LOS ANGELES – Paul Flores was the last person seen with Kristin Smart before she vanished from a college campus on California’s scenic Central Coast nearly 25 years ago and suspicion has followed him ever since.
He went from being a “person of interest” to a “suspect” to “the prime suspect.” Investigators never had enough evidence to charge him with a crime related to her disappearance until Tuesday when Flores was arrested on suspicion of murder in Smart's death.
His father, Ruben Flores, was arrested as an accessory to the crime. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said arrests came after a search of the elder Flores' home last month using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs turned up new evidence linked to Smart's