23 years after Kristin Smart’s disappearance, podcast put a spotlight back on the mystery
Update: Cal Poly fixes failing grades given to Kristin Smart after she went missing
The Central Coast creator behind the popular podcast on the Kristin Smart investigation believes the series is making a difference by helping to uncover new information and generate momentum to solve the 23-year-old case.
“Your Own Backyard” creator Chris Lambert, 31, of Orcutt, has been a high-profile voice amid a series of sudden developments in the Smart investigation, catapulting the case back into national news.
Wednesday’s announcements revealed four search warrants served in connection with the case that morning, including one at the Los Angeles-area home of Paul Flores, the last person to be seen with Smart, who was a Cal Poly freshman when she disappeared from campus on Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Two search warrants were served in San Luis Obispo County, one at Paul Flores’ mother Susan Flores’ home in Arroyo Grande and another at an undisclosed location. The final warrant was served at an unknown spot in Washington state.
Lambert said the podcast has been downloaded 2 million times since it came out in September 2019, with the audience coming from a number of countries worldwide — particularly English-speaking listeners in places such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland — in addition to listeners around the U.S.
Lambert said that he appreciated sitting down with San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s officials who publicly thanked him in Episode 7, titled “The Iceberg,” for bringing attention to the case, saying the publicity has been helpful in bringing renewed awareness and eliciting tips.
“Since doing this, I’ve had so many people come forward with tips and information,” Lambert said. “And some people have told me the podcast has made them feel very emotional, like they’ve gotten to know Kristin. Some people who said they’ve never wanted to talk about this before have reached out to me.”
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National media attention has been ‘overwhelming’
Lambert also said he didn’t expect the story to gain national media when he released his first episode in six months ago.
“It seemed like radio silence,” Lambert said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Nothing seemed to be going on in the case at all.”
The New York Times, CNN, Yahoo, Fox, CBS and Los Angeles Times — in addition to all of the SLO County media outlets — have featured stories on the search warrants served in California and Washington.
“I’ve been overwhelmed,” Lambert said. “I wasn’t prepared. My phone has been shut off. Every major news network has called, and I haven’t been calling back. I wasn’t prepared to respond to yet.”
Sharing with the SLO County sheriff
Smart was a 19-year-old Cal Poly student when she went missing after leaving an off-campus party in May 1996.
Nobody knows exactly what happened to her, but Flores has long been considered a person of interest in the case because he was the last person seen with her as they walked back toward their dorms at 2 a.m. that Saturday morning.
Lambert said he’s sharing information with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office that may help solve the case, which has been his goal since he released the podcast.
“I’ve been sharing some of the things I know with the sheriff,” Lambert said.
He said law enforcement officials have been tight-lipped about responding to his inquires, but he was pleased about one moment of confirmation.
“I was glad I was able to turn on the tape recorder and press record and have them confirm what I’d learned about the trucks,” the podcaster said.
He said he observed a sheriff’s investigator’s surprise about his knowledge of the department’s seizure of two trucks that belonged to members of the family of Paul Flores in 1996 — which he mentions in the podcast.
A press release subsequently mentioned the trucks and other work the Sheriff’s Office has done to look into the case, including filing 18 search warrants, submitting 37 items of evidence and conducting 91 interviews since 2011.
Including the four Wednesday, the Sheriff’s Office has served 22 search warrants in the case.
“I didn’t know all that was being done behind the scenes,” Lambert said. “I’ve since come away more confident in (the sheriff’s) ability to judge and investigate the case.”
Lambert plans to release more episodes
The program now has seven episodes, most of which run roughly an hour. Lambert said he is continuing to gather information through interviews and tips to produce additional episodes, which are available on Apple, Spotify and his website.
Lambert said that many of the tips he has received don’t reveal major breakthroughs in the case, but others have shown promise.
He said women who have come into contact with Flores have shared similar experiences. Lambert tried to talk to Flores at his San Pedro home, where a truck was parked horizontally seemingly to block people from coming in. But he was unsuccessful.
“Those stories (from women) have been incredibly consistent,” Lambert said. “It’s amazing that there was such a consistency, and they were told in almost exactly same way: that he doesn’t have boundaries, doesn’t know how to be respectful around women.”
Lambert said he believes Flores knows what happened to Smart, and “whether accidental or intentional, things got out of hand ... very much out of hand.”
The podcast producer has learned the Flores family has family in Washington, possibly the reason for a search warrant being served there.
Lambert also believes the Flores family may be using aliases in online communications.
“There is a lot of speculation about that,” he said. “I’m sure the FBI knew exactly what they were looking for.”
This story was originally published February 6, 2020 at 2:42 PM with the headline "23 years after Kristin Smart’s disappearance, podcast put a spotlight back on the mystery."
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