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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:40:21 GMT
Endangered Missing Adult If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact: San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office at (805) 781-4500 Name: Kristin D. Smart Profiles Missing Adults Unidentified Persons Unsolved/Suspicious Deaths Search Database Missing Adults Map Endangered Missing Adult If you believe you have any information regarding this case that will be helpful in this investigation please contact: San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office at (805) 781-4500 Name: Kristin D. Smart Classification: Endangered Missing Adult Alias / Nickname: Roxy Date of Birth: 1977-02-20 Date Missing: 1996-05-25 From City/State: San Luis Obispo, CA Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 Gender: Female Race: White Height: 73 inches Weight: 160 pounds Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Brown Complexion: Light Clothing: T-shirt, shorts, athletic shoes. Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Kristin disappeared while walking back to her residence hall on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, CA. Investigative Agency: San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office Phone: (805) 781-4500 NCIC #: M-932737590 Copyright 2007 Nations Missing Children Organization, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright 2007 National Center for Missing Adults. All rights reserved. Classification: Endangered Missing Adult Alias / Nickname: Roxy Date of Birth: 1977-02-20 Date Missing: 1996-05-25 From City/State: San Luis Obispo, CA Age at Time of Disappearance: 19 Gender: Female Race: White Height: 73 inches Weight: 160 pounds Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Brown Complexion: Light Clothing: T-shirt, shorts, athletic shoes. Circumstances of Disappearance: Unknown. Kristin disappeared while walking back to her residence hall on the Cal Poly campus in San Luis Obispo, CA. Investigative Agency: San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office Phone: (805) 781-4500 NCIC #: M-932737590 Copyright 2007 Nations Missing Children Organization, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright 2007 National Center for Missing Adults. All rights reserved
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:41:03 GMT
Archive for Saturday, April 17, 2004 Mother of Missing Teen Seeks to Keep Billboards April 17, 2004 in print edition B-6 The mother of missing Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, who disappeared in 1996, is trying to keep two U.S. 101 billboards. “We want to keep Kristin’s memory alive,” Denise Smart of Stockton said this week. “Billboards are the only way we can remind people that she’s still missing after eight years. It’s the only gift we can give to her to make sure she’s not forgotten.” The mother needs $3,000 to keep the rented billboards. Kristin Smart, 19, disappeared after a Memorial Day weekend party near Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she was a freshman.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:41:52 GMT
November 30, 1998 Vol. 50 No. 20 Hot PursuitBy Johnny Dodd A California College Student Vanishes, and Her Family Won't Let a Suspect Put It Behind HimDenise Smart looks longingly at a sketch of Kristin, her older daughter, whom she hasn't seen in 2½ years. "When you lose a child, there's a period of grieving, and then you come to a place of peace," she says. "But when you have a missing child, you don't get that. There is no end. It doesn't get any better." The Stockton, Calif., woman and her family—her husband, son and younger daughter—have lived with that sense of incompleteness ever since Kristin, a vivacious, athletic 19-year-old, disappeared from the campus of California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo after a late-night party on Memorial Day weekend in May 1996. Following initial interviews with investigators, the only identified suspect in her disappearance, former fellow student Paul Flores, now 22, has refused to talk. So Denise, an educator, and her husband, Stan, a high school principal, have taken matters into their own hands. They and some two dozen supporters have hounded Flores—legally, but without respite—making whoever hires him aware of his role in the case and keeping him under near-constant surveillance. Their goal: to persuade Flores to tell police where Kristin can be found. "All we want is her body," says Denise, 52. "We're not eye-for-an-eye people. I don't think we're asking for anything more than any parent would." The Smarts' frustration is understandable, says Flores's lawyer Melvin de la Motte. But, he maintains, there is nothing to implicate his client in whatever happened to their daughter. (Flores and his family declined to speak to PEOPLE.) "It's one thing to have suspicions," de la Motte says, "but that doesn't make up for evidence." The last time Denise Smart heard from Kristin was late on the afternoon of Friday, May 24, 1996. The freshman communications major left a message on her parents' answering machine: "We're going to a party at 8, so call me before that." But Kristin left for the party, not far from her dorm, before hearing back. According to witnesses, Kristin got drunk at the party and around 2 a.m. decided to head back to her dorm with a girlfriend. Freshman Paul Flores volunteered to walk them home. They reached the other woman's dorm first, and Smart and Flores continued on. Later that day, Kristin failed to keep a lunch appointment with a friend, who subsequently phoned campus police. Campus cops didn't begin investigating in earnest until Tuesday, when classes resumed. When they questioned Flores, he had a black eye, which he claimed he had received in a basketball game. But one of his friends later told investigators that he had arrived at the game with it. As for his whereabouts after the party, Flores claimed he had walked Kristin to her dorm, then gone to his own. Despite inconsistencies in Flores's story, campus police believed they did not have enough evidence to seek a warrant to search his dorm room. Nearly five weeks passed before badgering from the Smarts prompted them to turn over the case to the San Luis Obispo sheriff's department. By then the school year was over, and Flores had returned home to nearby Arroyo Grande. Sheriff's investigators and four cadaver dogs (trained to detect the scent left by decomposing flesh) searched his dorm room. Each dog zeroed in on Flores's mattress. But an October '96 grand jury failed to indict Flores, and in a subsequent civil deposition he invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. (Legally he could continue to do so if subpoenaed in the future.) "We don't even have enough evidence to prove that a crime has occurred," says Det. Sgt. Bill Wammock of the sheriff's department, which still considers Smart a missing person. "We have circumstantial evidence that makes it look suspicious...but unfortunately circumstantial evidence does not get us a conviction or a judge to issue an arrest warrant." The Smarts' crusade began about a month after Kristin's disappearance. Persuading herself that some sort of accident had occurred and that Flores was too frightened to talk, Denise decided to phone his parents, Ruben, a telephone-company worker, and Susan, a real estate agent. "I thought I'd call them and say, 'Something has happened to Kristin, and I'm sure your son is just paralyzed with fear,' " says Denise. "But whoever answered the phone didn't want to talk. They just slammed the phone down as soon as I said my name." Next, the Smarts and their friends started a writing campaign, mailing hundreds of letters to Flores's parents and other family members urging them—in vain—to persuade Flores to help investigators. (Once, the phone rang in Denise's kitchen, and a voice said, "I'm calling on behalf of the Flores family. You can stop sending all those letters because we're not reading them.") "Nobody was accusatory," Denise says. "At the time I was still in la-la land. I couldn't imagine that someone could ever do something bad to our child." But slowly she began to believe otherwise, especially when the Smarts' attorney Jim Murphy started telling them of incidents in which Flores had allegedly acted aggressively toward women. "Even the mention of his name makes my stomach flip," says Fatima Martins, 24, who says she told investigators that Flores had tackled and groped her on two occasions in 1993 when they worked together at a burger joint. "He's not a normal person," agrees Tami Johnson, 24, a coworker who says she told police of a similar experience with Flores. "He was creepy." Because of what they viewed as foot-dragging by investigators—a charge the sheriff's department and Cal Poly police vehemently deny—the Smarts decided to take a more active role. In November 1996 they filed a $40 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Flores, Cal Poly and the fraternity that had served Kristin alcohol. (For legal reasons, Flores has since been dropped from the suit, at least temporarily.) They also lobbied for a bill passed by the California legislature to permit swifter intervention by outside law enforcement when violent crimes occur on campus. And the Smarts continue to monitor Flores's whereabouts. Whenever Flores—who dropped out of Cal Poly the summer Kristin disappeared—gets a new job, his employer is flooded with letters and calls. When Flores moved to Southern California in September 1996 and began working, in turn, at a video store, a restaurant and a fast-food franchise, he lost his job each time. When he tried to join the Navy in October '96, recruiters were alerted, and his application was turned down. "I think some people would call that harassment," says Flores's lawyer de la Motte, who nonetheless has advised his client against suing. "All it would do is create more animosity." Still, many observers are troubled by the Smarts' campaign. "I think when the police don't have a case," says Mary Broderick, executive director of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, "it's very dangerous for civilians to decide that somebody is guilty and that they're going to see that they're punished." The Smarts, however, have no intention of quitting. "I'm definitely in this until it gets resolved," says Stan, 53, principal of Vintage High School in Napa, Calif., who has spent much of the past three summers searching for Kristin with his son Matt, 19. He and Denise, who coordinates English-language classes for foreign-speaking students in Stockton, have already spent $50,000 of their children's college funds to finance their crusade. But beyond the money, the tragedy "has had a devastating impact on our family," Stan Smart concedes. At her mother's request, Kristin's 16-year-old sister Lindsey carries a pager at all times. And Matt, an Olympic swimming prospect, decided to stay in Stockton and attend the University of the Pacific despite scholarship offers from around the country. What if the unthinkable happens, and Kristin's body is never found? Just how long does Denise Smart plan to continue her crusade against Paul Flores? "Forever," she replies, almost in a whisper. "He needs to know we're never going away."
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:42:27 GMT
Thursday, May 25, 2006 A Decade of Questions - The Disappearance of Kristin Today across America, we recognize National Missing Children's Day. On one side of the US, there is a family recognizing another type of day. That is the family of Kristin Smart who remembers on this date ten years ago when she vanished without a trace after going to an off campus party. The last known person to be seen with Kristin was Paul Flores, a shady character who offered to walk her to her dorm that fateful night. The day after Kristin's disappearance, Flores showed up at a basketball game with a black eye. He'd change his account of how he obtained the black eye several times, before he quit talking alltogether. Months later a cadaver trained dog zeroed in on his dorm and indicated the presence of human remains. It was clear that something went wrong the night Kristin vanished, and Flores more than likely knew something, however he wasn't talking. Ten years later, with a continued dark cloud hanging over his head, he remains silent. Flores has had several brushes with the police since he was suspected by many of being involved with Kristin's disappearance. He has four DUI charges to date. Some have to wonder if his drinking problems are the onset of guilt that comes from that night from ten years ago. Will we ever know what Flores holds deep inside? On several occasions attorney's for the family of Kristin Smart offered Flores a reduced charge if he'd lead them to Kristin's body, and both times, his counsel refused to respond. This makes so many people believe that he indeed knows something. Refusing to let things die down, Kristin's family has searched on their own. Along the way, they met Dennis Mahon, a dear friend of mine, who has worked for the last eight years to locate Kristin. He's built the most informative website regarding the case, and has held vigil for Kristin outside the Flores residence until they filed a restraining order to keep him away. Apparently, there is something to hid or there would not be so many measures taken to keep Mahon and others away. Mahon began assisting the Smart family while working on another missing person case, in California, that of Kristen Modaferri. Kristen Modaferri vanished after leaving a part time job and has never been seen again. Mahon tells us all that he cannot abandon these two girls and that he will not stop until they are located. He shares in the theory that someone know something, and for the case to be solved, that one tip needs to be sent in. With the Kristin Smart case, there is now a $100,000 reward in place to bring Kristin home. It was put in place by a man the Smarts nor Dennis Mahon have ever met, by the name of Terry Black. Black claims he is tired of this, and thinks that someone holds the key to solving the case. He feels that his money would be well spent if it helps find Kristin. I agree with him on this. A special rememberance walk was held for Kristin on Saturday, May 20, 2006 in San Luis Obispo. More than 250 people showed up to show their support for Kristin. My group was unable to attend this year, but recognized Kristin at our home. You can see that information in a previous blog entry. We feel that Kristin's case is one that needs to be solved. It's one that is very important to my group. We've supported the Smarts and Dennis Mahon from the beginning. I flew to California last year to assist with the rally for Kristin as well as to visit with Kristin's mom, Denise. We just want to find Kristin. Although it's been 10 years, it's important that we do not forget Kristin, and it's even more important for us to continue searching for her. I believe the answers are right under our noses, but not being shared with us out of fear. Somewhere along the way, someone has made a mistake, and we will find it. Kristin will be found and brought home. We have to keep working until we make the break.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:43:34 GMT
News Article Regarding Kristin Smart Questions remain unanswered in Smart case By Quintin Cushner/Senior Staff Writer - Santa Maria Times Ten years after Kristin Smart's disappearance, no one surrounding her case has felt anything near closure. Not Smart's family, who remember her as a loving and persistent 19-year-old, excited to be attending college at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. They assume she is dead and buried somewhere, but cannot be certain. Not Paul Flores, a 1995 graduate of Arroyo Grande High School, who was the last person to see the young woman alive and who remains under investigation in her disappearance. Flores is out on bail facing a fourth drunken-driving conviction and continued scrutiny for his actions the night Smart vanished. Not detectives from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department, who still believe they can crack the case. And not Dennis Mahon or Terry Black, two men working to keep the Kristin Smart case from fading. Mahon maintains a Web site and has written a book. Black is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone with information leading to Smart. Each of these lives was altered early on May 25, 1996, after Flores walked with Smart and another student from an off-campus party onto campus. Flores and Smart apparently met at the party, where both had been drinking. The third student broke off from Flores and Smart about 2:30 a.m. Flores, then 19, told law enforcement he and Smart parted ways near his dorm, and that she returned to her Muir Hall dorm room alone. Police say there's no proof Smart ever returned to her room. Her roommate reported her missing May 27. Smart's clothing, toiletries and identification were undisturbed. Cal Poly police first interviewed Flores on May 28. He sported a black eye from what he claimed was a basketball mishap. A friend of Flores later told police the young man had arrived at the pick-up game bruised.Campus police appear to have made a crucial mistake early in the investigation. Officers failed to secure Flores' room at Santa Lucia Hall until after he vacated the dorm for the term.The Kristin Smart case was soon after turned over to the Sheriff's Department.More than a month after Smart's disappearance, cadaver dogs searching the dorm honed in on Flores' room. Once inside, the dogs zeroed in on his mattress.During a grand jury hearing convened in October 1996, Flores refused to answer questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He has never been charged in the young woman's disappearance.Later searches of Flores' family home in Arroyo Grande turned up nothing substantial. Psychics, national talk show hosts and local media all tried in vain to discern Smart's location.San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Roger Piquet later declared Smart dead as of May 25, 2001, so her family could pursue a wrongful-death lawsuit against Flores.SuspectThat civil case, which alleges “Flores violently assaulted and murdered Decedent Kristin Smart and disposed of her body in an unknown location, presumably in San Luis Obispo,” returns to court June 9.The civil suit has been repeatedly delayed since the Smart family filed it in 2002. The Sheriff's Department still considers its investigation open, and has refused to release any evidence to the Smarts' attorneys.Denise Smart, Kristin's mother, said she has mixed feelings about the criminal case staying open.“As long as it's still open, there's hope,” she said. “But I'm frustrated by the lack of progress.”An educator living in Stockton, Denise Smart said the slow reaction from Cal Poly police damaged the case.“It was way over their head,” she said. “When Kristin's roommate reported her missing, they didn't even go check on her. It was a total failure to respond.”In 1998, Gov. Pete Wilson signed a state law named after Smart, requiring universities and colleges to notify local law enforcement quickly if a violent crime may have occurred.“I know that members of the Smart family have complained that our police did not respond properly,” said Cal Poly Provost Bob Detweiler. “I wasn't here at the time, but I can find no evidence of us handling the case inappropriately. Because of Kristin's disappearance, we have beefed up our emphasis on alcohol awareness and sexual assault awareness on campus.”Since they took over the case, sheriff's deputies have focused on Flores, who is now a 29-year-old living in Lawndale in Los Angeles County.“Paul Flores is the only person of interest that we have not excluded as a possible suspect,” said Undersheriff Steve Bolts. “We've got several avenues we're pursuing that I can't really discuss. The case remains very active.”Bolts said Detective Dave Kenny is spending the majority of his time working on the Smart case. Kenny declined comment.Bolts had no estimate of how many hours have been spent on the case.“It's one of those cases that has the potential to be resolved,” Bolts said. “We are reasonably certain that she's deceased, and we're optimistic that her remains will be found some day.”Bolts would not comment on a specific theory about Smart's disappearance.“There's no evidence to exclude an intentional homicide,” he said.Since Smart went missing, Flores has racked up three drunken-driving convictions and a probation violation. Flores served time in 2000 at Santa Barbara County Jail for driving drunk in Santa Maria, and was sentenced again to County Jail for drinking while on probation.On Dec. 20, 2005, he was again flagged for drunken driving, this time in Los Angeles County. He is free on $100,000 bail while the case works its way through the courts.Flores could face prison time if convicted, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Paulette Paccione. The case returns to court June 29 for a preliminary hearing.Flores has rejected a plea deal in the latest drunken-driving charge that would have landed him in jail for a year, Paccione said.“He wants to fight the case,” she said.Bolts has several theories on Flores' battles with alcohol.“I think it's reflective of a chemical dependency that may be at the root of Kristin's disappearance,” Bolts said. “It also may be a product of a guilty conscience.”Denise Smart said Flores has negotiated in the past with law enforcement. She is certain Flores knows her daughter's whereabouts.“Do we know what he did? No. Do we know he knows where she is? Yes,” Denise Smart said. “He's kind of making his own prison. But for us there's no punishment we feel would be enough. Where she is is not where she wants to be and it's certainly not where we would want her to be.”Bolts wouldn't comment on any negotiations between law enforcement and Flores.“Even if there were negotiations,” he said, “they are privileged and are not presumed by us to be evidence.”Attempts to reach Flores were unsuccessful. Calls to his criminal and civil attorneys were not returned. His parents, Susan and Ruben, have separated and live in Arroyo Grande.Outside both of their homes is a printed flier with this message:“Notice: Please respect the privacy of the occupants of this residence. They have chosen to resolve their legal matters in the courtroom, not the media.”A man who emerged from Susan Flores' home last week snapped several pictures of a visiting reporter, but declined comment.The activistsDennis Mahon of Charlotte, N.C., has spent years tracking the case. Mahon's Web site, www.sonofsusan.com, includes his short book on Smart's disappearance and a log of Flores' legal troubles.Mahon used to park outside the Flores' home in Arroyo Grande and took to photographing Paul Flores during his court appearances.For his diligence, Denise Smart considers Mahon “a saint.”The Flores family sees it different. They have a restraining order against him.“It's a matter of not abandoning Kristin,” Mahon said. “My Web site is geared toward getting Flores to cooperate with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department. The crime is in the cover-up.”Terry Black, a Sacramento investor and political consultant, recently offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the location of the missing woman or her remains.Black, who believes Smart's body could be buried on the Nipomo Mesa, said he has provided police several tips received through his hotline.“I just would like to see closure to the family, and sometimes money is the only thing that motivates people to come forward,” Black said. “My sole concern is retrieval of the body. I'm not in the blame or punishment role here.”PersistenceDenise Smart remembers her daughter's persistence and discipline above all else.An avid swimmer who stood more than 6 feet tall, Smart cared deeply about her health, Denise Smart said.“Before it was cool to be fit, she exercised and watched what she ate,” Denise Smart said. “She never had egg yolks.”The young woman loved Hawaii and even managed to graduate high school early to work as a camp counselor there.Originally accepted at UCSB, Smart decided to switch schools shortly before her freshman year. The prospect of transferring from her communications program into Cal Poly's elite architecture school was a lure.Denise Smart said her daughter also would have been content to work in TV.“She thought Joan Lunden had just about the best job in the world,” Denise Smart said.Ten years later, Denise Smart is still acutely aware of how her daughter's life was cut short.“She was a very loving and compassionate type of person, and it's hard to have lost her,” Denise Smart said. “Her friends are now getting married and having children.”Matt Smart was just 16 when his sister disappeared.“In a moment, your life is turned upside down,” he said. “You go from watching the news on TV to being on the news. From reading the newspapers to being in the newspapers.”His sister's disappearance inspired him to take life seriously at a young age, he said. Matt Smart threw himself into swimming competitions, eventually making it to the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials.Now a pharmaceutical representative, he tries to live well every day. Still, his sister's disappearance lingers.“It's one thing to have a death in the family,” he said. “It's another thing to not know what happened. You can't allow it to eat at you.”Tana Coates, attorney for the Smart family, said she is heartened that police continue to investigate.“I'm sure Denise thinks of this as if it were yesterday,” Coates said. “It's so important to keep the public's interest. It's a terrible mystery. The family would appreciate closure. Let's hope that happens.”Kristin Smart would have turned 29 this past February.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:44:34 GMT
Searching for Kristin Smart: Crews Dig Up Backyard Updated: May 24, 2007 12:59 AM Tuesday, May 22, 2007 Reported by: Andrew Masuda; Colin Seiler; Wendy Thies ARROYO GRANDE Just three days before the 11 year anniversary of her disappearance from the Cal Poly campus, major developments in the Kristin Smart case. A private construction crew, supervised by the Smart family's attorney, dug up the backyard of a home owned by Susan Flores, the mother of Paul Flores. You may remember, Paul Flores is considered a person of interest in this case. The home is located in the 500 block of East Branch in Arroyo Grande. The Smart family's attorney said no body or items of interest were found in Tuesday's search. Mark Connelly, the Smart family's attorney, said his crew dug up the backyard patio. They arrived at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning and left at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. He said they dug with permission from Susan Flores, Paul's mother, who was home at the time. Paul Flores, the last person seen with Kristin Smart whom investigators have always considered a person of interest, was not there Tuesday. Crews targeted spots in the yard that piqued their interest a few weeks ago when they went over the land with radar. Reached by phone Tuesday in Northern California, Kristin's mother, Denise Smart, said after 11 years she's grateful this day finally came. "So, feelings aside, it was just important that today happened. So, it's just a sense of relief that after 11 years one place has finally been ruled out as a final resting place for our daughter." The Smart family's attorney said the search is part of a civil lawsuit filed by the Flores family against the Smart family for harassment. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department was not involved with Tuesday's search. And because they still consider the Smart case as active and open, they would not elaborate on the search's impact on their case. Denise Smart said her family is committed to bring Kristin home, but now the family can move forward and look to the next spot. No one at the Flores house would comment on the search. The family's attorney, Jeff Rading, would only say this is not a public matter. The man who has led the crusade to find Kristin Smart fought for years to dig up the Flores yard. Two years ago, Dennis Mahon paraded outside the Michael Jackson trial in Santa Maria with a banner. He pledged to walk a thousand miles around San Luis Obispo County to bring attention to the case, asking law enforcement to search the Flores property again, and dig up the backyard to see if Kristin is there or not. A few days later, he was arrested and served time in jail for violating a restraining order filed by Susan Flores. Here's a rundown of what's happened in the case: Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart was reported missing on May 25th, 1996. The following July, Paul Flores was named as a key witness in the case. In June of 2000, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department searched Susan Flores' Arroyo Grande home, but did not dig up the patio. In May of 2002, a judge granted the Smart family's request to declare Kristin legally dead. Three days later, the family filed a civil lawsuit against Flores. In January, the family asked the sheriff's department for the case files. This Friday marks the 11th anniversary of her disappearance from the Cal Poly campus. Tuesday's dig at the Flores house was part of the discovery process in the civil case against the parents of Kristin Smart. Here are the next steps: Susan Flores has filed an action against Denise and Stan Smart, and Dennis Mahon, alleging that the Smarts and Mahon have harassed an innocent family. The August trial date has been delayed until at least October in San Luis Obispo Civil Court.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:45:09 GMT
Kristin Smart From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kristin Denise Smart (born February 20, 1977, legally presumed dead 2002) is a missing person. She went missing on May 25, 1996 while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since. Smart's disappearance The night Smart disappeared, she had attended a birthday party of a fellow student, which fell on Memorial Day weekend. At approximately 2 a.m., she was found passed out on the lawn of the next door house by two students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, who were leaving the party. They decided to assist her home and walked her part of the way until another student who was at the party, Paul Flores, joined their group. Flores' dormitory was closer to Smart's, whereas Anderson and Davis lived off campus in the opposite direction, so Flores offered to walk her the remainder of the way, allowing them to more conveniently go their separate ways. Flores walked Smart as far as his dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, and claims he left her to walk the rest of the way to her dormitory, Muir Hall, by herself (even though Muir Hall is closer in distance than Santa Lucia, and even then the dorms are approximately 50 yards apart). This was the last known sighting of her. She did not have any money or credit cards at the time she went missing. [edit] Theories about Smart's disappearance The campus police originally suspected that Smart had gone on an unannounced vacation, as was common among students over the holidays. It was because of this that the campus police were slow at reporting her as a missing person to local law enforcement. Paul Flores, the person Smart was last seen with, came under suspicion and investigation by police after her disappearance. Smart's parents also suspect his involvement. He was originally questioned by the police at length, but since 1997 has pleaded the fifth amendment. Shortly after Smart's disappearance, Flores' dorm room was searched by dogs specially trained to detect human remains, and the dogs independently paid particular attention to his mattress and waste bucket, although no physical evidence was recovered. Flores' house was searched twice but no evidence was recovered either. Although Flores remains a suspect, there is no conclusive evidence that he was involved in Smart's disappearance. During the high profile Laci Peterson murder investigation, it came to investigators' attention that Peterson's husband Scott Peterson (since convicted for his wife's murder) attended California Polytechnic State University at the same time as Smart. There was a brief initial inquiry into whether Peterson had any involvement. He was on a list of individuals whom detectives felt warranted closer investigation at the time; ultimately, however, suggested that Smart and Peterson never came into contact, and he was ruled out as a suspect. Peterson has publicly denied any involvement in the case. Smart's disappearance remains essentially an unsolved case however, and no firmly proven explanation for her disappearance exists. [edit] Legacy and leads today Smart's disappearance resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act being passed by the California State Legislature and signed into effect by then Governor of California Pete Wilson. The law required all colleges and educational institutions campus security to report all cases where there is a possibility that violence may have been used against a student of the institution to the local police force including all missing person's cases. Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in May 2002.[citation needed] Smart's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case of wrongful death against Paul Flores in 2005, but dropped it after Flores pleaded the fifth amendment. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office still reviews the case monthly.[citation needed] The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a local businessman and friend of the Smart family, has offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body. In 2005, Paul Flores's mother Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville filed a lawsuit claiming loss of employment, harassment and emotional distress[1] against Kristin Smart's parents and a family friend who operates a website tracking Flores. Within days of Smart's disappearance, Susan Flores had concrete poured in the back yard of her home. In June 2000, a search warrant was executed and Ground Penetrating Radar was used. The radar showed some indications under the concrete but the concrete was not dug up. In 2007, 11 years after the disappearance of Kirstin Smart, Susan Flores' backyard was dug up but showed up inconclusive.[citation
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:45:47 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 SAN LUIS OBISPO — One warm Friday night in late spring 10 years ago, Kristin Denise Smart and three other young women started walking from their dorms at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. They were headed for the neighborhoods of apartment complexes and overpopulated "Animal House"-like bungalows that border the campus. They were looking for a party. It was Memorial Day weekend. Kristin's first year away at college was coming to a close. The 19-year-old from Stockton would have considered that something to celebrate. As far back as February, she'd written to another student that "school seems like it is never going to end." Kristin, who earned A's and Bs in high school, had struggled in a couple of her college courses. She had expressed doubts, in anguished conversations with her parents, about whether Cal Poly was right for her. Three weeks earlier, her mother had sent a six-page, handwritten letter urging Kristin, the oldest of three children, to "learn from your mistakes and get on with life Later, after Kristin had failed to return to her dorm room and the searches had commenced -- searches with helicopters, horses and busloads of volunteers; searches guided by ground-penetrating radar, psychics and anonymous tipsters who signed their missives with code names like "Jellybean" -- her parents would be asked by reporters to describe their daughter. Kristin, they would say, was "a dreamer," a girl who would give her family bear hugs, cook them omelets and, even in her late teens, sit on her father's lap. She loved the ocean and travel and poetry. She had been a counselor at a camp on Oahu. She would call her mother every week from Cal Poly, sometimes, yes, to "whine," but also to share successes. "She wasn't one to run away from anything," her mother said, a pointed reference to the initial instinct of campus police investigators that they were dealing with another runaway -- treating Kristin's disappearance, in the opinion of her parents, "like a lost bicycle." Her first choice for college had been a university on the Virgin Islands. Her parents, both educators, thought that was too far from their San Joaquin Valley home; Kristin instead picked Cal Poly, a popular state university on the Central Coast. "We thought that would be a good place for her," Kristin's father, Stan Smart, recalled not long ago. "We thought it was a safe community, you know. And it is. It just didn't work out that way for our family."
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:46:37 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 Best known for its programs in agriculture, architecture and engineering, Cal Poly has long followed a hands-on educational philosophy calibrated -- without apology to academia's loftier aspirations -- to prepare its graduates for ready and rapid entry into the working world. "Learn by Doing" goes the campus creed. Of course, part of the learning that any freshman does at Cal Poly, or at any non-commuter college for that matter, involves lessons in how to live away from home for the first time. It can be a time for social experimentation, for tasting new things, trying out new identities. Kristin was no exception. Her e-mails, recovered after she disappeared, were signed with such aliases as Marysol, Roxie, Trixie, Kianna and punctuated with a 19-year-old's philosophical postscript: "Live your life to be an EXCLAMATION, rather than an EXPLANATION." At some point, other students said, she had dyed her naturally blond hair brunet. She also had demonstrated a flair for melodrama. It was not uncommon, a friend would tell investigators, for Kristin to act drunk at parties, even when she was sober. Still, Kristin had seemed happy when her family visited her earlier in the spring. "She was enjoying it, the social piece," said Stan Smart, a public school administrator in Napa who commutes home to Stockton for weekends. "I think she was exploring and finding her way." Kristin's appearance was striking: 6 foot 1 with a lean swimmer's physique, high cheekbones and dark, almond-shaped eyes. In high school, her mother has said, she was bothered when her good looks attracted attention. On the evening she went looking for a party, May 24, 1996, Kristin wore a short-cropped T-shirt, black running shorts and red athletic shoes. This was not an unusual ensemble for a female student at Cal Poly, especially on a day when temperatures had reached the high 80s. Sometime after 5:30 p.m. Friday, Kristin left a message on her mother's telephone, reporting, happily, that she would be allowed to make up a biology test that somehow had been lost earlier in the year. "She was very excited," Denise Smart recalled. "She said, 'Hi, good news, good news.' That was her good news: She had gotten a call from professor whatever his name was. She had been trying for so long to get that resolved." About 8:30 p.m., Kristin and her three companions were on their way from the dorms, a staggered row of brick and concrete buildings set against a steep incline known as Poly Hill.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:47:09 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 They weren't far into their walk when they flagged down a friend in a pickup truck. Kristin climbed into the cab and the others hopped into the back. For two hours, the truck trolled the surrounding neighborhoods. Finally, Kristin suggested they swing by 135 Crandall Way, an unofficial fraternity house near campus. Kristin's companions did not want to go to the party: In the course of any year, certain party venues at Cal Poly develop reputations for rowdy behavior, where the atmosphere created by the mix of testosterone and tap beer can make single, female students less than comfortable. And so they dropped her off a couple of blocks from the house and went home. It was now about 10:30 p.m. So far, none of them, including Kristin, had been drinking. "I can still see her standing there after we dropped her off, a little mad I think that I wouldn't go with her," Margarita Campos told the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune a year later. "Someone who wasn't as independent as Kristin wouldn't have gone to a party alone. "She kept saying, 'You go with me.' But I didn't want to go. I told her, 'You better be careful,' and she said she would be fine. Then she said 'Bye.' " Unrealistic Expectations It can seem so easy on television, where the ubiquitous fictional detectives can solve complicated cases, bringing the perpetrators to justice and the victim's family to "closure," and all in less than an hour. Or, in a single segment, one of cable's nightly cavalcade of crime show hosts dissects the latest murder of the moment, debriefs the secondhand experts, consoles the survivors and then, after a short break, is back to take on the next perp waiting in the dock of presumed guilt. Expectations raised by television crime fighters can complicate things for real-world investigators: "Everybody wants an answer, right now," said a law enforcement official who has worked on the Smart investigation. "And if you can't give them an answer in 30 minutes, you are derelict in your duty." Sadly, there have been no 30-minute answers in the case of Kristin Smart. In her story, the forensic pieces do not snap neatly into place, the suspect refuses to fold in the interrogation room, and the family is left not with "closure" but with the vapor of conjecture, deprived even of a body to bury.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:48:31 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 The party at 135 Crandall Way had all the trappings of a typical Friday night beer bust. There was a keg, a stereo system and about 60 revelers, some invited, many not. There even was, late in the festivities, a fistfight -- the traditional signal at such get-togethers for the scholars to stagger on home. Tim Davis, a senior who helped stage the party, would tell investigators that he was shooing away the last stragglers about 2 a.m. when he spotted the tall girl who had been calling herself Roxie sprawled on a lawn next door, apparently passed out. He roused her. She complained that she was cold. Roxie -- it was Kristin -- had been noticed at the party. "Her demeanor was described as 'weird,' " reported a private investigator who debriefed people who were there, "as if she was 'on something.' " She was, the investigator was told, "acting 'flirtatious' and 'highly active.' " "At one point," went another investigative report, "she dragged a student into a bathroom She was seen kissing a basketball player. She was heard insisting that she must apologize to the basketball player. One student said she was drinking tequila. A detective had information that she was "chugging tumblers of Vodka." There were people at the party, however, who could not recall seeing Kristin with a drink. This has led her parents to wonder if she might have been slipped one of the date-rape drugs that were just beginning to infiltrate the California college scene. The Crandall Way house is a 10-minute walk from the dormitories. Kristin, however, was in no condition to make the walk without help, and so Davis said he would do it. Another woman who lived in the dorms said she would join him. Her name was Cheryl Anderson, and her escort had disappeared. She had seen Kristin around campus but did not know her. Before they started out, yet another dorm resident appeared from "out of nowhere," as Anderson later put it, and volunteered to join them. It was Paul Flores, a 19-year-old from the nearby town of Arroyo Grande. Flores had been a mediocre student at Arroyo Grande High, with grades and SAT scores that would not seem to have made him Cal Poly material. Through a sort of good-neighbor policy, however, the university gives extra weight to applicants from the Central Coast.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:49:15 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 In the fall quarter, Flores flunked English composition and math. He received a D in an introductory course in food sciences, his major. He did earn a unit of credit in a pass-fail course: bowling. Flores' grades would not improve much in the next two quarters, and at 0.6, his freshman GPA barely showed a pulse. His troubles were not confined to academics. In December, a female student summoned San Luis Obispo police at 1 a.m.; she told dispatchers that Flores, apparently drunk, had climbed a trellis outside her apartment and was refusing to leave her balcony. He was gone by the time officers arrived. Six weeks later, Flores was seen racing his pickup through a downtown intersection. A police cruiser followed him into a gas station. Flores' speech was slurred and his eyes were bloodshot, the officer reported. He talked the officer into letting him go inside the station to pay for his gas. The policeman watched through a window as Flores purchased a pack of chewing gum and stuffed "a large quantity in his mouth." The gambit failed. Flores was ordered to spit out the gum and was given a breath test, which he flunked with a 0.13% blood-alcohol reading. He lost his license. Those who knew Flores from the dorms or back in Arroyo Grande tended to describe him the same way to investigators or in legal depositions. He was, they said with remarkable uniformity, "annoying." He would hit on their girlfriends. He could be obnoxious when drunk. At 5 foot 10 and 170 pounds, Flores was not physically imposing. His face did have a certain boyish charm. But he was not popular, and whenever he boasted about a sexual conquest, those who knew him would scoff, convinced that he was still a virgin. In the days after Kristin's disappearance, before their son was named a suspect, Flores' parents told investigators that when he was in high school they had bought a pool table, hoping to attract other students to their house. "Paul had no friends," they told a law enforcement source, who recounted the conversation. "And so they thought that" -- with the pool table -- "Paul at least would have somebody to talk to." At Cal Poly, Flores kept a small refrigerator in his room on the ground floor of Santa Lucia Hall: "And on weekend nights," this source said, "he'd sit in his room and drink beer, get drunk and then go wander around the outskirts of campus, looking for parties."
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:50:01 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 His behavior at these parties earned him a nickname among a set of women in the dorms, Anderson would later tell investigators. She and her friends, she said, would refer to him jokingly as "Chester the Molester." Flores had seemed "very quiet" at the Crandall Way party, one student who was there told investigators: " He did not talk to people at the party." He shot a lot of pool, others recalled. He was shooed away from one cluster of partygoers, a witness said, after hitting on a girl in front of her boyfriend. Davis told investigators that, "at one point, he heard a loud noise in the hallway and saw Paul Flores on top of Kristin Smart. He didn't know if Flores had knocked Kristin Smart down on purpose or if it was an accident." They got up, Davis said, "and went their separate ways." After the party, Flores joined Davis, Anderson and Kristin as they set out for the dorms. As they entered the campus, Anderson told Davis, who lived in an opposite direction, that the three freshmen could make it the rest of the way on their own. They turned up Perimeter Road, a wide, well-lighted boulevard that cuts through the campus proper. The college was especially quiet because of the three-day weekend. Anderson would not remember seeing anyone else on the walk. In a deposition, Anderson testified that Kristin occasionally would stop. Flores, holding Kristin, would tell Anderson to "go ahead if you want." She thought this was "a little strange" and waited for them to catch up. She recalled that Kristin, still in her running shorts and T-shirt, had begun to shiver in the late-night chill. She could not remember her saying a single word. The trio reached the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue. Anderson's dorm was half a block south down Grand. Santa Lucia, Flores' hall, was about 75 yards up Perimeter Road. Just behind it, perhaps 40 steps up a path, was Muir Hall, where Kristin lived. In her deposition, with Stan and Denise Smart present in the room, Anderson tried to explain her decision to leave Kristin in Flores' care for the final leg home: "I said, 'Will you walk her to her room?' you know, 'Will you take her back to her room?' And he said, 'Yes.' And I said something about 'Yes?' and he said -- and I said, 'If you won't, I will do it. I will walk her to her room,' you know
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:50:34 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 Flores, Anderson said, promised he would see Kristin to her room. Then he asked Anderson for a kiss. She thought that was weird and declined. He asked for a hug; she turned him down again. She may or may not have shaken his hand. Flores and Kristin then began to move slowly up Perimeter Road, their dorms in view. Anderson recalled that Flores, 3 inches shorter than Kristin, had his arm around her waist. Anderson turned for her dorm. She did not look back again. Unresolved Issues Stan Smart can be animated and amiable discussing his other children, or his pending retirement, or his backyard gardening. Yet when he talks about Kristin's disappearance, he invariably will slip into a deliberate, muted monotone -- a father's tool for controlling emotions that have been run through the most hellish tests. "Nothing really has changed," he said one Sunday afternoon in early May, slipping into this flat, almost detached speech pattern. "I mean, I still have a lot of anger about the situation. And my wife is a bit of an emotional wreck at times. And it hasn't been resolved. We haven't really resolved the issues as to where our daughter is, and what happened to her." Kristin's body -- a judge has declared her legally dead -- has not been found despite a decade of searches and sizable rewards seeking information. No arrests have been made, although early on investigators settled on Flores as their only suspect. That remains unchanged. "He is still an active suspect," said Sgt. Brian Hascall, a spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County sheriff. "He has not been eliminated." Hascall described the case as "open and active. We have never inactivated this case. We have never taken our eyes off the ball, so to speak." From the Smarts' perspective, the case is neither open nor active. They complain that law enforcement officials have all but stopped sharing meaningful information with them, leaving the parents to wonder just how much time investigators actually spend on the lingering riddle of their daughter. "They've put it on the shelf," Stan Smart said. Investigators, in turn, maintain that early leaks to the media and the Smarts' more recent relationship with an amateur sleuth who operates a website devoted to the case, have forced them to limit what they pass along.
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Post by Admin on May 11, 2013 18:51:13 GMT
A Cold Case, a Haunting Mystery By Peter H. King, Times Staff Writer June 18, 2006 Whatever, it is clear that the Smarts were uncomfortable with the investigation almost from the start. Convinced that something terrible had happened, they ran headlong into a campus police department that did not consider it all that unusual for a 19-year-old freshman to disappear for a weekend -- even though she'd left her identification, prescription medicine, cosmetics and all her clothes in her dorm room. In fact, the department declined to take a missing persons report when a dorm neighbor of Kristin's contacted them two days after the party. It was only when this first-year student persisted, calling both the Smarts and the San Luis Obispo Police Department, that campus police opened a file. The first field report, filed by a campus patrol officer a week after Kristin had vanished, concluded with an "Officer Observations" paragraph: "Smart does not have any close friends at Cal Poly. Smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Smart was talking with and socializing with several different males at the party. Smart lives her life in her own way, not conforming to typical teenage behavior." Only in the final sentence did the officer tack on a disclaimer: "These observations are in no way implying that her behavior caused her disappearance, but they provide a picture of her conduct on the night of her disappearance." And so it is perhaps understandable that the Smarts felt driven to insert themselves into the investigation. They forwarded suggestions from Napa police detectives whom Stan Smart knew from his work in the schools there. They brought lawyers onboard, befriended FBI agents, reached out for help to a state senator (who later would sponsor legislation, named after Kristin Smart, requiring campus police departments to promptly report missing students.) While Denise Smart stayed in Stockton -- "They told me," she said, "to stay by the phone for when she called" -- her husband all but moved to San Luis Obispo, where for months he would pursue every lead that came his way. When two San Luis Obispo women, claiming to have psychic instincts, called to tell him that Kristin could be found at a specific spot in the hills behind campus, he climbed there on a 100-degree day and came back down with only disappointment. When a self-described dowser, or water witch, told Smart that he had identified Kristin's whereabouts by dangling a weight on a string over a map, and that she was alive and living at Lake Tahoe, he jumped in his car and tore north.
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