Kristin Smart’s case has been a big unanswered 26 year question until last week. Photo illustration courtesy of health and sports editor Cate Tucker.

  Kristin Smart went missing on May 25, 1996, legally died on May 25, 2002, and Paul Flores was found guilty of murdering her on October 18, 2022.

Monterey County Superior Court announced the verdict that Paul Flores, a fellow Cal Poly student was found guilty of first degree murder. Smart was a Cal Poly student walking back to her dorm from an off-campus party at around 2:00 a.m.

Kristin Smart is a name that the high schoolers of San Luis Obispo have heard time and time again. 

“I think that growing up everyone treated the case really casually and going into Arroyo Grande there was always that giant billboard. It is something I feel like I grew up with. Not that it was treated lightly, but I became so desensitized to it,” said sophomore Emily Kohler.  

  Kristin Smart has been a topic around SLO. Justice for Kristin Smart is a project to give a scholarship to female students, who attend a school in or by San Luis Obispo County, who are college bound and should follow their ambitions in Smart’s name. 2021 SLOHS graduate Sabrina Garcia received this 2022 scholarship. 

  Source: nytimes.com, kristinsmart.org