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Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the California trial for the man accused of killing college freshman Kristin Smart more than 25 years ago and his father, who allegedly helped his son hide her body.
Smart was 19 when she disappeared from California Polytechnic State University’s San Luis Obispo campus in 1996. Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart on May 25, 1996, as he walked her home from an off-campus party where she allegedly got intoxicated.
To this day, the smiling face of Kristin Smart still looks out from a billboard. It once offered a $75,000 reward to help find the college student, but these days the billboard simply says: “Justice For Kristin.”
Smart is still missing, while Flores is on trial more than a year after he was arrested on a murder charge along with his father, who is accused of helping hide her body.
KRISTIN SMART TRIAL: JURY SELECTION UNDERWAY IN CALIFORNIA MORE THAN 26 YEARS AFTER DISAPPEARANCE
Left: Still-missing college student Kristin Smart; Right: Paul Flores
(FBI / San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
Behind lattice work beneath the deck of Ruben Flores’ large house on a dead end street off Tally Ho Road – about 12 miles south of Cal Poly – archaeologists working for police in March 2021 found a soil disturbance about the size of a casket and the presence of human blood, prosecutors said.
KRISTIN SMART CASE: ACCUSED KILLER PAUL FLORES LOSES BID TO HAVE CASE DISMISSED WEEKS BEFORE TRIAL
The blood was too degraded to extract a DNA sample. While a blood expert said it was human blood, the test used did not rule out the possibility it was from a ferret or ape, though court records said no remains of such an animal were found there.
In this file photo provided by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is Ruben Flores, 80, who was arrested in connection to the murder of college student Kristin Smart at his Arroyo Grande, Calif.,…
Source : foxnews
