Kristin Smart’s former classmate has been found guilty of murdering the California student.
Paul Flores killed Smart, then 19-year-old, a jury in Monterey, California, concluded on Tuesday after a three and a half month trial.
His father Ruben Flores was found guilty of helping to conceal her body, a separate jury ruled.
Smart went missing in May 1996 while walking home from a party attended by classmates at her former college California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Her body has never been found, and the murder remained unexplained for 25 years until prosecutors charged Paul Flores, now 45, with murder in April 2021.
His 80-year-old father Paul Flores helped to conceal the body, at his property in Arroyo Grande before moving it in 2020, prosecutors alleged.
The two men were tried at the same time but separate juries deciding their fate.
Paul Flores was found guilty of the murder of Kristin Smart on Tuesday
(AP 2021 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo))
Ruben Flores helped his son conceal Smart’s body, a jury found
(AP 2021 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo))
A verdict was reached in Ruben Flores’ case on Monday, and that decision was sealed pending the jury reaching a decision in Paul Flores’ murder trial.
Paul Flores