Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / BREAKING ARREST! Gorgeous co-ed Kristen Smart DISAPPEARS walking to dorm

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BREAKING ARREST! Gorgeous co-ed Kristen Smart DISAPPEARS walking to dorm · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: Finally, will there be justice in the disappearance of a
0:11
Speaker 1: college girl, Kristen Smart. We're beginning here today because this
0:23
Speaker 1: is where it all began, on the campus of Calphala
0:26
Speaker 1: University on May twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six. This was
0:29
Speaker 1: the last place that Kristen Smart was seen alive. It
0:34
Speaker 1: has been twenty four almost twenty five years since Kristen
0:38
Speaker 1: went missing, twenty four years without a resolution until today.
0:45
Speaker 1: I'm here this afternoon to announce the rest of Paul
0:47
Speaker 1: Flores for the murder of Kristen Smart and the rest
0:51
Speaker 1: of his father, Reuben Flores, as an accessory to the murder.
0:56
Speaker 1: You are hearing a straight from the mouth of San
0:59
Speaker 1: Luis obispo out to shareff Ian Parkinson. Take a listen
1:03
Speaker 1: to more. We have not recovered Kristen. We will continue
1:07
Speaker 1: to focus on finding her remains regardless of any court action.
1:12
Speaker 1: So we will continue the process of finding out where
1:15
Speaker 1: Kristen is. We know that's an important part or important
1:20
Speaker 1: issue with the family. Since I came in office in
1:24
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, we've served over forty one search warrants on
1:27
Speaker 1: this case, dead physical searches of sixteen different locations, one
1:33
Speaker 1: of which was back on the back hill. You may
1:35
Speaker 1: remember a few years ago a complete reexamination of every
1:39
Speaker 1: physical item sees submission of thirty seven items of evidence
1:45
Speaker 1: from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing,
1:50
Speaker 1: recovery of one hundred and ninety three items of physical evidence,
1:55
Speaker 1: new physical evidence. We've conducted approximately one hundred and thirty
1:59
Speaker 1: seven per person interviews and in addition, completed over five
2:04
Speaker 1: hundred additional police reports. I can tell you this file,
2:09
Speaker 1: the size of it is probably in the size if
2:12
Speaker 1: you put it on a hard drive. It's an excess
2:18
Speaker 1: of three terabytes. It's not much involved in this case
2:22
Speaker 1: twenty five years. Finally, in the last hours and arrest
2:28
Speaker 1: in the case of missing girl Kristen Smart, who goes
2:33
Speaker 1: missing off her college campus in nineteen ninety six, or
2:38
Speaker 1: parents brokenhearted but never giving up with me an all
2:43
Speaker 1: star panel to break it down. First of all, Daryl Cohen,
2:46
Speaker 1: former felony prosecutor now defense attorney at Cohen Cooper ESTEP,
2:51
Speaker 1: doctor Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrists, joining me out of the
2:55
Speaker 1: Atlanta jurisdiction at Angela Arnold, MD, dot com Director and
2:59
Speaker 1: founder the Cold Case Research Institute, Forensic experts Cheryl McCollum
3:03
Speaker 1: and investigative journalists Jennifer Sikowski. Jennifer, what happened? So yesterday
3:10
Speaker 1: that Saint Louis Obispo sheriff announced that due to the
3:16
Speaker 1: most recent developments in the warrants that were given to
3:22
Speaker 1: search Ruben Flores's property, that's Paul Flores's father, they were
3:27
Speaker 1: able to make an arrest of both Rubin and Paul Flores.
3:32
Speaker 1: You know what you just said is really the banner
3:38
Speaker 1: arrest of longtime suspect Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores,
3:45
Speaker 1: And I find it very very telling to use. Cheryl McCollum,
3:49
Speaker 1: Director Cold Case Research Institute. Now, while they are not
3:53
Speaker 1: revealing what was taken during the search warrants that led
3:57
Speaker 1: to these two arrests, we know that physical evidence was taken.
4:03
Speaker 1: We know that the grounds of the father, Ruben Flores's home,
4:07
Speaker 1: were searched, so there had to be something there, a trophy,
4:12
Speaker 1: a memento, something. We also have learned that there were
4:16
Speaker 1: wire taps on cell phones and home phones. What does
4:20
Speaker 1: that tell you the items are sealed, Cheryl McCollum, We
4:23
Speaker 1: don't know what they got to support these two arrests,
4:26
Speaker 1: but they got something. Hey, I'm sad it took twenty
4:29
Speaker 1: five years to do it, but it happened. It happened,
4:33
Speaker 1: and it was an unbelievable effort by this agency. Nancy
4:37
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty seven interviews, five hundred additional police reports.
4:42
Speaker 1: They've been working the daylight side of this case. And
4:44
Speaker 1: what it says to me from the very small bags
4:47
Speaker 1: they took out of that house up to a VW
4:50
Speaker 1: bug vehicle, they've got physical evidence and they are going
4:55
Speaker 1: to search the grounds of that home. The deck on
4:57
Speaker 1: that house was built after Kirsten went missing. Okay, now,
5:02
Speaker 1: are you trying to suggest it this is something like
5:05
Speaker 1: a Chase Master scenario where there could be a body
5:09
Speaker 1: under the deck, because they were clear they have not
5:12
Speaker 1: found her body yet. They have not yet, but the
5:15
Speaker 1: search continues. You know, I'm curious. Have they dug up
5:21
Speaker 1: the deck yet? Do you know? All I know is
5:25
Speaker 1: they've used ground penetrating radar. I don't know that they've
5:28
Speaker 1: dug at all yet, but I think that's coming today
5:31
Speaker 1: to Daryl Cohen, a former felony prosecutor who handled lots
5:35
Speaker 1: of homicides now defense attorney. We also know that they
5:38
Speaker 1: revealed they had recovered one hundred and ninety three items
5:43
Speaker 1: including quote, physical evidence. What does that tell you, Daryl
5:46
Speaker 1: Cohen tells me that circumstantial evidence wins the day. It
5:52
Speaker 1: tells me these police officers are homicide people have for
5:56
Speaker 1: twenty five years said I'm not going to lose this case.
6:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to find this person. They had the person
6:02
Speaker 1: of interest that it became a suspect, and now he's
6:06
Speaker 1: a defendant. And it tells me that got him left
6:10
Speaker 1: right up and down and he is toasted. Man. I
6:13
Speaker 1: can only pray Daryld Cohen because doctor Angela Arnold what
6:17
Speaker 1: these two parents? And I feel like I know them
6:20
Speaker 1: well because I have been in talks with them and
6:23
Speaker 1: covering Christen's disappearance for so long. But this must take
6:28
Speaker 1: a devastating toll on them. And today, on a day
6:32
Speaker 1: when many people would think that they would be celebrating
6:36
Speaker 1: and jubilance over the arrest, they are taking no interviews,
6:40
Speaker 1: answering no questions. And I get it. I can't explain
6:43
Speaker 1: it psychiatrically like you can, but I recall when I
6:47
Speaker 1: would manage to get a guilty verdict in a very
6:51
Speaker 1: upsetting let's just say a murder case. I didn't feel
6:54
Speaker 1: like celebrating. People say you gotta go out and celebrating, Like, no, no,
7:00
Speaker 1: I just want to go home. And I can't explain that.
7:03
Speaker 1: And their parents are not taking media requests, they're not speaking,
7:08
Speaker 1: and I get it. I can't explain it, but I
7:10
Speaker 1: get it, Nancy. The death of a child is the
7:14
Speaker 1: ultimate tragedy. It's the number one stressor in a parent's life.
7:20
Speaker 1: All bereaved parents lose a part of themselves. And these
7:25
Speaker 1: parents not only not only did they lose a child,
7:29
Speaker 1: they didn't even know if she was alive or dead
7:31
Speaker 1: for so long, so they didn't have the opportunity to
7:34
Speaker 1: say goodbye. And it's take. I mean, can you imagine
7:38
Speaker 1: this has been twenty five years of their life. I
7:42
Speaker 1: wonder right now what the parents are going through. It's
7:46
Speaker 1: just been living hell for them ever since she went missing,
7:51
Speaker 1: from one botch after the next, after the next after
7:55
Speaker 1: the next, her being missing for days without them finding out.
8:00
Speaker 1: At first it was handed over to campus security. They
8:03
Speaker 1: royally screwed it up. I mean, there's just no other
8:05
Speaker 1: way to put it. And I don't like telling jurars
8:08
Speaker 1: things like that. But you have to speak the truth.
8:11
Speaker 1: It got screwed up from the get go, and now,
8:14
Speaker 1: twenty five years later, finally unarrest Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
8:28
Speaker 1: For those of you just joining us, there has been
8:31
Speaker 1: not one, but two arrests in the nineteen ninety six
8:34
Speaker 1: disappearance of a college girl, Kristen Smart. How did the
8:39
Speaker 1: whole thing start? Take a listen to our friends at
8:42
Speaker 1: crime online dot com. Kristen Smart was a typical college student.
8:46
Speaker 1: She was enrolled at California Polytechnic State University or cal Poly.
8:51
Speaker 1: As a Memorial Day weekend rolled around, Smart made plans
8:54
Speaker 1: to attend a birthday party for a fellow student. After midnight,
8:58
Speaker 1: students l Anderson and Tim Davis walk Smart back to
9:01
Speaker 1: her norm. Along the way, another student from the party,
9:04
Speaker 1: Paul Flores, joins the group. He offers to help Smart
9:07
Speaker 1: get to her dorm room safely. Tim Davis leaves the
9:10
Speaker 1: group first, he lives off campus and drove to the party.
9:13
Speaker 1: Cheryl Anderson broke off heading to her dorm Sierra and
9:16
Speaker 1: Modre Hall. According to Flores, he walked Smart as far
9:19
Speaker 1: as his dormitory and then allowed her to walk back
9:22
Speaker 1: to myrhall alone. This was the last known siding of
9:25
Speaker 1: her smart head, no money or credit cards with her
9:28
Speaker 1: at the time she went missing. Now I want you
9:30
Speaker 1: to hear one of the last time. Again. The parents
9:32
Speaker 1: are not speaking today after these two arrests in the
9:37
Speaker 1: death the murder of their little girl, Kristen Smart, But
9:41
Speaker 1: I want you to hear. And this is very significant
9:44
Speaker 1: with what Kristen's dad's stand told me. Listen, Initially, the
9:50
Speaker 1: campus police thought our daughter had gone camping with friends
9:53
Speaker 1: and this is why should not return to campus, that
9:57
Speaker 1: she had overstayed in the vacation time, and so initially
10:01
Speaker 1: I was a little upset. And although after a week,
10:07
Speaker 1: you know, it had appeared that something horrible had happened,
10:10
Speaker 1: and so I had gone down there to take a
10:13
Speaker 1: look and meet with the campus police. And the campus
10:16
Speaker 1: police were very ill equipped to deal with a missing person.
10:21
Speaker 1: I think probably they would be able to handle students
10:24
Speaker 1: that had been drinking, or if they had been a
10:27
Speaker 1: party or a car parked where it shouldn't be, but
10:29
Speaker 1: they had no idea what to do for an investigation
10:32
Speaker 1: into a missing person, and so I was rather disappointed.
10:37
Speaker 1: And they were real quick to point out that it
10:39
Speaker 1: was our daughter who had made an error, had gone
10:42
Speaker 1: to a party like many students going to college and
10:46
Speaker 1: away from home, and that she gotten into trouble and disappeared,
10:51
Speaker 1: and so they left early to blame with us with
10:54
Speaker 1: our daughter. Well, it gets worse when I told you
10:58
Speaker 1: the campus security botched it up from the get go.
11:01
Speaker 1: Listen to what Kristen's mom, Denise tells me. Obviously, we
11:07
Speaker 1: didn't know the first day. We didn't know the second day.
11:11
Speaker 1: We didn't know the third day because cal Poly did
11:14
Speaker 1: not take a request from her friends to look for her.
11:18
Speaker 1: So by the time Monday evening came around, which was
11:22
Speaker 1: she disappeared Friday night, we didn't hear anything till Monday
11:26
Speaker 1: evening and we got a call from the campus if
11:30
Speaker 1: we knew where she was. And you know, I think
11:33
Speaker 1: every parent will tell you you have a gut reaction
11:36
Speaker 1: when you know something's not right and someone calling you
11:39
Speaker 1: out at the blue and saying do you know where
11:41
Speaker 1: your daughter is? And she's two hundred miles away? Stumps again,
11:46
Speaker 1: just going back to there, I think it says you
11:50
Speaker 1: referenced it. It comes back. It just always comes back.
11:56
Speaker 1: And whenever you hear about a missing child, you really
12:00
Speaker 1: but for that family as well. Christen's mom, A Denise,
12:04
Speaker 1: told me that, so I can only imagine what they're
12:08
Speaker 1: going through right now with the arrest in the last
12:12
Speaker 1: hours of Paul and Ruben Flores, a father and son
12:16
Speaker 1: devilish duo. We know that only two hundred pieces of
12:20
Speaker 1: physical evidence have been taken pursue it to warrant. But
12:23
Speaker 1: what do they reveal this announcement bitter sweet. Yes, there's
12:29
Speaker 1: an arrest, but it's been twenty five years in the making,
12:34
Speaker 1: all of us asking why, Well, here's a clue taking
12:38
Speaker 1: Listen to the timeline as laid out by ksb Y
12:42
Speaker 1: NBC six ME twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six. That's when
12:46
Speaker 1: Smart left an off campus fraternity party around two am
12:49
Speaker 1: and was walked back to her Mure Haul dorm by
12:53
Speaker 1: several people. Paul Flores was one of them and the
12:56
Speaker 1: last person to be seen with her, according to witnesses.
12:59
Speaker 1: Two days later, twenty seventh, Kristen's resident hall neighbor reported
13:03
Speaker 1: her missing. Nearly a month after her disappearance, cow Poly
13:06
Speaker 1: Police turned the case over to the San Luis Obispo
13:09
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's Office, and hundreds of volunteers went on an
13:12
Speaker 1: organized search for Kristen on June twenty ninth. In July
13:16
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, investigators named Paul Flores a key witness.
13:20
Speaker 1: Christen's parents stand in Denise Smart, have filed several lawsuits
13:24
Speaker 1: against Flora's, starting just months after she went missing. In
13:28
Speaker 1: this November nineteen ninety seven deposition, you can hear James Murphy,
13:32
Speaker 1: the Smart family's attorney, asking Flora's about his parents, name,
13:35
Speaker 1: place of work, are you presently employed? And Christen's disappearance.
13:40
Speaker 1: But Flora's refused to answer each question except to say this,
13:43
Speaker 1: on the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer
13:46
Speaker 1: that question based on the Fifth Amendment to the United
13:49
Speaker 1: States Constitution. I mean, Gerald Cohen, former prosecutor now defense attorney.
13:53
Speaker 1: How bad does that look? He won't even say his parents'
13:57
Speaker 1: name takes the Fifth even on that, I mean, what
14:00
Speaker 1: could make you look more guilty? Look unless you take
14:02
Speaker 1: out a sign on Third Avenue it says I'm Paul
14:07
Speaker 1: Flores and I did it. You know, I love it.
14:10
Speaker 1: I always loved it as a prosecutor. Because the best
14:13
Speaker 1: thing they can say is I want to take the
14:16
Speaker 1: Fifth Amendment? Why? Because if I say something, it's going
14:20
Speaker 1: to incriminate me. And if I'm incriminated, i Am going
14:24
Speaker 1: to be arrested and then I'm going to be found
14:27
Speaker 1: guilty or I'll plead guilty. Oh, come on, Fifth Amendment.
14:31
Speaker 1: It works, but it doesn't. Yeah, it looks terrible, you know,
14:35
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum. I'm thinking on the evidence right now and
14:38
Speaker 1: about the pressor that was given yesterday by the Sheriff
14:41
Speaker 1: of Saint Louis Bispo. It's gotta be bittersweet because yes,
14:46
Speaker 1: they have these two arrest, thank god, but it's taken
14:50
Speaker 1: twenty five years and they had tons of evidence at
14:55
Speaker 1: the get go. Cheryl McCollum, Nancy. Everybody knows how critical
14:59
Speaker 1: the first forty eight hours is in a homicide, but
15:03
Speaker 1: with a missing person case, it's the first three hours.
15:08
Speaker 1: Typically if that person is going to be killed, it's
15:10
Speaker 1: within the first three hours. They did not know for
15:14
Speaker 1: three days, so the evidence that could have been lost,
15:19
Speaker 1: The fact that she hasn't been recovered in all this
15:21
Speaker 1: time is part of the reason they weren't own it
15:25
Speaker 1: fast enough. However, they're own it now and I know
15:30
Speaker 1: with almost two hundred pieces of evidence, and that's stemming
15:33
Speaker 1: from putting people under surveillance and tapping their phone. They
15:38
Speaker 1: gave themselves away more than one and this house of
15:41
Speaker 1: card that fixing the fall guys, A lot of this
15:44
Speaker 1: evidence has been around for a long time. So what
15:47
Speaker 1: is the new physical evidence? What's in those one ninety
15:51
Speaker 1: three pieces of evidence that has led to the arrest
15:54
Speaker 1: finally and the disappearance and we now know death of
15:58
Speaker 1: Kristen Smart for stance, take a listen to this. So
16:03
Speaker 1: it has to be someone in the room who has
16:06
Speaker 1: touched or been near that sent up death. All the
16:11
Speaker 1: dorm rooms, all the bedrooms, all the beds. They went
16:13
Speaker 1: to the corner of his bed in the trash. Can
16:16
Speaker 1: the smarts believe the odds that a cadaver dog would
16:19
Speaker 1: have incorrectly picked up the scent of Kristen's remains is
16:22
Speaker 1: slim and suggests that either Kristen died in that particular
16:26
Speaker 1: location or died at the hands of someone who had
16:29
Speaker 1: recently been in that dorm room. Paul's roommate on the
16:33
Speaker 1: weekend she disappeared was gone, and therefore Paul would know
16:38
Speaker 1: that he would have unfettered access to use his room,
16:43
Speaker 1: and therefore Paul had an opportunity to get a girl
16:47
Speaker 1: that was under the influence back to his room. So
16:51
Speaker 1: the cadaver dogs hit and Paul Flores's dorm room. Way
16:56
Speaker 1: back when you were just hearing Denise Smart, Lindsay Smart
17:00
Speaker 1: and James Murphy on vanished, So that's been around for
17:04
Speaker 1: really long time. A cadaver dog looking for Kristen Smart.
17:11
Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum hits and Paul Flores's dorm room. Flores knew
17:16
Speaker 1: his roommate was God for the weekend. He had the
17:18
Speaker 1: room to himself. He's the last one to see her.
17:22
Speaker 1: He admits he was with her and she goes missing.
17:25
Speaker 1: I don't get it. Helped me out. Why didn't this
17:29
Speaker 1: go forward then, Cheryl McCollum, What more could they have found? Well,
17:33
Speaker 1: they might not have needed anything other than what they
17:35
Speaker 1: already had. But remember technology has caught up. Twenty five
17:40
Speaker 1: years ago, we didn't have touch DNA. Twenty five years ago,
17:43
Speaker 1: we didn't have the vat of the Bardeaux method we
17:45
Speaker 1: do today. So some of the items taken from that
17:48
Speaker 1: dorm room could have yielded her DNA crime stories with
18:03
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace for those of you just joining us, an
18:08
Speaker 1: incredible break In the case of a missing college a freshman,
18:12
Speaker 1: Kristen Smart goes missing twenty five years ago, longtime suspect
18:19
Speaker 1: a fellow student, Paul Flores, arrested along in an odd
18:24
Speaker 1: twist with his father, Ruben Flores, doctor Angel Arnold. They
18:29
Speaker 1: get one hundred and ninety three pieces of evidence that
18:31
Speaker 1: we're now learning about, we learned about in the last hours.
18:35
Speaker 1: Don't you think anybody in their right mind would have
18:38
Speaker 1: gotten rid of every single thing that could have connected
18:41
Speaker 1: them to Kristen Smart? What's their disease? Nancy? What that
18:46
Speaker 1: is literally saying to me is how sick, how sick
18:51
Speaker 1: and deranged are these people they have They have lied
18:54
Speaker 1: and said they've had nothing to do with it for
18:56
Speaker 1: twenty five years, and yet possibly kept trophy us from us.
19:01
Speaker 1: My thought is, why would you do that because you
19:04
Speaker 1: know you might get caught one day? Are they that
19:07
Speaker 1: arrogant that they think that they could not get caught?
19:10
Speaker 1: And is that why the guy possibly did it in
19:12
Speaker 1: the first place, because he was so arrogant that he
19:14
Speaker 1: thought he could get away with us? You know, do
19:17
Speaker 1: use Cheryl McCollum, how do you interpret what were you're learning?
19:22
Speaker 1: Guys in the last hours. In the crime world. This
19:26
Speaker 1: is major, a case that many people thought would never
19:30
Speaker 1: be solved. Kristen Smart, Jennifer Kessi, Natalie Holloway, Missy Beavers.
19:38
Speaker 1: It just goes on and on cases you think you'll
19:41
Speaker 1: never see an end too, You'll never see a resolution,
19:45
Speaker 1: you know, Cheryl McCollum. I remember when I had a
19:49
Speaker 1: book come out. I don't even remember the year now.
19:53
Speaker 1: I almost didn't go to the book coming out, Get Together,
20:00
Speaker 1: because I thought that the discovery of Natalie Holloway's body
20:05
Speaker 1: might happen that night. I mean, I was so convinced
20:10
Speaker 1: it was going to be solved. And then year after
20:13
Speaker 1: year after year goes by and you completely lose hope.
20:17
Speaker 1: Same thing here, So this is really a miracle in
20:22
Speaker 1: the crime world. Would you agree? How do you think
20:25
Speaker 1: that her kidnap and murder went down and not getting
20:29
Speaker 1: that Volkswagen Day one was the biggest screw up ever?
20:35
Speaker 1: And I don't want to reign on their parade. There's
20:37
Speaker 1: been an arrest, but I'm looking back to figure out
20:41
Speaker 1: how can they prove this case? Now they didn't have
20:43
Speaker 1: the probable cause to get it then one of them.
20:46
Speaker 1: You don't think the cadaver dog would accounted no, because
20:49
Speaker 1: there were other people in and out of that dorm
20:52
Speaker 1: room and I couldn't get enough of it. But listen,
20:56
Speaker 1: I am telling you, oh what tournament? Where did you
20:59
Speaker 1: get that? LAWGIC three? Oh right, you didn't. Okay, I
21:04
Speaker 1: think Hold on, Daryl Cohen, take off your defense hat
21:08
Speaker 1: just for a minute, be real with me. Daryl Cohen,
21:12
Speaker 1: a cadaver dog hits in his dorm room, by his bed.
21:17
Speaker 1: He's on video with her. He says he's the last
21:20
Speaker 1: one with or gifts some bizarre story like he was
21:22
Speaker 1: walking her home then halfway home peeled off. You know
21:27
Speaker 1: that's enough for PC to get that VW right, you
21:30
Speaker 1: do know that, don't line? This is important, Daryl Cohen, Nancy,
21:35
Speaker 1: of course it is. Of course it is a good dog,
21:39
Speaker 1: a good dog, cadaver dog. I think somebody's had a
21:44
Speaker 1: little something in their coffee today. So defense work is
21:48
Speaker 1: finally giving you to drink It's it's yes. I was
21:51
Speaker 1: drinking hot tea with lemon and it just gave me
21:55
Speaker 1: an awareness that I've never had before or will again.
21:58
Speaker 1: All So, hey, what about this? He's waving at me furiously,
22:01
Speaker 1: and she's right, this time they show injuries and a
22:05
Speaker 1: black hye. Remember that. So, Sheryl McCollum, uh, I don't
22:11
Speaker 1: know what your teachers, the case research is to you,
22:13
Speaker 1: But you got a cadaver dog hit in his dorm room.
22:15
Speaker 1: He's got a black high and facial cuts. Thank you.
22:18
Speaker 1: That goes to PC Why they didn't get that? I mean,
22:22
Speaker 1: could I can talk about that all day long, But
22:25
Speaker 1: how are they going to pretic hern Anthony? Remember I
22:28
Speaker 1: remember her? Yeah, I remember her. Remember what they did
22:31
Speaker 1: with the you know, deeg composition in the air, and
22:36
Speaker 1: they made such a big deal out of it. In
22:38
Speaker 1: this case, they didn't have a body. They were waiting.
22:40
Speaker 1: They wanted to wait till they have everything, not just
22:43
Speaker 1: a dog hitting on a dorm room with nobody yet.
22:46
Speaker 1: But let me tell you what they have right now.
22:47
Speaker 1: Should have gotten that car right then. And you know it,
22:49
Speaker 1: and I amen, And you're apologizing for them, and I
22:52
Speaker 1: get it. I don't like it when law enforcement screws up.
22:55
Speaker 1: It makes salt look bad. It's horrible. It's bad for
22:57
Speaker 1: the victims. But it happened, and I thing you got
23:00
Speaker 1: to grab the bull by the horns and tell the
23:02
Speaker 1: truth of the get go. That was screw up. So
23:04
Speaker 1: bottom line, rather than continuing to cry over that, how
23:08
Speaker 1: do we prove the case now? And what's your scenario
23:10
Speaker 1: of what happened that night, here's what's coming. If they
23:14
Speaker 1: have a prosecutor that is half of the prosecutor you were,
23:18
Speaker 1: Here's what they're gonna do. I don't like that past tense,
23:20
Speaker 1: but okay, you could do it today, sugar. We all know.
23:24
Speaker 1: But I am telling you, they are going to paint
23:26
Speaker 1: a picture just like you used to do for us.
23:29
Speaker 1: They are going to let that jury know whether it's
23:32
Speaker 1: the back deck or wherever they were, wherever they put her,
23:35
Speaker 1: they put her and left her for twenty five years,
23:41
Speaker 1: every birthday, every fourth of July, every Christmas. What were
23:45
Speaker 1: they doing on that deck, celebrating the fourth of July,
23:48
Speaker 1: celebrating birthdays? Just hanging out watching all the sunsets that
23:52
Speaker 1: she missed because of them. They are going to paint
23:56
Speaker 1: this picture of when he allegedly was walking her for
24:00
Speaker 1: her safety, he actually plotted and planned her murder. He waited.
24:06
Speaker 1: He waited until she was just intoxicated enough. He waited
24:09
Speaker 1: for the first man to break off and drive himself
24:12
Speaker 1: back home. He waited for the next person to break
24:14
Speaker 1: off until it was just the two of them, and
24:17
Speaker 1: at that point he attacked and then he ran home
24:21
Speaker 1: to his daddy, whereas daddy helped hide her, bury her
24:26
Speaker 1: and they will find her, Nancy Jennifer Sikowski, joining US
24:30
Speaker 1: investigative reporter. The parents issued a statement. Although they're not appearing,
24:37
Speaker 1: they did issue a written statement. Listen to this. While
24:40
Speaker 1: Kristen's loving spirit will always live in her hearts, our
24:44
Speaker 1: life without her hugs, laughs and smiles is a heartache
24:47
Speaker 1: that never abates. The knowledge a father and son, despite
24:53
Speaker 1: our desperate pleas for help, could have withheld this horrible
24:57
Speaker 1: secret for nearly twenty five years, denying us the chance
25:02
Speaker 1: to lay our daughter to rest, is an unrelenting and
25:07
Speaker 1: unforgiving pain. You know, this morning, Jennifer, when the twins
25:13
Speaker 1: were going to school, I hugged him and then I
25:17
Speaker 1: made him come back and hug him again. Her parents
25:23
Speaker 1: have lost everything, everything, Jennifer Zikowski. What other clues did
25:29
Speaker 1: we get from the sheriff's pressor which went on It
25:33
Speaker 1: was about an hour. I mean, he really gave us
25:37
Speaker 1: a lot, but he said he could not reveal what
25:41
Speaker 1: was taken. But we have clues, one hundred and ninety
25:44
Speaker 1: three pieces of evidence. What else did he say, Jennifer?
25:47
Speaker 1: While two additional church morants were also issued at the
25:51
Speaker 1: same time that the rest warrants were issued, so they
25:55
Speaker 1: are still processing. The home of Reuben Flora is outside
26:01
Speaker 1: and I think it's important to note that a corner's
26:03
Speaker 1: tent was seen outside of the search of ruben Flores
26:08
Speaker 1: as home yesterday. What a corner's tent was seen outside
26:14
Speaker 1: of the search of ruben Flores as home yesterday. So
26:17
Speaker 1: that tells me hopefully this family will finally be able
26:22
Speaker 1: to later daughter to rest. You know what, Cheryl McCollum.
26:26
Speaker 1: If it turns out Christina Smart has been buried under
26:29
Speaker 1: in the backyard this whole time, yep, I think my
26:32
Speaker 1: head is going to blow off, just blow off. Maybe
26:34
Speaker 1: she's right there, she's very close to these two people.
26:38
Speaker 1: They kept the car, they kept a hundred and ninety
26:44
Speaker 1: three pieces of evidence, they kept it. She's right there.
26:49
Speaker 1: What more do they have to take? A listen to
26:51
Speaker 1: our cut thirty three B. This is a Saint Louis
26:55
Speaker 1: Abista County Sheriff Ian Parkinson. In late two sixteen, we
27:02
Speaker 1: discovered additional evidence that confirmed that Paul was the suspect
27:08
Speaker 1: in the disappearance. In two nineteen, we interviewed several witnesses
27:13
Speaker 1: that had not been previously interviewed, and I'll say some
27:18
Speaker 1: of that information came came to light through the podcast
27:22
Speaker 1: that many area you're familiar with that was produced and
27:27
Speaker 1: eventually led to our interviewing that witness crime stories with
27:43
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. This is the mother of now suspect Paul Flores.
27:52
Speaker 1: Susan Flores speaking to KSB. Why don't I remember there's
27:56
Speaker 1: a dead girl hanging in the balance, and this is
28:00
Speaker 1: what she has to say. What led you to talking
28:03
Speaker 1: with us today and letting me into the back room?
28:06
Speaker 1: I know, man, because they took the Volkswagen. That's my
28:09
Speaker 1: little restoration project. You know, people restore old cars all
28:14
Speaker 1: the time. I'm a real card. I'd love cars. I
28:17
Speaker 1: love old things. You know. It's like, no, I wanted
28:21
Speaker 1: to do a restoration on that car. They didn't need
28:26
Speaker 1: to take it. They wanted to take it. Now they're
28:29
Speaker 1: going to take Oh yeah, the warrant says they can
28:31
Speaker 1: take it apart. So god knows what it'll look like,
28:35
Speaker 1: you know, But it's I don't know it's private. They're
28:40
Speaker 1: coming in. They're taking your stuff. They're taking your stuff
28:44
Speaker 1: at will for any reason. You know, having a search
28:50
Speaker 1: warn't done, and you think it would be used to
28:52
Speaker 1: it is violating. It's like, oh, you know, they're in
28:57
Speaker 1: your house, They're in your drawers, they're in you know,
29:01
Speaker 1: they're scattering stuff, Daryl Cohen, Is that why you tell
29:05
Speaker 1: your clients to shut the hay up so they don't
29:08
Speaker 1: say things like this? She's whining and angry. Police sees
29:13
Speaker 1: the volkswagen a day lighten and dollars short, but they
29:15
Speaker 1: seized it when it was gonna be her quote little
29:18
Speaker 1: restoration project. How much can we dislike her? Well, this
29:25
Speaker 1: girl is dead, most likely buried in the backyard and
29:31
Speaker 1: potentially met her death in that volkswagen. Nancy, I tell clients,
29:37
Speaker 1: kyd b MS, keep your damn big mouth shut. And
29:43
Speaker 1: how likable is this woman? Oh you know someone was killed.
29:47
Speaker 1: I probably know her, and you're gonna take away my
29:51
Speaker 1: little pet restoration project? Really this woman, well, hold onto
29:56
Speaker 1: your hat. Hold onto your hat, Daryl Cohen, take a
29:59
Speaker 1: little and too, Mom, Susan Flores. This is defendant's mother
30:05
Speaker 1: and defendant's wife, father and son duo in the murder
30:09
Speaker 1: of this teen girl. Take a listen our cut twenty seven.
30:13
Speaker 1: She's whining not only about her VW, she's also whining
30:18
Speaker 1: because cops looked in her yard. It's definitely Susan talking
30:23
Speaker 1: all these years. Does it feel good to it? I mean,
30:25
Speaker 1: because you don't really talk that much about this case.
30:28
Speaker 1: That's the first interview I've ever done in my life.
30:30
Speaker 1: Will help. And I don't know they've had They've had
30:36
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities and different ways. I'd let them
30:43
Speaker 1: dig up my yard in two thousand and seven, they're
30:46
Speaker 1: going to add a field day there. They chose, brought
30:50
Speaker 1: in the GPR and they did this and Jackie cut
30:54
Speaker 1: her off. I don't want to even hear her whiny
30:56
Speaker 1: voice anymore. You know you've got you've got Christmas family
31:01
Speaker 1: just bent over in grief and this mom. Now we
31:06
Speaker 1: see the apple didn't fall too far from the tree,
31:09
Speaker 1: did it. Guys? I want you to hear what we've got.
31:12
Speaker 1: Forget about that bunch. Let's listen to what we've got
31:16
Speaker 1: regarding evidence. And I think this is really promising. This
31:21
Speaker 1: is hopefully the silver lining in an otherwise dark storm
31:26
Speaker 1: of lack of evidence, delays, problems, hiccups. To put it euphemistically,
31:31
Speaker 1: it's cut thirty four again. This is Saint Saint Louis
31:34
Speaker 1: Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson. With the knowledge of the
31:38
Speaker 1: discame discovered of new evidence, new witnesses, Shaff's detective security
31:45
Speaker 1: court order authorizing the interception and monitoring of Paul Floris's
31:50
Speaker 1: cell phone and text messages. This is one of many
31:52
Speaker 1: things that have been done over the last ten years.
31:55
Speaker 1: In February of twenty twenty, detective search warrens at the
31:58
Speaker 1: home of Paul Flores as well as his sister, mother,
32:01
Speaker 1: and father, all simultaneously. Last year. Physical events recovered during
32:07
Speaker 1: these searches led to the service of additional search warrant
32:11
Speaker 1: at Paul Flores's residence in April of last year. During
32:15
Speaker 1: the search warrant, detectives recovered evidence related to the murder
32:18
Speaker 1: of Kristen Smart. In March of this year, the detective
32:22
Speaker 1: served another search warrant in Royal Grande at the home
32:26
Speaker 1: of Reuben Flores, the father of Paul Flores. Additional evidence
32:30
Speaker 1: related to the Smart Visk investigation was discovered at that time.
32:34
Speaker 1: Straight out to Cheryl McCollum joining us to write the
32:37
Speaker 1: Coldcase Research Institute. They got a warrant, and this takes
32:40
Speaker 1: a lot of doing to tap phones, to monitor cell
32:44
Speaker 1: phone and text messages. And it makes me wonder if
32:48
Speaker 1: they were especially listening in after the last searches to
32:53
Speaker 1: see what the two would say to each other, like, Hey,
32:57
Speaker 1: did they look under the patio, did they bring in
33:01
Speaker 1: cadaver dogs, did they get near the body? I mean,
33:04
Speaker 1: who knows what's on those cell phone recordings? And they're
33:07
Speaker 1: telling each other what they took from the house. So
33:10
Speaker 1: from February to March, you've got to know what's coming.
33:16
Speaker 1: And here's what's going to be critical to understand. While
33:19
Speaker 1: they're tapping your phone, they've also got to you under surveillance.
33:23
Speaker 1: So if somebody went under the house, if somebody laid
33:26
Speaker 1: new rock, if somebody did anything to try to continue
33:29
Speaker 1: to hide her, it's going to be obvious. You know.
33:32
Speaker 1: Another thing is while a lot of people consider a
33:37
Speaker 1: judge or a magistrate to be a rubber stamp, that
33:41
Speaker 1: is absolutely not true. I have not my arrestaurrant applications
33:47
Speaker 1: or searches, but I've heard of many arrestaurants in search
33:50
Speaker 1: warrants in particular being turned down my magistrates and judges
33:54
Speaker 1: saying it's just not enough evidence. I want you to
33:56
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut thirty five again. This
33:59
Speaker 1: is Sheriff Parkinson. So as a result of this evidence,
34:04
Speaker 1: a San Lois Fisco Spirit Court judge signed a two
34:08
Speaker 1: arrest warrants and two additional search warrants. At approximately zero
34:12
Speaker 1: seven thirty this morning today, both were arrested simultaneously with
34:19
Speaker 1: a team down in San Pedro, California and a team
34:22
Speaker 1: in Royal Grande, California, and they arrested Paul Floris and
34:27
Speaker 1: his father, Reuben. Paul was arrested for charge of murder
34:32
Speaker 1: with zero bail meaning he is unable to bail, and
34:36
Speaker 1: Reuben Floris was arrested as an accessory to murder with
34:39
Speaker 1: a bail of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. We
34:42
Speaker 1: are still currently in the process of executing those search warrants,
34:46
Speaker 1: could be there for the remainder of the day or
34:49
Speaker 1: even in tomorrow, depending on what they find. Straight out
34:54
Speaker 1: to Jennifer Sakowski, investigative reporter, how did the arrests go
34:58
Speaker 1: down and where are the churches occurring right now? So
35:03
Speaker 1: this search is well. First off, that the arrest went down.
35:07
Speaker 1: I know Paul Flores was in his pajamas. Sounds like
35:11
Speaker 1: when he was arrested at his home. His father was arrested,
35:15
Speaker 1: it sounds like at the same time, but at his
35:18
Speaker 1: own home. And as far as I know, the search
35:21
Speaker 1: is being conducted at Ruben Flores's home. And again you
35:26
Speaker 1: know the with the corners tent being seen there, I
35:29
Speaker 1: anticipate something big coming out of this, so they can't
35:35
Speaker 1: is at Ruben's home, Ruben Flores's home. Jennifer, Yes, what
35:40
Speaker 1: are the charges as they stand right now, Jennifer Tsukowski. Okay,
35:44
Speaker 1: So Paul Flores being charged with one kind of murder
35:49
Speaker 1: while his father, Ruben Flores, is being charged as an
35:53
Speaker 1: accessory to murder. Okay, interpreting what we know right now.
36:00
Speaker 1: Sheryl McCall m. I thank you, and I Daryl doctor
36:02
Speaker 1: Angela agree that they have reason to believe christ and
36:07
Speaker 1: Smart's body. What's left of it. I'm sure it's skeletonized
36:11
Speaker 1: by now, is somewhere on Ruben Flores's property. They've got
36:16
Speaker 1: the corner's tent up. The sheriff said he didn't know
36:20
Speaker 1: how long they would be out there. He also said,
36:23
Speaker 1: and this is very telling. I believe we will find
36:27
Speaker 1: Christen's body. Okay, best case scenario, Sheeryl McCall him. Best
36:31
Speaker 1: case scenario, they're going to recover her, and they're going
36:33
Speaker 1: to recover her with items that they also buried. Pursue
36:36
Speaker 1: it to the crime itself. So they will be adding kidnapping.
36:40
Speaker 1: They're going to be adding things like illegally disposing of
36:43
Speaker 1: a body. They're going to add all kinds of things
36:45
Speaker 1: by tonight. We wait as justice unfolds. Right now, our
36:51
Speaker 1: prayers with Kristin's family. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off
36:57
Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,