Office of the Attorney General of California/Handout via REUTERS
- San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced charges in the decades-long cold-case murder of Kristin Smart.
- Paul Flores, a former classmate, was charged with murder.
- His father, Ruben Flores, was arrested on charges of being an accomplice.
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San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office announced charges in the decades-long cold-case murder of Kristin Smart, a student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Paul Flores, the last person seen with Smart, was arrested on charges of murder, and his father, Ruben Flores, was arrested on charges of being an accomplice to murder.
At a press conference on Tuesday, San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office PIO Tony Coppola said it was "a day many have been hoping for."
San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian Parkinson said that throughout the investigation into Smart's disappearance on May 25, 1996, Paul Flores was initially a person of interest.
Over the course of the investigation, Paul Flores became a suspect, and in recent years, the prime suspect.
Paul Flores, one of Smart's former classmates, was arrested early Tuesday at his San Pedro home, and his father, Ruben Flores, was arrested at his Arroyo Grande home with bail set at $200,000.
Parkinson said that upon become sheriff in 2011, he requested a full review of the case, and in 2016, the office reviewed additional evidence. In 2019, the office was able to interview more witnesses. He added that in 2016, officials secured a court order to monitor Flores and his family's communications.
Parkinson added that the San Luis Obispo District Attorney would assume the case, and said that he "cannot discuss what evidence was found."
"We have not recovered Kristin," Parkinson said, insisting that until then, justice will not be served for the Smart family.
The authorities added that 193 pieces of physical evidence were reviewed in the determination of the arrests, and Parkinson said that the file size of the case would amount to about three terabytes.
Parkinson added that Chris Lambert's 2019 podcast, "Your Own Backyard," which looked into the Kristin Smart case, helped bring forward additional witnesses and brought the case's profile to the national stage.