German-American student, a 19-year-old freshman at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, California when she became a missing person. She was returning to her residence hall on 25 May 1996 at about 2:00 AM after a party. A male student, Paul Flores, offered to walk her home and he reported that he left her at the walkway to her dorm.
When her parents, Denise and Stan Smart, did not receive her usual Sunday phone call, they notified authorities. With red tape and bungling, the case was not turned over to the local sheriff’s dept for a month. Search teams included dogs that reacted to one room, and the occupant had been seen with cuts and bruises on 26 May. He had been seen at 5:00 AM that day, taking a shower at his own dorm. There was not enough evidence to charge him though he remained a prime suspect. The young man who remained the prime suspect was born on 22 October 1976. A year later, the case was totally stalled and the suspect remained free. The distraught parents have asked astrologers for help.
Smart was declared legally dead on 25 May 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance.
On 22 April 2020 the Los Angeles Times reported that a search warrant was served at the home of Paul Flores in San Pedro, California. On 13 April 2021, Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were taken into custody. On 18 October 2022 the separate juries that were hearing the case simultaneously at the Monterey County Courthouse found Paul Flores guilty of first-degree murder and father Ruben Flores not guilty of accessory after the fact. Paul Flores is facing twenty-five years to life in prison.
Link to Wikipedia biography