Paul Flores: Two suspects arrested in Kristin Smart’s disappearance, family and sources say

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John Segale, a spokesman for the Smart family, told CNN that the family had been informed by law enforcement officials on Tuesday that Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, had been arrested Tuesday morning.

Two law enforcement sources have confirmed the arrests were made on Tuesday. Paul and Ruben Flores are in custody of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, one source said.

Last month, authorities searched Ruben Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande. Flores’s son, Paul, has remained the prime suspect in the decades-long missing persons case.

Robert Sanger, a lawyer representing Paul Flores, was available by phone and said he would not comment on “ongoing cases.” A lawyer from Ruben Flores was not immediately available.

News of the arrest was met with emotion by the Smart family, Segale said.

There were “a lot of really emotional moments,” he said. “Many prayers, surprise, excitement, happiness and of course sadness. Sadness, because this has been going on for 25 years. The Smart family could not have buried their daughter. There was no closure.”

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office is scheduling a press conference at 2:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. ET).

Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996. She was last seen near her Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo dormitory, police said, after walking home from a party.

Smart was pronounced dead in 2002.

Investigators are conducting searches in the case of Kristin Smart, a Cal Poly student who went missing in 1996

Last year, investigators searched Paul Flores’ home and said they had found ‘interesting objects’ on the property.

At the time, Flores was detained at his home in San Pedro, California, and released after the search, Tony Cipolla, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said at the time.

Officials have said that Paul Flores was the last person to see Smart on May 25, 1996.

Smart disappeared after she and other students walked home from a fraternity party.

She was last seen near her dorm, police said, but never entered her room. Friends and family never heard from her again, authorities said.

She had no ID, money or extra clothing when she disappeared, police said.

A massive search and repeated interviews with a college student who walked her that evening didn’t produce any breaks, and Smart was pronounced dead in 2002.

In 2016, the FBI, reporting her body buried on campus, tracked in three cadaver dogs from the training facility in Quantico, Virginia, and investigators dug up a section of the hill near where the school’s trademark ‘P’ is embedded, to no. benefits.

Last year, the sheriff’s office said it was working on the case and listed its efforts since 2011, when the current government took over, including: conducting 18 searches in nine locations; submitting 37 pieces of evidence for DNA testing; the retrieval of “140 new supporting documents”; and conducting 91 interviews.

CNN’s Stella Chan and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.

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