Chris Lambert: Around the time Kristin disappeared, they cut out planter boxes in the backyard, so they cut out big chunks of concrete and filled it in with soil. PDF KRISTEN MODAFFERI - Federal Bureau of Investigation Cole testified that Hudson told him about Paul's statement and that she'd also seen Paul with his white pickup truck at the skateboard ramp in Huasna. His father Ruben Flores charged with being an accessory after the factwas found not guilty. were in the room exactly where she had left them. Flores defense team serves Your Own Backyard podcaster Chris Lambert with a subpoena to serve as a witness in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on August 30th, as he has interviewed several witnesses before they spoke to law enforcement. The unsealed documents include two claims from 2011 and 2017 that Flores raped two women while they were drunk in San Pedro. A cemetery posted a personal ad for a goose whose mate died. That's when the campus police finally handed the investigation over to The San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office but they did not find Kristin. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Podcaster Lambert will not be called to the stand during the Kristin Smart murder hearing. They also uncovered videos in a folder labeled practice that featured women wearing ball gags and in other fetish positions. putting murder on the lawsuit was sending a message to Paul Flores and his family, that we believe that he killed Kristin and that we're coming for him. Peterson may or may not have been at the party Smart disappeared after. Det. I didnt understand why. D.A. To declare to the public if you stay quiet, you will get away with this. Margarita Campos: She was absolutely sober when I left her. Denise Pearce: The investigation was completely botched by the campus police. Kristen Modafferi, Kristin Smart & Kent Jacobs. JAMES MURPHY: What is your present residence address? Ann-Marie Christian: Her parents reminded me of my parents. So before leaving, Margarita handed over her keys to get back into Muir Hall. The two girls walked to an area off campus where there were fraternities, sororities and residential housing for students. Denise Pearce: The phone call never comes. Ruben's attorney, Harold Mesick, dismissed the evidence against his client as "so minimal as to shock the conscience.". But further investigation of the Flores's two trucks seemed impossible. By then, the semester was over and the room had been cleaned out. Ms. Smarts family declared her legally dead in 2002, but the search, and the investigation, continued. Cole said investigators checked out the skateboard ramp location but did not find a body. She disappeared in 1996 after attending an off-campus party and while she was declared legally dead in 2002, her body has never been found. Flores and his parents have always maintained that he had nothing to do with Smarts disappearance. Our family has always known that this was going to be a long, difficult, and emotional journey. You can go." Since Parkinson came on the scene, investigators have dug up hillsides; searched the homes and properties of all the Flores'; collected evidence; seized Paul Flores' computers; monitored his cell phone and text messages, and found new witnesses -- some with the help of Chris Lambert. Classes were difficult, she was trying to fit in, and she missed her family. Those were kind of unspoken things. Anyone would have been terrified if they heard it.. She was never seen. The 19-year-old, who is also from Charlotte and a . Smart was talking with and socializing with several different males at the party. The mother is washing her car in the driveway at one point. But one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived. PODCAST EPISODE 2 [LAMBERT READING REPORT] Smart does not have any close friends at Cal Poly. And while they did not rush to investigate Flores, Kristin's family says campus police were very quick to judge her. Paul Flores was ordered held without bail Monday. Paul Flores was identified as a person of interest early in the case. 1 of 47. In addition, the documents include a phone tap from January 2020 in which Pauls mother, Susan, tells her son: The other thing I need you to do is to start listening to the podcast. Please enter valid email address to continue. We just, "do you know anything about it". "Up and Vanished" led a man to confess to killing a . The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time ", Although suspicion surrounded Flores almost from the beginning, any hopes for an arrest were dashed in May 1997 when then-Sheriff Ed Williams made an admission to the San Luis Obispo Telegraph: "We need Paul Flores to tell us what happened to Kristin Smart so absent something from Mr. Flores, I don't see us completing this case.". IE 11 is not supported. The two are charged in connection with the death of Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart. And for the first time clues about what may have happened to Kristin Smart. Plans & Pricing . That turned out to be college. And the body's not there now. He's going to find her body, which is awful for a parent. They have not been able to proceed with the civil case while there was an ongoing criminal investigation, but that didn't stop them from following every lead and preparing for an eventual trial. He'd go anywhere. That witness initially came forward to Chris Lambert, who passed the information to the sheriff's office and Murphy. Four months after that futile search, Paul Flores was brought before a grand jury. And they told Lambert they weren't surprised when they heard about Flores's connection to Kristin's disappearance. What happened to Kristen Modafferi? - AdvertisingRow.com They might have found evidence in those vehicles. In March 2021, investigators used cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar to search Ruben Floress property in Arroyo Grande, Calif. Paul Flores was taken into custody at his home in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles on April 13, 2021, and was charged with murder. Jonathan Vigliotti: There was a lot of evidence that could have been gathered, that wasn't. SHERIFF IAN PARKINSON [to reporters]: It's been a puzzle and it's a very slow process to find each of those little pieces some of that information came to light through the podcast many of you are familiar with. Disappearance of Kristen Modafferi - Wikipedia But every Sunday when she called her parents, they encouraged her to stick it out. They asked him not to use their names: PODCAST EPISODE 2 | WOMAN #1: Well his nickname was "Scary Paul.". Chris Lambert: That's the upsetting part about it, isn't it? Remember, Flores's room had been emptied and thoroughly cleaned. But it's Susan Flores's concrete backyard that initially received a lot of attention. suddenly major pieces of evidence came forward. But the Flores's have fought back, suing the Smarts for intentional infliction of emotional distress. When they were deposed by James Murphy, they also insisted their son was not involved. Ms. Smart, 19, was a freshman at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo when she disappeared in 1996. It would be three more years before the property was searched again. During Tuesday's hearing, San Luis Obispo County. In February 2020, the authorities executed search warrants at four locations in California and Washington State and recovered what the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office described as items of interest. One location was the Los Angeles home of Paul Flores, KCAL-TV reported. Ruben Flores and his estranged wife Susan have always denied any role in Kristin Smart's disappearance. and offers to help. So, when they were invited to a party that Friday night, Kristin was excited to go. But Mary Lassiter says the earring matched the necklace Kristin is seen wearing on the billboard. They took in soil, I assume, for some kind of analysis. Cole said he has the admission on a digital tape recording. Chris Lambert: I think that might have been the biggest misstep that investigators have made to this day. JAMES MURPHY: In May of 96 were you a student at Cal Poly? Authorities also uncovered fibers consistent with the color clothing Smart was last seen wearing. Previously sealed documents related to the case become available to the public that explain the rape charges Peurelle attempted to add against Paul Flores. The defense wants to suppress some of these searches, though, claiming that they were done illegally or without warrants. It did produce some information that I believe was valuable, he said. When authorities later confronted him with the two stories, Flores admitted lying and offered a new explanation. Early on, a small group of volunteers also looked for Kristin. Chris Lambert: It's mostly frat guys from the Kappa Chi fraternity. Chris Lambert: A young couple moves into it with their kid. He has denied any involvement. And she was growing as an individual. A hundred percent that was happening. Other witnesses are also questioned, but Flemmings testimony is noteworthy as he is the first to say he saw Flores and Smart together before the party. She feared for her life, so did not tell anyone at the time or for years after. We are now one step closer to justice for Kristin. She was never seen again. After apparently becoming intoxicated, Smart headed back to her dorm with fellow partiers Tim Davis and Cheryl Anderson. "48 Hours" has learned these suspicions center around evidence found during that 2020 search of Paul Flores' home. And the complaint has some explosive claims about what led investigators to focus under Ruben's deck in the first place. It was on Memorial Day weekend 1996 that their 19-year-old daughter Kristin Smart disappeared. PODCAST EPISODE 3 | MARY LASSITER: It was like a red thing and it was like a smudge-like fingerprinted look on the back, just red, like maroon, like old looking and the smudge that it was like half a fingerprint. The document presented summaries of why prosecutors didn't want either man to be released pending a trial that could be years away. The authorities removed items from Paul Floress home in Los Angeles in February 2020. In March 2021, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant at the Arroyo Grande home of Ruben Flores. He also said there was suspicious staining in the soil indicative of human remains. D.A. Like what may have been discovered in March 2021 when investigators searched Ruben Flores' house using cadaver dogs and ground penetrating radar. The Smart family filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores in 1997, but he was not immediately charged criminally in the case. He said a chemical called Bluestar, which detects bodily fluids, was used on the trailer and that there was a reaction on the right side of the trailer showing a stain that could be similar to a human being lying on its side. On Tuesday, Cole testified that Ruben clarified that he meant he was the only one of the three who had been arrested. Kristin Smart: California jury finds man guilty in the 1996 murder of It is every parent's worst nightmare. Just very involved with their children. Even more difficult to understand was why they waited two months to search the family home where Paul Flores was living with his father, Ruben. So had Margarita Campos, who lived in the next room in Muir Hall. James Murphy: They brought in the first dog and they'd had the dog go through the dorms. Lindsey Smart Stewart: It just amazes me the amount of evidence that's available, yet nothing has happened. Produced by Lisa Freed. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. The elder Flores is charged with accessory after the fact to the crime of murder for allegedly helping Paul conceal Smarts body. Cadaver dogs trained to detect human decomposition were deployed by the F.B.I. Alex Murdaugh Found Guilty of Murdering Wife and Son It was first reported by The Tribune, and a reporter posted snippets of documents on Twitter. James Murphy: So why would Susan Flores, her boyfriend, and Ruben Flores be up all night long working under that deck. That's when Denise Smart learned her daughter had not been seen all weekend, and all her belongings were still in her dorm room. James Murphy: Every day. Paul Flores convicted of killing Kristin Smart after 26 years of Ms. Smart, who was from Stockton, Calif., was a freshman at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Cole also testified that on March 9, 2020, a witness reported some suspicious activity at the property. And these girls are inviting us out. Murphy has filed a new civil suit against Ruben Flores for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. I didn't know how many people were gonna listen. She was declared legally dead in 2002. My job was to hunt them. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Nineteen-year-old Cal Poly student Kristin Smart went missing after a campus party 25. To think that you're going to finally get some resolution, and then it doesn't happen the way it's supposed to. Dennis Mahon's Podcast - Blubrry Podcasting to California to search for Kristen Modafferi. Defense Attorney Sanger calls the move a stunning lack of objectivity.. The Smarts say they tried to file a missing person's report with the local police but were told it was too early, and the FBI told them Cal Poly police were in charge. And that's what I've been doing for a long, long time, along with a lot of other people.