Search warrants, including 1 in San Pedro, served in case of Kristin Smart, who disappeared 24 years ago

Authorities descended upon a San Pedro neighborhood Wednesday morning, Feb. 5, to serve a search warrant at the home of a man long tied to the case of Kristin Smart, a student who went missing from San Luis Obispo 24 years ago.

The home, in the 900 block of West Upland Avenue, was the target of one of four warrants served by the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office in Washington, Central California and San Pedro.

Paul Raul Flores, long linked to the case but never arrested in the disappearance, lives in the San Pedro house. He was detained during the search but not arrested.

“He was let back into his home,” said Tony Cipolla, a spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. “We did take away some items of interest, and we’ll be turning those over to our experts.”

Cipolla would not go into detail as to what those items were. No arrests were made at any of the three other locations where warrants were served Wednesday morning, either, he said.

Deputies had hoped to find specific items, Cipolla said, but he would not elaborate.

“The search warrants are limited in scope and sealed by the court,” Cipolla said. “As a result, we are precluded by law from disclosing any further details about them.”

Flores did not answer the door when a reporter tried to contact him and did not respond to a note left there.

Kristin Smart ,19, was a California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo student who disappeared in May 1996 while walking back to her dorm room following a party.

The next day, her friends reported her missing.

Flores, a fellow student, was the last person known to see her alive. Raised in Torrance, he told authorities that she was extremely drunk when he left her but refused to answer questions beyond that, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights.

A week ago, sheriff’s officials updated the public on the case, releasing a statement.

Since 2011, when the current sheriff took his post, until Jan. 29, there had been 18 search warrants served, a re-examination of every piece of physical evidence seized, and 37 evidence items from early on in the case submitted for modern-day DNA testing. During the nine years, the department had taken in 140 new items of evidence, conducted 91 interviews and written 364 supplemental reports.

Among the items that have been seized were two trucks that belonged to Flores family members in 1996.

In 2002 a judge declared Smart dead.

Flores has lived in the San Pedro house since about 2010, according to public records. In 2016, authorities said he remained a person of interest in the case after they announced the discovery of “remains” about 300 to 400 feet from Smart’s dorm room.

It turned out they were not Smart’s.

“It was still beneficial to the investigation,” Cipolla said. “We were able to rule out that location.”

Frank Romero, 61, lives next door to Flores and said he is a quiet, friendly guy who keeps to himself. He seemed nervous when he spoke to people at first but warmed up when he got to know you.

Flores is single and works on his old cars on weekends, Romero said, and his mother comes over on weekends to spend time with him and help him with yard work.

Romero, and other neighbors, eventually would hear about the Smart case.

Jason Herring, 51, said about the time Flores moved into the neighborhood someone distributed flyers with information about the case.

“It makes you want to not go over and introduce yourself,” Herring said. “He never came over here much.”

Said another neighbor, Marcello Aldana: “He was nice, but everyone stopped talking to him once they got the notice.”

On Wednesday, a telephone pole right across the street from Flores’ home had a faded flyer offering a $75,000 reward with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department’s phone number on it with photos apparently of Smart and Flores.