SAN PEDRO (CNS) - Authorities today served another search warrant at the San Pedro home of a former classmate of a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo student who went missing nearly 24 years ago.
The warrant was served “for specific items of evidence at the Los Angeles County home of Paul Flores,” according to Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department.
“Flores continues to be a person of interest in the disappearance of Kristin Smart in 1996,” Cipolla said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department assisted the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department in serving the warrant.
On Feb. 5, search warrants were served in San Pedro, San Luis Obispo County and Washington state, but authorities declined to provide specifics about the nature of the searches. Wednesday's warrant only involved the home of Flores, according to ABC7.
“As with the search warrants in February, this current search warrant is sealed by the court,” Cipolla said. “As a result, we are precluded by law from disclosing any further details about them including items sought or recovered during the process. This continues to be an active and on-going investigation.”
According to media reports on Feb. 5, authorities served a warrant at Flores' home in the 900 block of Upland Avenue in San Pedro, and a man identified by a neighbor as Flores was interviewed for about two hours before he was released, ignoring questions shouted by reporters.
According to a Sacramento Bee report around that time, authorities confirmed that new evidence tied to Smart's disappearance had been discovered, including two trucks that belonged to a members of Flores' family in 1996.
Flores, who was also a Cal Poly student in 1996, was the last person to see Smart when she went missing from San Luis Obispo on Memorial Day weekend 24 years ago, the Bee reported.
Since 2011, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's office has served search warrants, conducted physical evidence searches, submitted evidence items from the early days of the case for modern DNA testing, recovered more than 100 new items of evidence, conducted more than 90 in-person interviews and written more than 360 supplemental reports, the newspaper said.
Photo: FBI.gov