\n It\u2019s been 30 years since Kristin Smart\u2019s family last saw her smile light up a room<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The college freshman vanished from California Polytechnic State University\u2019s San Luis Obispo campus over Memorial Day weekend<\/a> in 1996, sparking a decades-long investigation that led to the trial and conviction in 2022<\/a> of Paul Flores for her murder.\n <\/p>\n \n But even after years of searching, authorities have never recovered Smart\u2019s body and she was declared dead<\/a> in 2002.\n <\/p>\n \n Smart\u2019s family said they feel Flores continues \u201cto stand in the way of our daughter being returned to us.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe continue to pray for the day when we can finally lay her to rest in the presence of those who love her,\u201d the family said in an open letter<\/a> on their website.\n <\/p>\n \n A new search warrant served Wednesday at the Arroyo Grande, California, home of Flores\u2019 mother is the latest sign investigators remain committed to finding answers, even after securing a conviction for Smart\u2019s murder.\n <\/p>\n \n San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said his office has been \u201ccontinually working the case.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI said when Paul Flores got convicted that the case wasn\u2019t over, and it\u2019s never going to be over until we return Kristin to her family,\u201d Parkinson said in an interview on the Up + Adam podcast<\/a> recorded Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n Parkinson is expected to hold a press conference Friday morning about the latest search, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s what we know and how Smart\u2019s case has unfolded over the years.\n <\/p>\n \n Investigators swarmed Flores\u2019 mother\u2019s home on Wednesday and Thursday, scouring the packed garage and examining the deck<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney\u2019s Office confirmed in a statement<\/a> the home belonged to Susan Flores. CNN reached out to attorneys who previously represented the family and to Susan Flores but did not immediately hear back. She has not been accused of wrongdoing by prosecutors in the case.\n <\/p>\n \n Tim Nelligan, an expert in soil vapor testing, told The Associated Press<\/a> on Thursday he was on the premises, gathering samples in Susan Flores\u2019 yard as well as a neighbor\u2019s yard.\n <\/p>\n \n Nelligan declined to discuss the investigation but said his \u201cteam has, in general, \u2018come up with a methodology to assess soil vapor\u2019 and its relation to \u2018human cadaver decomposition.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The search is going to be \u201cextremely thorough\u201d and could take two or three days, Parkinson told podcast host Adam Montiel.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ve proven already that Paul did it. We believe that Kristin, at one time, was on Paul Flores\u2019 father\u2019s property. We know she\u2019s been moved, so where she moved to \u2026 we\u2019re hunting that down,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n Flores and his family have been at the center of the search for Smart since the earliest days of the investigation into her disappearance.\n <\/p>\n \n Officials have said Flores, who was a 19-year-old freshman at the time, was the last person to see Smart<\/a> alive after they walked back to their dorms from a party.\n <\/p>\n \n But it would take decades for authorities to gather enough proof to charge him with Smart\u2019s murder.\n <\/p>\n \n The university\u2019s police initially led the investigation<\/a> into Smart\u2019s disappearance. Her parents, Stan and Denise, also spent weeks searching for their daughter on their own. Her father posted flyers with a photo of Kristin, who was tall and blonde, throughout town. He also gathered his own search party to comb nearby hillsides and lakes and even enlisted the help of a psychic to aid in his search, according to local news reports<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Then, two months after Kristin Smart vanished, investigators zeroed in on a man they would later identify as Flores.\n <\/p>\n \n Flores\u2019 account of the night Smart disappeared had changed, Cal Poly Police Chief Tom Mitchell told reporters at the time<\/a>, and when the college student was interviewed by police, he\u2019d had a black eye and scrapes and bruises on his knee.\n <\/p>\n \n Shortly after their initial interviews with Flores, the freshman retained a lawyer<\/a> and stopped cooperating with investigators.\n <\/p>\n \n The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff\u2019s Office assumed the lead investigative role<\/a> in the case a month after she disappeared.\n <\/p>\n \n During a K-9 search of campus in the weeks following Smart\u2019s disappearance, multiple cadaver dogs alerted in Flores\u2019 dorm room, the sheriff told the San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune in August 1996<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The alerts, coupled with Flores\u2019 shifting narrative and injuries, led authorities to declare Smart\u2019s disappearance a criminal case \u2013 and they named Flores as a person of interest.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n But they were still missing a key piece of evidence: Kristin Smart\u2019s body.\n <\/p>\n \n Flores and his family were subpoenaed to testify<\/a> before a grand jury to get statements on the record. But without physical evidence, investigators did not believe they had enough to charge him with Smart\u2019s murder.\n <\/p>\n \n In an interview with CNN three years after their daughter went missing, Stan and Denise Smart said they hoped they\u2019d one day be able to lay their daughter to rest.\n <\/p>\n \n And they shared a message for Paul Flores.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe will have a resolution and he will wish that he\u2019d come forward much sooner,\u201d Denise Smart said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe believe he\u2019s definitely involved,\u201d her husband added. \u201cThe best outcome would be that we\u2019d be able to find our daughter\u2019s remains and we\u2019d be able to have some justice.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n For decades, Flores remained a person of interest in Smart\u2019s disappearance.\n <\/p>\n \n And for decades, billboards with Smart\u2019s smiling face stood like sentinels along Highway 101, silently urging anyone with information to come forward.\n <\/p>\n \n Driving past the billboard would serve as a periodic reminder: After decades, authorities still hadn\u2019t found Kristin, Chris Lambert, a podcaster who grew up in the area, said in the first episode of his show, \u201cYour Own Backyard<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Years later, after reading a Los Angeles Times article<\/a> on Smart\u2019s disappearance, Lambert said he was stunned to realize he lived near many of the locations in the case. So, he began retracing Smart\u2019s final steps, interviewing her family, and even speaking with investigators who\u2019d worked on her case for years.\n <\/p>\n \n With each episode, his podcast gained traction, and Kristin\u2019s name \u2013 and the details surrounding her disappearance \u2013 drew renewed attention.\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, investigators continued to work the case. After decades with few signs of outward progress, authorities had their first public breakthrough in 2020.\n <\/p>\n \n The sheriff\u2019s office obtained a warrant to monitor then-43-year-old Paul Flores\u2019s cellphone and messages<\/a>. In February 2020, detectives served a search warrant<\/a> at his home, as well as the homes of his sister, mother and father, according to a news release from the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n They also recovered physical evidence from Flores\u2019 home in April that year, the office said.\n <\/p>\n \n Then a year later, in March 2021, detectives served a warrant<\/a> at the Arroyo Grande home of Flores\u2019 father, Ruben. Detectives used ground-penetrating radar and dug the property using hand tools, the sheriff\u2019s office told CNN<\/a> at the time.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAdditional evidence related to the murder of Kristin Smart is discovered at the site,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s department said in a statement.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n Prosecutors would later allege<\/a> Ruben helped his son hide Smart\u2019s body under the family\u2019s deck before relocating her remains.\n <\/p>\n \n On April 13, 2021 \u2013 almost exactly 25 years since Kristin Smart disappeared \u2013 authorities arrested<\/a> Paul Flores and charged him with her murder.\n <\/p>\n \n Ruben Flores was also arrested and charged with allegedly aiding Flores in hiding Smart\u2019s body \u2013 a body investigators had still not recovered.\n <\/p>\n \n But they now believed their case was strong enough to bring before a jury.\n <\/p>\n \n Paul and Ruben Flores\u2019 trials began in July 2022<\/a> and would last for nearly three months.\n <\/p>\n \n Prosecutors argued Paul Flores raped or attempted to rape Smart<\/a> and killed her in his dorm room before enlisting his father to allegedly help him hide her body under the deck of his home.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cDozens of women have recounted Paul Flores\u2019 sexual assaults and predatory behavior that document his twenty-five years as a serial rapist,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle wrote in documents filed in the case<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Peuvrelle later told jurors during Ruben Flores\u2019 trial that searches of his home turned up soil samples that tested positive for human blood, CNN affiliate KSBY<\/a> reported.\n <\/p>\n \n Throughout the trials the attorneys representing the Flores family vehemently asserted their clients\u2019 innocence, repeatedly citing a lack of eyewitnesses and evidence.\n <\/p>\n \n But in October 2022, two separate juries reached their verdicts. Paul Flores was found guilty of first-degree murder<\/a> and later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.\n <\/p>\n \n But his father, Ruben, was acquitted of the charges against him. Outside the courtroom, Ruben <\/strong>Flores told reporters, \u201cIt\u2019s too bad the system works that way, on feelings instead of facts.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He added he felt bad for Smart\u2019s family because they never got a true answer as to what happened to their daughter.\n <\/p>\n \n Wednesday\u2019s search of Susan Flores\u2019 home renewed the hope for those answers in the small town of San Luis Obispo, which had been rattled by Smart\u2019s disappearance for decades.\n <\/p>\n \n Parkinson said throughout his time as sheriff, he\u2019s repeatedly cautioned the Smart family to manage their expectations and not get their hopes up.\n <\/p>\n \n Still, he acknowledged, \u201cThere is no closure. There\u2019s justice and there\u2019s some form of peace that they have their daughter back, and \u2026 that\u2019s all you can do.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n After decades, Smart\u2019s family and the investigators working to bring her home remain cautiously optimistic.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cFor thirty years, we have lived with a pain no family should have to endure, as heartache, frustration, and setbacks have woven themselves into our everyday lives,\u201d her family said in a statement<\/a> posted on their website.\n <\/p>\n![\"Authorities](\"https:\/\/media.cnn.com\/api\/v1\/images\/stellar\/prod\/ap26127628535918.jpg?c=original&q=w_860,c_fill\")
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n The trial of Paul and Ruben Flores
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