Dead And Buried: A True Story Of Serial Rape And Murder. Corey Mitchell
He laughed as he told his friends that he was embarrassed that he did not know how it got there, so he had to make up something.
One month after the disappearance of Kristin Smart, the case switched hands from the Cal Poly campus police to the San Luis Obispo Police Department and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department. Former San Luis Obispo sheriffEdward Williams immediately pegged Flores as the main suspect in her disappearance and began a full-scale investigationinto the young man.
Unfortunately, for the police, Flores hired an attorney and refused to speak to anyone about Kristin Smart. Despite Flores’santagonistic stance, Sheriff Williams was able to conduct a search of Flores’s dorm room. The only problem was that Flores had moved out over two months earlier and had thoroughlycleaned his room up in the process. Despite the cleaning, the sheriff’s three cadaver-sniffing dogs made a direct beeline for Flores’s dorm room. The dogs were having a field day in Flores’s old room. They bounced up and down all over the young man’s mattress, which was property of the school; therefore, it remained in the room. Unfortunately, no specific physical evidence was located.
Soon thereafter, Paul Flores dropped out of college.
His headaches were only beginning.
The Smarts began a relentless campaign to get Paul Flores to speak. They believed that he was the key to the whereaboutsof their daughter. They did everything in their power to get him to come forward and, if not confess, at least tell them what he knew about Kristin’s final moments. Their pressurecampaign consisted of sending out photo collages of Kristin to Flores’s parents, grandparents, and other relatives. The collages showed their daughter enjoying the sun, laying out at the beach, or enjoying the water with her friends. They were images of a typical gorgeous California girl, and they believed Paul Flores had a hand in her potential demise. Friends of the Smart family would also send postcards to members of Flores’s family asking them why their son would not speak with authorities. The Smarts wanted to make sure that the Flores family knew their son was the main suspect.
The Smarts indicated that the envelopes always came back to them—open. They at least knew that the Flores family was getting the message.
The Smarts, frustrated by Paul Flores’s refusal to speak, decided to pay him a visit. They traveled to a Central Californiagas station, where he worked. Their intentions were honorable; they just wanted him to help them find their daughter. According to sources, however, Flores hid in the back of the gas station and refused to speak to the bereaved family.
The Smarts made sure Paul Flores knew someone had their eye on him at all times. Private investigators volunteered their services to the family to track Flores down wherever he relocated.He eventually ended up in Southern California.
In Irvine.
Where Rachel Newhouse grew up.
The private investigators were able to find out where Flores sought employment. Anytime a potential employer encountered Paul Flores, they also received a packet of newspaper clippings from the Smarts that detailed Flores’s potential involvement in her disappearance. If they could not get the packet to the companies before they hired him, they usually received it soon thereafter. Most times, the resultwas the same: Paul Flores was not hired, or if he already had the job, he was asked for an explanation. Usually, they asked him to leave. He lost jobs at a video store, a fast-food hamburger restaurant, and Outback Steakhouse.
Frustrated, Paul Flores tried to join the U.S. Navy. The Smarts were right behind him with their packet of information.The navy refused to accept the wayward youth.
Later in 1996, the Smart family sued Paul Flores in civil court. Once again, the purpose was to force him to talk. Flores,however, remained silent by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, and the family eventually dropped the lawsuit.
The entire incident not only left the Smarts devastated, but the Flores family was shattered as well. According to sources, Flores’s parents could no longer handle the strain of their son as a suspect in an abduction, or even murder case. Ruben and Susan Flores eventually divorced because of their son’s situation,among other problems they experienced.
Curiously, despite the hardship the Smarts have caused him, Paul Flores has never sued the family. He has also never asked for a restraining order against them.
When they realized they could not corral Paul Flores, the Smarts turned to the local police. Their frustration with the authorities,however, was apparent from the beginning. They did not understand why it took the campus police a month before they requested the services of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department. They were outraged when the sheriff’s department took forever to search Flores’s room, long after he vacated the premises. They were also upset that the sheriff failed to test any of Flores’s items from the room for DNA evidence. This could have included the mattress and any hairs, scabs, skin flakes, and other potential DNA evidence left in the room.
The Smarts decided to turn to higher authorities: the FederalBureau of Investigation, as well as Janet Reno, the United States Attorney General. They wanted someone on their daughter’s case.
They needed to find her.
The Smarts took charge of the search for their daughter by running a full-court press on the media. They were able to get Kristin’s name and face out to millions of viewers by making numerous appearances on shows such as 20/20, Sally, Inside Edition, and America’s Most Wanted. They even visited a psychicfor a show on the Sci-Fi Channel called Sightings.
The Smarts feared that the case would simply languish, so they contacted a family friend, California State Senator Mike Thompson, St. Helena, Democrat, who was eager to lend a hand. Senator Thompson immediately drafted legislation that would require campus police departments and local law officialsto draw up written agreements as to who would handle homicides and other violent crimes in their overlapping jurisdictions.The bill would act as a response to the monthlong lag time between Kristin’s disappearance and the time the sheriff’sdepartment officially got involved in her search. Willie Guerrero, a spokesman for Senator Thompson, stated that the law creates a “minimum threshold” between law enforcement agencies and how they should handle the investigations of violent crimes on California’s college campuses.
Governor Pete Wilson signed House Assembly Bill (SB) 1729 on August 11, 1998. It is better known as the Kristin Smart Campus Safety Act.
FOUR
With Kristin Smart’s disappearance fresh in their minds, the police wasted no time in attempting to find Rachel Newhouse.Indeed, it seemed as if the entire 43,000-person community of San Luis Obispo was on alert.
Members of the community welcomed Rachel’s family, includingher father, Phillip, her mother, Montel, her brother Travis, twenty-two, her sister, Ashley, nineteen, and her uncle Peter Morreale, a defense attorney from Riverside, California.Morreale acted as spokesperson and expressed the family’s gratitude to the warm people of San Luis Obispo who took them in, fed them, and attempted to comfort the Newhouse clan as the investigation was under way. Morreale informed the press, “Phil and Montel are very appreciative. They don’t feel like strangers up there.”
It was an easy time to feel uncomfortable as the search for Rachel continued. On Wednesday, November 18, another shock occurred in the community. A local resident, Richard Wall, was shot and killed less than one mile away from Cal Poly. The seemingly safe bastion of San Luis Obispo seemed to be under arrest.
Fear and panic soon began to take over.
Cal Poly senior Malia McKee expressed that “no way will I walk home at night.” McKee vividly recalled Kristin Smart’s disappearance and how “it really scared us, but it wore off.”
Architecture major Julie Bebeikin talked about her late nights on campus. She said that some nights she would not leave until 2:00 A.M. and that “I feel like I’m in a complete ghost town.” She even carried an X-ACTO knife for protection.
Sharon Perkins, coordinator of the Cal Poly “Take Back the Night” program, an annual campus gathering to foster awarenessabout violence