This week, 20 years after she the 19-year-old went missing, authorities in California said they had uncovered “items of interest” after excavating an area of the college campus.
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During their excavation Friday, FBI agents discovered an “item of interest” at the third of three sites pinpointed for excavation, according to Tony Cipolla, public information officer for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department.
“Ultimately it will be up to the sheriff to make a determination if we release that information to the public because we have a criminal investigation that is ongoing and the sheriff does not want to jeopardize that case”, Cipolla told the Los Angeles Times.
“The items are being analyzed to see if they are related to this investigation”, Cipolla said.
“Kristin has long deserved the attention, effort and respect that Sheriff Parkinson, his department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the District Attorney and Cal Poly are giving to her recovery and our quest for justice”, they said.
“We’re kind of going to take it one at a time”, Cipolla said.
The FBI and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department continue their dig and investigation on the hillside above Cal Poly in connection to the disappearance of student Kristin Smart two decades ago, September 8, in San Luis Obispo, California.
The items were found on a hillside near a large concrete letter “P”, a landmark of the school, which is located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and sheriff’s employees began digging there on Tuesday.
Investigators are also focused on other areas as well, but Parkinson said those locations would not be identified due to the ongoing investigation.
Smart vanished May 25, 1996, while walking back to her dorm room following a party.
Heavy equipment continued to dig on a hillside at Cal Poly on Thursday, looking for signs of missing former student Kristin Smart, who disappeared in 1996. She was officially declared dead in 2002.
Smart’s parents, Denise and Stan Smart of Stockton, filed a civil wrongful death case against Flores in 2005, but they dropped the case after Flores pleaded the Fifth Amendment in court.
Investigators would complete their search of the Cal Poly hillside before determining whether they would conduct additional excavations, he said.
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Flores was questioned by police in June 1996 and has been called a person of interest in the case but has not been arrested or charged. Those dogs, which are trained to detect aged human decomposition, keyed in on several locations in the county, including three separate areas of the hillside at Cal Poly. The search might continue into Saturday because of the steep terrain, Cipolla said.
