LOS ANGELES — While the 26-year mystery of the disappearance of Kristin Smart concluded this week with the conviction of Paul Flores for her murder, the young woman’s father says it doesn’t make up for his daughter’s absence.
“Without Kristin, there is no joy or victory with this verdict; we all know it did not have to be this way,” Stan Smart said Tuesday after the verdict was read. “We will never be able to hear Kristin’s engaging laughter or revel in her embrace. Her hopes and dreams will never be realized; no form of justice can bring these back.”
A jury of nine women and three men found Flores, 45, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of the 19-year-old Cal Poly student, who went missing more than two decades ago but whose body has never been found. A second jury acquitted Ruben Flores of charges that the 81-year-old helped his son cover up the crime by hiding Smart’s body.
