(gentle music) - Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm so glad to have you back today. And I'm really excited
for this video actually 'cause I get to update you on
two cases that I have covered. For the majority of today's video, we're going to be talking
about the Kristin Smart case and the latest updates on that, which has been so exciting to see play out over the last couple of weeks. Kristin Smart's case was
one of the first cases I ever covered on this channel, and one of the cases that just got me interested
in true crime in general. So I'm really, really excited to see her case finally
getting some movement and a lot more awareness about it as well. A lot of people are learning
about her case right now. There have actually been some
arrests made in her case. So very exciting stuff. We're gonna see a lot more
play out in the next year, but I wanted to just kind of do an update in case you wanted to follow along with everything that's going on. But before I get started
on Kristin's case, I also have an update on
Jessica Easterly's case, which I literally just covered last week. And we've already had some
movement, which is incredible. After so many of you guys
signed the petition last week and then emailed, which
eventually those got blocked, and also called the
DA's office for Jessica, her family actually heard back from them. They put out a public statement. I'll put it on the screen. And this is totally thanks to you guys. Taking the extra steps, being
an active true crime viewer. They got totally overwhelmed with calls and clearly it made a difference. We heard back from them in
like less than 48 hours. I know a lot of you guys were anxious about making those calls and
you decided to do it anyway, and I really want to thank you. I appreciate you. Jessica's family wants to say thank you. So hopefully there will be
more updates on Jessica's case. I'm sure there will be. And I will keep you guys updated. Also before we get into Kristin's case, I wanted to remind you guys about my new merch
collection that has come out. 100% of the profit from this collection is going to Her Justice. I am in love with this collection. I love how it turned out. I can't thank the girls
who designed it enough over at Stickhers. They have an Etsy shop.
Definitely go check them out. It will be linked below. I'm definitely gonna have
these up for a while. I'm not sure how long.
Some of you are asking. It's going to be at least two months, if not a little longer. 'Cause I just love this collection. And thank you to everyone
who has ordered so far. We had a ton of orders
in the first two weeks. And if you don't know what Her Justice is, it's a really cool organization that's actually based in New
York, and they help women, mostly women in domestic
violence situations or people who've gotten out of them and they need legal help. They provide them with
that free legal help. And what's great is it's so small that every dollar we raise is
truly being put to good use. I'll put more information
about Her Justice below, but let's go ahead and get started. So I definitely am pretty
attached to the Kristin Smart case just because it was one of the first cases I ever heard about. And it was one of the first cases that I covered on this channel. And it was also the first
time that I got feedback from a representative of the family and from the family as well, passed on through them
that they liked the video and that it was helpful. And that meant a lot to me. Her family has been through
so much with this case. If you haven't heard about it, you're gonna be blown away by everything that
they've had to deal with. And they're also such nice people. So it's amazing to see things finally
starting to happen here. - Father and son, both behind bars, arrested in connection
with the disappearance of Kristin Smart. She was a 19 year old student at Cal Poly, when she vanished almost 25 years ago. They're treating this as
a murder investigation. - It's my hope that we're
able to take the first step toward justice for the Smart family. - I mean, at some points you
just think with these cases that nothing's ever gonna happen, it's just been too long and the police aren't gonna do anything. But when it finally does happen, it's just so inspiring and it makes you want to keep
fighting for other people. Also, I just want to say, if you guys are interested in this case, there's a great podcast. It's called "Your Own Backyard" podcast. It was done by Chris Lambert
and it is so, so well done. He interviewed a bunch of people. There's so much new information. A lot of new information
actually is from this podcast that has been re-reported. This podcast had a huge part
in what's happened recently. I will explain more. So I just want to give
them a shout out and say, definitely go check it out, download it, give it a rating if you can. So let's start with Kristin's
past and her upbringing. Now, oftentimes this case gets confused with the Elizabeth Smart
case, which I've also covered. I will link that one below. This is a completely different case. There is no relation between
Elizabeth and Kristin Smart. They just share the last name. So Kristin Denise Smart was
born on February 20th, 1977, in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany. These are her parents,
Denise and Stan Smart. They're really chill down to earth people. And they actually worked as teachers to kids of American military personnel. So they stayed overseas for three years and then moved back to the US. So Kristin was born while they were gone. And they were actually really excited and surprised when they had Kristin, because they didn't think that they would be able to conceive. I'm not sure exactly why, but she was a surprise to them and they were really, really happy. And as she was growing up, Kristin was described as
being an exceptional learner, a very brave child, motivated. And according to her parents, she was a really exceptional child. She was learning how to
walk and talk very quickly. She was very motivated and
full of life from a young age. She even talked early and as a baby, she was a super fast learner and just an overall overachiever. In October of 1979, Stan and Denise had another child, which they were thrilled about. They didn't think they could
have one and now they had two. And then they had another
in 1982, a daughter. So now they had their son, Matthew, their daughter, Lindsey, and Kristin. Their family was complete. They ended up deciding to settle down in Stockton, California, to raise their family. This is a really beautiful area. I mean, it's California.
Most of it's beautiful. And Kristin was described as being a very involved big sister. She loved her younger siblings
and loved being a big sister. She was funny. She'd
played games with them. She wasn't afraid to spend time with them. She wasn't like bratty and wanting to just be
off with her friends. She loved being with her siblings and they loved her too. Kristin was a good student. She worked really hard in school. She did have ADHD and that
sometimes presented challenges, but she didn't let that stop her at all. She really loved to be active, especially anything that involved water. She loved to swim, surf.
She loved the ocean. She also played soccer and she was also involved in school plays, which was something she enjoyed as well. Eventually when she was old enough, she got into babysitting, and that was something
that she truly loved because she really
liked to be around kids. She had a very playful heart. And so kids liked her because she would really
actually play with them, make like little skits with
them, do tie-dye shirts, different art projects, crafts, whatever. And parents obviously
really liked her as well because she was so genuinely interested in being with the kids and wasn't just there to collect
money and kind of oversee. Growing up, Kristin wasn't
like wildly popular, but she had some good friends. She had met people through girl scouts, people just in her
neighborhood and from school, sports, stuff like that. And she would always welcome
people over to her house. She loved having people over and her parents were really down to have anyone there whenever or even bring people on vacations. They were just a really cool family who was very loving and
accepting of everyone. Kristin had dreams of one
day becoming an architect because she actually was
really, really good at drawing. And one thing that she loved
to draw was houseplants. Like really detailed versions
of them on graph paper. She had a real natural talent for this, so she definitely had a
bright future ahead of her. - Kristin had always been
interested in architecture, but in another breath, she might tell you that she
wanted to be Joan Lunden, and have the opportunity to interview a lot of interesting people and travel the world. No one could tell her that
anything was impossible. - Toward the end of high school, she got some opportunities to travel and she had a very adventurous spirit, so she was totally down to go. First she spent a summer in London with one of her friend's families. And then she spent another
summer in Venezuela as a foreign exchange student. Her junior year, she decided to go to high
school in a school in Napa, which was pretty far away
from where she lived, but her dad was the principal, and he was gone a lot because
he had a pretty far commute. And she wanted to see him more, so her plan was to go to the school and hopefully they would
spend more time together. So she transferred. And they also ended up
moving around a little bit like they had some life changes. And so it was a harder year for Kristin, less stable than normal. She didn't have as many
friends and she just felt sad. So her senior year, she actually went back to Stockton where most of her friends went to school, and she was happy to graduate from there. Kristin graduated in 1995. There's this beautiful picture of her. I think this is my favorite picture of her 'cause she just looks so genuinely happy. That summer, Kristin wanted to spend as much time as she could at the beach. She spent most of her time at this local beach called Shell Beach, but she wanted to branch out and see some other beaches in the world. So she ended up deciding to apply to be a lifeguard and a camp
counselor at Camp Mokule'ia. I hope I'm saying that right, but this is a gorgeous camp in Hawaii. I'm sure you can imagine. Here's a picture of her at the camp. She had so much fun that summer. She met a ton of people and became really close
with this one girl, a co-counselor named Rachel Bird. And the two of them worked together with the younger kids in the camp. So Kristin loved it. Ocean, kids, Hawaii, I
mean, perfect situation. Now she has some good friends there. She was really happy that summer. That summer, Rachel's cousin actually died while they were at the camp. And she was really close with her cousin so she was totally heartbroken. And Kristin was one person that was really there
for her during this time, she said that she was just really grateful that she was around. There's actually an interview with Rachel on the "Your Own Backyard" podcast, if you wanna listen to it. So with Kristin being such
an adventurous person, you would assume that she
might go away for college, but she actually wanted
to stay close to home. She was very close with her parents and she wanted to be able
to get to them quickly if she needed to, but she
was still independent. And she told her mom that even though she was gonna be close, she wasn't gonna be
calling her all the time. She would still talk to her, but there was gonna be some separation. She was really gonna be moving
on into the adult world. Kristin had also taken some courses at the local community college to get into a better four-year program. And eventually she was
accepted into UC Santa Barbara, but she had already accepted and put a deposit down on a dorm room at California Polytechnic
State University or Cal Poly. This is in San Luis Obispo, California. So instead of going into architecture, Kristin had a change of heart before college actually started, and she went into communication because eventually she wanted to travel the world as a journalist. And she actually had
enrolled late to Cal Poly, so she had to live in the
off campus apartments. But she was kind of bummed about 'cause you want the
freshmen campus experience to be right there on campus. That year, for Christmas break, she went and visited
her friends in Hawaii. She had a really good time with them. And when she came back, a
dorm had opened up on campus. So she was pumped. She moved into room 120 at Muir Hall in an area called The Red Bricks. She was super happy about this. She was going to be able
to walk to her classes, walk to different things
on campus very easily, it'll give her more of a social scene. Her roommate that she was
living with off campus was nice, but she was just kind of
shy and wasn't very social. Kristin wanted to have
more of the experience. She wanted to go to parties. She was a very social person. So this was gonna be the start of her real college experience to her. And Kristin was on this
whole journey in college to really figure out herself identity, like so many of us do in college. During this time, she was giving herself
different nicknames. She dyed her blonde hair brown. She was just having a lot of fun. And Kristin would socially drink, but she wasn't a big drinker. It was much more about the
social aspect of it for her. During this time, Kristin
was working as a lifeguard at the Cal Poly pool, and she worked the 5:00 a.m shift. So she normally had to get up
at like 4:30 most mornings, but she really didn't mind. She loved the water. And during school, she definitely was
experiencing independence, but she would call her
parents once a week on Sundays and kind of check in. And that spring, her parents
visited her a few times. And one of the times, Kristin actually told her mom that she was just struggling in school. Her classes were hard to keep up with. They overwhelmed her. She felt like she never had enough time for anything other than school, and that she was tired all the time. So she felt like she
kind of needed a change. She actually told her mom that she thought it would be better if she went to school in
like the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, somewhere where she could
be closer to the beach and have a more chill college experience. At one point, things actually got so bad that she practically begged her mom to let her drop out of school. And as supportive as her mom is, she obviously wanted her to
finish what she had started. She worked so hard to
get into school there. She wanted her to graduate. Plus it was her freshman year. Her mom felt like maybe she just needed a little bit more time to adjust. In early May of 1996, Denise actually wrote Kristin a letter, encouraging her to stay in school, encouraging her to continue working hard and to stick with it. She also told her that maybe she should
quit her lifeguarding job and just focus on what's important. So then Memorial Day weekend comes along, Memorial Day weekend in 1996. That Friday, May 24th, Kristin called her parents and left a message on
their answering machine. - And the message was, "Good news. Good news.
I'll call you Sunday." - So Kristin had one friend at school that she was very close with. Her name is Margarita Campos. And they both had ADHD, so they really connected on this and kind of struggling
through freshman year. And so that night, Kristin wanted to go out with Margarita and go to some parties. It's towards the end of the year, she's starting to kind of
relax, get ready for the summer, but Margarita said that she was tired and actually just wanting to stay in. But Kristin really wanted to go out and she didn't like going out by herself, so she begged her to go with her. Eventually she agreed and they went out just
looking for a party. But it was Memorial Day weekend. So there aren't as many parties going on. Normally a lot of the campus
clears on holiday weekends. And recently, Kristin had lost dorm key. So they only had Margarita's to get them back into the building. And, Kristin also did not have her ID or even her wallet with her that night. She actually didn't drive herself. So she would just go
around with people who did, she didn't even have a driver's license. It didn't seem to be something
she was interested in. So they got ready that
night and on their way out, they ran into another group of girls who kind of tagged along with them, and they went looking for parties. The group ended up getting
a ride with this one guy and he was like a friend of theirs. And they went to this other house party at another friend's house. And it was just kind of lame. Kristin said it was actually a dud and she wanted to find
something more exciting to kind of kick off the weekend. While she was there, she
only had like one beer and then they continued on
looking for more parties. So they just drove around
in this guy's truck, looking for more parties. And when they didn't see anything, Kristin and Margarita actually got out at this one neighborhood, hoping they'd come across a house party. But after walking a little
bit, Margarita was tired. She didn't wanna go
out in the first place. So she told Kristin, "Hey, let's go back." And Kristin wasn't having it. She really wanted to have
a good time that night. For some reason that weekend, she was really determined to have fun. And Margarita just finally was like, "Hey, you can continue on.
I'm gonna go back home." And they decided to part ways. And to this day, Margarita feels terrible about that because she said she was
raised as a girl scout and she knows about the buddy system, and she feels like she just never should have left Kristin that night. And I can't imagine how hard that would be to have that guilt on your shoulders. So the two of them had gotten in a little bit of an argument over this, not really an argument, just Kristin seemed
annoyed at the whole thing. They were kind of annoyed at each other. So Margarita just gave
Kristin her room key so that she could get in that night. Kristin put it into her sock
and continued on walking and Margarita went the other way. That was the last time that she saw her. So around 10:00 p.m., about a 10th of a mile from
where she left Margarita, she found a party. And this was actually a birthday party at a fraternity house, a Sigma Chi House, an unofficial house. And it was for a guy named Ryan
Fell, who went by "Swampy." And it wasn't really a huge party. Like 20 people or so were invited and people just kept coming and going. And according to people that were there, all the guys seemed very
interested in Kristin right away. She looked beautiful. She's tall. She was wearing these vinyl shorts, crop top and red Puma sneakers. During the party, Kristin went up to this
guy named Trevor Boelter and told him that her name was Roxy. And brought him into the bathroom. And he was really excited because he thought she
wanted to hook up with him. But when they got in the bathroom, she said that she was only interested in this basketball player
that was also at the party. Later that night, she apparently flirted
with the basketball player, but he kind of brushed her off. And Kristin ended up
drinking a lot that night, much more than usual. Not really sure why. According to Trevor, when he saw her later that night, she was really, really drunk. So the party ended around 2:00 a.m. And two of the people that
were there that night, Tim Davis and Cheryl Anderson, were walking home from the party when they found Kristin
Smart lying on the grass, just outside of someone's lawn. So clearly she's very intoxicated. They try to help stand her
up and she can barely walk. She barely has any idea what's going on. So they decided to take
her back to her place, make sure she gets back safely. And as they're walking, another student catches up with them, 19-year-old Paul Flores. And he was acting like this
super nice hero guy coming up. And he puts his hand around her bare waist and kind of as if he
knows her, but he doesn't. Later on he would say that she was freezing
cold during that time, and so he was hugging
her to keep her warm. He said, Kristin was holding
onto him as they walked. And the dorms were about 1/2 a mile away from where they are, which is hard when you're intoxicated and you can barely move. Paul lived in Santa Lucia Hall, which is really close to where Kristin was living in Muir Hall. So Tim, Cheryl, Paul, and Kristin are all walking
back towards the dorms. Eventually Tim is the first one to kind of peel off from the group. He had his car parked pretty close and he's gonna drive the rest of the way. So the three of them kept walking. Now, Cheryl lived in
the Sierra Madre Hall, which is in a different
direction from The Red Bricks. So she's obviously cold
as well and uncomfortable, wants to get home, so she thinks Paul has it from here. So she splits off from
them and goes to her dorm. And then Paul and
Kristin continued walking towards The Red Bricks. Paul claimed that he
continued walking Kristin to his building, and then he watched her walk
over to her building from his, which is like 40 yards away, and then after he saw her
safely go inside her dorm, he went inside of his and
that was it for the night. But that night, Kristin was supposed to spend
the night in Margarita's room, but she never showed up. So Kristin had a roommate named Crystal and she was out of town that Friday night, but she came back Saturday morning. And when she got back to the dorm, she noticed that Kristin's
backpack was on the bed, but Kristin was not there. However, in college, people sleep in all
types of random places. You don't always think something bad has happened to somebody. So she assumed she'd be back later. But by Saturday night, she didn't show up. And then she didn't show
up on Sunday either. So Crystal started getting worried and she talked to Margarita
who was also getting worried. So they started asking around the campus to see if anyone had seen
Kristin, heard from Kristin, but no one had. So obviously when she never
called her parents that day, they were really concerned. But they knew that she was kind of figuring out her independence. They didn't wanna bother her. - Not any other Sunday
you would have called, but because it was a long weekend, made the assumption that
she would call on Monday. - So that Monday morning, a bunch of her friends got together and kind of talked about
what they should do, and they eventually decided that they should call the police. It was her friend Jennifer Phipps that actually called the
police, the campus police, and reported her missing. But they actually would
not take the report. They suggested that Kristin
had just gone somewhere for a weekend getaway for Memorial Day. They figured she would be back soon. They even suggested that maybe she went to
Hawaii for the weekend since she loved Hawaii so much. So Jennifer thought, "Maybe
this is just the campus police, "let me call the local police "and see if they react any differently." But they didn't. They did not seem to care or have any sense of urgency
for Kristin whatsoever. Kristin had basically just
disappeared from the campus. She didn't have her ID, her wallet, any money or any credit cards on her. And she didn't pack up any of her stuff. She didn't bring any clothes, the bag, any of her textbooks, nothing. So they tried their best to convince the campus
police to take the report, but they just wouldn't do it. So they called Kristin's
parents to see if she was there. And this really freaked out Kristin's mom. - There was a police
officer from Cal Poly Police who called to say that they
had some concerns about Kristin and had she come home for the weekend. And that's when a
mother's instinct kicks in and you say, "This is not right." Your heart is broken, but you can't let your will break because you have to be on your toes and you have to look for resources that can help you find your daughter. - But the police ended up reassuring her that students take spontaneous
trips all the time. We even have this theory that
she may have gone to Hawaii. They tried to reassure Denise that Kristin was probably
just traveling or with friends and would check in soon. That she just kind of forgot about her responsibilities to check in, which her parents felt
like wasn't Kristin at all. They knew that this
just could not be true. Kristin would never just take off without telling them where she was going or at least tell a friend. So it wasn't until May 28th, that the police decided to actually file a report for Kristin. And the campus newspaper didn't
even acknowledge the report until that Friday, May 31st. And by this time, her
parents are freaking out. They know that Kristin did not just leave. Definitely not voluntarily. So Stan decided to drive down there and talk to police himself and also physically put
flyers up around the campus. He and Denise already felt
like they were on their own. Like the police just
weren't gonna do anything. And they were so frustrated that it took so long to even file a report because they just wasted
investigation time. And we all know that the first 40 hours that someone goes missing,
are the most crucial. And you have a decreasing
possibility of finding someone as the hours go by. And they were just doing nothing. And we don't really know why, but eventually they realized that they had to do an investigation. So the campus police actually
started the investigation. And obviously this is a huge
case for the campus police. So the San Luis Obispo
police also stepped in and kind of worked
alongside them at first. They started by interviewing
a bunch of witnesses that were at the parties that
Kristin was out that night and tried to build a
timeline of who she talked to and what that night really looked like, and after they interviewed several people, it was clear that there
was one person of interest that really stood out to them. And that was Paul Flores. Tim Davis, the other guy who had walked Kristin
halfway to her dorm, said that when they were at the party, he heard this loud crashing noise. And he looks over and he sees Kristin on the
ground with Paul Flores, like on top of her, almost like they had fallen together or he had pushed her and
jumped on top of her, something just strange. And he remembered feeling really
weird about it at the time. And then that guy, Trevor, the one that Kristin like
pulled aside into the bathroom, also had an interesting
experience with Paul that night. When he was in the bathroom with Kristin, at one point she like told him to leave 'cause she was done talking
to him about the other guy, and when he left the bathroom, Paul Flores was standing
outside the bathroom door. And he started interrogating him about what had just happened
in there with Kristin. And he seemed like really mad at first. And he got afraid and thought, maybe this is like her
boyfriend or something and he's gonna beat me up. But then as soon as he said,
"Nothing happened, man," Paul completely switched his demeanor and was like, "Oh, no worries." And like laughing it off. And Trevor just thought
that was really strange. And then another student at the party said that when she was alone with
Paul, he tried to kiss her. She said, the first
time he tried to do it, she pushed him off and tried
to go back to the party, but then he'd followed
her over to where she was and did it again. And so she pushed him again and then tried to just
stay with her friend for like protection. And multiple female students
that night at the party said that Paul tried to
grope them, kiss them, that he was hitting on all these people and refusing to take no for an answer even when they would
say they had a boyfriend or they weren't interested. He was just being an overall creep. That girl, Cheryl Anderson, actually knew Paul from before that night. And her friends actually referred to him as Chester the molester. So that tells you a lot. And Cheryl said that on the walk home, Paul kept trying to get her to leave and walk away from them. Like kept saying, "Hey, walk ahead of us." 'Cause they were walking pretty slow. Kristin had drank a lot and Cheryl was cold and
wanted to get back home. So he kept telling her to go
ahead, walk ahead of them, but she didn't wanna leave
Kristin alone with him and she also didn't want to walk alone. And, before she did split off from them, while Paul was still holding
onto Kristin's waist, he tried to kiss Cheryl. And she said no, but he asked her for a
kiss on the cheek instead. She also said no to that. And then after this, even
though she was nervous, she went home and left Kristin with Paul. So of course, the campus police
decides to interview Paul. And they do this several times. And he claimed that he ended
up at the party randomly, that that night he was
just drinking some beers and then decided to walk
over to his sister's place. But he saw this house party on the way and changed his plans. The police asked if he
had called his sister before leaving that night, and he said no, but phone records showed that he actually did
call his sister at 08:59. Paul said that he
remembered seeing "Roxy," that was the name that Kristin
was going by that night, at the party. And he said that she was really
flirty with all of the guys, but he claimed that he didn't
interact with her at all until they were walking home. And that he just helped
her get to her dorm, then went back into his own. But that goes against what Tim said. He said that he saw Paul on
top of her on the ground. He doesn't know if he pushed
her or if they fell together, that's still a big mystery. But he claims that Paul
did talk to Kristin before they were walking home. So when police interviewed Paul, they noticed that he
had multiple injuries. He had scratches on the back of his hand, rug burn on his knees, and a black eye. And Paul said that the
black eye was actually from a pickup basketball game. He said it just happened that Sunday, that his friend had
elbowed him in the face. But then they went and
interviewed this friend that he played basketball with, and he said that Paul had the black eye before they even played. And when he asked Paul how he got it, he said he didn't remember. So police confronted him with this lie. And Paul said that the reason he lied was because he didn't want anyone to know the true reason for his accident 'cause he was kind of embarrassed by it. He said, in reality, he hit his eye on the
steering wheel of his truck. He was installing a stereo system into it, and somehow as he's installing
this new stereo system, he hits his eye on the steering wheel. Now, he had hit his right
eye and he's also 5'10, so it seems pretty impossible to just hit your eye like that. Plus it doesn't explain
all of the other injuries. And even though the police
thought it was weird, they decided not to take any photos to document his injuries. Don't know why. A few months before this, Paul was actually arrested
for driving without a license, which violated the parole that he was on from previous charges, I'll explain. And he decided not to show up for court. So police got an arrest warrant for him. He was booked on May 27th, 1996, right after Kristin had gone missing, but before the campus police actually took the missing person's report. This mugshot is the only
proof of the black eye. And it's still really hard to see. It was pretty much healed at that point, but this is all we have. When he was interviewed on June 19th, Paul was very anxious and just wanted to leave the whole time. He said that he had somewhere
that he needed to be. And the officer asked
twice where he had to go before Paul answered that he had to go clean up some concrete. When the officer asked where,
he said, "My mom's house." So I'm sure some of you are
already putting together a picture for what has happened here. Now, to add to this picture, Paul has a history of violence and inappropriate behavior with women over pretty much his whole life. When he was in eighth grade, he flew into this rage and actually beat this
other kid in the head. So violently that he
ended up in the hospital for a really long time. And so Paul's parents had to pay for all the medical bills for this kid. At this time, and remember,
this was an eighth grade, the court recommended
anger management for him. And his parents actually declined. They did not think he needed it. There's also a long list of people that have had strange interactions
with Paul over the years. So many people just describe him as weird, slightly aggressive, and the main one that people
seem to use is just creepy. Multiple women have reported
being harassed by him, stalked by him, or just have reported some type
of creepy exchange with him. A lot of women called him either
psycho Paul or scary Paul. So he definitely had a bad reputation. And Paul also didn't really
have any close friends. He would kind of linger around
other groups of friends, but he was always that guy that
no one really wanted around. He had a habit of just showing
up to parties, uninvited, weirding everybody out there, oftentimes getting kicked out. And when he was working
at his part-time job, he would often grope the
other female coworkers. And he thought he was
like funny to do this, that they were kind of into it. And he was such a weirdo that sometimes he would
even follow people home. And it seems like once
he got into college, things got even worse. In December of 1995, he climbed up the side of an apartment to look inside of a window
in the middle of the night. A woman who lived there
saw him, called the police, and when they got there, they just told him to get
down and told him to leave. That's it. Like, he
didn't get in any trouble. A few months later, three different women who
lived in that building claimed that they were being harassed and were also getting
repeatedly called by Paul all the time, and that he
would not leave them alone. He was scaring them. But nothing was ever done about Paul. No one ever looked into it further. During the first part
of the investigation, Kristin's parents really
weren't told anything. They had no idea what
was actually being done, if anything was being done. And it was really stressing them out. They said that they felt like Kristin's case was being treated
more like a missing bicycle than a missing person. And they were also really
upset with the incident report that came out on May 31st
about Kristin's case. It was bad. After interviewing multiple
people at the party, the officer wrote down that
Kristin was really drunk and was flirting with a
bunch of men at the party. And he wrote in his notes, "She lives in her own way, "not conforming to
typical teenage behavior." And he noted that these
things did not imply that her behavior caused
her to go missing, but he did know that they
provide a picture of her conduct on the night of her disappearance. Basically victim shaming her right away, passive aggressively saying that this is somehow Kristin's fault. And then on June 20th, an investigator actually talked
with the school newspaper and was quoted saying this, "There is no evidence
of criminal activity. "It doesn't look like she
was the victim of a crime. "So we are pursuing this case "as an adult missing under
unusual circumstances." Luckily, the campus police
weren't in charge of things for very long, which they really shouldn't
have been handling this from the beginning. But on June 26, 1996, they handed it over to the San Louis Obispo
County Sheriff's Department. And within three days, they organized a search of the campus that included over 400 volunteers, helicopters, cadaver dogs, all things that would been
really helpful to have when she first went missing. - [Reporter] In the meantime,
until the mystery is solved, Roxy's classmates say they will not take their
safety for granted. - I don't know. It
really makes me cautious about biking around at night
and just, I mean, it's... I really can't believe
it. It doesn't seem real. - I used to tell a friend just to walk back to her dorm
alone, nothing's gonna happen, but now it's like, I
won't let her anymore. - We saw her on Saturday and in her... Friday night before she disappeared, she was standing on the corner. And that's really strange
that they haven't seen her. And people are just wondering
what happened to her. - When the dogs were
brought to the campus, they were walked through all of the dorms. And the handlers weren't
told any details of the case or about where specifically to look so that they couldn't
sway the dogs in any way. So four dogs ended up picking up something outside of room 128 in Santa Lucia Hall, which happens to be Paul Flores' room, which he shared with another
roommate named Derek Tse. And by the time campus
police had searched his room, he had already left for the summer and it was cleaned by the janitor. So who knows what they could have missed. They literally cleaned his
entire bed, sheets, all of that. Of course they do when
someone leaves a dorm. But when the dogs were
led inside of the room, they still hit on Paul's mattress. Investigators actually
removed the mattress and the box spring from the room, let the dogs back in, and they still detected something on Paul's bed frame itself. And not only that, they also detected that same scent on a telephone and a trashcan in the room. So the investigators took that trashcan and set it out in the hallway with a bunch of other random
trashcans from other rooms. And the dogs still identified
the scent on Paul's trashcan. So a little bit more
about his roommate, Derek. He said that he was out
of town that weekend. And when he got back, Paul told him that he had walked Kristin
back home that night. And at the time, Derek said
that he jokingly asked Paul, "What did you do with her?" Which I don't really
understand how that's a joke, but anyway, Paul responded and said, "She's at my house,
having lunch with my mom." And that's important.
Remember that for later. So when Paul wasn't in school, he would stay at his dad's
house most of the time. His father's name is Ruben. His mom, Susan, was not
staying there at the time because she had filed for
legal separation in April, but sometimes she would stay there for multiple nights at a time. Finally, on July 22nd, 1996, the police served a search
warrant at Ruben's house. They waited a week after
getting the warrant to actually serve it. Don't know why. And they did the most
half-ass job with this search. I mean, truly. They didn't bring any cadaver dogs. They didn't even bring a forensic team, and they didn't search any
vehicles while they were there. It was just an inspection, a visual inspection to see
the house and look around and see if there was
any clues about Kristin. Also, Ruben has an avocado
grove on his property. It's like one to two acres. And they never searched that. The most significant thing that they found while they were there, were newspaper clippings
about Kristin's disappearance, which is odd. And they were in all
random parts of the house. One was in the kitchen. One was in Ruben's room,
under his mattress. And another one was under Paul's mattress. And pretty much from the beginning, Ruben and Susan were very,
very sketchy about everything. A woman who worked with Susan said that she remembers her being just flat out angry about everything. - [Susan's Coworker] I worked with her and she shared with me that Ruben, in the middle of the night, had gotten a phone call
and he just took off. And she was very puzzled by that. - And the week after Kristin disappeared, Susan actually told her that she was really annoyed with Ruben because he had to take
this late night phone call on Memorial weekend. And then he just left. And she felt frustrated because she didn't know what was going on. And she felt like maybe he
was hiding something from her. So it seemed like, if he was involved, he
hadn't told her anything. But they ended up searching
Susan's house multiple times. Like I said, she wasn't
staying with Ruben. She was actually living
at her rental property on East Branch Street. But during the first search, police didn't actually know that. They just assumed that she
lived with Ruben full time. So when Paul told police that he had to go deal with
concrete at his mom's house, no one even made the connection that he was talking about a
completely different location, not Ruben's house. So then that August, Susan ends up putting
her house up for rent. And it was rented by Mary and Joe Lassiter and their six-year-old son. And they moved in on October 1st. So Mary's mother lived next door, and all three adults worked
at the local hospital. So they would carpool together.
It was a perfect situation. But right when they moved
in, Susan, their landlord, tells them that there is this
aluminum trashcan out front and they just shouldn't touch it. Don't throw anything away in it. And someone will pick it up. Mary remembers thinking, this was strange. It's just a trashcan. Why did you have such
specific rules about it? And why are you so
afraid of us touching it? And then Ruben came and picked that trashcan up the next day. So, that next month, Mary and Joe are in
this new rental property and they start getting
mail from random people. And it was clearly not directed at them. It was threatening messages saying, "Come forward, come talk to the police. "Be honest about what your son has done. "You know what your son has done." And at first, they were confused, but they started looking into everything and decided it would be best
if they kept all of this mail. So they created a special file. Then one day, Mary was outside cleaning her car when she noticed something
shiny near her front tire. And it was an earring. It was a, as she describes it, a silver earring with a turquoise colored
stone on the front. And then it also had a dark
reddish fingerprint smudge on the back of it. So she decided to put it in
a little baggie and saved it. She was smart enough to know that that's probably connected to the letters that people are sending. Then in October, investigators actually came to talk with them at their house. And Mary wasn't there at
the time, only Joe was. And he had mentioned, "My
wife found this earring." And they asked if they could have it. And he said yes. So they took it in for
evidence, at least they thought. The detective's name
has never been released, but this guy apparently
took the earring with him and brought it back to
the Sheriff's Department and put it somewhere safe. So as soon as the local police department took over the case, Paul Flores completely
stopped cooperating. In October of that year, investigators called a grand jury, not for an indictment, but just so that they
could have questioning on the record for Paul Flores. They wanted the witness
testimonies documented under oath. They called it in Paul, his parents, his sister, Ermelinda,
and her husband, Brett. And then they had a deposition
on November 14th, 1997. And during this, Paul refuse
to answer any questions. He even refused to verify
his own family's names. His lawyers literally told him to just cite the Fifth
Amendment after every question, every single question. - [Detective] What is your
present residence address? - On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. - [Detective] Are you under the
influence of any medication, which at this time would interfere with your ability to give clear and accurate testimony today? - On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer to that question based on the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. - [Detective] You reported
your Nissan truck stolen in San Diego recently, is that correct? - On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. - [Kendall] Ruben also did a deposition, but he could not plead the Fifth, so he did answer the questions. - [Detective] Was your son a minor at the time that a person
made a claim against him for damages and the civil action? - I'm not sure. I believe there was a
settlement, but I'm not sure. - He was giving very conflicting answers, especially about the family's vehicles. So they had a Nissan and a Ford Ranger, but he said that Paul
never drove the Nissan, but his coworkers all
confirmed that he did. He also said that no one had
access to the Ranger that May, but that was a lie as well. And of course, the Flores family no
longer owned either truck. They had traded in the Ranger and then the ownership of the Nissan was transferred over to Paul, but it was actually stolen
right before the deposition. And then that Fall, Paul to enroll in the Navy so he could flee the
situation essentially. But the Smart family decided to file a $40 million wrongful
death lawsuit against him so that he wouldn't be able to leave. Later they tried to add Cal
Poly to this lawsuit as well for failing to protect Kristin. But the university had immunity
as a government entity. Luckily, Paul ended up being
rejected from the Navy. And because of the lawsuit, they were able to subpoena
him and a few other people. This included other students that walked home with them that night, some of Paul's coworkers, and even the tenants that
were living in Susan's house, which they definitely had a lot to say. So the deposition started
in January of 1997. And what was really strange is, Tim Davis, the one who had also walked
with Kristin home that night, didn't show up. And they called him and he basically told off
the Smart family attorney and they never talked with him again. Cheryl Anderson, the other person who walked
home with them that night, really didn't have anything new to say, except for she did not think
Tim was involved at all. But when they interviewed
the tenants, Mary and Joe, the Smart family was shocked
to hear about this earring. No one had ever told them that
an earring had been found. And of course this is
potentially huge evidence that they definitely should
have been notified about. So of course their lawyer put in a request for them to see it, possibly
identify the earring, see if it really did belong to Kristin, but they never heard
back for over a month. So eventually Stan and Denise decide to go down to the police
department themselves and demand to see this earring. And when they did, they found
out that the earring was lost. Someone had literally put
the earring in a desk drawer, closed it up, forgot about
it, and they just lost it. At least that was their story. They were told that the police did a "visual" inspection of the earring and decided that it was
not related to the case. So years later, Mary ended up buying a pair of earrings that she said were almost identical to the one that she found. Here is a picture of the earring, which we definitely can't prove that it really did look like this. But if Mary is telling the truth
and remembers it correctly, what's crazy is if you look
in Kristin's missing photo, it actually matches the
necklace that she's wearing. So it definitely could have been hers, but investigators claim
that Mary's description and memory of the earring is just wrong. They claimed that the
earring that was found does not match the necklace at all. But there is no way to determine
this because they lost it. But Mary had something even
bigger than the earring. So in their backyard, along one of the walls of their house, there were four planter boxes. Three were small, about
one foot around each way, and the fourth was much larger, about six feet long and three feet wide. Here's a picture of them
in front of the boxes. Now, Joe had tried to
grow flowers in this box, but they kept dying. He thought it was really weird. He was normally pretty
good at growing things. So when he inspected the planter, he realized that there was
actually a layer of cement underneath the dirt. So that's why the roots
weren't actually growing down. They thought this was
really odd for a planter. So they asked a neighbor about it. And the neighbor said that the planters were
added in summer of 1996, the same year that Kristin went missing. In fact, it seemed like there
was a lot of construction happening around the house that year. And then get this, after they had first
moved in to Susan's house, they started hearing a weird sound every morning around 4:20 a.m. They would hear the sound
of a watch alarm going off. One night when Mary's
mother was staying over, they went outside and tried to figure out where the sound was coming from. They were literally
crawling on the ground, trying to see if they could
hear it in the bushes, buried in the grass, but they could never figure out where this beeping sound was coming from. And over time, eventually
the beeping stopped. Mary thought, it definitely was a watch. It really sounded like a watch. So she figured the
battery must've just died. And she thought it was really
strange time to set an alarm. 04:00, I mean, 04:20 is pretty early, but Kristin was a lifeguard. She had to be at the pool by 05:00. It's quite possible she
would set her alarm for 4:20. So after Susan Flores found out that Mary and Joe had done
the deposition against her, she was pissed. And she retaliated by kicking
them out of her house, which at that point they were
more than happy to leave. So, by law, they had 30 days to vacate. So they were gonna use this time to bring in some experts
to search the property. On March 3rd, 1997, a geologists came in and did a ground penetrating
sweep of the backyard. And they also brought in cadaver dogs. And they actually alerted
to an area in the backyard where the aluminum trashcan had been. And when the geologist
looked in the backyard, he said that there were some
anomalies in the ground, but he couldn't tell if
they were natural or not, because he had actually
never personally searched for a body before. But he did note that there were several
broken pieces of concrete all around the backyard. And there were also stains
on the side of the house that looked like dirt
had been piled up there. Like someone was burying something. And like I said, neighbors had come forward and said that there was
lots of construction going on in that backyard after Kristin went missing in 1996. A neighbor across the street actually said that he had seen Paul
right around that time, outside late in the night
with some other men, digging something, doing
something in the backyard, in the dark for five hours. And not only that, he saw that they were pouring concrete. And he actually claims
that he saw them dig a hole that was four feet wide and
seven to eight feet long, and then drop something in it, that to him, looked like a
carpet, a rolled up carpet. He said, it definitely looked like something heavy was inside because it took both of them to move it. He watched them put dirt back over it and then pour concrete on top. And since then, they've
actually built a garage on top of this spot. And this garage actually blocks access from the backyard to the driveway. So after Mary and Joe
moved out of the house, Susan actually just moved back in. Obviously she's not gonna
let another renter come in. And once people got word that
she was back in the house, tons of people would drive
by all the time and honk, people take pictures,
even knock on the door, to try to get information out of her. But despite all of that,
Susan has never left. And you gotta wonder why. So the FBI considers Kristin's case a high priority missing
person's investigation. They have offered a reward of $75,000 for information that
could lead to finding her or solving her case. In early 1999, the police
went and did interviews with over 1,000 students at Cal Poly. And they also did another
physical search of the campus, but they did not find any new evidence. In 2000, the FBI and Sheriff's
Department reviewed the case and they decided it was quite possible that Kristin's body was
buried at Susan's house. So on June 19th of that year, they served a search warrant at her home. And investigators searched
her house for nine hours, and this time, they used a more advanced
ground penetrating radar, hoping to find some new evidence. And because they had
this advanced technology, apparently they didn't need to
actually dig up the concrete. And her family was really hoping that something would come out of this, but the results came back inconclusive. And as soon as they left her
property, the warrant expired. Then there's another very important person in Kristin's case. And that is Dennis Mahon. And he's actually a citizens' detective. Like he just volunteered. And he started following
Kristin's case in the late '90s. And there's a really
good interview with him on "Your Own Backyard" podcast. And he was introduced to Kristin's family and has been a huge part of the case, and part of their efforts to get justice for Kristin ever since. So, while he was working
on Kristin's case, he ended up talking to one of the lead
investigators on the case, and he asked why Susan's
yard was never dug up. And allegedly, this investigator told him that it was because the group
of investigators did a vote and all decided it was not worth it because if they didn't find anything and they damaged the concrete, it would be too expensive to repair it. Of course, Kristin's family
was very upset to hear this. And when Dennis went public
with this information, the police basically said it was all lies. They denied ever saying it and said that it was simply because they couldn't authorize the dig. What's strange about this case, is the issue of cost
seems to keep coming up as an excuse for investigators, even though the community
has volunteered tons of funds and also volunteered services, people have been willing
to volunteer for free, members of the community have even volunteered equipment and stuff. It just doesn't make any sense. Dennis felt like the only way they were gonna
really get movement on the case was if he started trying to talk to the Flores family himself, which isn't recommended always, but hey, you gotta give him the credit
for being ballsy about it because the police weren't doing it. And he would just go to their
house and try to talk to them. At one point, he had even
tried to talk to Paul and Paul started talking back and then his parents quickly
brought him into the house. At one point, Susan was actually arrested for tackling him outside of her house. And according to Dennis, she actually said, "Yes,
Paul killed Kristin. "And he also killed that
Modafferi girl too." After that, he realized that he could
take pictures of the family as long as he wasn't
standing on their property when he took the photos. They could also take
photos of him as well. So they started just taking
photos of each other. The Flores family was
very irritated by him and eventually they got a
restraining order against him. And it actually went through, and he didn't really care, he just violated the
restraining order anyway. And they did call the
police on him one time and he was arrested. And then get this, in August of 2005, the Flores family actually files a lawsuit against the Smart family. In it, they claim that Dennis
was working on their behalf. So they were responsible for
all the harassment and stalking that they had been going
through with Dennis. They tried to say that they were legally and
financially responsible for the distress that
they had been through by being harassed by Dennis. - We have been harassed. We've had a restraining order. We've had Mr. And Mrs.
Smart's henchman put in jail for harassing us, stalking us. And when I say us, I mean Ruben and I, I mean Mike, my daughter,
her husband, my son. We were all on the
restraining order, protected. He violated the restraining order. He went to jail. And like I said, he was their henchman. - But jokes on her because
with this new lawsuit came new opportunity to dig
out more info about the case. The Flores family's property
could be searched again now because they had to prove that Dennis had a reason
for being out there. And luckily, the lawyers were able to negotiate the terms of the search without the police
department being involved. So in March of 2007, a prominent ground penetrating
radar expert was brought in to search their property. But he couldn't get a reading
on those planter boxes or the newly built garage because he couldn't search the area where the cadaver dog
had picked up a scent. He was allowed to look
at the rest of the yard, but not that area specifically, which is obviously very frustrating. An excavation crew was
able to dig into this spot and take some of the
concrete out and test it. And somehow they ruled out that this was a potential burial spot, but this crew was not actually allowed to dig into the planter, which is where she most likely would be. During all this time, the
Smart family was so frustrated, but they never gave up hope. Kristin was legally declared
dead in May of 2002. And her family was starting to get worried that people were forgetting about her. There was just a lot less media going on. People weren't talking about her as much. In the years following, they asked for donations from the public to keep billboards up in the area, which can be really expensive, but it can really keep
someone's name out there, which is just so valuable. In 2011, everything changed. There was a newly elected
sheriff named Ian Parkinson who took over the case and ordered a complete full
review of all the evidence. He claim that he was dedicated to finding answers for the Smart family. And so they felt hopeful for
the first time in a while, but things moved painfully slowly. I mean, wow. It wasn't till September 6th, 2016, that the Sheriff's Department announced that they were investigating a new lead. They had launched another
search of the campus with cadaver dogs and
earth movers this time. So this was gonna be a big deal. I actually remember this happening. They spent four days excavating these areas around the campus. And the case was finally
starting to make progress for the first time in 20 years. And that's when I first heard about it, was because of that progress. And just from what I researched about it, I felt like things were
gonna move a lot faster. It seemed like there was
a lot of evidence on Paul. I mean, that's definitely
the takeaway I got from it when I covered it years ago. And when this search was going on, it seemed like there was just
a renewed sense of urgency to actually figure out what
had really happened to Kristin. Then in 2019, something
huge happened for the case. From someone not expected. Chris Lambert, he's a musician. He decided to make this podcast, and he was genuinely
concerned about Kristin and wanted to find her. He said, almost as much as her family did. So he released the podcast
"In Your Own Backyard" and it included a lot of new information and really compelling interviews. He said he was motivated
to make this podcast after driving by the
billboards for Kristin over and over again and just
wondering what happened. And this podcast did really well. It gave the case a new spotlight. I mean, they had barely
been getting any coverage. I remember when I covered it, it was one of the first
times it had been covered in a long time, and they were really happy
to just get the coverage of my small YouTube channel at the time. So when this fully dedicated,
professionally done, beautifully done podcast was
put out, they were ecstatic. So with the case being back in the news, they figured that the Flores family was probably talking about
it amongst each other, possibly on their devices. So in 2019, they got a court order to
monitor Paul's cell phone. And this podcast made
a serious difference. Like the police learned
things about the case that they didn't even know. They ended up going and interviewing people
that he had on the podcast that they had never
even interviewed before. One person they found from
the podcast and interviewed, was an Australian exchange
student named Neil Van Est. His story had been just
dismissed for some reason by detectives years before, but with fresh eyes, he ended up being a huge
part of the whole case. The night that Kristin disappeared, he was riding his bike
back from the library, really late at night around 2:00 a.m. And he actually saw a man and a woman inside of Sierra Madre Hall,
which is Cheryl's dorm. And they were struggling and fighting. It looked like the woman
was trying to get away. And he described this man as
average height, about 5'10, and the woman about a few inches
taller, closer to six foot, just like Paul and Kristin. He said the light was
on in that lobby area. You can kind of see where
they would be standing. And he got a clear view through
the floor-to-ceiling windows on the front of the building. So now the case was really
starting to come together. A picture is being painted finally, after all of these years, of what could have happened that night. And then in January of 2020, police announced that they
actually have recovered both of the Flores family trucks that they had tried to get rid of, the Nissan and the Ford Ranger. So we don't know what could
have been possibly found in the trucks at this point. And then in February, police executed four search warrants in California and Washington states at the homes of Paul, Ruben, Susan, and his sister Ermelinda. And we don't know exactly what was found, but they did say items
of interest were found. Then, that April, some new evidence, which we don't know exactly what it is, there's still a lot we
don't know at this point, but this new evidence led
to a second search warrant of Paul's home in San Pedro, California. And investigators said that they were looking for
specific items of evidence. And during this search, they ended up bringing a bunch of electronic
devices into evidence, including cell phone towers, cell phones, and other electronic devices,
some of them decades old. And they actually took Paul
into custody this time. But he was released right after. Then, recently in March of 2021, a search warrant was
issued for Ruben's home, and investigators used cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar
to search the whole property. And they also took one of
his cars, a Volkswagen, in as evidence as well. As of right now, not a lot of information has been released to the public at all, especially
about what they have found. And that's all for a reason, hopefully. But finally, I guess they had enough to make arrests in the case. On April 13th, 2021, police arrested now 44
year old Paul Flores and his 80 year old father, Ruben Flores, at each of their homes. And this was super exciting
to see this finally happen after all this time. Paul was charged with first degree murder and held without bail, finally. Now, investigators have come forward and said that they believe
that Paul killed Kristin in some type of attempted
sexual assault or rape. And then they believe
that Ruben helped him to hide her body. And they said that based
on biological evidence, that they believe that Kristin's body was actually first at Ruben's
house underneath his deck. So, not at Susan's house, which
still needs to be searched. And they think that if
her remains were there, that they were moved recently. The statute of limitations has expired when it comes to sexual assault, but murder committed
in the course of a rape or attempted rape, is justified as a first
degree felony charge. So the statute of
limitations does not apply. Ruben was charged with being
an accessory after the fact and was released on bail. And what's really cool is when the sheriff did announce this arrest, they credited Chris Lambert
for his amazing podcast and all of the incredible
interviews that he did. - In 2019, we interviewed
several witnesses that had not been previously interviewed, and I'll say, some of that
information came to light through the podcast that many
of you are familiar with, that was produced and eventually led to our
interviewing that witness. - They also said that they believe that Paul has committed several sexual assaults over the years. And if anyone has any
more information on Paul, to please call them. So if you, for some reason know something, I will have that information below as they're working to build the best case against him as possible right now. And it would be very helpful. Paul has already been accused of three other assaults dating
back to January of 2007. So clearly, Kristin wasn't the last one. Most recently on April 19th, Paul and Ruben, both pled not guilty. After the arrests were made, the Smart family filed their own lawsuit against Ruben Flores for intentional infliction
of emotional distress over the last 25 years. He has caused this distress
by concealing Kristin's body, which prevented them from
giving her a proper burial all of this time. The lawsuit alleges that Kristin's body was
buried under his deck. And that after the police
searched his property in February of 2020, he and two others, Susan Flores, and her
boyfriend, Mike McConville, moved her body somewhere else. And it also says that Susan
Mike will be added as defendants at a later date. So clearly there's more evidence for Kristin being buried under the deck than we know about at this point. And we've also learned that
a confidential witness, who the police say is credible, has claimed to have actually
seen them moving the body. Whoever this is, and more information about this, is being kept from the
public at this time. The Smarts are also suing for an unspecified amount of
damages exceeding $25,000, and the first hearing is
scheduled for August, 2021. This has been a long and painful
road for the Smart family. Of course, they're so happy
to finally have movement now, but it's taken way, way too long. One positive thing that
has come from this case is the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act. And this law requires that campus police immediately report
potential violent crimes or missing persons
cases involving students to the local police force. And this went into effect
on January 1st, 1999. But from the time that Sheriff
Parkinson took over the case, so much more has been done. Investigators executed 41 search warrants, and that included 16 physical searches of different locations. They also submitted 37
different pieces of evidence that were just sitting
around from the early days, to be tested with modern DNA technology. And not only that, they also found 193 new
items of physical evidence. They've conducted 137 in-person interviews and completed over 500
additional police reports. So, a ton is being done right now, a ton has been done, and hopefully it all pays off in the end. I have hope that it will. I have faith that this family
is really gonna see justice. But there's obviously still
so many unanswered questions. I know you guys wanna
know more about Susan and this guy, Mike, more about her property, and what has been done,
what hasn't been done. I have many questions too. We're just not gonna get the
answers to those right now, but hopefully all of this new information, new witness testimonies, new evidence, all leads to a really strong case. And hopefully they're
finally able to get justice for Kristin's family. As of right now, they
don't have Kristin's body, but Sheriff Parkinson has
promised Kristin's family that one day he will find
her and bring her home. Obviously there will be more
to come out about this case. I will post any important
updates to my Twitter, which is kendallraeonyt. And then hopefully one day I'll get to do another
good update on this case and we will see things
move forward even more. I'm so beyond happy for the Smart family to finally see this happening. I was just afraid that
too much time had passed. For a while there, it just felt like it had been so long and nothing was being done. And there were so many dead ends and lack of information, that it really felt like
this day would never come. To see Paul Flores in handcuffs
outside in those pictures, was so satisfying. I can't imagine how their family felt. There's something about Kristin's case that will just always stay with me. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that it could have been me. I was that drunk college
student walking around campus, not that long ago. And I know what it's like to be out of control in
those early years of school when you're just trying to live life and get a taste of the real-world, and you can end up in such
a scary situation so fast. It could have been me. It could have been any one of my friends. There's just something
about it that's so eerie. And for it to be so obvious
that it was Paul all this time, was just so maddening. It's one of the things that
really got me into true crime 'cause I was just like, wow, how can there be such an obvious suspect and still nothing is happening? And this guy is just getting away with it because he's refusing to say anything. He's just pleading the Fifth. So to see this now is very satisfying and makes me motivated to
continue to work on other cases that haven't gotten their justice, that haven't had anyone talking
about them for a long time. I mean, seeing what Chris
Lambert has done here with this podcast, is
truly inspiring to me. And it just makes me really, really proud of the True Crime community. There are some people
who really care out there and are doing a lot of
good things right now. And it's really cool to see
so much progress happening in several different
cases that I've covered. So hopefully this trend continues, but of course, I wanna know
your thoughts on Kristin's case. I know you guys have thoughts, and remember there's
still a lot we don't know. So hopefully we get more
answers in the future. But that's gonna be it for me today, guys. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you wanna check out Chris's podcast, be sure to check it out. It's free to listen to. And
it's really, really good. And that is gonna be
it for me today, guys. I hope you're all having a good day, stay safe out there and
I will see you next week. (gentle music)
