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1996 Smart,Kristin 05/29/96; San Luis Obispo 19 YO
Topic Started: Jul 20 2006, 05:39 PM (1,143 Views)
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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisob...al/12483602.htm

Kristin Smart Disappearance

Posted on Fri, Aug. 26, 2005


Flores family sues Smarts and their friend
By Cynthia Neff
The Tribune
San Luis Obispo

Susan Flores and boyfriend Mike McConville have suffered severe emotional distress and lost income because of Dennis Mahon's investigations into the disappearance of former Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, court documents filed this week claim.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, asks for punitive damages. It states the actions taken by Smart's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, and Dennis Mahon, a family friend, "were undertaken with malice, fraud, and oppression" and with intent to harm.

Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old freshman, disappeared after a Memorial Day weekend party in 1996. Susan Flores' son, Paul, was the last person seen with Smart.

Mahon operates a Web site, www.sonofsusan.com, that publishes the Floreses' addresses and tracks Paul Flores any time he moves to a new residence. The site also includes information about Smart's disappearance.

In May, Mahon was sentenced to 40 days in jail for harassing the Flores family in violation of a restraining order they have against him.

Mahon's attorney, Okorie Okorocha, called the complaint filed this week "the height of frivolous."

"This is just to harass the Smarts," he said.

Okorocha did confirm a few points in the complaint, including that Mahon had organized and promoted a rally for 3,000 people with shovels to dig up Susan Flores' back yard in Arroyo Grande.

Jeffry Radding, McConville and Flores' attorney, declined comment Thursday
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Napa commemorates a local daughter's disappearance

By MARSHA DORGAN, Register Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006 1:13 AM PDT

It has been 10 years since 19-year-old Kristin Smart disappeared. Smart, the daughter of then Vintage High School principal Stan Smart and now Napa Valley Unified School director of student services, was a freshman at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo when she vanished.

She was last seen walking to her dormitory room, accompanied by a 19-year-old male student on the Friday night of the Memorial Day weekend in 1996. The pair had been to a party. Since that night, there has been no trace of Smart or explanation for her disappearance.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, the Smarts, along with numerous supporters, have organized the Kristin Smart Hope & Awareness Fun Run May 20 in Arroyo Grande, just south of San Luis Obispo.

"The most important thing is that Kristin will not be forgotten. We need to keep our daughter's memory alive," said Kristin's mother, Denise Smart.

The proceeds benefit Kristin Smart Point of Hope Overlook at Dinosaur Caves in Shell Beach.

"Kristin loved the ocean and anything to do with the sea. This place at Shell Beach is so beautiful and peaceful. She would have just loved it," Denise Smart said.


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Posted on Sun, May. 21, 2006

Will we ever know what happened?

From the high-profile disappearance of Kristin Smart to the inexplicable killing of Marina Ruggiero, authorities haven’t given up hope of solving some of SLO County’s most perplexing cases

By Leslie Parrilla
lparrilla@thetribunenews.com

A decade later, and the leads refuse to die.

Tips trickle into the desk of sheriff's Detective Dave Kenny at least once a week from people postulating personal theories and recycling old information on the disappearance of Kristin Smart — a Cal Poly student whose case simply won't grow cold.

It's not the only unsolved case in San Luis Obispo County. But it has been the most high-profile mystery since the 19-year-old vanished over Memorial Day weekend in 1996.

"We'd do anything to get our girl back," said Denise Smart, Kristin's mother. "(My husband is) planning to retire in June. He will have a little more time on his hands and be able to work on Kristin's case."

Sheriff's investigators have devoted much of their time to the case, too. Six boxes brimming with information about Smart shuffle through the hands of different detectives every few years in the hope that fresh eyes will offer a new perspective and catch something that was overlooked.

Investigators say they're keeping a promise made 10 years ago by then-Sheriff Ed Williams to find Smart. Plus, the leads don't wither.

"Almost nine years and 50 weeks after the case, and it's just coming in," Undersheriff Steven Bolts said recently after reading a new lead suggesting the old, disproven theory that Scott Peterson — who was at Cal Poly at the time of Smart's disappearance — was involved in her case.

Not all of the leads produce dead ends, though. They keep Kenny combing through information, sometimes spending nearly his entire work week on the case, and conducting regular searches.

"There's been about a half dozen (searches) in the past year. In some of those cases, we have used cadaver dogs," Bolts said. "I can't think of a case that has exceeded this in the number of man-hours in 32 years."

Kristin Smart

When Smart disappeared May 25, 1996, Kenny was still working as a patrol deputy in the North County. The case gained national media attention as reporters told and retold the story of the blonde, brown-eyed freshman who had disappeared from outside her Muir Hall dormitory about 2 a.m. after a party.

The 6-foot-1 speech communication major had been drinking heavily and was last seen walking back to her dorm from a fraternity party with fellow student Paul

Flores. Three days later, Smart was reported missing.

Though he has never been arrested or charged in the case, Flores is considered by investigators to be the only constant suspect, Bolts said.

Flores' attorney did not return phone calls for comment, and The Tribune could not locate Flores.

Over the past 10 years, scores of volunteers and authorities sifted through landfills, dug up back yards, combed through front yards and waded into marshes in San Luis Obispo County.

Crawl spaces at Cal Poly were searched. A grand jury investigated. The FBI was called in, and civil lawsuits were filed.

Ten years later, billboards still stand. Fliers solicit tips, and a $100,000 reward remains unclaimed.

And the oldest of Denise and Stan Smart's three children has not come home.

The Stockton couple believes she is buried somewhere in this county.

"It's 10 years later, and I can't really tell you much more," said Denise Smart, 60. "... Where do we go from here? I don't know."

Smart believes her daughter went to a party and someone laced her drink with a drug. It's the story she's heard the most, and it's easier to believe than the alternative, that of a brutal killing.

Despite ongoing devotion to the case, the family's biggest fear is that people will forget.

"I think that's the biggest fear of any parent of a missing child," Smart said, "that your child is forgotten."

Marina Ruggiero

Investigators in many San Luis Obispo County communities can understand the frustration of the Smarts and the detectives who work her case.

After Marina Ruggiero walked away from a wedding reception in San Luis Obispo in 1991 to return to her motel room, she was found stabbed to death.

"I think we ended the case fairly frustrated," said San Luis Obispo Police Department Sgt. Tom DePriest. "We pursued all the avenues. ... It's tough."

The 20-year-old from Torrance was staying in Room 327 at Cuesta Canyon Lodge on Monterey Street for an Aug. 25 wedding. The Holiday Inn Express is now on that site.

"She was a good person who was unfortunately at the wrong place at the wrong time," DePriest said.

Sometime during the reception, across the street from the motel, Ruggiero told family members she wanted to change clothes and join them for a more intimate gathering.

Her family went to the motel room about 11 p.m. and found her stabbed numerous times in the upper body. Nothing had been taken, and Ruggiero had not been sexually assaulted, an autopsy showed. She had died about 10 p.m.

"It seemed like a senseless crime. We just couldn't put together an exact motive," DePriest said.

No murder weapon was ever found, and no suspects were publicly identified. Police reports showed Ruggiero was grabbed from behind and then stabbed. Pry marks were found on the door. A cloth rag was found near her body, apparently used to gag her.

An attorney for Ruggiero's family believes the killer did not know the dark-haired woman and was waiting inside the room when she arrived.

The last lead in the case was received several years ago, DePriest said. The investigation is reviewed annually.

Sandi Peck-Guerrero

Atascadero police have been stumped since 1994. The disappearance of 48-year-old Sandi Ann Peck-Guerrero left them with few clues.

The lifelong, well-known Atascadero resident was last seen Oct. 14 while heading to Santa Barbara to see her ill daughter.

Earlier that day she dropped off her dog in Grover Beach with her ex-husband, with whom she had dinner. She left his house for Santa Barbara that evening but never arrived.

Ten days later the 1984 burgundy Subaru station wagon was found in a Santa Maria alley.

"Something happened," said Atascadero Police Lt. Carole Robinson. But detectives have never discovered exactly what.

Her luggage was in the car when it was found, but her purse and keys were missing. She had been carrying a couple thousand dollars from her ex-husband to pay bills and repay money owed to her ex-boyfriend, Robinson said, with whom she had recently ended an abusive relationship.

But her ex-boyfriend and ex-husband were interviewed and never named as suspects.

An anonymous note led investigators to search property near Orcutt for her body, but nothing was ever discovered.

The case grew cold after three years. Detectives review it annually.

Vern Erno

Vern Erno stepped out of a car in San Luis Obispo in 2003 and was never seen again.

The 82-year-old Washington resident, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was visiting family in Arroyo Grande on Dec. 28 when he disappeared.

He became agitated and asked to be let out of a car he was riding in with his son and grandson. Erno was last seen at Madonna and Los Osos Valley roads.

"They drove around the block to give him some time," DePriest said. "They drove around the street, and he was gone."

Foul play was never suspected in the case, which is now cold.

"We continued to get leads for days, weeks on end, even months later," DePriest said. "All those leads were checked out. It never turned out to be him.

"We did exhaustive searches through everywhere. We were looking under trees, under bushes. We had sheriff's search and rescue. We had helicopters out. We had volunteers. It went on for days. ... It just, it's like, he vanished."

SEND IN A TIP

Information about the Kristin Smart disappearance or other unsolved cases in San Luis Obispo County can be phoned in to CrimeStoppers at

549-STOP (7867).

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Smart investigation continues after 10 years

By MARSHA DORGAN, Register Staff Writer
Monday, May 29, 2006 1:11 AM PDT

Although a decade has passed since Kristin Smart was last seen alive, investigators continue to aggressively work the missing person case, according to San Luis Obispo Undersheriff Steve Bolts.

Smart, 19, -- the daughter of then Vintage High School principal Stan Smart, now Napa school district director of students services -- was a freshman at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo when she disappeared. She was last seen the night of May 25, 1996 -- Memorial Day weekend -- where she attended an off-campus party.

According to police reports, the last person believed to see Smart alive was Paul Flores, 19, also a student at Cal Poly. Flores met Smart at the party, flirted with her and walked her back to her dorm room. He has always maintained that he left her when they reached his dorm room, and she walked the short distance to her dorm room.

Although undersheriff Bolts would not go into any details of the ongoing investigation, he said, "It is an active and open case. We have one investigator assigned to the case who is working with other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI."

Bolts said the detective assigned to the Smart case spends a "good portion of his work week on the case."

"Leads continue to trickle in. I wouldn't say new leads, but the same type of leads with a different angle. We follow up on each and every one of them," he said.

Bolts said Flores, who is living in Southern California, has not been eliminated as a suspect. "We have spoken to him recently, but as he has done all along, he refuses to provide us with any information. We are investigating the case as if it were a homicide, but we haven't notified the department of justice that it is officially a murder. We don't have a body."

A San Luis Obispo County judge declared Smart dead as of May 2001. The order opened the door for her parents to file a wrongful death civil suit against Flores. The next court hearing is set for early June.

Flores' mother still lives in Arroyo Grande, a short distance south of San Luis Obispo. Shortly after Smart's disappearance investigators, searched Flores' mother's home and a rental home they own were searched by dogs trained to detect the smell of a dead human body.

Investigators have declined to share the information they gathered from the search.

Smart was reported missing by her roommates on May 27. Her clothing, toiletries and identification were in her dorm room. Campus police did not launch a full-scale investigation for several days, maintaining she may have simply left the campus. Flores' room was not searched until he left for the summer and emptied his dorm room of all of his belongings.

Conflicting stories

When campus police first interviewed Flores on May 28, he gave conflicting reports to police about his activities the night Smart disappeared. He had a black eye and other injuries. He told police he was injured in a basketball game. However, a teammate told police Flores had the injuries when he arrived at the game.

Flores told investigators after he left Smart around 2 a.m., he went to his dorm room and went to bed. However, Flores' dorm-mates reported that they saw him showering around 5 a.m.

More than a month later -- when the case had been turned over to the sheriff's department -- investigators searched Flores' dorm room with cadaver dogs. The canines detected the scent of a dead human body on the edge of his bed and on the telephone.

When sheriff's deputies searched Flores' home in July 1996, they recovered a police baton and three copies of the San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune containing articles about Smart's disappearance.

In October 1996, Flores, his mother and sister were subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. Their testimony was not asked to issue an indictment in the cases. Prosecutors were using the jury's subpoena power to summon witnesses and question them under oath. The proceedings are secret and not made public. Flores refused to answer questions taking his Fifth Amendment rights.

Since Smart's disappearance, Flores has been arrested three times for DUI. He currently out on $100,000 bail, awaiting his trial for his fourth DUI.

Although 10 years have past and the case is still not solved, Undersheriff Bolts still has hope.

"I am very optimistic the case will be solved," he said. "It will happen."



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The search for Kristin Smart never ends for her family

By MARSHA DORGAN, Register Staff Writer
Monday, May 29, 2006 1:11 AM PDT

For the past 10 years, the Smart family has died a little each day.

It was on Memorial Day weekend 1996 that their 19-year-old daughter Kristin Smart disappeared. For the past decade the family has been waiting for that moment when they can bring her body back for a proper burial.

Kristin, a freshman at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, was last seen in the early morning hours of May 25, 1996, after she left an off-campus party.

Investigators believe Paul Flores, 19, also a student at the university, was the last person to see Kristin alive. She met him at the party, and the two walked together back to their dorm rooms, which were in separate buildings. Flores has always maintained he left Kristin around 2 a.m., when they reached his dorm room. He said she continued to walk the short distance to her room alone. Detectives still consider Flores as a possible suspect.

For Kristin's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, and her siblings, Matt, 27, and Lindsey, 24, the ordeal has been almost more than they can bear.

Stan was principal of Vintage High School at the time their daughter went missing. In 2000, he assumed the duties of Napa Valley Unified School District director of student services. He retires on June 30.

"A little part of our lives dies each day. People lose someone they love each day, but it shouldn't be your children," Denise Smart said. "There is a hole in our heart that never goes away. It's not easy to move on when you don't know where your child is."

The Smarts have long since given up hope their daughter will be found alive.

"But to think of her somewhere in an unmarked, unknown grave ... no greater pain for a parent," Denise said.

Stan Smart is frustrated the case has not been resolved. "We don't have any idea where she is," he said.

Stan spent the first three summers after his daughter's disappearance combing the area around the college looking for Kristin's body.

"It's very hilly, steep, wooded terrain. And we don't have any idea where to search. If we just had some direction, we could get a large number of people to search, but where do you look? It is unusual that a hiker hasn't come across her body," Smart said. "We still go down to San Luis Obispo and continue to search. We have to. But it just eats you alive."

Like the police, the Smarts believe Flores knows details about what happened to Kristin. But he's not talking. Other than making a few initial statements to police when Kristin disappeared, over the past 10 years, Flores has refused to talk to investigators. He has never denied any involvement in Kristin's disappearance.

"I know he killed our daughter. Kristin had been drinking that night. I think he took her to his dorm room and tried to rape her. She may have fought back, and he hit her in the head or choked her," Stan said.

"He was alone in his dorm room that night. His roommate was in San Francisco. I believe he wrapped Kristin's body in a blanket and took her out the window -- his room was on the ground floor," he said. "I think he put her body in a nearby Dumpster, and she ended up in the landfill."

Smart said sheriff's investigators checked the landfill, but found nothing.

"Now the landfill has been closed because it has been declared a hazmat. They have covered the entire fill with a layer of dirt," he said.

On one of their trips to San Luis Obispo after their daughter's disappearance, Denise confronted Flores at the gas station where he worked.

"I introduced myself to him. I said, 'Paul, it's a terrible accident. We need your help to find Kristin. Please tell us what you know,'" Denise said. "He went inside and locked himself in a closet. He knows where she is and that it's a place where she doesn't want to be, and certainly a place we don't want her to be."

Flores is represented by an attorney hired after the Smart's filed a wrongful death suit against him.

"We are not suing for money, but for information. He knows where she is, and he needs to tell us," Stan said. The next hearing is set for early June.

Twice, Flores' attorneys have presented plea bargains to the Smarts.

"In return for information about Kristin, Paul wanted to be assured he would not get any jail time. But the deals fell through," Denise said. "I know he did it, and he needs to be punished."

From the very beginning, the Smarts have been unhappy with the way law enforcement has handled the investigation.

"She disappeared early Saturday morning, and the campus police didn't notify us until Monday night. They said she could have just taken off," Denise said.

By the time campus police got around to searching Flores' dorm room, he had left for the summer and taken all of his belongings.

"We wanted other law enforcement called in right away. I wanted the FBI involved because I believe Kristin was kidnapped," she said. "But all we ever got was that the case was in good hands with the campus police."

About a month after Kristin's disappearance, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's investigators were called in.

They searched Flores' dorm room with cadaver dogs. The dogs picked up the scent of corpse on the edge of Flores' mattress and the telephone on the adjacent nightstand.

In 1999, Gov. Pete Wilson signed what is commonly called the Kristin Smart Law, requiring universities and colleges to notify local law enforcement immediately if a violent crime may have occurred.

The current provost for the university, Robert Detweiler was not at Cal Poly when Kristin disappeared. He came in 1998.

"I am familiar about the Smarts' concern. I have checked with people who were here when it happened. The university believes campus police acted professionally and appropriately. We have cooperated with law enforcement from the beginning, Detweiler said. "As tragic as this is, the case has impacted the university to become more concerned in educating students, especially freshmen, about safety and sexual assault. It made us more attentive to the issue of alcohol abuse."

The Smarts are also frustrated that the sheriff's department is not working closer with them.

"They do not communicate with us about the case. We're not getting any information. They are accusing us of leaking information to the media. They have told us a task force made up of an officials from the FBI, the sheriff's and district attorney's office has been assigned to investigate Kristin's case. They are to work on it until the case is resolved," Denise said. "However, we do not have contact with them. I would just think law enforcement would keep us better informed."

During the past 10 years, one of the bright spots in the Smart's life as been Dennis Mahon.

Mahon, who is from Charlotte, NC, came to California to search for Kristen Modafferi. The 19-year-old, who is also from Charlotte and a North Carolina State University student, was last seen on June 23, 1997, leaving a San Francisco coffee shop.

After Mahon arrived in San Francisco, he became interested in the Kristin Smart case and started putting information about her on his sonofsusan.com Web site. Mahon used to park outside the Flores' home in Arroyo Grande and also took photos of Paul Flores during his court appearances.

"His Web site has kept Kristen's case alive. We are very thankful," Denise said.

However, Mahon's involvement in the Kristin Smart case is the main reason law enforcement has been stingy in releasing information to the family, San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Undersheriff Steve Bolts said.

"They have been very involved and very appreciated of Dennis Mahon, his Web site and the information he puts on it. We have asked Dennis and the Smarts to remove the information because it's inaccurate. We will not participate in providing information to them that ends up being incorrect," Bolts said. "Every time we give them information they think they are doing the right thing by putting it on the Internet. If it was accurate information, we would not have this problem. But Dennis puts his own spin on it.

"We cannot maintain the credibility of the investigation if we can't validate the information on the Web site. So we don't share information with the Smarts," Bolts said. "If they would agree not to share information, we would meet with them on a daily basis if they wanted. But they have declined."

In addition to the loss of her daughter, Denise struggles with the image that she believes the media has painted of Kristin the night she disappeared.

"There were all kinds of stories portraying Kristin to be the drunk girl who didn't make it home from the party. I'm no Polyanna. I know college kids drink. But I don't want people to get the wrong message about my daughter. She was the girl who walked home with the wrong person. The message is we need to look out for one another," Denise said. "I know the police report said she was drunk. But wasn't as if she was passed out, lying over a beer keg. I just don't want her to be victimized again. Kristin is the one who knows what happened that night. And she is not here to tell us."

As another anniversary passes of their daughter's disappearance, Stan, Denise, Matt and Lindsey refuse to give up hope that the case will be resolved and Kristen will be put to rest with dignity.

"Someone asked me if I heard that they found Kristin's body would I be happy?" Stan said. "No, I wouldn't be happy. Yes, there would be some closure. But it's never a happy situation when you have to bury your child."

Attempts by the Register to contact the Flores' family were unsuccessful. Paul Flores' parents, Susan and Ruben, have divorced and live in Arroyo Grande. Both have unlisted telephone numbers. Paul Flores is living in Lawndale with his ex-brother-in-law.



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Kristin Smart's Family Seeks File on Paul Flores for Civil Case

Family, in court, requests sheriff's file on last person to see their daughter alive

By: Andrew Masuda
Monday, January 8, 2007

Ten and a half years after she vanished from the Cal Poly campus, the Kristin Smart case is back in a San Luis Obispo County courtroom.

Still to this day, no one has ever been charged with Kristin's death. And almost a decade after her disappearance, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's detectives insist her case remains active and open.

Today, attorneys representing the Smart family, the County and Paul Flores went before a county judge. The Smart family's attorney is seeking the case file from the Sheriff's Department for a civil case the family has filed against Paul Flores.

The former Cal Poly student is the last person seen with Kristin and considered a "person of interest" by authorities. The Sheriff's Department does not want to release the information, saying it would jeopardize their investigation.

The Smarts' attorney, Tana Coates, says Kristin's family can only be encouraged that detectives say the case has not gone cold.

"Am I hopeful?" asks Coates. "Absolutely. You hear about cases all the time where DNA evidence, other information or witnesses have come forward and cases have been solved. So we're always hopeful that the case is going to be solved."

Paul Flores' parents were in court today. They and their attorney were unavailable for comment. But in court, the Flores family attorney said Paul has suffered psychologically and financially because of the case.

WIthout revealing specific details, authorities say they are constantly following up leads in the Smart case. In fact, they say there is a detective whose sole caseload is the Smart disappearance.

The judge did not make a ruling today. The Smart family attorney expects to receive a written ruling in the near future.


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Decade-Long Search Continues For Missing Cal Poly Student
Arroyo Grande Yard Dug Up For Clues

POSTED: 10:00 pm PDT May 22, 2007
UPDATED: 10:28 pm PDT May 22, 2007

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. -- The parents of a California Polytechnic State University student missing and presumed dead for more than a decade are still holding out hope of finding Kristin Smart's remains.

For six hours Tuesday, crews dug up the backyard of Susan Flores' home near San Luis Obispo.

Her son, Paul Flores, is a person of interest in the case, police said.

Smart was last seen in 1996 while walking home from a party with Flores, police said.

The Smart family's attorney Mark Connelly said the search is part of a civil lawsuit filed by the Flores family against the Smart family for harrassment over the last 11 years.

Nothing out of the ordinary was found during Tuesday's search.

Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in 2002, 6 years after her disappearance.

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The Smart family is still looking for closure

By Lori Gilbert
Record columnist
August 26, 2008

Kristin Smart's smile jumps out from a photo that's affixed to a small pillar at Dinosaur Caves Park in Pismo Beach. Across the walkway, on a matching pillar that leads to a lookout over the blue Pacific, are Kristin's words in a poem of joy, of wind and sun and "salty waters."

"I cringe with excitement to be in such a heavenly place," she wrote.

Dinosaur Caves Park is, if not heavenly, a place of salvation for the family of the Stockton girl who disappeared in 1996 after attending a party at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, where she was finishing her freshman year of college.

"The little saving grace is Dinosaur Caves because you do get some sense of serenity and peace while you're there," said her mom, Denise Smart.

There has been little of that for Denise and Stan Smart or their children, Matt and Lindsey.

Seeing Kristin's photo at the beach or on the missing Cal Poly student billboard that Arroyo Grande attorney James Murphy keeps standing in front of his downtown office serves as a jolting reminder that 12 years have passed since she disappeared.

The Smarts don't need such reminders. They've lived with the horror of losing their beautiful daughter every day since May 25, 1996.

They've carried on with their lives. Stan Smart remained in his job as principal at Napa High School until retiring in 2006. Denise Smart retired a year later from Lincoln Unified School District. Both now work evaluating new teachers for the San Joaquin County Office of Education. They travel to places the adventurous Kristin would have loved.

Matt Smart, 28, is a pharmaceutical salesman, a "drug pusher" as Denise Smart calls him, showing she still has her sense of humor. Lindsey Smart, 26, is a financial analyst in San Francisco.

Somehow they've mustered the strength to get up every day and move forward, knowing a part of them died with Kristin.

"I dealt with it initially by just going out and looking for her, keeping the hope she was alive," Stan Smart said. "When someone said they saw someone who looked like her, I'd jump in my car and go. It was never true and finally you come to the realization she's no longer alive."

Matt Smart imagined his elder sister was in Hawaii, where she'd been a camp counselor.

"I don't know if I have gotten over it yet," Denise Smart said. "I get caught in moments. I'll be somewhere and see a tall blond girl and it checks you, right there."

The need to find Kristin's body to bury her in a place of beauty keeps them going.

"You live because you can't give up," Denise Smart said. "Because it's not just a battle to find your daughter. It's a battle to have the right thing done. It's a battle to have people do their job."

The Smarts have spent 12 years pushing the Sheriff's Department of San Luis Obispo County and the district attorney there to bring charges against Paul Flores. Kristin Smart was last seen heading toward her dorm room with Flores, a fellow Cal Poly student. There's no indication she ever made it to her room.

Flores cleared out his own dorm room before it was declared a possible crime scene. Cadaver dogs later alighted to his dorm bed, but proper forensic and DNA tests were never conducted in those critical first days of her disappearance.

Flores remains the key suspect, but he's invoked the Fifth Amendment, declining to say anything that might incriminate him.

"People lose people in tragic ways more often than is fair or right, but to have the opportunity lie your child to rest in a place of peace and honor them, that's the goal right now," Denise Smart said. "That this person can be alive and walking the streets and have that knowledge, probably if you pile up the painful pieces of your life, that's right on top."

That Flores' mother, Susan, and her boyfriend filed a lawsuit against Denise and Stan Smart for the mental anguish they claim they've suffered as a result of the Smarts' pushing for Paul's account of events is too egregious to be hurtful. It simply reaffirms for the Smarts the character of the people linked to their daughter's death.

That lawsuit and the Smarts' own civil lawsuit against Paul Flores - filed to force him to answer their questions - are both on hold.

For either suit to go forward, information gathered by the sheriff's department and district attorney is required. An appellate court ruled the investigation is ongoing, so evidence can't be turned over or the case would be compromised. Whatever information has been uncovered remains a mystery.

"We do get leads on average of one every week that our detective goes out and checks up on," said sheriff's department commander Brian Hascall. "It's an active and open case we're constantly following up on."

San Luis Obispo attorney Mark Connely, hired to defend the Smarts against Susan Flores' suit, has faith in law enforcement.

"They're not about to give up on this," Connely said.

Neither are the Smarts.

They've spent 12 frustrating years waiting for a resolution.

"It's like a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle," Denise Smart said. "The first day we had two pieces. Now we have five."

They continue to hope for the piece that brings them justice, returns their daughter and allows them to say a final good-bye.

The need to do all of that has kept them going. So has the support of friends and strangers.

"There are a lot of nice people out there," Stan Smart said.

Like the folks who worked to have Kristin memorialized at Pismo Beach, in a setting she would have loved.

That pretty little spot overlooking the Pacific assures the Smarts that Kristin continues to be remembered. And not just by them.



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another older article
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisob...al/12483602.htm

Kristin Smart Disappearance

Posted on Fri, Aug. 26, 2005


Flores family sues Smarts and their friend
By Cynthia Neff
The Tribune
San Luis Obispo

Susan Flores and boyfriend Mike McConville have suffered severe emotional distress and lost income because of Dennis Mahon's investigations into the disappearance of former Cal Poly student Kristin Smart, court documents filed this week claim.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, asks for punitive damages. It states the actions taken by Smart's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, and Dennis Mahon, a family friend, "were undertaken with malice, fraud, and oppression" and with intent to harm.

Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old freshman, disappeared after a Memorial Day weekend party in 1996. Susan Flores' son, Paul, was the last person seen with Smart.

Mahon operates a Web site, www.sonofsusan.com, that publishes the Floreses' addresses and tracks Paul Flores any time he moves to a new residence. The site also includes information about Smart's disappearance.

In May, Mahon was sentenced to 40 days in jail for harassing the Flores family in violation of a restraining order they have against him.

Mahon's attorney, Okorie Okorocha, called the complaint filed this week "the height of frivolous."

"This is just to harass the Smarts," he said.

Okorocha did confirm a few points in the complaint, including that Mahon had organized and promoted a rally for 3,000 people with shovels to dig up Susan Flores' back yard in Arroyo Grande.

Jeffry Radding, McConville and Flores' attorney, declined comment Thursday.
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http://www.sanluisobispo.com/183/story/686800.html

Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009
Case of Kristin Smart is not forgotten in SLO

A new billboard on Hwy. 101 facing south near the Madonna Road exit offers a $75,000 reward for information leading to the resolution of Kristin Smart’s disappearance.

Smart, a Cal Poly freshman at the time, was reported missing in May 1996, but the case has not been solved.

In 2007, her parents dug for her remains behind the home of the last person seen with her.

No new evidence was found.

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San Luis Obispo Sheriffs Department
Detective Dave Kenny
805-781-4550

Agency Case Number: 960610965

NCIC Number: M-932737590
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