Warrants Served On LA Suspect In Kristin Smart Cold Case

LOS ANGELES, CA — Authorities delivered a flurry of search warrants Wednesday in Los Angeles and along the West Coast at properties linked to a suspect in the 1996 disappearance of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart. Smart's disappearance has been an enduring Southern California mystery largely driven by her mother's relentless drive for answers, and more recently, a string of podcasts devoted to her story.

One search warrant was served early Wednesday morning in San Pedro at the home of prime suspect in the case is Paul Flores, a classmate of Smart and the last person to see her before she vanished. A man identified by a neighbor as Flores was interviewed for about two hours before he was released and scurried back into the home, ignoring questioned shouted by reporters.

Wednesday's search warrants were also served in San Luis Obispo County and in Washington State, but investigators left few hints as to what they were looking for and what prompted the searches nearly 25 years after Smart vanished on her way home from an off-campus get together while walking with Flores on Memorial Day weekend in 1996.

According to the Sacramento Bee, authorities recently confirmed that new evidence was discovered that was tied to Smart's disappearance, including two trucks that belonged to members of the family of Paul Flores in 1996. Flores has been a prime suspect in the case since the early days of the investigation. The case has long been a controversial one because of delays in initiating the investigation in the crucial first days of Smart's disappearance. In the decades since her daughter vanished, Smart's mother paid for billboards, hired investigators and reached out to the media for help finding out what happened to her daughter. Last year's Your Own Backyard podcast by Chris Lambert explores the decades-long battle for justice and helped renew public interest in the case.

According to Fox 11, a residence in the 900 block of Upland Avenue in San Pedro was the focus of Wednesday's warrant operation. The warrant was served about 7 a.m.

"Due to the high-profile nature of the investigation into the disappearance and whereabouts of Kristin Smart and to avoid the dissemination of misinformation, the Sheriff's Office is announcing this morning it has served search warrants for specific items of evidence inside four separate locations in California and Washington," Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

"Two of those locations are in San Luis Obispo County, one location is in Los Angeles County and one location is in Washington State," Cipolla said.

"The search warrants are limited in scope, and sealed by the court," Cipolla said. "As a result, we are precluded by law from disclosing any further details about them. This is an active and on-going investigation. The Sheriff's Office will not be commenting any further and no additional information will be released at this time, nor do we anticipate any additional news releases regarding this investigation."

Since 2011, the Sheriff's Office has served 18 search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches at nine locations, submitted 37 evidence items from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing, recovered 140 new items of evidence, conducted 91 in-person interviews and written 364 supplemental reports, the Sacramento Bee reported.

City News Service and Patch staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.