Dateline: Justice for Kristin Smart - Who was Kristin Smart and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 1996 case, revisited

NBC's Dateline featured a 2-hour episode in May 2023 titled Justice for Kristin Smart.

The episode, presented by Josh Mankiewicz, featured the disturbing case of 1996, when a young college student, Kristin Smart, disappeared after her college frat party.

The official synopsis of the Dateline episode reads as follows:

''The parents of 1996 Cal Poly murder victim Kristin Smart speak out in their first network exclusive interview since the recent conviction and sentencing of Paul Flores, their daughter's killer, who had been under suspicion the entire time.''

Kristin Smart was in her first year of graduation at Cal Poly when she disappeared without a trace. Even centuries after her sudden vanishing, the police are still unable to find her remains. However, a true crime podcast in 2019 led to new evidence and testimonies, following which Paul Flores, a fellow student, was found guilty and sentenced to prison for his crimes.

More on Dateline: Justice for Kristin Smart in our story.

Dateline: Details about Kristin Smart's disappearance in 1996

Dateline victim Kristin Smart was a Bavarian native, born to Stan and Denise Smart, both teachers of children of American military personnel. However, the Smart family moved to Stockton, California, when Kristin was just a child.

While Kristin wanted to travel the world, her mother urged her to attend college, following which she enrolled in California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) in 1995. This was the beginning of a tragedy that would plague the Smart family throughout their life as their daughter went missing while in her first year of graduation.

On the Memorial Day weekend of May 24, 1996, Dateline victim Kristin Smart attended a frat party. It was already 2 AM when two fellow students found her passed out on the neighbour's lawn. Since Kristin was in no way fit to walk back to her dorm alone, the two students accompanied her and were joined by Paul Flores, another student at Cal Poly.

While the three of them were walking Kristin to her dorm, the other two students soon departed as they lived off-campus. In addition, Flores lived the closest to Smart's dorm. He assured the students that he would safely walk Kristin back, but that was the last time she was ever seen.

In a later police statement, Flores testified that he walked Kristin as far as his dormitory (Santa Lucia Hall), following which she continued alone to her Red Brick dorm. That was the last known sighting of the Dateline Victim as she disappeared that night.

Dateline: Was Kristin Smart's case ever solved?

In the centuries leading up to Kristin Smart's disappearance, the police were unable to track down either her remains or the details about her disappearance.

While Paul Flores was a key suspect, the police could not prove him guilty without any key evidence, a murder weapon, or a body. Eventually, much to her parents' disappointment, the Dateline victim was declared legally dead on May 25, 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance..

In September 2019, Chris Lambert's podcast Your Own Backyard renewed public interest in Kristin Smart's case and also brought forth new and incriminating evidence. In February 2020, the police got a search warrant for "specific items of evidence" at Flores' place, which proved groundbreaking in the case.

As shown on Dateline, the police found numerous "items of interest", including date r*pe drugs and various videos of Flores s*xually assaulting and r*ping young women. Further investigation also proved that Flores had a history of assaulting young women, following which he was arrested.

On October 18, 2022, Paul Flores was finally found guilty of Kristin Smart's murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. His father, Rueben Flores, was acquitted of 'accessory after the fact'.

San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow announced Flores' sentencing in an official statement:

"Today, our criminal and victim justice system has finally delivered justice for Kristin Smart, for the Smart family, and for our San Luis Obispo County community. We thank the Smart family and our community for the tremendous trust and patience they placed in the investigation and prosecution of this terrible crime.”

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