Home reportedly occupied by mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing college student who went missing in 1996

Soil testing at a property linked to the man convicted in the murder of California college student Kristin Smart, who disappeared in 1996, turned up evidence of human remains, a state sheriff announced on Friday.

“We can’t call it Kristin, but there’s evidence to support human remains – there at one time,” the San Luis Obispo county sheriff, Ian Parkinson, said at a news conference.

Smart went missing from California Polytechnic State University in May 1996 after returning from an off-campus party. Prosecutors alleged she was killed during an attempted rape and that the last person she was seen with was Paul Flores, a fellow student.

Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested in 2021.