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Kristin Smart


CuriousLittleOne

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Kristin Denise Smart (born February 20, 1977, legally presumed dead May 25, 2002) is an American missing person. She went missing on May 25, 1996 while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since.

Disappearance

The night Smart disappeared, she attended a birthday party of a fellow student, which fell on Memorial Day weekend. At approximately 2:00 a.m., she was found passed out on the lawn of the next door house by two students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, leaving the party. They decided to assist her home and walked her part of the way until another student from the party, Paul Flores, joined their group. Flores' dormitory was closer to Smart's, whereas Anderson and Davis lived off campus in the opposite direction, so Flores offered to walk her the remainder of the way, allowing them to more conveniently go their separate ways. Flores walked Smart as far as his dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, and claims he left her to walk the rest of the way, approximately 50 yards, to her dormitory, Muir Hall, by herself. This was the last known sighting of her. She did not have any money or credit cards at the time she went missing.

Official Investigation

The campus police originally suspected that Smart had gone on an unannounced vacation, as was common among students over the holidays. It was because of this that the campus police were slow at reporting her as a missing person to local law enforcement.

During the high profile Laci Peterson murder investigation, it came to investigators' attention that Peterson's husband Scott Peterson (since convicted for his wife's murder) attended California Polytechnic State University at the same time as Smart. There was a brief initial inquiry into whether Peterson had any involvement. He was on a list of individuals who detectives felt warranted closer investigation at the time; ultimately, however, it was suggested that, although Smart and Peterson may have shared contacts (Flores), no evidence was available at that time indicating Smart and Scott Peterson came into contact while she was alive (rumors were floated that Flores may have sought assistance disposing the body in a nearby deep lake), (http://www.sonofsusan.com/id73.htm) but as far as the murder, Peterson was ruled out as a suspect. Scott Peterson has publicly denied any involvement in the Kristin Smart case.

Smart's disappearance remains essentially an unsolved case however, and no firmly proven explanation for her disappearance exists, mainly because her body has never been found.

Legacy

Smart's disappearance resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act being passed by the California State Legislature and signed into effect by then Governor of California Pete Wilson. The law required all colleges and educational institutions campus security to report all cases where there is a possibility that violence may have been used against a student of the institution to the local police force including all missing person's cases.

Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in May 2002.[1] Smart's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case of wrongful death against Paul Flores in 2005, but dropped it after Flores pleaded the fifth amendment.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office still reviews the case monthly.[citation needed] The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a local businessman and friend of the Smart family, has offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body.

In 2005, Paul Flores's mother Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville filed a lawsuit claiming loss of employment, harassment and emotional distress[2] against Kristin Smart's parents and a family friend who operates a website tracking Flores.

Kristin Smart is not related to Elizabeth Smart, a Salt Lake City, Utah teen who was abducted in June 2002 and found alive in March 2003.

this poor poor woman, and the family deserve answers.

http://www.kristinsmart.com/

Edited by CuriousLittleOne
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I didn't watch the Aphrodite Jones program (I'm not fond of her work) but I saw this case profiled just this past weekend on the program Disappeared.

Smart's mother said that authorities told her that without a body, and without a weapon, there's not enough evidence to move forward with the case against the suspect. Well, I call B.S. on that one.

Anyway, it's evident who's responsible, but apparently, he won't be held accountable.

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I saw this case profiled just this past weekend on the program Disappeared.

Excuse me. The program I saw wasn't Disappeared. It was Vanished with Beth Holloway, which is available at the last link in the first post of this topic.

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It's crazy to think about how these people just disappear, and what happened to them...

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Very sad for her mom and dad, it's sad the cops closed the case

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it's sad the cops closed the case

The case status is probably open but inactive...open because it's unsolved, but inactive because they aren't currently working on it.

The investigators totally bungled the case.

There's one suspect. His roommate was gone that weekend. Of all the dorm rooms, cadaver dogs hit on one- that of the suspect.

But...it happened to be the end of the semester, and campus police allowed the room to be cleaned. Of course, once there was a hit, then the room should have immediately been thoroughly analyzed by evidence collection people from the crime lab. Also, whether or not there was a hit at the room, if the suspect had a vehicle, it also should have been analyzed.

A search warrant was granted for the suspect's parents' home, during which time newspaper clippings about the case were found under mattresses. (I don't know if the surrounding property was searched, but the home appeared to be in a somewhat rural area, and I think it certainly should have been searched.)

Six months later, investigators searched the a rental property owned by the suspect's parents during which time, the current renter gave investigators an earring she'd found in the driveway. It was identified as one of a pair that had been Smart's favorite earrings.

Nothing was determined to be missing from Smart's room, but those earrings weren't there. Soon after the earring was documented as evidence, authorities 'misplaced' it.

To add insult to injury, at a civil trial brought against the suspect by Smart's parents in an effort to learn the truth about what happened the night of their daughter's disappearance, the suspect pleaded the 5th to even the most basic of questions such as "Did you attend a party on that evening?"

Still, with what little evidence authorities have, I think the case could have been successfully prosecuted against that suspect.

I think it should have at least been presented to a grand jury.

Edited by regi
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