LOS ANGELES — Kristin Smart vanished 26 years ago after walking back toward the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, dormitories from a party.
Now fellow student Paul Flores, last seen with her that night, is facing trial for her murder as jury selection began Monday in one of California's most famous cold cases.
Smart's disappearance and the subsequent murder investigation have haunted the Central Coast college community for decades, with billboards appealing for evidence to convict her killer. Her body has never been found. But San Luis Obispo County sheriff's detectives, after years of searches and questioning, arrested Flores at his San Pedro home last year and his father, Ruben, at his Arroyo Grande home. Ruben Flores is charged with an accessory to the crime for alleged moving the body.
