:53
Speaker 1: You're kind of like, okay, weird, I'm gonna report it.
11:55
Speaker 1: And then by Tuesday she's still not there and you're like, okay,
11:58
Speaker 1: like something something's wrong, right. So this was actually after
12:02
Speaker 1: that same student, Jennifer Phipps, called the Slow police, so
12:06
Speaker 1: not the campus police, but the actual like police of
12:09
Speaker 1: the town, and she was told that it was too
12:11
Speaker 1: early to report, and they referred her back to the
12:15
Speaker 1: cow Poly police, who this time did take the report. So,
12:20
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like that's decently good that she
12:22
Speaker 1: was reported missing so early. I mean, it drives me
12:24
Speaker 1: nuts how long it takes for police departments to actually, like,
12:28
Speaker 1: I take it seriously. But that's not too bad that
12:31
Speaker 1: it was a couple of days. You know, sometimes they
12:35
Speaker 1: like wait like.
12:35
Speaker 2: A week, yeah, exactly.
12:38
Speaker 1: So this day that the missing person's report was filed
12:41
Speaker 1: was also the same day that Kristen's parents, Denise and Stan,
12:45
Speaker 1: had heard that something was going on. So obviously they
12:47
Speaker 1: hadn't heard from her, but I don't think they actually
12:50
Speaker 1: knew that no one had seen her since Friday night
12:53
Speaker 1: until this point on Tuesday. It was known at this
12:56
Speaker 1: point that Flores was the last person to see Kristin alive,
12:59
Speaker 1: and he was interviewed by campus officers and he told
13:02
Speaker 1: them that they separated near Santa Lusiah Hall, which was
13:05
Speaker 1: his dorm. He was interviewed again at the campus police department,
13:10
Speaker 1: but this time by the Slow County DA investigators Bill
13:15
Speaker 1: Hanley and Larry Hobson. Not much came from those initial interviews,
13:20
Speaker 1: and they started doing some on campus searches. Of course,
13:24
Speaker 1: there had been reported sightings of Kristen, but none of
13:27
Speaker 1: them ever panned out, and on June fifth, campus police
13:30
Speaker 1: detective Mike Kennedy searched Kristen's dorm for evidence, and five
13:35
Speaker 1: days later searched Flora's's empty dorm room after he moved
13:39
Speaker 1: out for the year. So this is at like the
13:41
Speaker 1: very end of the school year, so they didn't search
13:44
Speaker 1: his dorm until he moved out. On June nineteenth, those
13:49
Speaker 1: same DA investigators interviewed Flora's again, and according to this
13:53
Speaker 1: article in the Slow Tribune, which is pretty much what
13:56
Speaker 1: I'm going to be quoting when I quote stuff throughout
13:59
Speaker 1: this whole episode, and all of the sources will be
14:01
Speaker 1: linked in the show notes. But according to this article
14:03
Speaker 1: quote during the videotaped interview, Flores tells investigators that he
14:08
Speaker 1: lied when he previously stated he received a black eye
14:12
Speaker 1: playing basketball. He says he actually received the injury while
14:15
Speaker 1: working on his truck. Flores abruptly walks out of the
14:19
Speaker 1: interview before it concludes and says he won't answer any
14:22
Speaker 1: more questions. A little sketchy. Yeah yeah. So finally, on
14:30
Speaker 1: June twenty sixth, more than a month since Kristen was
14:33
Speaker 1: last seen, the university police chief was able to get
14:37
Speaker 1: the Slow County Sheriff's office to take over the case.
14:41
Speaker 1: A few days later, there was a massive search of
14:43
Speaker 1: the campus, bringing out around four hundred volunteers to look
14:47
Speaker 1: for Kristin. They also searched a local landfill and although
14:51
Speaker 1: they didn't find anything for like, search dogs separately reacted
14:56
Speaker 1: to Flores's dorm room and his mattress. And these were
15:00
Speaker 1: dogs that were specifically trained to search for human remains.
15:04
Speaker 1: So take that as you will. I personally believe that
15:07
Speaker 1: dogs are incredibly smart and those search dogs can indicate
15:10
Speaker 1: a lot. But it doesn't seem like the investigators took
15:13
Speaker 1: the dog's indication very seriously. They like didn't really do
15:19
Speaker 1: anything about it.
15:21
Speaker 2: Which is unfortunate because that's what they're trained to do. Like,
15:23
Speaker 2: they do very specific training for those kind of dogs,
15:26
Speaker 2: like the cadaver dogs, the drug dogs like they hone
15:29
Speaker 2: in on that scent and that sin alone.
15:32
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, exactly, trust your dog, dude, yeah really.
15:38
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, police searched Flora's home, which I
15:41
Speaker 1: believe at this point was his parents' house where he
15:43
Speaker 1: lived with them, but they didn't find anything at that time,
15:47
Speaker 1: and finally after that a missing poster billboard was put
15:50
Speaker 1: up for Kristen. Not much happened in the investigation. After this.
15:55
Speaker 1: Prosecutors did subpoena people to testify before a grand jury,
15:59
Speaker 1: including Flora's and his parents, but nothing seemed to have
16:02
Speaker 1: come of that. Six months after Kristin went missing, her
16:05
Speaker 1: parents filed a forty million dollar wrongful death civil lawsuit
16:10
Speaker 1: against Paul Flores, ledging that he murdered their daughter, and
16:14
Speaker 1: the Smart's attorney did interview witnesses for that civil suit,
16:18
Speaker 1: but nothing much came from that either, and to this day,
16:21
Speaker 1: the civil suit is actually still ongoing, mainly due to
16:25
Speaker 1: the fact that there is an ongoing criminal investigation. In
16:29
Speaker 1: March nineteen ninety seven, the Smart's attorney began a search
16:33
Speaker 1: of some rental properties owned by Flores's parents in a
16:36
Speaker 1: royal Grande, which is about fifteen miles away from Slow. Unfortunately, though,
16:41
Speaker 1: the search didn't bring up anything tangible. In May nineteen
16:45
Speaker 1: ninety seven, as the one year anniversary of Kristen's disappearance
16:49
Speaker 1: was approaching, the sheriff on the case stated that there
16:52
Speaker 1: were no other suspects besides Paul Flores, who was a
16:56
Speaker 1: person of interest at this point. Two months later, the
17:00
Speaker 1: sheriff finally asked for FBI assistance in the case. They
17:04
Speaker 1: did go and sift through some of the dirt around
17:07
Speaker 1: Flores's dorm, but they never found anything. The FBI interviewed
17:12
Speaker 1: a ton of cal Poly students and staff, but I
17:14
Speaker 1: don't think anything really came of it at that point.
17:16
Speaker 1: I mean, the people who had seen her had already
17:20
Speaker 1: been interviewed, and when they were going back to their
17:23
Speaker 1: dorms it was like two am, so there weren't a
17:25
Speaker 1: ton of people out anyway, right, And it almost feels
17:28
Speaker 1: to me that everything was sort of like half asked
17:31
Speaker 1: in the investigation. But they at the same time, I
17:35
Speaker 1: feel like they are doing everything that they could other
17:39
Speaker 1: than listening to the dogs. Like they can't search him
17:42
Speaker 1: or his home anymore because they did search and nothing
17:45
Speaker 1: came up. But clearly there was some sort of wrongdoing
17:49
Speaker 1: and he was the last person to see her, so
17:53
Speaker 1: you know, they could have maybe done something, but at
17:56
Speaker 1: this point they've interviewed him as many times as they
17:59
Speaker 1: can and haven't gotten anything substantial.
18:01
Speaker 2: So, yeah, that's unfortunate. They could have. I don't know,
18:05
Speaker 2: I feel like they should have called in like maybe
18:08
Speaker 2: a more seasoned dog, like cadaver dog that could, you know,
18:13
Speaker 2: check the mattress and stuff, you know, just like as
18:15
Speaker 2: a double check on it, because if it hit once,
18:18
Speaker 2: like something is there, you know, even if it's not
18:22
Speaker 2: her remain there, didn't do any samples like nothing.
18:27
Speaker 1: Come on, no, exactly. So on August twelfth, nineteen ninety eight,
18:34
Speaker 1: so it's now been more than two years, the California
18:37
Speaker 1: governor at the time, Pete Wilson, signed a new law
18:40
Speaker 1: called the Christen Smart Campus Safety Act of nineteen ninety eight,
18:44
Speaker 1: and according to the Slow Tribune quote, the law required
18:47
Speaker 1: universities to contact law enforcement when violent crimes occur on campus.
18:52
Speaker 1: So at least something someone positive came out of this. Yeah.
18:57
Speaker 1: On May twenty fifth, two thousand and two, the fifth
19:00
Speaker 1: anniversary of Christen's disappearance, she was declared legally dead. And
19:05
Speaker 1: at that point the case went cold and nothing really
19:10
Speaker 1: happened after that for almost fifteen years.
19:14
Speaker 2: Wow, that's so crazy.
19:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, So now we're going to jump way forward to
19:21
Speaker 1: May of twenty sixteen, the twentieth anniversary of Kristen's disappearance.
19:27
Speaker 1: Slow Sheriff Ian Parkinson, who is still the sheriff today
19:31
Speaker 1: at this point, had dedicated himself to solving the case,
19:35
Speaker 1: and he was working on it since he was elected
19:38
Speaker 1: in twenty ten. He was always in communication with Kristen's
19:42
Speaker 1: parents and solving the case kind of became a personal
19:45
Speaker 1: matter to him. In twenty fifteen, he even assigned a
19:49
Speaker 1: new detective to the case to try to get some
19:51
Speaker 1: fresh eyes, and Parkinson was briefed on the case and
19:55
Speaker 1: its progress every two to three weeks, so he was
19:59
Speaker 1: kind of like determined to get this case solved. According
20:03
Speaker 1: to the Slow Tribune on the twentieth anniversary quote, the
20:07
Speaker 1: Smart family issued a statement saying she was a girl
20:10
Speaker 1: with dreams and visions for the future. We planned to
20:13
Speaker 1: find a way for them to live on. So they
20:16
Speaker 1: were kind of like, like, we know, something bad happened,
20:20
Speaker 1: but at this point we have to focus on like
20:23
Speaker 1: the positive of her life and you know, like move
20:26
Speaker 1: on as much as we can.
20:29
Speaker 2: That must have been so hard, you know, I don't know,
20:32
Speaker 2: to have no closure but have to focus on like
20:34
Speaker 2: the good I know.
20:36
Speaker 1: So in September of that year, we finally had some
20:40
Speaker 1: real movement in the case. On September sixth, twenty sixteen,
20:44
Speaker 1: the Slow Sheriff announced that they would be excavating sites
20:47
Speaker 1: on a hillside on campus near the well known cal
20:51
Speaker 1: Poly p And I've actually been to this hillside in
20:54
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and I hiked up to the p. It's
20:58
Speaker 1: basically right behind a lot of the on campus dorms,
21:02
Speaker 1: and it's a common like hiking trail for students. There's
21:05
Speaker 1: it's basically a hill, there's a pee on the hillside,
21:08
Speaker 1: and then above it there's kind of like a deck
21:10
Speaker 1: where you can like look over the city and the campus.
21:14
Speaker 1: So a lot of students would, you know, hike up there.
21:16
Speaker 1: My sister has done it a ton of times. The
21:19
Speaker 1: Sheriff Parkinson announced that quote a new lead strongly suggests
21:25
Speaker 1: Smart's remains may be buried on that hillside, And from
21:29
Speaker 1: the Slow Tribune articles that I read, it sounds like
21:32
Speaker 1: this all came from that new detective being assigned to
21:35
Speaker 1: the case and starting to look through all of the
21:38
Speaker 1: old files. So Parkinson coming in and making that decision
21:41
Speaker 1: really like did kick start the case, and like props
21:45
Speaker 1: to him for doing that. The Hillside actually was searched
21:49
Speaker 1: back in June of nineteen ninety six, but they never
21:53
Speaker 1: dug anything up or anything. And this time they planned
21:56
Speaker 1: to dig at least three feet in areas where where
22:00
Speaker 1: FBI human remains detection dogs alerted at several specific points,
22:06
Speaker 1: so they were like searching multiple areas at the hill
22:09
Speaker 1: and this time they were going to dig.
22:11
Speaker 2: That's good. So they didn't dig the first time.
22:14
Speaker 1: Right, they just like shift sifted through it. At the
22:17
Speaker 1: end of this search, they took away quote bones and
22:20
Speaker 1: a possible item of interest, but the bones are later
22:24
Speaker 1: revealed to be animal bones. So one year later after
22:29
Speaker 1: this search, the Sheriff's office like basically said that the
22:33
Speaker 1: search was beneficial, but they haven't said anything else about
22:38
Speaker 1: the dig since. Moving forward again to September of twenty nineteen,
22:42
Speaker 1: a podcast was actually created devoted to Kristen's disappearance. It's
22:47
Speaker 1: called Your Own Backyard and it is an amazing investigative
22:51
Speaker 1: podcast by Chris Lambert, and I highly recommend you all
22:54
Speaker 1: go listen to it if you want more details about
22:58
Speaker 1: this case, because he actually uncovered a lot while doing
23:02
Speaker 1: the podcast, So I'm going to talk about some of
23:04
Speaker 1: it here, but it was it's really neat to listen
23:07
Speaker 1: to him like uncover it all and kind of bring
23:11
Speaker 1: some new leads into the case. So what your Own
23:14
Speaker 1: Backyard led to basically alleges that Paul Flores killed Kristen
23:20
Speaker 1: and then called his dad to help him in the
23:23
Speaker 1: middle of the night, and that his parents helped him
23:26
Speaker 1: cover it up and possibly even buried Kristen's remains and
23:30
Speaker 1: or belongings in the backyard at their house.
23:33
Speaker 2: My jaw just hit the floor. Wow, that's I mean,
23:37
Speaker 2: I definitely Paul was on my radar too, but like
23:40
Speaker 2: to have his parents like help, I mean, obviously we
23:43
Speaker 2: don't know that yet, but still that's like, right, No,
23:48
Speaker 2: that's not parenting, it's not parenting. Oh my gosh, that's crazy.
23:56
Speaker 1: So I'm going to talk about some of like what
23:59
Speaker 1: he discovered. Hear what Chris Lambert, the person who did
24:02
Speaker 1: the podcast, discovered, but there is more that he talks about.
24:06
Speaker 1: So again, i'd recommend listening to it and it will
24:09
Speaker 1: be linked in the show notes as well. First of all,
24:12
Speaker 1: Flores's mother, Susan, apparently went into work the morning after
24:18
Speaker 1: the weekend that Kristen disappeared, complaining to a colleague at
24:22
Speaker 1: the time that she had slept poorly since her husband
24:26
Speaker 1: had gotten a call in the middle of the night
24:27
Speaker 1: and left the house in his car. So this led
24:30
Speaker 1: to speculation that he had gotten a call from his
24:32
Speaker 1: son Paul after he killed Kristen. It's never been said
24:37
Speaker 1: or proven, but that's what everybody speculates, right.
24:43
Speaker 2: Wow.
24:44
Speaker 1: Another discovery that I'm going to quote from a CBS article.
24:48
Speaker 1: Quote in October nineteen ninety six, Mary Lasseter was renting
24:52
Speaker 1: Paul Flores's mother's house in a royal Grande when she
24:56
Speaker 1: found a woman's earring in the driveway. So this is
24:59
Speaker 1: like how many months may October. It's the same year
25:03
Speaker 1: that that Kristin disappeared, like five months later. She says
25:06
Speaker 1: the jewelry appeared to match a necklace that Kristen Smart
25:10
Speaker 1: was wearing in one of the missing posters, and the
25:13
Speaker 1: earring was actually turned over to the San Luis Obispo
25:16
Speaker 1: Sheriff's Office detective, but it was never marked as evidence
25:21
Speaker 1: and basically it was lost.
25:23
Speaker 2: Of course it was.
25:25
Speaker 1: And this is the last like discovery that came from
25:29
Speaker 1: the podcast about this case. And although it's never led
25:35
Speaker 1: to anything or like been proven, this one is like
25:41
Speaker 1: the craziest one and it's like so fucking creepy to me.
25:45
Speaker 1: So just get ready, okay. And this is also what
25:48
Speaker 1: kind of like blew up the podcast and brought like
25:51
Speaker 1: a lot of media attention and liked to the podcast
25:55
Speaker 1: and to the case as a whole. So Chris Lambert
25:57
Speaker 1: really did an amazing thing with this podcast, and like
26:01
Speaker 1: I think he's a big part in like why this
26:03
Speaker 1: case had a lot of movement, So shout out to him.
26:06
Speaker 1: From a Record Net article, and I'm gonna read this quote.
26:09
Speaker 1: It's a little bit long, but I didn't want to
26:11
Speaker 1: try to paraphrase it. Quote a tenant who lived for
26:15
Speaker 1: a year at Susan Flores's home, and I in some
26:19
Speaker 1: places heard that it was the same tenant that found
26:22
Speaker 1: the earring, but in others it didn't say, so I'm
26:24
Speaker 1: not going to say if it was or not. So
26:27
Speaker 1: this tenant told Chris Lambert, the podcast host, that she
26:31
Speaker 1: heard a watch alarm every morning at four twenty am.
26:36
Speaker 1: Smart had worked as a lifeguard at five am at
26:40
Speaker 1: the cow poly pool, so it's possible she set her
26:44
Speaker 1: watch to wake up at that early hour.
26:47
Speaker 2: Wow.
26:47
Speaker 1: So I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty
26:51
Speaker 1: damn compelling to me.
26:52
Speaker 2: That's some compelling evidence, definitely worth this flooring further.
26:57
Speaker 1: You know. Yep, those watches like have the longest damn
27:03
Speaker 1: battery lives and once you set an alarm, like it
27:06
Speaker 1: will like go off every morning. So that's just really
27:09
Speaker 1: sketchy that that was happening. And it's not like they
27:16
Speaker 1: could find like this tenant, couldn't like find it somewhere
27:20
Speaker 1: in the house or something like that. Like, I don't know.
27:23
Speaker 1: It's just very sketchy, and in my opinion, my opinion,
27:28
Speaker 1: only it could indicate that Kristin and or her belongings
27:35
Speaker 1: were buried in Susan Flores's backyard.
27:37
Speaker 2: I yeah, I agree, And they should definitely explore that further,
27:41
Speaker 2: because it's, like we said on the last episode, it's
27:44
Speaker 2: better to like explore something and be wrong than to
27:49
Speaker 2: just be like, eh, yeah, there's no way, and then
27:52
Speaker 2: there could be like major breakthroughs in cases that you're
27:56
Speaker 2: just not willing to look further into which is absurd.
28:00
Speaker 1: Yep, I agree with you, and that kind of leads
28:05
Speaker 1: another really good segue from you into what I was
28:08
Speaker 1: going to talk about next. It basically like a lot
28:13
Speaker 1: of people were like, why the hell was her backyard
28:15
Speaker 1: not looked at more? And you know, like why didn't
28:21
Speaker 1: they just dig it up to prove if it was
28:24
Speaker 1: if something was there?
28:25
Speaker 2: Right?
28:26
Speaker 1: So I'm going to explain the timeline of like what
28:29
Speaker 1: searching happened in that backyard, and this timeline comes from
28:34
Speaker 1: dig uptheyard dot com and they do go into more
28:38
Speaker 1: details on that website, so if you want to look
28:40
Speaker 1: through it, it will be linked in the show notes.
28:42
Speaker 1: But I'm going to kind of give like an outline
28:44
Speaker 1: of what happened over the whole time that Kristin was
28:49
Speaker 1: missing in that backyard. Okay, So in June two thousand,
28:53
Speaker 1: the Slow Sheriff's Office had a search warrant and actually
28:57
Speaker 1: ended up searching the backyard, but they didn't find anything,
28:59
Speaker 1: and should be noted that they did not dig anything up.
29:03
Speaker 1: And my guess would be they like basically looked around
29:07
Speaker 1: to see if they could see anything sketchy and didn't
29:09
Speaker 1: see anything. So in May two thousand and seven, an
29:14
Speaker 1: unnamed FBI agent decided to, as a private citizen, contact
29:19
Speaker 1: Susan Flores, and she actually agreed to allow him to
29:24
Speaker 1: search a portion of her backyard without a warrant. So again,
29:29
Speaker 1: he was not acting as a police force or anything.
29:32
Speaker 1: He was an FBI agent, but in this case he
29:35
Speaker 1: was doing this on his own time as a private citizen.
29:38
Speaker 1: So although nothing was found, this FBI agent still thinks
29:43
Speaker 1: that Kristen's body is in that backyard, just not where
29:47
Speaker 1: he was allowed to search. And I honestly think that
29:50
Speaker 1: that is so sketchy, Like, if you're not hiding anything,
29:54
Speaker 1: why limit the search to only one portion? Like if
29:57
Speaker 1: somebody accused me of something and I wasn't guilty, I
30:00
Speaker 1: would do everything to prove I was innocent and like
30:04
Speaker 1: let them search everywhere they wanted. And Susan Flores didn't
30:08
Speaker 1: do that. He basically made this FBI agent. She she
30:13
Speaker 1: basically made this FBI agent only search in one portion
30:17
Speaker 1: of the backyard. So of course he didn't find anything
30:19
Speaker 1: because she probably let him search where nothing was exactly
30:23
Speaker 1: And also just a little interesting side note, it has
30:27
Speaker 1: been reported in the early two thousands that concrete was
30:31
Speaker 1: poured in the Flora's yard the same weekend.
30:33
Speaker 2: Kristen vanished, Oh, well, that's definitely suspicious.
30:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. In June twenty fifteen, this is the next step
30:45
Speaker 1: of what happened in the backyard, A retired detective Paul Dosti,
30:49
Speaker 1: took his cadaverdog Buster to search the perimeter of the
30:54
Speaker 1: Flora's property. Now, I'm pretty sure they only searched around
30:58
Speaker 1: the property and like couldn't actually go in to it.
31:00
Speaker 1: And I can't remember where I heard this, but I
31:03
Speaker 1: think that they basically like were able to go into
31:05
Speaker 1: a neighbor's yard and go up to the fence of
31:08
Speaker 1: the Flora's property, but they didn't actually like go in
31:13
Speaker 1: the yard. And according to that dig up the Yard article, quote,
31:17
Speaker 1: Buster alerted to the presence of human decomposition four separate
31:21
Speaker 1: times on the Flora's property. And you know, as we've
31:25
Speaker 1: kind of said, there's always questions about cadaver dogs like this,
31:30
Speaker 1: but Buster is actually super well known and very credible.
31:35
Speaker 1: According to a Daily Male article I found, he is
31:37
Speaker 1: quote the mystery solving three legged dog who has helped
31:42
Speaker 1: track down the remains of two hundred people, including lost
31:45
Speaker 1: soldiers and murder victims. Wow. So he apparently helped find
31:49
Speaker 1: a World War II pilot whose plane had crashed in
31:52
Speaker 1: Belgium in nineteen forty four. So all I'm saying like is,
31:56
Speaker 1: as far as dogs go, he is pretty damn credible.
31:59
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and he's old. He would have to
32:02
Speaker 2: be so old.
32:02
Speaker 1: By the Whitney, I think that it was like the
32:06
Speaker 1: plane crashed in nineteen forty four, but they later Yeah, yeah,
32:10
Speaker 1: I had the same thought.
32:12
Speaker 2: But yeah, I was like, oh, he's a miracle dog.
32:17
Speaker 1: It might not be a miracle dog living forever, but
32:20
Speaker 1: he is pretty damn credible. So yeah, that happened. That
32:24
Speaker 1: alert happened, but the slow Sheriff's department never did anything
32:29
Speaker 1: about it. So like, despite Dosty's attempts to get them
32:34
Speaker 1: to take like a soil sample from the backyard, they
32:38
Speaker 1: never did anything about it.
32:41
Speaker 2: So bizarre.
32:42
Speaker 1: So that's all that happened in the Flora's backyard. The
32:46
Speaker 1: Sheriff's department has not ever gone back and dug anything
32:50
Speaker 1: up or used any of the technology that's like available
32:53
Speaker 1: today to determine if there are human remains underground. So
32:58
Speaker 1: all of these discoveries and allegations came out from Lambert's podcast,
33:01
Speaker 1: and the case was gaining momentum. Then in January of
33:05
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, some huge news hit when Denise Smart was
33:09
Speaker 1: apparently told by the FBI that a new development in
33:12
Speaker 1: the case was imminent and to quote be ready. So
33:16
Speaker 1: this got a lot of attention, and it was actually
33:18
Speaker 1: when I this was like when I started looking into
33:20
Speaker 1: the case more and I found your own Backyard podcast
33:24
Speaker 1: and like listened to it and was all in. Now,
33:28
Speaker 1: this actually didn't lead to anything big as far as
33:33
Speaker 1: anything that the media could get their hands on. We
33:36
Speaker 1: didn't hear any big news from the investigators, and the
33:40
Speaker 1: Smarts did share that they were disappointed. Eleven days later,
33:44
Speaker 1: on January twenty ninth, twenty twenty, the Sheriff's office announced
33:48
Speaker 1: quote since twenty eleven, it has served eighteen search warrants,
33:53
Speaker 1: conducted physical evidence searches at nine locations, submitted thirty seven
33:58
Speaker 1: evidence items from the early days of the case for
34:01
Speaker 1: modern DNA testing, recovered one hundred and forty new items
34:04
Speaker 1: of evidence, including two trucks that belonged to members of
34:07
Speaker 1: the Floores family in nineteen ninety six. In addition, the
34:11
Speaker 1: agency says it has conducted ninety one in person interviews,
34:14
Speaker 1: written three hundred and sixty four supplemental reports related to
34:17
Speaker 1: the case, and spent approximately sixty two thousand dollars in
34:21
Speaker 1: investigation expenses during this time. So, like, that's all fine
34:26
Speaker 1: in D and D, but don't come and say expect
34:29
Speaker 1: something big and then not share anything big.
34:32
Speaker 2: Get the family's hopes of that's why would they do
34:34
Speaker 2: that after so many years of nothing, you.
34:37
Speaker 1: Know, right, And according to like some of the articles
34:41
Speaker 1: that I read, the FBI basically said like we never
34:44
Speaker 1: said that and whatever, But like I don't know, yeah,
34:47
Speaker 1: but either way. On February fifth, twenty twenty four, search
34:52
Speaker 1: warrants were served for specific items of evidence in four
34:56
Speaker 1: separate locations Susan and Reuben Flores's homes. They lived in
35:02
Speaker 1: separate homes. I'm assuming they were like not together. So
35:05
Speaker 1: these were both in Arroyo Grande, California, near Slow Paul
35:09
Speaker 1: Flores's home in Sampedro, California, and at his sister's home
35:14
Speaker 1: in Washington State. So we basically don't know a lot
35:18
Speaker 1: about these warrants since they were sealed by the court.
35:22
Speaker 1: But just over one year later, on February eleventh, twenty
35:26
Speaker 1: twenty one, Paul Flores was arrested in Los Angeles on
35:30
Speaker 1: suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm,
35:35
Speaker 1: which actually came from information obtained the previous year in
35:39
Speaker 1: the searches. On March fifteenth, twenty twenty one, the Sheriff's
35:43
Speaker 1: office got a warrant to search Reuben Flores's home in
35:46
Speaker 1: a Royal Grande, bringing cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar.
35:52
Speaker 1: The search took two days, but because this is an
35:54
Speaker 1: ongoing investigation, nothing was shared about what was found. But finally,
36:00
Speaker 1: on April thirteenth, twenty twenty one, almost twenty five years
36:05
Speaker 1: since Kristen Smart disappeared, Paul and Ruben Flores were taken
36:10
Speaker 1: into custody. At a news conference that same afternoon, surrounded
36:18
Speaker 1: by photos of Kristin the timeline of her case and
36:21
Speaker 1: photos of the Flora's men being arrested, the Slow Sheriff
36:25
Speaker 1: Parkinson spoke. He announced that Paul Flores had been arrested
36:30
Speaker 1: for the murder of Kristen Smart, and Rubin Flores had
36:33
Speaker 1: been arrested as an accessory to the murder. He explained
36:37
Speaker 1: the timeline of the investigation of this case, and he
36:40
Speaker 1: even mentioned the Your Own Backyard podcast and how that
36:43
Speaker 1: helped bring some more information to light. The investigators had
36:48
Speaker 1: actually gotten a court order to monitor Paul Flores's text
36:52
Speaker 1: messages and phone calls, and he said that the searches
36:55
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty led to discovery of evidence related to
36:59
Speaker 1: the murder of Kristin Smart, both in Paul and Ruben
37:03
Speaker 1: Flores's homes. So this is what led to those arrest warrants.
37:09
Speaker 2: I wonder what they found.
37:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they basically were going to find out a
37:13
Speaker 1: little bit, but because it's like literally going to trial soon, like,
37:19
Speaker 1: they couldn't share much. So Parkinson announced that Paul was
37:23
Speaker 1: charged with murder and had, you know, no bail. He
37:26
Speaker 1: wasn't getting out that Ruben was charged with accessory to
37:29
Speaker 1: murder with a two hundred fifty thousand dollars bail. And
37:33
Speaker 1: unfortunately they weren't able to share any details about what
37:36
Speaker 1: was found since the warrants were sealed and that it
37:39
Speaker 1: was a case that would go to trial, but he
37:41
Speaker 1: did say that physical evidence was found in at least
37:44
Speaker 1: two homes. He also said that they had not discovered
37:48
Speaker 1: Kristen's remains, and he basically vowed to to continue searching
37:54
Speaker 1: until they did.
37:55
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully Paul does the right thing and just confesses
37:59
Speaker 2: and gives up up where her body is. And what
38:02
Speaker 2: about the mother, Like, she didn't, She didn't get arrested
38:05
Speaker 2: for being an accessory.
38:07
Speaker 1: She didn't at this time?
38:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, interesting. Interesting.
38:11
Speaker 1: So Paul Flores's attorney actually put a motion for a
38:15
Speaker 1: gag order which would basically prevent any parties from publicly
38:18
Speaker 1: commenting on the case outside of the courtroom, and it
38:21
Speaker 1: was granted by a judge on April nineteenth. Both men
38:25
Speaker 1: pled not guilty to their charges. Thankfully, the judge denied
38:30
Speaker 1: Paul's bail, but did lower reubens bail to fifty thousand
38:33
Speaker 1: dollars and he was released on April twenty first. It
38:36
Speaker 1: also came out that, aside from being accused of murdering
38:39
Speaker 1: Kristen Smart, Paul Flores had a criminal history, including two
38:43
Speaker 1: ongoing sexual assault investigations and being linked by DNA to
38:48
Speaker 1: an alleged two thousand and seven rape in Redondo Beach.
38:52
Speaker 1: He had not been charged for any of that, so
38:55
Speaker 1: again he was like getting away with stuff. But according
38:59
Speaker 1: to the slow tripe. An article quote a county probation
39:02
Speaker 1: hearing submitted to the court in opposition to bail for
39:05
Speaker 1: either defendant, obtained by The Tribune, reveals for the first
39:09
Speaker 1: time that prosecutors say dozens of women have recounted Paul
39:12
Speaker 1: Floras' sexual assaults and predatory behavior that document his twenty
39:17
Speaker 1: five years as a serial rapist. So like, thank god
39:20
Speaker 1: he didn't get bail. Finally he's being held accountable for something.
39:24
Speaker 2: That's so crazy. How he slipped through the cracks so
39:26
Speaker 2: many times.
39:27
Speaker 1: Yep, it's like the indication of a creep.
39:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. I wonder if his family has like a lot
39:34
Speaker 2: of money and that's how he was able to like
39:37
Speaker 2: get away.
39:37
Speaker 1: With Yeah, maybe X, Y and Z, you know, yeah,
39:41
Speaker 1: very possible.
39:42
Speaker 2: Wow.
39:44
Speaker 1: So on May seventeenth, twenty twenty one, the two men
39:47
Speaker 1: appeared in court in front of Judge Craig Van Ruyan.
39:54
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm saying that right, but go on
39:57
Speaker 1: with it. A twelve day preliminary he was set to
40:00
Speaker 1: begin on July sixth, and that was later delayed after
40:04
Speaker 1: the prosecution had yet to provide all discovery for the case.
40:09
Speaker 1: The preliminary hearing was finally set for July twentieth, and
40:13
Speaker 1: the first in person court room hearing in the case
40:16
Speaker 1: happened on July fourteenth. According to the Tribune quote, Susan
40:20
Speaker 1: Flores was seated in the audience behind Paul. Susan Flores
40:23
Speaker 1: appeared in order to oppose a subpoena to testifying the
40:27
Speaker 1: preliminary hearing, and then they once again pushed off the
40:31
Speaker 1: preliminary hearing to August second, which, as far as I'm aware,
40:36
Speaker 1: as of now, it's still set to begin August second.
40:39
Speaker 1: Deputy District Attorney Chris who oh gosh, this is even
40:43
Speaker 1: a hard name, poorell poovrell, I think he shared quote
40:54
Speaker 1: for the first time in court that rape pornography was
40:58
Speaker 1: found at Flora's sam Pedro home, including homemade videos allegedly
41:02
Speaker 1: showing Flora's raping incapacitated women, and that they quote found
41:06
Speaker 1: two date rape drugs that could be used to render
41:08
Speaker 1: women unable to consent to sex. According to the Tribune,
41:13
Speaker 1: dozens of women are basically willing to attest to quote
41:16
Speaker 1: Flora's long standing sexually predatory behavior.
41:21
Speaker 2: Which makes me wonder how everyone not everyone, but certain
41:25
Speaker 2: reports from the night that she went missing said that
41:29
Speaker 2: she was completely incapacitated. But people also said that they
41:31
Speaker 2: didn't even see her drink that much. So maybe this
41:34
Speaker 2: motherfucker was doing that shit way back then through setting
41:37
Speaker 2: her up for the night, and maybe it got a
41:39
Speaker 2: little bit too out of hand and he ended up
41:41
Speaker 2: killing her. Wow.
41:43
Speaker 1: True, And I didn't even think about it like that.
41:46
Speaker 1: But they basically, like at this point, as the trial
41:49
Speaker 1: goes on, they've like come to the like almost conclusion
41:54
Speaker 1: that they basically think that he it was an attempted
41:57
Speaker 1: race rape went wrong and then he killed her.
42:01
Speaker 2: Yep, that's what it sounds like to me. Can't wait
42:04
Speaker 2: for this motherfucker to get sentenced.
42:08
Speaker 1: Connected. So at this point, the prosecution actually tried to
42:12
Speaker 1: bring the Los Angeles rape allegations like into this case,
42:17
Speaker 1: but that was denied. The judge denied including that in
42:21
Speaker 1: this case, which, like I get it, because it's not
42:26
Speaker 1: involved technically.
42:27
Speaker 2: It's evidence, like it's not protecting to the case, but
42:31
Speaker 2: it is definitely evidence like evidence. Yeah, yeah, I hate that.
42:37
Speaker 1: So Paul Flores's attorney, Robert Sanger, entered a motion to
42:41
Speaker 1: close the proceedings to the public, and the judge also
42:44
Speaker 1: denied that. But with this the judge also unsealed more
42:48
Speaker 1: than eighty pages related to the motion, and this finally
42:52
Speaker 1: revealed to the public more details on what was found
42:56
Speaker 1: in the searches and investigations. So, as I mentioned, they
42:59
Speaker 1: found found those like videos on Flores's computer of him
43:03
Speaker 1: raping women and also reported that twenty nine women accuse
43:08
Speaker 1: him of a variety of sexual misconduct incidents.
43:11
Speaker 2: Nine twenty nine women. Oh my god.
43:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. The other two things that they found make me
43:19
Speaker 1: so happy in the sense that like this is moving
43:21
Speaker 1: towards like proving that he did this, and that we
43:24
Speaker 1: are like that much closer to getting the son of
43:27
Speaker 1: a bitch with these two things that they revealed. So,
43:31
Speaker 1: according to the Slow Tribune article, quote, traces of human
43:35
Speaker 1: blood and fibers, possibly from clothing, was found in samples
43:39
Speaker 1: taken from a roughly four x six patch of disturbed
43:45
Speaker 1: soil under the back deck at Reuben Flores's White Court property.
43:49
Speaker 1: I think that's the street address, and archaeologist said it
43:53
Speaker 1: was likely that a body had been buried at the location,
43:56
Speaker 1: removed and the whole refilled, and basically a spot under
44:01
Speaker 1: the deck like was you know, uh, looked at with
44:05
Speaker 1: ground penetrating radar and that showed that there was an
44:09
Speaker 1: anomaly and soil disturbance indicating that the soil was dug
44:13
Speaker 1: up and put back. And then this same soil they
44:16
Speaker 1: took a sample of it and human blood was detected
44:19
Speaker 1: in both the March fifteenth and sixteenth dig and the
44:22
Speaker 1: April twelfth search. The fibers found were also consistent in
44:26
Speaker 1: color with Kristen's clothing from the night she went missing.
44:30
Speaker 2: So I assume he still resides at the house that
44:33
Speaker 2: they were originally.
44:35
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, I think so. This document also revealed quote.
44:40
Speaker 1: In January, as the criminal investigation intensified, Susan Flores was
44:46
Speaker 1: heard on a wire tap telling Paul Flores on the phone,
44:49
Speaker 1: the other thing I need you to do is start
44:51
Speaker 1: listening to the podcast. I need you to listen to
44:54
Speaker 1: everything they say so we can punch holes in it.
44:57
Speaker 1: Wherever we can punch holes. Maybe we can't. You you're
45:01
Speaker 1: the only one that can tell me. Paul didn't respond
45:04
Speaker 1: to the statement.
45:06
Speaker 2: Bitch, you're getting arrested because you're an accessory like that.
45:10
Speaker 2: She knows, right if she didn't help, she still knows,
45:12
Speaker 2: and she deserves to go to jail too.
45:15
Speaker 1: Susan, Yeah, I agree that, Like that sounds pretty damn
45:19
Speaker 1: guilty to me. I mean, like, of course she could
45:22
Speaker 1: be saying it so that they don't get charged for
45:24
Speaker 1: something they didn't do, but along with everything else, it
45:27
Speaker 1: seems pretty damn guilty.
45:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they found blood and fibers. I mean,
45:31
Speaker 2: they haven't confirmed that it is, you know, linked directly
45:35
Speaker 2: to that crime, but what else would it be.
45:38
Speaker 1: You know, it's along with everything else and him being
45:41
Speaker 1: the last person to see her, like exactly, there's no
45:45
Speaker 1: denying that he was the last person with her. Yeah, yeah, and.
45:49
Speaker 2: He already had that you know, creeper peep tom stuff
45:53
Speaker 2: going on, and it like right, he said, it just
45:56
Speaker 2: got it went a little too far and got a
45:58
Speaker 2: little too out of hand.
45:59
Speaker 1: So that's basically where we're at now. The most recent
46:02
Speaker 1: news was about the judge blocking the prosecutor's attempt to
46:06
Speaker 1: add the rape charges, and the preliminary hearing is still
46:10
Speaker 1: set to happen on August second, So I will definitely
46:15
Speaker 1: be doing an update on this case. I'll probably wait
46:18
Speaker 1: until the trial is done and like maybe even cover
46:21
Speaker 1: the entire trial, especially if they do decide to plead innocent,
46:25
Speaker 1: like that could be a really interesting trial. Who knows, honestly,
46:29
Speaker 1: usually did these kind of things end up like with
46:32
Speaker 1: a plea deal or something like that. But I don't care.
46:34
Speaker 1: I just want him to go to jail. But I
46:39
Speaker 1: will definitely do a follow up once the trial is done.
46:42
Speaker 1: I thought about, like waiting to do this case until
46:45
Speaker 1: like the trial was done, but I wanted to get
46:48
Speaker 1: the story out there, especially since the trial is literally
46:52
Speaker 1: going to happen like next week.
46:53
Speaker 2: So yeah, no, I'm glad you did it now because
46:56
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to like now follow along with the
46:59
Speaker 2: trial and then have like an updated right episode to
47:02
Speaker 2: like let everyone. I mean, I'm sure people are gonna
47:05
Speaker 2: be wanting to follow along and find out what happens regardless,
47:08
Speaker 2: but the ones who don't, they can have another episode.
47:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. So that is the case of the disappearance
47:16
Speaker 1: and alleged murder of Kristin Smart. And I only say
47:19
Speaker 1: alleged because technically, at the time of this recording, it
47:22
Speaker 1: has not been proven. Her remains have not been found,
47:26
Speaker 1: but Paul Forest has been arrested and charged with her murder.
47:30
Speaker 1: If you would like to help or donate in remembrance
47:33
Speaker 1: of Kristin the Smart family, has a website Kristinsmart dot
47:38
Speaker 1: org and Kristen is spelled kris ti n And they
47:43
Speaker 1: actually on this site have a place where people can
47:46
Speaker 1: donate to a scholarship fund. And this fund is for
47:50
Speaker 1: women seeking degrees in law enforcement, forensic science, or architecture,
47:54
Speaker 1: which was what Kristin was studying. The scholarship is called
47:58
Speaker 1: the Justice for Kristen Smart Scholarship. So that's definitely where
48:02
Speaker 1: my next donation is going to be going, because you know,
48:06
Speaker 1: it's something in her to remember her by, and you know, again,
48:11
Speaker 1: they're trying to make as much good out of this
48:13
Speaker 1: as they can. So I hope that the Smart family
48:16
Speaker 1: gets the justice that they deserve, and I hope that
48:19
Speaker 1: Paul Flores gets you know, put he deserves prison for
48:23
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. Yeah. Yeah, So that is
48:26
Speaker 1: the case of Kristen Smart.
48:28
Speaker 2: Wow that was really good and wow, yeah, that's I'm
48:34
Speaker 2: just like mine. Actually I'm not, because this we've heard
48:37
Speaker 2: this time and time again where people drop the ball
48:39
Speaker 2: and all that. But I'm just glad that like something
48:42
Speaker 2: is actually even though it's you know what, they're almost
48:45
Speaker 2: thirty years later, right, thirty yeah, twenty five, twenty five
48:49
Speaker 2: years yeah, wow, I.
48:50
Speaker 1: Know, and like seriously major shout out to Chris Lambert
48:55
Speaker 1: for doing that podcast. I think like basically he had
48:58
Speaker 1: like seen billboards. He was from the area and he
49:00
Speaker 1: had seen billboards for her and like started looking into
49:02
Speaker 1: it and then like really started looking into it, and
49:05
Speaker 1: he interviewed people that had never been interviewed, and he
49:09
Speaker 1: found things that like the only place I was able
49:11
Speaker 1: to find them were from his podcast or articles about
49:15
Speaker 1: his podcast. Yeah, so he definitely. I mean, it's like
49:19
Speaker 1: the guy that did up and vanished. I know, I
49:22
Speaker 1: had a podcast that led to the confession. So yeah,
49:25
Speaker 1: it's this guy is awesome and maybe one day will
49:29
Speaker 1: be able to make that kind of impact.
49:31
Speaker 2: But definitely going to to his podcast.
49:34
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I'm going to listen again. I had listened
49:38
Speaker 1: to it back in like back when that news came
49:41
Speaker 1: out in like January of twenty twenty, and I was
49:43
Speaker 1: going to listen to it again before this, but I
49:45
Speaker 1: didn't want to like listen and then accidentally like say
49:48
Speaker 1: something that you know wasn't like fair. You know. I
49:52
Speaker 1: didn't want to make it like too similar or anything.
49:55
Speaker 1: But I am going to go back and listen again
49:57
Speaker 1: because I just remember it being like so crazy is
50:00
Speaker 1: just like yeah, ridiculous.
50:03
Speaker 2: I know, like you like, she how would she know
50:06
Speaker 2: that that she had to be at work at five
50:08
Speaker 2: am because she's was a lifeguard lifeguard? Yeah, so yeah,
50:13
Speaker 2: how would she know that? She wouldn't know that. But
50:15
Speaker 2: that's very compelling. That's a very like in your face evidence.
50:20
Speaker 2: I mean it's circumstantial, but still yeah with everything else.
50:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that is the case, and I'm glad I
50:30
Speaker 1: got to tell it, and I'm excited to do an update.
50:34
Speaker 1: As soon as that's all done, we will do an update.
50:37
Speaker 1: It'll probably be a couple of months, especially because like
50:39
Speaker 1: the preliminary hearing literally keeps getting delayed. They're not even
50:43
Speaker 1: like at the actual trial yet. Yeah. Part of me
50:46
Speaker 1: hopes that he just like pleads guilty and like it
50:50
Speaker 1: can be done. But the like true crime research lover
50:54
Speaker 1: in me hopes that there's like an actual trial, but
50:58
Speaker 1: for the sake of the smart you know, whatever is quickest.
51:00
Speaker 2: And as song as they get justice, Yeah, yep, yep.
51:05
Speaker 2: And I hope that they find her body.
51:08
Speaker 1: I know me too. I think it's in that back
51:11
Speaker 1: I mean it's in that backyard, or at least it
51:13
Speaker 1: was at one point. Yeah sounds like that could yeah. Yeah,
51:18
Speaker 1: thank you guys for listening. I hope you enjoyed listening.
51:22
Speaker 1: We'll post photos related to this case on our Instagram
51:26
Speaker 1: at in Human Underscore Podcast, so be sure to go
51:29
Speaker 1: check it out see the beautiful Kristen Smart. You can
51:33
Speaker 1: also follow us on Twitter. I know nothing about Twitter,
51:37
Speaker 1: but I am trying, so follow us over on Twitter
51:42
Speaker 1: at in Human Underscore podcast and on TikTok at Inhuman podcast.
51:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, follow us on all the things.
51:51
Speaker 1: And if you guys enjoy this podcast, be sure to subscribe.
51:57
Speaker 1: And if you enjoy listening, we would love if you
52:00
Speaker 1: could leave a rating and or a review. It really
52:03
Speaker 1: helps push us out, especially on iTunes. If you can
52:07
Speaker 1: leave that review, it helps push us out to other people,
52:11
Speaker 1: and we'd love to reach as many people as possible
52:13
Speaker 1: share these stories.
52:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you don't want to write a full review,
52:17
Speaker 2: all you have to do is just hit that little
52:19
Speaker 2: five star and give us a little five star review
52:23
Speaker 2: if you like the podcast.
52:24
Speaker 1: Back life all right, you guys, thank you for listening.
52:26
Speaker 1: We'll see you the next one.
52:28
Speaker 2: Bye bye