48 Hours - The Disappearance of Kristin Smart

Episode Date: November 29, 2020

A college student goes missing and a podcaster turns up the heat to solve the case. "48 Hours" tracks down the prime suspect. CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reports for "48 Hours."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca I grew up not far from where Kristen disappeared. The billboard in Arroyo Grande is visible. It's got Kristen's photo on it. It says missing. It's intriguing. It's something you pass and you think about again. There are currently more than a half million people missing in the United States. Driving past that billboard was a periodic reminder that, oh yeah, they still haven't found that girl. I'm Chris Lambert. I created the podcast Your Own Backyard, which focused on the disappearance of Kristen Smart. It's a little different if you have access to some of the people and places involved. It's different when someone goes missing in your own backyard. Investigators say Smart and two other students left the party that night and walked back to

their on-campus dormitory buildings. We're here surrounded by dorms and yet nobody saw anything. It was a very dead holiday weekend. A lot of people had gone home. In the amount of time that they were alone and whatever happened that her life ended, I think there was plenty of opportunity to hide her body without anybody noticing. My sister turned 19 in February. She disappeared in May. When she disappeared, I was about to graduate eighth grade, but my parents did a really good job of shielding us. Stan and Denise, they're wonderful parents. A very large group of friends went down to Cal Poly

to help search for her. Stan was there. Denise stayed back and I stayed back with her in case Kristen came home. Never would have dreamed in a million years that she would not return. And Cal Poly is a safe place. You do not think of this happening. This is one of my favorites of her with this great smile that she has.

I just love that. It's just, to me, that's just, that captures her. Playful, fun, humorous. She was probably one of the kindest people I knew growing up. I remember her wanting to, like, travel the world and be an architect. She was very driven, passionate. I really miss her, and she should be here. Originally, when we first took the case,

I was determined I would be able to find her in six months. If you've ever been on one of these searches, you walk up a canyon here in San Luis Obispo County, and then there's another canyon off that. You get to the end of that one, there's another canyon. There's billions of places to hide a body. It's important to explain here that Kristen's case has never been declared cold. A case is only considered cold when law enforcement decides that they've exhausted all of their leads.

But what makes it interesting to me is that they've had a suspect since pretty much day one. What went wrong? I'm heading to that suspect's house to try to get some answers about what happened. Good morning, I'm Jonathan Vigliotti with CBS News. Were you involved in the disappearance of Kristen Smart? How could this possibly have gone on this long? Kampung Kampung KONTAKT It's a cold and cloudy winter afternoon in San Luis Obispo, and I'm retracing missing Cal Poly student Kristen Smart's last known steps. I'm just a naturally curious person, and this case is something that I've wondered about for years.

I'm just a naturally curious person, and this case is something that I've wondered about for years. Chris Lambert was just eight years old when Kristen Smart vanished on her way home from a college party in San Luis Obispo, California. I remember seeing it on the news. Kristen is a freshman at Cal Poly but hasn't been to class since the fourth of the morning. Still no sign of 19-year-old Kristen Smart. Kristen Smart left a party on the Cal Poly campus. It was something scary, and they were talking about it pretty regularly. But 22 years later, when he tried to find the latest on the case, Lambert was astounded by what he did not find.

There had been no news stories, no official word about Kristen Smart for almost two years. It wasn't being talked about. And that was frustrating for me. So how did I get here, making a documentary about this case myself? I don't know. I just checked, and I'm a musician and recording engineer.

To go on top of a windy mountain Even though he'd never investigated anything before, Lambert quit his job to create a podcast. At least once a day, I ask myself, what are you doing? Lambert began looking into what happened to Kristen, collecting articles and documents, chasing down leads, and tracking down anyone with information. I didn't know the scale. I didn't know how many people were going to listen, but I knew that I could try to do a small part. I googled Kristen Smart's name every few years.

He never expected it would be a hit, but his podcast caught the attention of millions of listeners and sparked new interest in this decades-old unsolved case. Back in May 1996, Kristen Smart was finishing her freshman year at California Polytechnic State University, better known as Cal Poly. Her younger sister, Lindsay, says their mother urged Kristen to go there. You should go to Cal Poly. They're known for being a really safe school. And it was only 250 miles from Stockton, California, where she grew up with Lindsay and their brother Matt. Her parents, Denise and Stan, were both educators who encouraged their kids' passions. She was who she was because of her parents, for sure. Anne-Marie Christian became friends with Kristen in elementary school.

Her parents reminded me of my parents, just very involved with their children, you know, at their sporting events, at their activities. A very close-knit family. Like the rest of the family, Kristen was an athlete. She loved swimming and skiing. But Lindsay says her sister was happiest when she was traveling. She had traveled the world before she even made it to college by herself, which is pretty amazing. She spent a summer in London, was an exchange student in Venezuela, and a lifeguard at a camp in Hawaii.

She definitely took advantage of life, seized the day. She was super ambitious and was determined to find the next adventure, to find the next challenge. That turned out to be college. Like so many freshmen, Kristen struggled. Classes were difficult. She was trying to fit in, and she missed her family. Kristen broke down, begging her mother to let her drop out and go somewhere else. But every Sunday when she called her parents, they encouraged her to stick it out. Longtime family friend Denise Pierce. Things were going to get better and, you know, and they did.

Friday, May 24th, 1996 was the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Most students had taken off, but Kristen had stayed on campus. So had Margarita Campos, who lived in the next room in Muir Hall. They had become close friends, despite their differences. I was a little bit more introverted and inhibited. And she was like, no, we have to go out and we have to live life. And she was growing as an individual. She was pushing herself out of her comfort zone.

And I was like, no! So when they were invited to a party that Friday night, Kristen was excited to go. Kristen was like, come on, let's go, let's go. And I was like, nah, I have to study. And so she pulled me into this sort of like, oh, come on, let's socialize. And these girls are inviting us out, let's go. And I was like, okay, fine.

But when we got to the house, it was pretty dead too. It was like a couple of roommates hanging out playing video games. And Kristen was like, oh gosh, there has to be something better than this. mates hanging out playing video games. And Kristen was like, oh gosh, there has to be something better than this. The two girls walked to an area off campus where there were fraternities, sororities, and residential housing for students. Margarita soon decided she'd had enough. You wanted to go home and you were trying to find a way to break it to your friend.

That's exactly right. They got to the parking lot of this apartment complex. I was like, Kristen, I'm going to go back home. I'm going to go back to the dorms. You can go. And she's like, please come with me. Please come with me. I told her I didn't want to go.

Kristen did not have a purse, money, her ID, or even her keys. So before leaving, Margarita handed over her keys to get back into Muir Hall. She was absolutely sober when I left her. I'll never forget her shadow against the building, this apartment complex, just standing like kind of cross arm with a long leg. And she was just kind of like looking at me like, you're really walking away now. Like you're really, you're leaving. The next morning, Margarita waited to hear from Kristen. I was expecting her to knock on my door and be like, oh Margarita, you missed a rager and

here's your key. I knocked on her door and I thought she was just sleeping or she went out and about, you know. It wasn't until Kristen's roommate returned to their dorm room that Margarita realized Kristen never came home. How did you know she hadn't been back? Nothing had moved. All of Kristen's personal belongings, including her purse, her money, her ID, were in the room, exactly where she had left them. I mean, she was gone. She was gone. By the time they called the Cal Poly campus police, Kristen had been missing for more than 48 hours. But Margarita says the police did not

seem concerned. We were like, this is serious. We thought we're calling the police, like, they know what to do. And the campus police, they were like, are you sure she didn't go out of town? It's like, she has nothing on her. How could she have gone out of town? They thought she was off possibly having fun. Oh, yeah. But they could not have been more wrong. To this day, I was like, why?

Why did I just let her go by herself? I did have guilt about that. But you have to understand, she was a really independent, free spirit. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known

British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse

and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Kristen's mother, Denise Smart, spent Memorial Day weekend at a swim meet with her two younger kids. She was looking forward to hearing from Kristen that Sunday. And that phone call never comes. The phone call never comes. Instead, on Monday, May 27th, Denise Pierce says the Smarts got a call from Cal Poly's campus police asking if Kristen was with them. Kristen hasn't come home and we're not sure where she is.

We don't know anything. That's when Denise Smart learned her daughter had not been seen all weekend and all her belongings were still in her dorm room. She was becoming more and more alarmed. You know, she was just frantic. I don't understand this. You know, what's going on? It is every parent's worst nightmare. The Smarts say they tried to file a missing persons report with the local police, but were told it was too early. And the FBI told them Cal Poly police were in charge. But as Chris Lambert learned, the campus police did not act right away. At that point, I don't think they had ever dealt with a missing person, a possibly murdered person. By the time the Cal Police began investigating, Kristen had been gone for four days. As they soon learned,

she had ended up at a party at this house. It's mostly frat guys from the Kappa Chi fraternity. I don't know if Kristen knew anybody there. Chris Lambert is a CBS News consultant, and he's pieced together what he learned from people who were there that night. Kristen became incredibly intoxicated, whether she was drugged or whether she just had a lot to drink in a short amount of time. She ends up passed out on the lawn next door. Lambert says Kristen could not stand on her own, so fellow student Cheryl Anderson, who was also at the party, began helping her back to campus. They were soon joined by another partygoer, Paul Flores.

As they describe it, Paul Flores just sort of appears out of nowhere and offers to help. He gets his arm around her torso and her arm around his neck, and he's helping her walk. Paul keeps stopping along the way and letting Cheryl Anderson know, you can go on ahead. I've got her. It's fine. She didn't think that was okay, so she slowed down and walked with them. When they reached the turnoff to Cheryl's dorm, she says Flores tried to hug and kiss her. She left them only after he promised to take Kristen back to her dorm. I don't think she ever imagined that Kristen would end up dead by the end of the night. Paul and Kristen then make their way here. What happens next?

So if you believe Paul's story, he goes into his dorm room here and he leaves her to walk up this walkway. Her dorm entrance is right over here. I personally think that wherever Kristen went, Paul was there with her. I don't think that she went back to her dorm at all. Whatever happened in those early hours, one thing is indisputable. Kristen Smart has never been seen again.

She had just 40 yards to go, and yet she vanished. That's the upsetting part about it, isn't it? The investigation seemed to be hampered from the start by a series of missteps by campus police, beginning with their assumption that Kristen was off having fun and ignoring worried friends who said she was missing. So much was lost in those first few days where if that very first phone call was taken seriously, answers might have been uncovered the first week. They also did not focus on Paul Flores immediately, waiting six days to formally interview him.

Even worse, they never sealed his dorm room. There was a lot of evidence that could have been gathered that wasn't. Why? I wish I knew why. They did an interview with the Cal Poly Mustang Daily and explained that they didn't think there was any evidence that a crime had taken place. By the time they inspected Flores' room,

Kristen had been gone for 16 days. School was over, so campus police found an empty room that had been sanitized by the university's cleaning crew. Any evidence that might have been there was long gone. The investigation was completely botched by the campus police. There's no question about it. And while they did not rush to investigate Flores, police. There's no question about it. And while they did not rush to investigate Flores, Kristen's family says campus police were very quick to judge her. Just days after she disappeared, an incident report seemed to imply that Kristen's behavior contributed to her disappearance. There was a lot of focus on how Kristen was drinking, what sounded a lot like victim shaming.

Right. 100% that was happening. The report said, Smart does not have any close friends at Cal Poly. Smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Smart was talking with and socializing with several different males at the party.

But while campus police weren't doing much, Kristen's parents were doing whatever they could to find their daughter. Kristen's father would come down and hike every trail he could find on the Central Coast. He'd go anywhere. He'd go through tunnels under bridges looking for his daughter and expecting, best case scenario, he's going to find her body, which is awful for a parent. Early on, a small group of volunteers also looked for Kristen, but a massive search did not happen until she'd been gone for more than a month.

That's when the campus police finally handed the investigation over to the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office. But they did not find Kristen. Four months after that futile search, Paul Flores was brought before a grand jury. Little is known since the proceedings are kept secret. But no charges were ever filed. Just weeks later, Kristen's frustrated parents contacted James Murphy, a local civil attorney. It was just a sad phone call to have somebody say, our daughter disappeared and we think she's

the victim of foul play and we'd like to pursue the guy that we think is responsible. Murphy and his wife, Garen Sinclair, agreed to take the case pro bono, promising to go after Paul Flores and put pressure on the sheriff's office. We had to be the initiators. You would have thought it would have been the other way around. Murphy immediately filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Flores in civil court. And it says wrongful death, and then I put murder. Putting murder on the lawsuit was sending a message to Paul Flores and his family that we believe that he killed Kristen

and that we're coming for him. But trying to get him hasn't been easy. It just amazes me, the amount of evidence that's available, yet nothing has happened. The day after my sister disappeared, Paul Flores had a black eye and scratches on him. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals.

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I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder. Early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. You look at Kristen Smart every day.

Every day. The Smart's attorney, James Murphy, and his wife and office manager, Garen Sinclair, have had Kristen's billboard in their front yard since late 1997. It's just a motivator for me. I will go outside at nighttime, and I'll look up at the full moon and I'll think that that kid's buried somewhere real close. Murphy and Sinclair promised the Smarts the billboard will stay until their daughter is found. I'd love to do anything to end their suffering. And that weighs on you.

Yep. Is there any doubt in your mind that Paul Flores is responsible for the disappearance of Kristen Smart? No. No. And Murphy and Sinclair believe they can prove it. They have not been able to proceed with the civil case while there's an ongoing criminal investigation. But that has not stopped them from following every lead and preparing for an eventual trial. There has been no other suspect. Every piece of evidence points directly at Paul Flores. Like his black eye, you can see it faintly in this mugshot taken by the Arroyo Grande police just by chance two days after Kristen vanished. At the time, they did not know about a missing college student. They were after Paul Flores for an outstanding DUI warrant. Having a black eye doesn't make you guilty of anything.

But if the person you were with disappeared from the planet, that's physical evidence. Chris Lambert says two days after that, when Flores was interviewed by campus police, they asked how he got his black eye, as well as scratches on his hands and knees. He says he got a black eye playing basketball with his friends. But one of those friends told police Flores already had the black eye when he arrived. He told those friends he just woke up with the black eye. When authorities later confronted him with the two stories, Flores admitted lying and offered a new explanation. He actually hit his eye on his steering wheel in the middle of the night while changing his stereo. So now you've got three different stories about how he got that black eye.

He lied to the police about everything. Flores claimed after walking Kristen back from the party, he went to his room in Santa Lucia Hall while she walked alone to her dorm. But cadaver dogs told a different story. Just days after taking over the investigation, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office brought several dogs, like these, trained to detect human remains to the Cal Poly dorms. They brought in the first dog and they had the dog go through the dorms. There was no reaction until the dog reached Paul Flores' room.

Why is a dog that is trained to smell human remains alerting on, amazingly, Paul Flores' dorm room? They let the dog in. The dog makes a beeline to the bed of Paul Flores. Remember, Flores' room had been emptied and thoroughly cleaned. But remarkably, the same thing happened with three more dogs. That suggests that something bad happened in Paul Flores' dorm room. The sheriff's office still wasn't convinced they had enough evidence against Flores,

but Murphy says there were other incidents that should have raised alarm bells about him with law enforcement from the very beginning. Paul Flores had a reputation amongst the girls that knew him at Cal Poly as being a creeper, that he was always trying to hit on women. In fact, Cheryl Anderson, who trusted Flores to walk Kristen back to her dorm alone, told police that her friends called him Chester the Molester because he was known for groping girls. Chester the Molester because he was known for groping girls. So with Cheryl's account alone, we have an unsettling picture of Paul. Just five months before Kristen disappeared, San Luis Obispo police received a call from a student living off campus. There was a man climbing her trellis and trying to get inside her balcony, very intoxicated and refusing to leave. When they showed up, it was Paul Flores.

No charges were filed, but Lambert discovered Flores' troubles started at a young age. In high school, he was known as a loner. Chris Lambert spoke with some women who knew Flores back then. They asked him not to use their names. Well, his nickname was Scary Paul. They asked him not to use their names. Well, his nickname was Scary Paul. You wouldn't want to be alone in a room with him. You wouldn't let any of your friends be drunk around him.

Those were kind of unspoken things. And they told Lambert they weren't surprised when they heard about Flores' connection to Kristen's disappearance. I wasn't surprised, but there's also that shock value of kind of, oh my God, I knew it. 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. Quote, we need Paul Flores to tell us what happened to Kristen Smart. So absent something from Mr. Flores, I don't see us completing this case.

How significant was that? I think that might have been the biggest misstep that investigators have made to this day. To declare to the public, if you stay quiet, you will get away with this. And six months later, when Flores was deposed by James Murphy for the Smart's civil suit, he kept quiet. Would you state your full name for the record, please? Paul Rubin Flores. The only thing he would confirm on tape is that his name is Paul Flores. What is your present residence address?

On the advice of my attorney, I refuse to answer that question based on the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Everything else he took the Fifth Amendment. He wouldn't answer a single thing. In May of 96, were you a student at Cal Poly? On the advice of my attorney. He invoked the Fifth 27 times. What is the name of your father? He invoked the fifth 27 times. What is the name of your father? On the vice.

And it worked. You just don't talk and you get away with it. Flores wasn't talking, but was there evidence possibly placing Kristen Smart at his mother's home? Somebody found an earring that they say was Kristen Smart's jewelry in the driveway. An earring that appeared to match the necklace Kristen is wearing on this billboard. What do you think was the biggest misstep in the initial investigation? See more photos from the case on Facebook at 48 Hours. When Kristen Smart disappeared, Paul Flores' parents, Susan and Ruben, were separated and living apart. Four months later, while attempting to reconcile, Susan rented out her house in a Royal Grande. A young couple moves into it with their kid. The mother is washing her car in the driveway

at one point. Something shiny catches her eye next to the front driver's side tire. A single woman's earring. That mother, Mary Lasseter, described it to Chris Lambert. It was like a red thing and it was like a smudged like fingerprinted look on the back. Just red like maroon like old looking and a smudge that it was like a half a fingerprint. It was turned over to a detective with the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office. But Garen Sinclair says the Smarts never knew it existed until the Lasseters were deposed in January 1997. He never once turned to the Smart family and said, hey, we have an earring. We'd like to show it to you to see if it matches any of your daughter's jewelry. The Smarts then demanded to see it.

And that's when they're told that earring has been misplaced. Misplaced. It was never marked as evidence, apparently. And that's when they're told that earring has been misplaced. Misplaced. It was never marked as evidence, apparently. But Mary Lasseter says the earring matched the necklace Kristen is seen wearing on this billboard. If it was, in fact, a piece of jewelry that matched Kristen's jewelry, it would have been blockbuster evidence. And might have connected Kristen to Susan Flores' house, says James Murphy.

There's no way to get evidence back once you've lost it. Another frustration for the smarts. At the time Kristen disappeared, investigators weren't aware that Paul Flores' parents were separated and living apart, so they did not immediately get a warrant to search Susan Flores' home. Even more difficult to understand was why they waited two months to search this house, the family home where Paul Flores was living with his father, Ruben. And when they did...

They didn't bring cadaver dogs with them. They didn't bring a forensics team. They didn't look at the Flores family's vehicles. They might have found evidence in those vehicles. Paul Flores did not have a car on campus, so Murphy surmises he had to have had help. And it's 2.30 and 3 o'clock in the morning at Cal Poly. 3.30 and 3 o'clock in the morning at Cal Poly.

This is not a location from which Paul alone could easily move a body without a vehicle. But further investigation of the Flores' two trucks seemed impossible. In the months after Kristen's disappearance, one truck was traded in. The other was reported stolen. But it's Susan Flores' concrete backyard that has gotten the most attention. It has been the focus of widespread speculation for more than two decades, especially her planter boxes. Around the time Kristen disappeared, they cut out planter boxes in the backyard. So they cut out big chunks of concrete and filled it in with soil. In one of Paul's police interviews, he mentioned that he wanted to be let out of the interview

because he needed to help clean up concrete at his mom's house. So what was being done in Susan Flores' backyard in the weeks after Kristen went missing. And then there's this disturbing story that Mary Lasseter told Chris Lambert. In the master bedroom, I'm hearing this beep beep every night at 4.20 in the morning. Lasseter says it came from one of the planter boxes in the backyard. She said it drove her crazy, and she went out there many times in the middle of the night to try to find it with sticks sticking down into the planter boxes down in the soil. And after a few months of living there, the beeping stops. Even more chilling, Chris Lambert discovered Christian was working as a lifeguard at Cal Poly, and her watch alarm went off every morning about that time. What was Denise Smart's reaction when you told her about this beeping in Susan's backyard?

Shock. Susan's house was finally searched in March 1997, nine months after Kristen disappeared. But nothing was found. I think it's very possible that Kristen was at Susan Flores' house at some point early on. I think that anybody reasonable would have moved her somewhere safer. It would be three more years before the property was searched again. At 8 a.m. on June 19, 2000, a team of sheriff's investigators knocks on the front door of Susan Flores' East Branch Street home. With them is a group of FBI evidence response team members and a search warrant.

That warrant allowed them to dig up the backyard, but deputies chose not to excavate. Denise Pierce says that was a crushing blow for the Smart family. To be almost there to think that, you know, you're going to finally get some resolution and then, you know, it doesn't happen the way it's supposed to, devastating. And there would be more disappointment in 2007, after the Smart's legal team searched a small portion of Susan Flores' backyard with ground-penetrating radar and did not find any evidence. They just have never given up and are never going to give up on their daughter. Ruben Flores and his estranged wife Susan have always denied any role in Kristen Smart's disappearance. Do you have any information as to where Kristen Smart's body is located? Of course not.

Does your husband have any information as to where Kristen Smart's body is located? No. When they were deposed by James Murphy, they also insisted their son was not involved. Does your son have any information as to where Kristen Smart's body is located? Nope. Has your son ever told you that he did not kill Kristen Smart? Well, he never asked that question. Well, he just, the only thing about it, he says no.

Through the years, the Smarts have kept pressure on the Flores family, but the Floreses have fought back, suing the Smarts for intentionally inflicting emotional distress on them. Like the Smarts civil case, theirs is also on hold. In the meantime, Paul Flores moved to Southern California, where he has bounced from job to job. But as Chris Lambert learned, Flores' pattern of behavior with women didn't stop. A couple times I'd take him home and he would just, oh, come on, just give me a kiss, just give me a kiss. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy

about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk-ters who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans. Discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app

or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. Paul Flores may have wanted a fresh start in Southern California, but Chris Lambert says he could not seem to break old habits. Paul worked with a number of women that he made incredibly uncomfortable. Girls who he tried to make a pass at sexually.

Girls that he tried to force to kiss him. Some of those women, who did not want their real names used, told Lambert about their encounters with him. So I walk him up to his sister's apartment. And all of a sudden he just like picked me up, carried me inside, turned around, he shut the apartment door and locked it. So I said, you better turn some lights on right now and let me out or I'm going to scream. So eventually he unlocked the apartment door and I left. Lambert also interviewed a woman who dated Flores until she says he became physically and verbally abusive. When he had like a butter knife and he like held it to my neck and I was screaming and my roommate actually kicked down the door to make him stop. But Paul Flores was never charged with any of these incidents.

Back in San Luis Obispo, the Smarts, feeling ignored by the sheriff's office, continued a relentless campaign to get them to do more to find their daughter. What toll over time did this have on your parents? I think they're like carrying boulders on their back. Then in 2011, there was a new sheriff in town. If you were making a film about a new law enforcer who's coming to a small town to save the day, you'd probably cast Parkinson. Sheriff Ian Parkinson promised the Smarts that solving

Kristen's case would be a priority. I committed to them that I was going to go back to the beginning and re-examine every piece of evidence that we had. But Parkinson acknowledges it hasn't been easy. Was this case, given the evidence that was lost early on, doomed from the very beginning? Yes. I guess the answer is yes. There was early mistakes made that you can't recover from when you're missing those vital pieces. Is this a case that takes a miracle to solve? I hope not. He hired a full-time detective to work on cases that were cold or unsolved. And over the past nine years, Parkinson's says there have been a number of new searches. Including one in September 2016. After getting a new lead, the sheriff's office, with help from the FBI, excavated the hillside near the Cal Poly P.

But they did not find Kristen's remains. We've done 96 different interviews and collected 258 pieces of additional evidence. Remember the Flores' two trucks that disappeared shortly after Kristen went missing? In 2019, the sheriff's office recovered both of them. Any evidence that you can tell us about? I can tell you that, yes, there was some evidence, but I can't tell you what the evidence is. We're still in the process of examining, forensically, some of the evidence using state-of-the-art technology.

And earlier this year, sheriff's investigators and FBI agents went back to search Susan Flores' house. At the same time, more investigators showed up at Paul's house, his father's house, and even his sister's house. Are you hopeful that cops are moving in?

I've been hopeful the whole time. Once I could see proof that they were moving forward, I thought somebody is taking this seriously, but how much time do you give them? You've got to move and you've got to do it now. More than two decades after Kristen vanished, Parkinson says Paul Flores remains the only suspect in her disappearance. The question is, is what role did he play? That becomes the challenge of solving and proving.

I don't think he intended to kill Kristen. I don't know if it was a struggle, if it was an accident, but I do believe that Paul tried to clean up that mess and make sure that he didn't get in trouble for it. And it's been 24 years. I think it's time to talk. We thought the same thing. Hi, Paul. Good morning. I'm Jonathan Vigliotti with CBS News. Were you involved in the disappearance of Kristen Smart?

Paul, can you tell us what happened that night between you and Kristen? Oh, s***. Paul, aren't you fed up of not being able to share your side of the story? All of the suspicion that has followed you for so many years. Do you know where Kristen's body is? Paul, what happened? Denise Pierce says her good friend, Denise Smart, won't rest until she has the answers, and Kristen is found. She once said to me, you know, early on, I don't know what I would do if this went on for 20 years.

You know, I'm like, oh, you're so crazy. And here we are at 24 years. She has never given up. I'm just so hoping that there's going to be some resolution real soon. Earlier this year, Lindsay Smart Stewart came to this beautiful spot. This is the family and friends bench. Overlooking the Pacific Ocean and home to Kristen's memorial. So our Kristen's lookout point,

my daughter's decorated it with roses. It's the first time Lindsay has visited in 13 years. It feels good. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't this optimistic and this hopeful, like, in this moment. I feel like the clouds are clearing. You don't ever stop thinking about it. I feel like the clouds are clearing. You don't ever stop thinking about it. I think of her as a bright, warm light.

We'll never forget her. The Kristen Smart Campus Safety Act became California law in 1998. It requires campus and local police to have a joint plan to handle investigations of violent crime on campus. I'm Erin Moriarty, 48 hours, and this is my life of crime. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The role of a journalist is to bring Americans a greater understanding. We have to make sure that we're right, that we're fair, but also hopefully bring Americans closer together. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.