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How a True-Crime Podcast Led to an Arrest in a 25-Year-Old Cold Case (pressdemocrat.com) 41

Posted by EditorDavid from the nowhere-to-hide dept.
"A true-crime podcast has been credited with providing valuable information in a missing person case from the 1990s after two men were arrested," reports Newsweek: Kristin Smart, 19, of Stockton, California, went missing in May 1996 after returning to her dorm at California Polytechnic State University campus in San Luis Obispo. The case received widespread attention from Chris Lambert's Your Own Backyard podcast dedicated to investigating Smart's disappearance, which he began in September 2019.

The last person who was thought to have seen Smart alive was Paul Flores, 44, who was also a freshman at the time, when he offered to walk Smart back to her dorm. Since Smart's disappearance, Flores has been a person of interest, suspect, and prime suspect. Now, District Attorney Dan Dow alleges that Flores killed her in his dorm room following an attempted rape. On Tuesday, April 13, Flores was arrested for her murder, and his father Ruben Flores, 80, was arrested as an accessory to murder for allegedly helping his son conceal Smart's body, which has never been found.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said that they arrested the father and son on Tuesday after a search at Ruben Flores' home using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs last month resulted in new evidence linked to Smart's disappearance... Parkinson also credited the Your Own Backyard podcast with raising awareness of the case which resulted in "valuable information" after a key witness came forward.
The Associated Press calls it "the latest in a line of true-crime podcasts credited with producing results in court," noting investigations by the Up and Vanished podcast also "led a man to confess to killing a Georgia beauty queen."

And they list some of the "compelling clues" uncovered by the podcaster investigating Kristin Smart's disappearance: A former colleague of Paul Flores' mother, Susan Flores, told him Mrs. Flores came into work after Memorial Day weekend 1996 — when Smart went missing — saying she didn't sleep well because her husband had gotten a phone call in the middle of the night and left in his car. "The speculation has been all along that Paul called his dad in the middle of the night and his dad came up and helped him get rid of Kristin's body," Lambert said.

A tenant who lived for a year at Susan Flores' home told him she heard a watch alarm every morning at 4:20 a.m. Smart had worked as a lifeguard at 5 a.m. at the Cal Poly pool, so it's possible she set her watch to wake up at that early hour.
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How a True-Crime Podcast Led to an Arrest in a 25-Year-Old Cold Case More

How a True-Crime Podcast Led to an Arrest in a 25-Year-Old Cold Case

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  • Demonstrates police failure. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:47PM (#61287644)

    If anything, this only shows how poorly many cases are investigated. I know there are lots of different reasons cases go cold but far too many are just a lack of actual inquiry. Meanwhile, when some cases get undue attention to the detriment of other cases.

    • How long has ground-penetrating radar been available to local law enforcement?

      • How long has ground-penetrating radar been available to local law enforcement?

        Ground-penetrating radar is needed because the body was buried 25 years ago.

        At the time, noticing the loose soil or the smell of the decomposing body would have been sufficient.

        Pro-tip: If you need to get rid of a body, don't bury it in your own backyard.

        • Re:Demonstrates police failure. (Score:4, Funny)

          by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @05:44PM (#61287806)

          Pro-tip: If you need to get rid of a body, don't bury it in your own backyard.

          Don't worry - I was planning to bury it in yours.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by PPH ( 736903 )

          Ground-penetrating radar is needed because the body was buried 25 years ago.

          Cadaver Dogs [wikipedia.org]

        • I've always thought the best method of body disposal would be a wood chipper on a speed boat.

        • How long has ground-penetrating radar been available to local law enforcement?

          Ground-penetrating radar is needed because the body was buried 25 years ago.

          At the time, noticing the loose soil or the smell of the decomposing body would have been sufficient.

          Pro-tip: If you need to get rid of a body, don't bury it in your own backyard.

          What makes you think the body was buried in the Flores' backyard? The article clearly states that her body has never been found, regardless of the name of Lambert's blog, and even though the authorities claim they now know where her body is "buried."

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DavenH ( 1065780 )

      If anything, this only shows how poorly many cases are investigated.

      No it does not. Maybe your generalizations are true, but this case certainly did not provide the necessary supporting evidence for them. And even if you had a significant sample rather than n=1, the result of a case itself is insufficient to show the case was poorly investigated or managed -- the police could well have conducted their duties optimally given the evidence and information available.

      • The fact that there is a trend of true-crime podcasts making progress on a case means n>1. Do podcasts somehow have access to evidence that police don't? The existence of n>0 points to there being more, which it evidentially is, now with n>1.

        If I go outside and see only one crow, I don't think "oh, that's just a sample of n=1, we can only say there is one crow around these parts until further evidence". I'm going to go right ahead and REASONABLY assume there's more than one crow in the area base
      • As soon as I saw the headline I knew someone would bring this up. There are a number of problems with jumping to the OP's conclusion besides the (useless) sample size. For example the podcast could have investigated hundreds of cold cases and got lucky on just this one, with a sample size of one you can't tell anything about it. More importantly though, the police have limited resources to allocate to each case. They can't spend weeks? months? focusing on a case like the podcast did because there are tw

    • If anything, this only shows how poorly many cases are investigated. I know there are lots of different reasons cases go cold but far too many are just a lack of actual inquiry. Meanwhile, when some cases get undue attention to the detriment of other cases.

      Yep. The smaller the town, the worse the police are. And I believe in this particular case the local Sheriff's Department handled it and it has become painfully obvious to me over the years that even small town "Andy and Barney" type cops are geniuses compared to pretty much everybody who works for a Sheriff's Department.

    • Well. Depends on if the 25 year old case witness is reliable. People aren't infallible.

      Its really hard to mount a defense and find out if the witness was where they say they were to the hour and such after 25 years. The key will be on why the witness didn't come forward before.

  • Podcasts: the new press. [wikipedia.org]

  • Watch alarm and who done it (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:51PM (#61287664) Homepage Journal

    "A tenant who lived for a year at Susan Flores' home told him she heard a watch alarm every morning at 4:20 a.m. Smart had worked as a lifeguard at 5 a.m. at the Cal Poly pool, so it's possible she set her watch to wake up at that early hour."

    Trying to understand how this fits in as evidence. Are they speculating that Paul Flores was stalking Smart by getting up early. Setting an alarm isn't really an odd thing to do. At any rate, I hope the guilty parties are found guilty.

    • Buried with her watch? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Okian Warrior ( 537106 ) on Sunday April 18, 2021 @04:55PM (#61287682) Homepage Journal

      "A tenant who lived for a year at Susan Flores' home told him she heard a watch alarm every morning at 4:20 a.m. Smart had worked as a lifeguard at 5 a.m. at the Cal Poly pool, so it's possible she set her watch to wake up at that early hour."

      Trying to understand how this fits in as evidence. Are they speculating that Paul Flores was stalking Smart by getting up early. Setting an alarm isn't really an odd thing to do. At any rate, I hope the guilty parties are found guilty.

      Was the watch was buried with her, and kept beeping at 4:20 AM for months after the murder?

    • It just means he's a committed stoner.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kvutza ( 893474 )
      Besides it is clearly meant that it was possibly Smart's watches, it was a chance to find her if it was the case. Did the tenant told that to police then? And did they try to locate the source of that sound?

  • Why would Flores, after all this time, still have anything of hers at his house? Maybe for the first few years keep things hidden, but after that, start to slowly dispose of any evidence. Burn clothes, or at least cut it up in small pieces and put it out with the trash. Better yet, dump it in city trash bins so it can't be connected to you.

    Anything used to kill her should likewise be removed from the residence. Cut up the baseball bat (or burn it). Throw out the knife, but only after washing it and puttin

    • Why would Flores, after all this time, still have anything of hers at his house? Maybe for the first few years keep things hidden, but after that, start to slowly dispose of any evidence. Burn clothes, or at least cut it up in small pieces and put it out with the trash. Better yet, dump it in city trash bins so it can't be connected to you.

      Anything used to kill her should likewise be removed from the residence. Cut up the baseball bat (or burn it). Throw out the knife, but only after washing it and putting it in a bleach bath. Etc.

      The body is one thing. Burying it on your own property is severely stupid. But everything else should have been gotten rid of long ago.

      No, I don't think about these things. Why do you ask?

      Don't forget the clothing you were wearing. Right after you sort out the body, take off all your clothes, put them in a trash bag, and dispose of them. Including the shoes (especially the shoes).

      To be really careful, grab a handful of hair from some animal (use a brush on a cat or dog that you don't own, grab the hair from the brush) and sprinkle it all around the murder scene.

      Leave your phone at home when you do it. If possible, set it up to automatically call (or text) the victim right after the murder, s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        set it up to automatically call (or text) the victim right after the murder

        Only if there is some pre-existing reason for you to be contacting them. Otherwise, maybe they look familiar from someplace. But you just can't recall the name.

      • All good points. From what statistics I can find, about 60% of murders in the US are solved (or allegedly solved). The vast majority of those seem to involve close relationships. Murders involving organized crime (gang/drug related), random targets, etc., are very hard to solve.

        Amongst serial murderers there seems to be a very common desire to keep a memento or trophy from victims.

        If you are dealing with someone who targets randomly (or at least unrelated people), someone who is smart and not openly or visi

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          The thing about random murders is most people aren't willing to go to a lot of trouble for no real point. Lucky, that.

          We do love talking methodology though. I dunno if it gets worse among tech types. I think it's a compulsion to correct a botched bank robbery or murder. "You're doing it wrong".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Well, trying a rape and then escalating to murder is seriously stupid (if you ignore the moral angle) in the first place. I would speculate they got very lucky initially (or the investigation was seriously messed up) to have pulled it off at all. So the answer to your question would be "incompetence".

  • They have no evidence of rape or murder at all. The prosecutions case is based on a belief that Flores must have raped other women so they will present that as evidence that he raped and killed Smart. One thing that happened the night she disappeared was that she was going up to random men french kissing them and then taking them to a bathroom. I don't think there will be a conviction in this case without physical evidence. She also told her mother that she wanted to go to a College in the Virgin Islands an

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