A man was interviewed by law enforcement Wednesday after authorities served a search warrant at a San Pedro home in connection with the disappearance of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student Kristin Smart, who vanished nearly 24 years ago and is presumed dead.
FBI agents and investigators from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department could be seen outside a home in the 900 block of Upland Avenue in San Pedro throughout the morning.
The house belongs to Paul Flores, who was identified as a person of interest in the case by San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, according to CNN.
Flores, a former classmate of Kristin Smart, was the last person the 19-year-old woman was seen with before she disappeared after an off-campus party in 1996.
Smart was declared dead in 2002, the Times reported. Her body has not been found.
Flores was seen outside the home speaking with investigators. Officials confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that no arrests have been made.
No criminal charges were ever filed against Flores, who was the subject of a civil suit by Smart’s family, according to the Times.
In addition to San Pedro, the Sheriff’s Office served warrants at three other locations as they sought “specific items of evidence” in the case, according to a news release from the agency.
Two others were served in San Luis Obispo County, and the fourth location is in Washington state.
“The search warrants are limited in scope, and sealed by the court,” sheriff’s officials said, noting they could not disclose further details.
Multiple sources told the newspaper that the warrants are part of an effort to gather DNA and other physical evidence as they try to piece together how Smart died.
Wednesday’s development comes one week after the Sheriff’s Office confirmed — in response to media reports — that two trucks belonging to members of the Flores family in 1996 had been taken into evidence.
The Jan. 29 statement, issued by the Sheriff’s Office in response “to the large number of recent public inquiries,” also summarized the work that was done since Sheriff Ian Parkinson took over the department in 2011.
In past years, the office had served 18 search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches at nine different locations and submitted 37 older evidence items for DNA testing. Additionally, 140 new items of evidence have been recovered and 91 people were interviewed, according to the statement.
KTLA’s Alberto Mendez contributed to this story.
