Kristin Smart

If you’re living on the Central Coast, Kristin Smart is a name you may have heard quite frequently in the past few months.

Smart was a Cal Poly student who disappeared during her freshman year in May 1996.

Now 25 years later, Paul Flores — one of the last people to be seen with her — is being charged with murder for killing Smart.

Flores’ former dorm room in Santa Lucia Hall is the place investigators allege Smart may have been killed.

Many students have lived in Paul Flores’ former dorm room in Santa Lucia Hall after Smart’s disappearance.

Kristin Smart, the Cal Poly freshman whose case has drawn national attention, disappeared 25 years ago on May 25, 1996. Now, her family is honoring the anniversary of her disappearance and is celebrating her memory with a 60-day push to raise money for the Kristin Smart scholarship.

May 25 marks the 25th anniversary of former Cal Poly Student Kristin Smart’s disappearance and, with the recent developments in her case, community members are looking for a way to honor Smart.

A walk for Kristin Smart is being held to commemorate the anniversary of her death and follows the route Smart is believed to have taken before her disappearance from the house she left on Crandall Way all the way back to her dorm at Cal Poly.

Paul and Ruben Flores appeared over Zoom in San Luis Obispo Superior court May 17 to confirm future hearing dates in the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart.

Judge Craig van Rooyen said a pre-preliminary hearing for both men will take place June 21st and a preliminary hearing will be on July 6.

Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle, who is leading the prosecution, says the July 6 preliminary hearing will take 12 full days.

On this edition of Issues & Ideas, you’ll hear more about the three lawsuits the non-profit Friends of Oceano Dunes has filed against the California Coastal Commission, following the landmark decision to phase out off-highway vehicular use at Oceano Dunes. There is a Walk for Kristin Smart being organized to commemorate the anniversary of her death in May, 1996; we’ll check in with some students who plan to attend.

Paul and Ruben Flores appeared remotely in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on April 15. They both face charges in connection with the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

In a press briefing April 14, San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow announced formal first-degree murder charges against Paul Flores in connection with the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

In a press briefing Tuesday, April 13, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson announced Paul Flores has been arrested for the murder of Kristin Smart, a former Cal Poly student who disappeared nearly 25 years ago.

Paul Flores’ father, Ruben Flores, has been arrested as an accessory to her murder.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a new search warrant in the ongoing Kristin Smart investigation March 15 at the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores, Paul Flores’ father.

Law enforcement officials say they have solved a pair of 41-year-old San Luis Obispo County cold cases by identifying a suspect in two Atascadero murders with the assistance of DNA evidence. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday they consider the now-deceased Arthur Rudy Martinez as the killer of 30-year-old Jane Morton Antunez and 28-year-old Patricia Dwyer in the late 1970s.

Thursday marked the twenty-first anniversary of the disappearance of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart. Smart, who was a freshman at the time, went missing after walking home from an off-campus party in 1996. She was legally declared dead in 2002. 

UPDATE: September 9, 2016 at 3:53 p.m.

Items of interest found at multiple Cal Poly dig sites were being studied by investigators looking into the disappearance of missing college student Kristin Smart.