'Items of Interest' Recovered in Case of Kristin Smart, Missing Since 1996

On Wednesday, authorities investigating Smart’s disappearance executed search warrants at four locations in California and Washington state and recovered “some items of interest,” said Tony Cipolla, a spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.

The discovery of the items, which Cipolla declined to describe, raised hopes that the case might finally be solved.

“We will now analyze those and see how they relate to this case,” Cipolla said in an interview. “We would like nothing more than to bring closure to the Smart family in this case.”

Smart’s mother, Denise Smart, told The Stockton Record last month that she had recently been contacted by a retired FBI agent and told to prepare for a possible breakthrough in the case.

“Be ready,” the mother recalled the retired agent telling her, according to The Record. “This is really going to be something you don’t expect. We want to give you the support you need.”

She said the retired agent recommended she find a family spokesman but offered little else about the possible developments in the investigation.

“It’s like, ‘Can you give me the flight plan?’” Denise Smart told the local paper. “When is this happening?”

Cipolla would not reveal the four locations searched Wednesday, saying the search warrants had been sealed by a court.

But one of the locations was the San Pedro, California, home of Paul Flores, 43, according to KCAL-TV in Los Angeles.

A former Cal Poly student, Flores was the last person to see Kristin Smart after she left the party at about 2 a.m. May 25, 1996, Cipolla said. Flores has denied any involvement in her disappearance and has said that he walked her only as far as his dorm, where they parted ways, Cipolla said.

Flores, who has never been charged in the case, has long been a person of interest in Smart’s disappearance. Cipolla described him Wednesday as “the only person of interest.”

KCAL-TV reported that a man believed to be Flores was detained in a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department squad vehicle for two hours Wednesday morning outside the home in San Pedro. The man was handcuffed, questioned and then released by deputies after signing paperwork, KCAL-TV reported.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported that sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents were also seen Wednesday outside the home of Flores’ mother, Susan Flores, in Arroyo Grande, California.

Caution tape was posted outside Susan Flores’ home, and about 15 spectators gathered across the street to watch the investigators work, some shouting, “Dig her up,” The Tribune reported.

A woman who answered a phone number listed for Susan Flores said, “I’m not talking to reporters at this time,” and hung up. No one answered at a number listed for Paul Flores.

Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, confirmed in an email that agents had helped search four locations and added, “No arrests are planned, to my knowledge.”

John Segale, a spokesman for Smart’s parents, Stan and Denise Smart, declined Wednesday to comment on the searches.

In a statement last week, the Smarts credited “Your Own Backyard,” a podcast about the case by journalist Chris Lambert, with prompting renewed interest in the investigation.

“Thanks to Chris and all the supporters who have made such an amazing difference,” the statement said. “‘Your Own Backyard’ has been instrumental in renewing interest in Kristin’s investigation and generating many new leads.”

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said last week that two trucks that belonged to members of the Flores family in 1996 were recently taken into evidence.

The office has a team of investigators and forensics specialists assigned to Smart’s case. Since 2011, the group has executed 18 search warrants, submitted 37 items from the early days of the case for DNA testing, recovered 140 new items of evidence and conducted 91 interviews, the office said in a statement last week.

In 2016, the FBI excavated three sites on a hillside on the Cal Poly campus. Cipolla said the excavation did not turn up the remains of Smart, whose family had her declared legally dead in 2002.

“This has always been an active investigation; it’s never been a cold case,” Cipolla said Wednesday, adding that when tips come in, “it is our duty and obligation to check into those and see where it leads us.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .