Kristin Smart - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Kristin Denise Smart is an American missing person

Missing person

A missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....

. She went missing on May 25, 1996 while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and has not been heard from since.

Disappearance

The night Smart disappeared, she attended a birthday party of a fellow student, which fell on Memorial Day weekend. At approximately 2:00 a.m., she was found passed out on the lawn of the next door house by two students, Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, leaving the party. They decided to assist her home and walked her part of the way until another student from the party, Paul Flores, joined their group. Flores' dormitory was closer to Smart's, whereas Anderson and Davis lived off campus in the opposite direction, so Flores offered to walk her the remainder of the way, allowing them to more conveniently go their separate ways. Flores walked Smart as far as his dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, and claims he left her to walk the rest of the way, approximately 50 yards, to her dormitory, Muir Hall, by herself. This was the last known sighting of her. She did not have any money or credit cards at the time she went missing.

Official Investigation

The campus police originally suspected that Smart had gone on an unannounced vacation, as was common among students over the holidays. It was because of this that the campus police were slow at reporting her as a missing person to local law enforcement.

During the high profile Laci Peterson

Laci Peterson

Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman who was the subject of a highly discussed murder case after she went missing while seven and a half months pregnant with her first child. Peterson was reportedly last seen alive on December 24, 2002...

murder investigation

Criminal procedure

Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated criminal law.-Basic rights:Currently, in many countries with a democratic system and the rule of law, criminal procedure puts the burden of proof on the prosecution – that is, it is up to the...

, it came to investigators' attention that Peterson's husband Scott Peterson

Scott Peterson

Scott Lee Peterson , an American, was convicted of murdering his wife, Laci Peterson, and their unborn child in Modesto, California, in 2002. Peterson's arrest and subsequent trial dominated the American news media until 2005, when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection...

(since convicted for his wife's murder) attended California Polytechnic State University at the same time as Smart. There was a brief initial inquiry into whether Peterson had any involvement. He was on a list of individuals who detectives felt warranted closer investigation at the time; ultimately, however, it was suggested that Smart and Peterson never came into contact, and he was ruled out as a suspect. Peterson has publicly denied any involvement in the case.

Smart's disappearance remains essentially an unsolved case however, and no firmly proven explanation for her disappearance exists.

Legacy

Smart's disappearance resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act

Kristin Smart Campus Security Act

The Kristin Smart Campus Security Act of 1998 is a California state law of that came as a result of the disappearance of Kristin Smart. The law requires all public colleges, and other publicly-funded educational institutions to have their security services have agreements with local police...

being passed by the California State Legislature

California State Legislature

The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...

and signed into effect by then Governor of California

Governor of California

The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...

Pete Wilson

Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...

. The law required all colleges and educational institutions campus security to report all cases where there is a possibility that violence may have been used against a student of the institution to the local police force including all missing person's cases.

Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in May 2002. Smart's parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case

Civil law (common law)

Civil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...

of wrongful death against Paul Flores in 2005, but dropped it after Flores pleaded the fifth amendment

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office still reviews the case monthly. The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a local businessman and friend of the Smart family, has offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body.

In 2005, Paul Flores's mother Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville filed a lawsuit claiming loss of employment, harassment and emotional distress against Kristin Smart's parents and a family friend who operates a website tracking Flores.

Kristin Smart is not related to Elizabeth Smart

Elizabeth A. Smart

Elizabeth Ann Smart is an American female activist and contributor for ABC News. She first gained widespread attention at age 14 when she was kidnapped from her home and recovered nine months later.-Early life:...

, a Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

teen who was abducted

Elizabeth Smart kidnapping

The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart occurred on June 5, 2002, when 14-year-old American girl Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her Salt Lake City, Utah, bedroom...

in June 2002 and found alive in March 2003.

External links

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