Rotten Mango - #86: The Mysterious Disappearance of Kristin Smart

Episode Date: August 8, 2021

After a rough start, Kristin was adjusting well at Cal Poly. She made friends and even took a lifeguard position that required her to get up by 4:20 AM. And then she disappeared.  Nearby, Mary had just rented a new house but the problem was that dang alarm. It would go off every day at 4:20 AM and she didn’t know where it was.  But strangely it wasn’t coming inside the house. But outside. Sounded like it was buried. But who would buy a stopwatch? ' *The podcast “Your Own Backyard” - by Chris Lambert is one of the most heartbreaking, thorough, and well-done podcasts I’ve ever listened to… Please go give it a listen because there’s so much more to this story.  Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton is for all of us. Wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay subscription starting at 12.99 per month. Buta Bing Buta Boo.

Welcome to this week's mini-sode. We're back on the mini-sodes. We're here for you every Wednesdays and Sundays. But let me just drop you off in the middle of this crime like I like to do. I'm like the worst Uber driver, okay? Every single morning at 420 in the morning, Mary would wake up and she would hear that same damn beeping over and over and over again. At first she didn't think much of it. I mean she's renting this house. Maybe there's a clock somewhere in the house and a alarm. You know, maybe it's a stopwatch somewhere in the house, maybe in the attic. But she soon realized that the noise was coming from outside, not a neighbor, but in the house, maybe in the attic, but she soon realized that the noise was coming from outside, not a neighbor, but in the backyard. She starts poking around with a stick, maybe I can find it somewhere, maybe someone dropped

their watch into the grass. And this is kind of a sick prank, honestly, if you're thinking about pranking someone, set a timer on like a Cassio stopwatch, throw it in their backyard early hours of the morning, you're gonna drive them insane, right? So but that's not the only strange thing that's been happening in this house that she rents Like the trash can, for example, the owners kept telling her, whatever you do, don't even touch it Don't even look at it, don't even go near it And then the next day they came and picked it up and swooped it out of the house

Then there's the planter box where all the flowers kept dying So they thought, well maybe it's bad soil Let's take out all the soil and put in new soil But there was just this heavy layer of cement inside of the painter box She asked around tear neighbors. Do you guys know why someone would put cement in a painter box? I don't know that family's weird. I mean before you moved in they were just like digging holes and filling it with cement They were doing a lot of yard work before that and maybe they just had some extra cement Bizarre

Maybe they just add some extra cement. Bizarre. As always, full podcast notes are available at rottenmanglepodcast.com, but there is another podcast that I highly recommend you listen to. It's called In Your Own Backyard by Chris Lambert. This podcast has completely just blown the lid off of this case, kept it in the news, put pressure on the police, and is the reason why there's two arrests made when this case has been cold for decades This is one of those cases that got me started in true crime. Yes, we're talking about the Kristen smart case

This is intense she disappeared at Cal Poly Have we talked about I feel like I've briefly mentioned it But I don't I don't think I've ever done like a full you know deep dive on her case And this isn't really gonna be a deep dive If you want like the deepest dive of your life, listen to in your own backyard. It's absolutely insane. There's interviews. The police even credited him and was like, thank you to this podcast for bringing attention

to these details that we didn't even realize. I mean, insanity. Okay. So anyways, let's get into Kristen's smart. This is one of those cases. If you're into true crime It's gonna have been bothering you for years now and it's finally looking like it's gonna get solved But it's not solved. It's one of those things where it's solved but unsolved solved in public opinion where everyone's like

Well, we kind of know who did it But why weren't they arrested that doesn't make any sense? I mean, they are so guilty. What is going on? I don't know if that's more infuriating than just completely a cold case. I have no idea. Right. Because it almost makes you be like, listen, someone give me a badge. Let me just walk up in the police station and solve this myself. So, Kristen Smart, let's start with her childhood. She was born in West Germany to stand dad and Denise Smart. Now, these were teachers on a military base there. So these are all US citizens, right? They're just hanging out over there. She was a surprise for the parents. They didn't know that they could conceive.

I mean, they were absolutely ecstatic. And then they were even blessed with two more children, a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Lindsay. Now, Kristen was an amazing sister right off the bat. She wasn't one of those mean sisters. It's like, oh, I don't want to hang out with my younger siblings. Like, ill, don't follow me around.

If anything, she was the peacemaker between them. So if they all started finding she'd be like well hey guys why don't we try playing this game to loosen up that tension to get everyone you know on the same page again and eventually you know Stan and Denise were like let's go back to California let's go back to the United States raise our family there so they moved to California and just I mean everything about her childhood was so quintessential they would run lemonade stands she even taught all the neighborhood kids how to tie die shirts before it was like a tiktok trendy You know, yeah, it's like an old trend, okay? And then they would gather all the parents of rehearsed little skits in front of them

Kristen was so sweet for example She was babysitting for a neighbor once right and she's doing her little nails in the living room doing her toes And she had accidentally bumped into the little nail polish container and it spilt a little bit on the carpet and she approaches the neighbors. She doesn't try to hide it, she doesn't try to cover it up like a lot of kids do, she approaches the neighbors and just confesses everything and she's so apologetic. I mean, she was just such a polite person. I mean, if you want to talk about well-rounded, she was kind of the example of that in the sense of she even loved sports. Okay, I like can't relate, okay? So like she went on a cruise one day. She's super curious, okay?

She goes on a cruise with her family and the chef is making up omelets for that breakfast that free breakfast Everybody gets on the cruise. She's like, dang, you make the best omelets. She watches him. She studies him. Get's what? She comes back home from the cruise, makes the best omelets. And she was just really into traveling. I mean, during high school, she studied abroad in London, in Venezuela. That was where her heart was. But she was also smart. You're thinking, what can this girl not do? Listen, I don't know. Okay. She was later diagnosed with ADD, but didn't let that stop her. Not even one bit, ExcelDence School wanted to be an architect when she grew up. She even drew out plans to houses

that she wanted to build one day. Side note, everything about her sounds like super spontaneous, so adventurous, right? And this is important later. The thing is that Kristen was a bit of a planner. Like it didn't matter. Yes, she wanted to do these crazy activities. She wanted to have a good time.

She wanted to explore. She was curious, but she planned do these crazy activities. She wanted to have a good time. She wanted to explore. She was curious, but she planned everything to a tee. She planned all the sleepovers with friends. She organized activities for everyone. I mean, this was her jam. So after high school, she gets accepted into California Polytech, otherwise known as Cal Poly and she was, I mean, she was stoked. Especially the summer before heading off to campus. I mean, this is technically her last summer. She's like, I gotta be free before college, because after college, I gotta do internships, I gotta go to work, like it's gonna be a craziness.

So she gets her dream job as a lifeguard. You're like, what? Why is that a dream job? In Hawaii. Yeah, okay, so you live in Paradise. You work there, this is a dream mom, what do you think? And so Mrs. Smart was like, yeah, absolutely It's gonna be great. So she sends her off to Hawaii and she has the best time

She writes a poem about the experience and it says, I face into the wind it purrs and whistles It secrets into my air under the sun floating upon the salty waters. I cringe with excitement to be in such a heavenly place waters I cringe with excitement to be in such a heavenly place. One of her favorite quotes to live by was, Live Your Life to Be an exclamation rather than an explanation. So in college, she initially settles in really well. I mean, starts making a good amount of friends. They were drawn to her. She actually changed her major to study journalism.

Because she thought, you know, why don't I just travel the world? She got a job as a lifeguard, had to show up for work every single morning that she's working her shifts at five in the morning. So this is intense. So she would set her Casio stopwatch to 420 every single morning. Oh my gosh. So she could get ready and show up for her job on time. Now in college, she was trying to like find herself. You know, she went by many aliases, which honestly is super safe and smart. She would go to parties and introduce herself as, you know, hey, I'm Roxy.

I'm Trixi. I'm Mary Sol. I'm Kiana. She started dying her naturally blonde hair more of a brunette color, and it made her high cheekbones like stand out even more. Now, I mean, it's said by Kristen's family, though, that she never really liked getting attention for her appearance to begin with. So I mean, in college, I'm sure it's a little bit more amplified, because in college,

a lot of stuff happens. Now, on that same campus, there was someone the complete opposite of Kristen's smart, in his name, with Paul Flores. But that's not what people call him. They call him Scary Paul, Creepy Paul, and ultimately, Chester the Malester. Wait, is that a student? Yeah, they call, Chester the molester. Wait, that's a student? Yeah, they called him Chester the molester. That was his nickname on campus.

I mean, a real piece of work this one. He was always aggressively pursuing women on the campus. Super creepy! He would just follow you to your dorm, just like harassing you and you'd be like, what is your deal? Like, this is a campus filled with so many students. You could probably find a girlfriend

Like what are you doing? Why are you harassing me? I mean it was clear to everyone that this guy was just not a good time to be around A lot of people didn't know it at the time, but this guy has a crazy history Chester the molester Paul Flores in the eighth grade alone. He beat up a kid. Why they call him Chester? You know, I don't know. I think Chester the molester is probably based off of something. Oh, okay. It's gotta be. So in the eighth grade alone, he beat up a kid so badly. Just like punched him.

The kid had to be rushed to the hospital. So then the police and the doctors were like, well, this is an eighth grade fight. We probably shouldn't arrest Paul Flores because he's an eighth grade. But we're going to tell the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Flores, please take a seat. We think your child needs to take some therapy. Some anger management classes. Your kid needs to talk to someone. I'm just gonna put it point blank, right?

And they're like, yeah, we don't think he does. Like, thank you for your input, professionals, but we know more than you. And so they did not put him in anger management. They didn't, you know, get a therapist from nothing. He grew up just going deeper and deeper into this route. He would get little part time jobs in high school and during work, he would grow his female colleagues. Just would grow them and then would laugh it off

and say things like, I know you like it. They'd be like crying and he'd be like, well, you're just pretending to not like it because you're gonna like such a little attention whore. Yeah, I mean, think of misogyny bubbled up into the one one person the DNA of one male this was that dude he had the police called on him for being a peeping Paul a peeping Tom and in college he wasn't doing well so Kristen was struggling as well I think most freshmen do right but she was studying really hard I mean she had

this part time job but Paul he was failing most of his classes. The only credit that he got for his first semester was for the class called bowling. There's a bowling class. It's a pass or fail class. You don't really get a grade for it. He passed bowling. He had a point six GPA, zero point six GPA. What do you mean? Why did you just nod? Like like that's completely normal? That's not normal, okay? It's just not normal, okay now local police had a run in with him not too long ago at one in the morning drunk Paul was you know caught sneaking up to these dormitories balconies and refusing to leave from female students balconies What they didn't arrest the guy they were just like like, oh, you know, drunk college kids.

Go on, have fun. Just give him a little pat on the bat. Like, that was it. Then he was caught recklessly driving under the influence. And if you were to ask everyone, get every single person, other than his family, that had ever met Paul. Put them in a room and said, give me one word to describe this guy.

They would all say, annoying. Like that was just the only way to describe him. Just so annoying, never left people alone. Just obnoxious. Would harass women even in front of their boyfriends. And with the guys, you think he's completely normal with the guys? No, if he isn't a room full of guys, he would just sit there and nonstop bragging about, oh yeah, you wouldn't even believe

how much sex I've had. Snapsuits sex magnet this one, and so they all joked behind his back that Chester the Maloster was probably still the Virgin. So let's talk about May 24th. It was a Friday, the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, so at Cal Poly you had a lot of students packing up for the long weekend. They were going to go to parties out of state, go back home, enjoy it with their families and friends. Now, Kristen decided that she was going to stay on campus with a bunch of other people.

Now, her best friend at the time, and also happened to be on the same dorm level as her, was Margarita. So they're like, okay, well, let's, dry subs start looking for some parties on campus. So they put on their little clothes. She, Kristen decided that she's gonna leave her ID and wallet because, you know, they're not going to bars. She doesn't really need it. She doesn't want to lose it. And mainly it's parties on campus. She also had recently lost her room key. So she's like, well, what am I gonna do? Without me, like without my room key, I can't even enter the dorms unless I'm with someone who lives in the same dorm as me. And so thankfully, Shinn Margarita, Margaret was like, that's fine, I have my dorm key, right?

So they call up two other friends and the four of them start walking around campus. And there just wasn't that many parties. Because everybody had left, right? So they had gone to the first one, and I mean, I was boring. They were just watching like a bunch of dudes play, I think it was like probably like super smash bros or something crazy like that. They were just watching like a bunch of dudes play. I think it was like probably like super smash bros

or something crazy like that. They're just watching boys play video games with some beers, some lukewarm beers. That's the worst type of party. So then they're like, okay, let's go off campus. Because in the surrounding town, there's a lot of unofficial sororities and fraternities there. We can maybe go to like a flat house.

There are probably throwing some parties. One of the friends had a truck, so they all hop aboard and start driving around. I keep talking about summer. It's one of my favorite seasons. And I know this summer is extra special to us because we have a lot of plans. I mean, I have seen so many DMs. I've seen so many pictures all over the place of people enjoying life's little pleasures. You know, smiling, waving at your neighbors again, going to see a movie, perhaps, going to the beach, and don't forget, go into the post office.

Okay, yeah, that doesn't sound as exciting. It's probably an errand that you just have to add onto your list, and you're like, well, there's no way to avoid it. That's what you thought. But with stamps.com, you can skip trips to the post office and save on postage. If you guys don't know, stamps.com is honestly saved me so much time and money because they bring the same US Postal and UPS shipping services right to your computer.

I mean, it's insane. They have saved businesses thousands of hours and tons of money every single year. And you can mail and ship anytime, anywhere, right from your computer, send letters, ship packages, and you pay a lot less, like a whole lot less. You get discounted rates from USPS and UPS. You can print official US Postage and shipping labels 24-7 without having to leave your desk

or buy any fancy equipment. All you really need is your computer and your standard printer. Now, once your mail is ready, just schedule a pickup or drop it off. It's literally that simple. It's no brainer this summer, saving nearly one million small business owners

like you, time and money. They offer deals you can't get anywhere else, like up to 40% off USPS, and up to 66% off UPS shipping rates. And with their Switch and Save feature, you can quickly compare carriers to the best rates every single time. Stop wasting time going to the post office instead.

Co-watch a movie, relax with some friends, hit the pool and go to stamps.com instead. There's no risk with my promo code rotten. You get a special offer that includes a four week trial plus free postage and a digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts. Just go to stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in rotten. That's stamps.com click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in rotten that stamps.com promo code rotten stamps.com never go to the post office again

And That's when they come across a birthday party for a fat guy named swampy listen Where do you get these where do you first of all how do you find these men? Okay? Swampy and Chester the molester and where do these nicknames come from? I want to know the meaning behind swampy. What's your name? swampy I'm chestered the molester. We should be best friends We think we have a lot in common. No, how do you even get a nickname like that, right?

So they go to this unofficial fraternity house and Christian really wanted to go She's like, let's go inside. It looks like it's a crazy party. Come on, it's Memorial Day weekend. But her friends, they didn't want to go. They're like, listen, this fraternity is just known to have some like, rowdy parties. It's already pretty late. I just, I just want to go to bed, you know? I don't know. Like it just doesn't seem that fun. You know, fat guys are always a little weird. Let's just go home. And Kristen was like, well, I don't know, like it just doesn't seem that fun. You know, frat guys are always a little weird. Let's just go home. And Kristen was like, well, I don't really want to go in yet.

So Margarita gave her the dorm key and left with all of the other friends. So how does Margarita, Margarita, and other friends? Yeah, so I mean, she told her to be careful. Margarita still really mattered herself for not going in with her, but they didn't think anything of it because this is college and this isn't like she just left her at a bar. This is a fraternity house technically, well unofficial for a flat house. Now Kristen gets into the party and almost immediately all the witnesses say that she was acting strange, like she was on drugs.

What? Now here's the thing, Kristen doesn't do drugs. So this leads a lot of people to the suspicion that she was drugged very early on in the party. Because when she was with her friends, she was fine. She wasn't doing drugs, you know, she was enacting weird, and they reported that Kristen was acting flirtatious and highly active. Just bizarre, right? What's even stranger is a lot of witnesses at the party would later report that they never actually saw Kristen drinking. So there were some people saying, oh yeah, she was just downing Vod Kanon stop, right? But I mean they

would have their reasons to say something like that specifically the Frat Boys because they don't want their Frat House to get to get, you know what I mean, like they can get you know banned from the university, but a lot of the people said, I never even saw her with a drink. Like she wasn't drinking the whole night, but she was acting so strange. Again, that adds to the theory that she was probably drugged. But she was having a blast, right? Until incomes chest are the molester. And he starts hitting on her. She's kind of retreating. She doesn't want to be around him. I mean, it's hard to explain how this happened, but allegedly something had happened that led to Paul being on top of Kristen on the floor.

So people didn't know if he had pushed her down if he had fell on top of her like what was this scenario? But Kristen did not like it. She was not having it. This wasn't a good time like they weren't play fighting None of that. I mean she was like get off of me So you know all these people pull Chester the molest off of her and she decides okay I'm gonna stay away from this guy, right? So it goes into the bathroom. She's joined with another boy at the party. Now, this boy, she wasn't interested in him, right? She walks out. And so does this random guy. Let's say it's like a flat brother and bumps into Paul. The boy bumps into Paul. Yeah. And Paul was lurking around the bathroom

and is like, super pissed. What did you guys do in there? What did you guys do? He's like, whoa, chill, I didn't do anything. Like, the guy is like, oh, is this, you know, like super pissed. What did you guys do in there? What did you guys do? He's like whoa chill I didn't do anything like the guy is like oh is this you know that girl's boyfriend or something? I don't know. He's like I didn't do anything. What are you talking about? Literally, literally washing our hands to etna. And then all of a sudden Paul was like oh okay cool dude let's go and have a drink. Just bizarre. Other than those few strange instances everything seemed to be okay right 2 a.m. rolls around Tim Davis a senior at Cal Poly walks out and sees Kristen laying on the grass of the next door neighbor in outside the house in

public just in public next to the street yeah she's like super drunk she's out of it so he's like okay whoa I can't just leave her here so he's like hey you know what's your name Kristen okay let's get up and she just kept saying it's cold it's cold it's cold and he's like that's fine what's your dorm let me walk you to your dorm right he's trying to help her up then that's when another student Cheryl Anderson comes out and they decide that they're gonna help walk Kristen back to the dorms so these are nice people they did not know her personally but they had seen her around campus. So they knew that she was a student. They actually knew her as Roxy at this point, because that was the name she was giving out the party. And they're like, okay, let's go, let's go. They put her up on their shoulders, like they're like holding

her, like you would a drunk person in between two people. And as they start walking, someone comes up, the paw for us. Now it's stated that he was kind of lurking outside the house. Was he smoking? Was he- what was he doing? Getting fresher. And he's like, hey, let me walk with you guys too. You guys are walking back to campus? Yeah, um, sure.

He's like, oh, she can't walk here. Let me do it. So he puts his arm around Kristen and she's just kind of like limping back to campus with all of them. Now the whole time he's being an absolute creep, holding her up because she couldn't walk on her own, but it was almost like a hug than anything. Just not a way that you would do it for someone you barely knew. And they just thought it was a little bit weird.

So they start on that half mile walk back to campus and Tim Davis was the first to separate from the group. He had actually driven, his car was parked nearby and he was like, you know what, I'm just gonna drive in my car. Are you guys gonna be okay? And Paul is pretending to be this little savior, like, oh yeah, I'm doing more about a Tim, you know me,

I'm just gonna take her back to her dorm, get her home safe. Do they know Paul personally? No. They just know him as Paul, or maybe Chester the molester. Do they know the Chester the molester? So it's like, it's one of those things where people call him Chester the molester. Did they know the Chester the molester? So it's like, it's one of those things where people call him Chester the molester,

but I think that nobody genuinely thought that he was gonna commit crimes. That he's just a dude that's creepy, doesn't get social cues. Except for the very few people that have had, you know, filed police reports against him for being a peeping, you know, Paul, but those people weren't there. So he's pretending to be this little savior. He's just, you know, filed police reports against him for being a peeping, you know, Paul. But those people weren't there.

So he's pretending to be this little savior. He's just, you know, walking with Kristen. And back on campus, the first dorm hall was Sheryls. And then it would be Paul's and then Kristen's, right? In the direction that they're walking. So Sheryls, like, hey, are you guys okay? I mean, I can totally walk Kristen back. If you need me to, like, Paul, you can leave.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, like, I got it. But before you go, Sheryl, why don't you give me to like Paul you can leave and he's like no no no no like I got it But before you go Cheryl why don't you give me a kiss So she's like what are you talking about? I don't even know you like you're nasty no and he goes well What about a hug meanwhile? I mean he is literally supporting Kristen up because she can't walk and he's trying to make out with Cheryl So she's like oh god, this is so creepy. So she runs into her dorm like, oh, creepy dude, right? But she again still did not think that he was capable of doing something that malicious. Because they didn't even look like they knew each other. So now we really only have Paul's side of the story. And he claims that Kristen was stable enough to walk on her own miraculously,

you know, just within a hundred yards, not even, she's just so bird-right up, maybe it's a fresh air. She decided to walk to her dorm by herself and he parted ways, he went straight into his dorm. Now the next day comes around. Nobody can get in contact with Kristen. Her roommates, her best friends, I mean they're confused, yeah, I mean this is what they said. Yeah, I mean we party a lot, but we never not make it back. Like, we're just not the type,

like, Kristen's not the type to just like crash at random people's places. She always makes it back to her dorm. It just doesn't make sense. On top of that, Kristen had this red backpack. That was like her signature. Okay, she wore this red backpack everywhere. It was her iconic look,

but it was left inside the dorms with her ID, her wallet. So they're like, we gotta report it to the campus police. We gotta do something. They go to the campus police. Well, she's probably on vacation with friends. What? It's a holiday weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend. Yeah, but she left her ID in her wallet. Wouldn't don't you think that she would take that? Yeah, you know, kids. If you're talking about college disappearances, none of them are ever gonna be straight forward. None of them are ever gonna be like, oh, was she just vanished and the coffee table was upturned, you know? It's like college kids, they live a very different life and if you treat them like just 50 year old women,

like it's not gonna be the same. They're like, no, she wouldn't leave without her red backpack, but the campus police refused to call the local police. So they're like, okay, we're gonna call the local police. They call up the local police. They're like, it hasn't been 48 hours. We don't care either. Like, what do we do? So they tell Kristen's family and immediately they start freaking out because they

know Kristen. This is their daughter. This is their baby. Okay. They know her. She would never do this. She talks to her mom every single Sunday and she gives her the low down.

She's like, this weekend, I'm doing this. You know, I'm excited for this. What are you talking about? So they call the local police and they say well you got to talk to Cal Poly about it They even called the FBI and they said we know you got to talk to the campus police about it So the campus police now they're being you know not harassed But they're being questioned by the family, by the friends, by all of these other departments, and they even went as far to victim blame Kristen in an incident report. They said, and I quote, Kristen doesn't have a lot of friends at Cal Poly. She was drunk on Friday night talking with and socializing with several different males

at a party. Like, it's just ridiculous. Why would they, why would you even put that in your incident report? Would it have been different if she was talking to different females? Are they trying to insinuate some things? The only thing I'm getting out of that insinuation is that men are dangerous, no? Like, that doesn't make me, yeah, I don't get it. That doesn't make me feel like, oh, well then of course, Christian disappeared. It's like, what? What are you saying?

So it would be a full week, a full week, before the campus police decide to interview any of the key crucial people. Tim Davis, Shale Anderson, and Paul Flores. Now here's the crazy thing. When they get in Paul Flores, he had a black eye. Well, what happened to your eye, Paul? What's going on there?

Oh, you know just uh woke up with a black eye. I Think I got it playing basketball with a friend. I remember that he had elbowed me once in the face. Oh, yeah, what's your friend's name? My friends say Jeremy Moon Okay cool cool cool. So they ask Jeremy Moon because they're like the you know the campus police finally want to do something And he's like, y'all know I didn't give him a black eye like if I I would remember if I did I was so embarrassed to tell the police says, you know, you guys are these big, macho people. And I was trying to put in a new stereo on my truck and I'd hit my eye on the steering wheel. So you know how the stereo is like in the center console. So we can assume that he was in the driver's seat

trying to put in the new stereo, but his black eye was on the right side of his eye, his bright eye. So how, and then like a steering wheel, it's not like it protrudes out. Like, if you were to say maybe like a, like a handle. Or like a shifting gear. Yeah, like that would make more sense, but a steering wheel is round.

So it'd be really difficult to give yourself a black eye like that. But he says, yeah, I was embarrassed to tell you guys the truth. That's how I got the black eye. Now, what did the police do? They don't even take pictures of his eye. They don't even take pictures for future reference. The only reason that we have a picture of his slightly healed black eye is because he was arrested for something else later. For like, I believe something to do with traffic tickets. He didn't show up

to court. Wow. Yeah. So they asked him, do you know Kristen Smart? Um, didn't really ring a bell. I barely know her. You know, I just helped her home. That's about it. Never interested in her. Just, you know, that's it. Well, what do you think happened to Kristen Smart? Well, I think she's dead. What?

After a week that she's got missing. Yeah. And he's like, well, I gotta go guys. Please, like, where do you have to go? Like, we know, like, we can give you a note for your classes, well, I gotta go guys. Please, please, where do you have to go? Like we know, like we can give you a note for your classes, your talking to the police. Where do you have to go, Mr. 0.6 GPA? So like you're rushing to organizations

and meetings and classes to the library. He's like, no, no, I gotta go to my mom's house to clean up something. Oh yeah, what are you cleaning up? Concrete? You cleaning up concrete. Oh yeah, what are you cleaning up? Concrete? You're cleaning up concrete. Yeah, we're working on like a project. Okay, were you afraid to go? Dude, this is like the worst criminal to be interviewed. If he's the worst criminal to be interviewed, what does that say about the police?

Exactly. Okay, yeah, have a good time. Tell your mom we said hello. They just let him go. Are these the campus police? Yeah. And so they don't want, they don't even listen to true crime podcasts. Do they? I mean, do you even watch criminal minds one episode of law in order and you would be better equipped than these campus police. Yeah, feels like it feels like to me, she doesn't even know how to properly lie.

Yeah. I might even trust mall security more than them. Because mall security sometimes they do be really, really scary, okay? Like, I'm not taking anything. Please, leave me alone. Yeah, they're wild. Breaking News, this important PSA is brought to you by ManScape.com and my fiance because if there's one thing that this guy is going to rave about, it's ManScape products. I'm telling you, this is your pubic service announcement and the news that every single one of you have been waiting for. The ManScape Dengeneering team has confirmed that they have successfully created the lawnmower 4.0 trimmer, which is also now available for purchase in Singapore. So that's really cool.

This new trimmer was just released only a moment ago, and we are one of the first to get our hands on it to share the news. So you can actually join over 2 million men worldwide who trust Manscaved with their balls, with this exclusive offer just for you. 20% with the code rotten at man'scaped.com Okay, so I'm one of the first people to try the 4.0 and I'm honestly blowing away Pun intended and the craftsmanship and the details on this device is Honestly next level. How do your balls feel?

Feels like it's in good hands. Do they feel as safe as possible? Could it be? Could it be their advanced ceramic blade and that skin safe technology? That's so good! That makes you feel like, you know what? I can see everything down there. Or maybe?

Maybe it's Llanmo or 4.0 gives you the ability to turn on that 4,000K LED spotlight on and off when needed for a more precise shape. Has that come in handy? I mean, it helps since I'm getting out. Well, it has this new multi-function on and off switch that can engage a travel lock, which is great for people that love to travel. The new trimmer even allows you to customize your trim all over through additional guard

lengths with sizes 1 through 4. And looks wise, it's really sleek. I mean, it's really sleek. I mean, it's got this like two toned mat and gloss finish that even features a hot foil stamped black chrome man-scaped logo. Show that mower off, loud and proud, okay? It's also waterproof, which comes in handy

because sometimes, yeah, he do be in the shower grooming. He also loves the fact that it's wireless charging. Just makes it, you know, the battery lasts longer. So if you're in a pinch, you don't have to pinch anything down there. And this is a side note. This is an expose on my fiancee and every other person out there that might be doing this. If you're still trimming your face with your ball trimmer, it's time to upgrade.

Okay? Nobody wants to end up with pubes in their mouth or mouth hairs on their balls, you know? And your balls will thank you. Get 20% off with the co-rotonatmanskabe.com. That's 20% off at menskabe.com, use co-roton. Unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with menskabe. So they just let them go.

So the family, the friends, they get a small group of volunteers, they put up flyers all around the campus, and it would be a full month, one whole month before they actually conduct a massive search on the campus. And at first it was just the campus police, they're like, okay, we're going to do this search, but they realize that they can't do it alone, gets the local police department involved, and everyone was just so confused. Even Paul's friends were confused. So for example, one of them had seen Paul the day after the party and he had a black eye.

So this shows that he had gotten it literally the day after the party and not, you know, a couple days after, because he was an interviewed for like a week, and they said, well, what happened? Oh, I just woke up with it. That's really kept saying. The police interview Paul's roommate, and they said, tell us about Paul. Oh, you know, Paul, whenever you get strong, he's just unbearable. I wasn't home all weekend because it was the holiday weekend,

Memorial Day weekend, and he knew that I was gone. So if Paul had any premeditated plans or spontaneous plans to do something, I mean, he had no alibi, this was the perfect opportunity. The roommate also stated that he jokingly asked Paul what he did with Kristen because he was like, oh, yeah You said you went to that party and you walked Kristen home. You told me that and now Kristen's missing. Ha ha What'd you do to him or would you do to her like a joke? Yeah, and Paul Flora says and I quote Oh, she sent my mom's place. Ha ha

So police know this information. Yeah, so he but the the roommate is saying oh I think he was like joking and the police like yeah we're like dating and she's meeting the parents and hanging out with them now I cannot just bizarre so the police bring him in to hook him up to a polygraph finally right there like let's you know put you on a lie detector and he's super chill. Like, oh, yeah, hook me up. And then they actually do. And he starts freaking out. He's like, I didn't know you guys were serious. They start asking him questions. He would put his arms inside of his t-shirt, like, you know, like a child would

usually, or when you're cold, he would hunch over, lift his feet onto his chair, just pretty much in a fetal position on a chair. And at the end, they kept just badgering him and he ended with this. If you're so smart to the police, why don't you tell me where the body is? Um, what? At this point, this is still a missing person's investigation. This is not a missing body recovery process. Yeah.

I mean, well, it kind of is, but it's mainly a missing person's investigation. So they searched the whole campus, they searched his dorm room, and at this point he had already moved out because it was end of the semester. So the staff in the dorm even cleaned his dorm room. Because, you know, they come in, they make sure it's ready for the next semester. Dogs start barking. The K-9 dogs at the handlers' spot and start barking in his dorm. I mean, the handler said, the dogs neck just about broke.

Just whipped around and was like barking at the door. And it was Paul Flores' place. They open it up. She starts barking specifically at his mattress and the bed frame and the window. Now he lives on the ground floor. This is really important, okay? So I mean the ground floor window of his dorm, there's no window screen or it could be easily taken off.

You can actually drive up to it with a truck if you wanted. So the dogs search around the campus, they brought in ground penetrating radars, they couldn't find Kristen's body anywhere, but everyone knew something fishy was going on. She didn't run away, she didn't go on vacation, she was taken, there was foul play. So the whole theory about what Paul florist

Dead is that he dragged Kristen back into his dorm and She would not have wanted this she was also too drunk to consent any of these decisions where he either killed her in an attempted rape or rape Now Paul's family becomes important the florist family because his dad also gets arrested this year Yeah, his sister lived nearby a mile from campus, you could easily run there, you could easily bike there, and Paul would go over frequently to borrow her cars, her truck sometimes. Now, the truck is important, like I said, because Paul's dorm is on the first floor. There's a window that's a few feet off the ground about the same height as a truck bed, so you

could easily drive that truck up to the window and place something into the back of it and drive off without going through the lobby of the dorm. So are police thinking about these things? Yeah, so a possible theory is that you know there were also phone records that Paul called his dad Ruben really late at night that night. Yeah, Ruben Flores Paul's dad was called that night. Nobody could say for sure what they talked about but it seems like maybe he asked his dad for help. Maybe his dad knew what happened. Wanted to protect his son, the rapist slash murderer, and was like, okay, let me come. So with this, the police decide, okay, well we got to search the parent's house. Now at this point, this is where you're going

to be so pissed off, okay? Paul's parents, dad, Ruben Flores, mom, Susan Flores, they were in the middle of like a separation slash like, couple of crucial months, they didn't even search Susan's place. How do you not know something like this? I mean, okay. For normal people, maybe you're like, you assume a whole family is together. So you don't have to be so close to the house. So they have no clue there's another house. For the first couple of months.

For the first couple of crucial months, they didn't even search Susan's place. How do you not know something like this? I mean, okay. For normal people, maybe you're like, you assume a whole family's together. But... But the police? Yeah. Okay, you say normal people, but I assume. I assume.

Let's say you're thinking about dating Ruben Flores. No. Mm-mm. Me and my friends, we could have Facebooked this information in 0.2 seconds. Yeah, that's true. I have no friends, so just would just be me and the dogs. But, you know, you could totally, easily Instagram, silo, I mean, everything.

And the police were like, well, logically, it must just be this one place. So they searched the place. They just, I mean, if you were to walk in on the police searching group and floor, it's this place. I imagine it would look something like an open house. They didn't bring dogs. They didn't bring any equipment.

They just kind of poked around. Now, Ruben Flores' house has two acres of land behind in his backyard, filled with avocado trees. Did they search there? Did they bring dogs to efficiently search back there? Nope. They didn't even investigate that area. I'm sorry. If I had a house with two acres of avocado trees and for whatever reason I had a barrier body, legally I'm joking, it'd probably be with the avocado trees. It wouldn't be right in my backyard next to my pool, you know?

But I don't even do it. They did find newspaper clippings of Kristen's disappearance under the mattresses in the house. Um, what? But they said, well, that's not really a crime. So they thought, well, let's search the family trucks that could have been used. There were two trucks that were suspicious to the police. One of them was reported stolen, and another one was traded in for another truck. And they couldn't find either of them?

No. So at this point, I mean, the case kind of goes cold for a little while. traded in for another truck. And they couldn't find either of them? No. So at this point, I mean the case kind of goes cold for a little while. And people even thought, well maybe because the police should do their job, maybe it's not Paul for us. So the internet came up with like other possible, you know, perpetrators of the crime. Scott Peterson. Yeah, the one who killed his pregnant beautiful wife, Lacey Peterson, he was considered a suspect. Because when Kristen was a freshman, they were seniors at Cal

Poly. So they thought, well maybe this guy's just killing people before he killed his wife. But there is no evidence to suggest that they even cross paths. You know, the timelines just make sense. Meanwhile, Susan decides, well, Ruben, why don't we try getting back together? Okay, so she rents out her house to a couple. Well, the woman was named Mary Lasseter. They knew her already and she was stoked for her new place.

Susan is trying to reconcile with Ruben, so she's like, oh, this is wonderful. Like I'm helping in this family rekindling. She just thought it was a little bit strange because the day that she moved in, Susan told them, no matter what, don't check the big trash can that's on the property. Don't touch it, don't move it, don't sniff it, just don't be around it. Okay, that's a little weird. I mean, you could just tell me if it's smelly, you know,

but what is this protectiveness over trash, I assume? And so, okay, but the next day, Ruben came to pick it up before she could investigate. Then they had these planters, the couples start planning flowers. Flowers keep dying. They're like, what? I mean, we've got a green thumb. Usually our flowers are flourishing. I don't understand. So they decide to replace the whole soil of the plant bed, realize that there's just a big layer of concrete underneath it. That's strange. So they tell a neighbor, like, I mean, is there any reason people would put concrete in a plant bed? Like, that's weird, right? And the neighbors like, oh, no, they were probably doing tons of construction. Before you guys moved in,

they were like digging holes in the middle of the night. Okay, listen, I know Drew Klein podcast like didn't exist back then, but I just think that if I saw my neighbor's digging holes in the middle of the night, okay, like maybe daytime I wouldn't question it as much middle of the night. What do you do? I would call the police Yeah Oh, you're gonna be that Karen just because someone is planting a tree in the middle of the night. I mean Based on what are you gonna say based on patterns? Let's say our next-door neighbor first of all He's like 70. I've never seen him up past 8 p.m.

If he suddenly starts waking up at 2 in the morning and suddenly I'll see his 70-year-old wife no more, oh my god, maybe she died. I don't know. But you know, I'd be like, oh, okay, this is spousal murder and I gotta investigate. And they're like, what did they do? What a hole did they, you know, dig? Well, they started filling it in with concrete. You know that little outdoor garage that you guys have?

Yeah, that's what they made on top of it That's so weird We were we did digged and then they filled it with cement So if they turn soils into outdoor parking space? Yeah Wow, okay. They're like, oh, that's a little weird and one of the neighbors even torn Mary I recall seeing them throw in something that looked like a rolled up rug. Okay, normally I'm really understanding of neighbors

and not wanting to get involved, but I'm telling you if I saw my neighbor do this. I'm not doing something about it, okay? So they're like, yeah, it was just so weird. And Mary's like, oh, that is weird. And then they get to talking. Do you guys hear that too? Every morning at 4.20 in the morning, something is beeping.

I mean, I'm losing my mind in this house. I thought it was an alarm clock inside the house. Do you guys hear it in the neighbors? Like, yes, we've been waking up to a two. It's been driving us nuts. It sounds like literally a stopwatch. It doesn't sound like just a car or anything. It sounds like a stopwatch. You know, it doesn't sound like just a car or anything. It sounds like a stopwatch.

Yeah! But eventually it stopped. It seemed like the battery had died out. They didn't try to find it where it came from. They did, but they couldn't find it before it stopped. Are you telling me it's coming from underground? Probably, or in the planter box. That's crazy.

So with all of this, with reading the news that the Flores family are, you know, people of interest in the disappearance of Kristen Smart at Cal Poly, the couple find a very interesting earring on the driveway. It had a mark on it that looked like dried blood. The couple is the new renter. Yeah, okay. The tenants they find, you know, an earring on the driveway. Looks like it had a dried blood on it. They kept the earring and eventually turned it over to the police and this part is going

to piss you off. The police lost the earring. Before Kristen's family could even confirm her idea. I don't even know how. I mean, Mary kept it in a Ziploc bag. She was playing CSI by herself. She probably picked it up with tongs, put it in a plastic bag, he kept it there as evidence, and the police were like, oh yeah, let me take it. And just lost it. I'm getting so many angry. I mean at this point it almost seems like it's Paul Flores, like the

son of a politician, because in my mind that would make more more sense, right? But this guy is just a creep. Not saying that that's excusable or that they should get away with it, but the world is just a really nasty place sometimes where rich and powerful people get away with things. And maybe my brain would somewhat wrap its head around it better. But the fact that the police just lost the earring, right? So the Mary went out and tried to find an earring exactly like the one that she found.

She found one very similar to it, showed it to Kristen's family, and Kristen has a picture where she's wearing something that looks very similar around her neck. So maybe it wasn't an earring, but it was more of like a pendant, or maybe she had matching pendant and earrings. And so now the public is like, well, police, do you want to talk about this? Because then we got to arrest the florist, right? And the police said, no, Mary's confused. That's not what the earring looked like at all.

They're like, she doesn't even know what she's talking about. Do you even know what you're talking about? You're the one that lost the earring police department? What's going on? It's 2021, guys. we've hit that time. I don't know why science hasn't taken us there yet. But why do shoes have to either be cute or comfortable? Why can't it be both? Why can't it be cute and comfortable?

And that has been the shoe that I've been looking all over the place for and I think I finally found it. Have you guys heard of Rothys? Oh my gosh your feet are gonna thank me. The minute that you slip your feet into a pair of Rothy's, it's like just angelic noises erupt. So Rothy has surveyed thousands of customers and the number one word that they use to describe

Rothy's shoes is comfortable, comfy. What makes them so good, you ask? Well, they have this unique seamless design that is insanely comfortable, the moment that you put them on, and in fact comfortable eight hours later. Their fan favorite styles are sustainably made with materials like plastic water bottles

and they're fully machine washable. They also come in tons of shapes, styles, and colors so you can always find the one that's right for you. They have best sellers like flats, loafers, sneakers. So I wear my sneakers practically every day, recently during the summer, but those flats, I mean, these would have come in handy when I was working, okay?

I would wear the most uncomfortable flats that were just horrendous, but Rothee flats, I mean, I could work a nine hour shift in these, no problem. They have sandals, they have an array of colors to shoes made for exploring their newest styles have you covered, right? And it's so good in fact that I've been raving about them for so long, my fiance is like, okay, well if they don't have a men's section, why don't I just try to find like my woman's size, get a pair, because I want some comfortable shoes too. Well guess what, Rathi has newly launched men's shoes that are intentionally

designed with an artisanal level of detail and created with nearly zero waste. They're durable, they're washable and better for the planet. My fiance just likes to run through the mud, okay? He likes to run through the streets. He's a crazy guy sometimes, and all we have to do is just throw it in the wash, tumble-tumble, that's it. And wash after wash. I have never once heard of complaint, he says it's still a perfect fit.

If you guys are like me and you absolutely love the feeling of walking on clouds, okay, their sneakers are my favorite. But if you were working, flat, their best selling shoes called the Point in Black and it has over 5,000 near perfect reviews. Trust me. So step up your summer wardrobe with washable, sustainable, stylish shoes and bags from Rothy's. Head to Rothy's.com slash mango to find your new warm weather favorites today. That's ROTHYS.com slash mango. So finally, the police claimed to have gone back to Susan's place and searched the back with a ground penetrating radar, but they did not feel the need to dig up the place.

Because if they dig up the place and there is no body, they would have to pay for redoing it. Are you kidding me? Yeah. So then this caused a lot of civil suits between the two families. So the smart family had sued the Flores family for unlawful death.

And Paul came in for the deposition because Paul Flores has to go to the deposition right he comes in with his attorney and pled the fifth amendment 27 times he wouldn't even tell them who his family members were they were like is you know your dad Ruben Flores he's like I plead the fifth I guess that was his best option man just don't say anything and then the Flores family sued the smarts for emotional distress. They sued the smart family for emotional distress. Just let that sink in.

Now at this point, Susan's like, all right, renters, you got to get out of here. We're evicting you because you're working with the police. We don't like this. They get out of there. The police start excavating parts of the campus, bringing in radars to the house, but at the same time, why don't you just dig through the ground, okay? Like, I mean, people were even donating. Because they're like, oh, yeah, police department, money is what you need.

The community will come together to pay for the freaking repairs if you need to repair it because you don't find Christen. Like, we will help you. But they're like, nah, money. I feel like they spent a lot of money on stuff. Yeah. How much does a little driveway concrete floor gonna cost?

Yeah, and I mean, they spent so much money paying the salaries of completely incompetent people because these are some of the most incompetent cops I've ever read about, like what? So then around 2019, Chris Lambert started a podcast called In Your Own Backyard. And he started it because he was driving

by these billboards of Chris in which the family had raised money to keep her name, you know, on these billboards. It had been decades and decided, you know what? This is what, this isn't even a cold case. It's not one of those cold cases where it's like, we don't have suspects. How are we gonna solve it? This is insane.

Yeah, this is like a case that we kind of know who did it yeah just the cop doesn't want to put in the effort I just don't understand so he starts talking interviewing people who the police didn't even interview because he didn't think that they had valuable information such as other students that were on campus that night that saw Kristen walking into Paul's dorm. Like into that lobby. So I mean like, come on. Finally, because it's getting so much media attention, you know, I mean, Chris Lambert

is amazing. He's honestly a goal for probably every true crime podcast. Like, this is insane. Police decide, okay, we have to execute searches on the house of Paul Ruben Susan and Paul Sister's house, finally after like 20 years. Because of a podcast, because this podcast was stirring up so much heat, there was so much just pressure on the police of, how can you not? How can you not do this?

What's going on? They go in, they search the place, and the police stated that they found items of interest. Their new belief is that Kristen was briefly buried under the deck of Rubens House, the Dad's House, then later moved to Susan's house, and they believe that she has recently again since moved. Been moved. They seized a lot of electronics from Paul Flores allegedly consisted of rape porn and homemade videos where date rape drugs were administered and Paul had been what they called a long-time sexual predator.

Allegedly there was a hard drive with a folder called practice where a lot of these homemade alleged rape videos were under. So he's been raping people? Yes. So I believe there's about 30 women who have raised accusations of sexual misconduct against Paul ranging from like his college days to even after college because like 20 something years have passed. Yeah. He's been doing this for 20 years.

Yeah. So finally, in 2021, both Paul, Flores and Dad were arrested. Paul was 44 years old, Ruben was 80 years old, finally. I mean, this kid was a college student. Under what? For Paul was for murder, and Ruben was accessory after the fact. 2021, you said this year? Yeah.

Kristen was formally pronounced dead. The hope is to give her a proper burial. They did hold a funeral. Other families of kidnapping victims showed up to show their support to the smart family. Wait, so this is when they finally pronounced before? No, before this, yeah. And the governor of California also signed into law the Kristen Smart Campus Security Act. So this means that in California, the state of California,

campus security can't just not do something. It says that they have to have agreements in place with the local police department on how and when. So an actual procedure of how many hours have to pass. When do we report cases to you so that it's not the decision of whoever is working on the campus police department that day? It also means that they have to report any cases like this that might include any violence or just missing students. Yeah, because I mean...

What did you mean? Yeah, it seems standard, but now it has been signed into law, and I'm sure that this is going to benefit a ton of students. We're still waiting on the trial. The civil lawsuits have not been dropped, the wrongful death suit, and then the emotional distress suit, that sham of a lawsuit. They're going to be on pause until the trial is over. I believe the preliminary hearing for the trial was just a few days ago, and it's going to be 12 days long, started on August 2nd. So we should know more that.

So like, there's like this huge gap of what was Paul Flore is doing, what was his childhood like, what, you know, all of these other things that I think are going to be exposed during the trial. So we're just going to have to wait and see. I just cannot believe this. Yeah, I don't really do a lot of unsolved cases on here because I get it, people get so frustrated. But this is like, I have been following this case for years now and I've just been getting more and more frustrated

and I think it's finally bubbled over. and I just like want to scream at someone. Yeah, I mean go listen to In Your Own Backyard by Chris Lambert, such a good podcast, the deepest dive that you will get on this case and you're probably going to get more angry so just be warned okay but it's a must listen and I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini-sode and I'll see you on Wednesday. Bye! okay but it's it's a must listen and I hope you guys enjoyed this week's mini soad and I'll see you on Wednesday bye