California, United States
The Latino is suspected of murdering and disappearing a 19-year-old student in California In 1996, he murdered her in her bedroom while raping or attempting to do so, the San Luis Obispo County prosecutor said Wednesday.
The prosecutors today provided details in filing the charges against Paul Flores, who was arrested on May 25, 1996 as responsible for the student’s disappearance Kristin Smart, who attended California University of Cal Poly San Luis Bishop
Flores, who was also a college student at the time and was the last person seen in Smart’s company on the night the young woman disappeared, was arrested Tuesday in the town of San Pedro, Los Angeles County.
Dan Dow, district attorney San Luis Bishop, revealed that authorities are investigating whether Flores sexually assaulted other women in the San Pedro area, in the province where Flores has lived since about 2005, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The prosecution plans to provide evidence of “previous sex acts” and “other alleged abuse cases” to prove that Flores committed the murder, according to the criminal charges cited by the newspaper.
Dow explained that in the past two years, researchers have obtained “important new information,” including last month “very important information,” which led them to the Flores arrests, who has always denied his responsibility in the facts.
Charges were also filed last Wednesday against Rubén Flores, 80 years old and Paul’s father, on charges of complicity in this crime in which, although the body was never found, the young woman was pronounced dead on May 25, 2002.
Crime
In February 2020, both housing Paul Flores in San Pedro they, like those of his father and sister, were searched the same day and a few weeks later the house of the now main suspect was searched again.
Last March, authorities carried out a search of the home of Ruben Flores and next Tuesday, investigators re-entered the premises after the arrest.
The young woman, who was in college her first year, is said to have turned 44 last February. Smart was born in Germany, but moved to the United States as a child and grew up in Stockton, California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Both Paul and Rubén Flores will appear before the San Luis Obispo Supreme Court next Thursday to respond to the allegations.