The disapperance of Kristin Smart

Kristin Denise Smart (born February 20, 1977, legally presumed dead May 25, 2002) is an American missing person. She disappeared on May 25, 1996 while attending California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Three fellow-students had escorted her back to her hall of residence after a party. One of them, Paul Flores, was the last person known to have seen her alive, and he claims that he left her to return to her dorm alone. When a police-dog located evidence of human remains close to the Flores family home, the Sheriff’s office refused to issue a search warrant, and a local newspaper raised suspicions of a cover-up. Smart is still on file as a high priority missing person.

Disappearance

The night Smart disappeared, she attended a birthday party of a fellow student, which fell on Memorial Day weekend 1996. At approximately 2:00 a.m. on May 25, 1996 she was found passed out drunk on the neighbor’s lawn by two fellow students and party-goers: Cheryl Anderson and Tim Davis, who both had just left the party. They helped her to her feet and decided to walk her back to her nearby dorm. Another student from the party, Paul Flores, joined their group and offered to help the two get Kristin back to her dorm room safely. Tim Davis departed the group first since he lived off campus and had driven to the party. Cheryl Anderson was the second to depart the group after she told Paul Flores that he could walk Kristin Smart back to her dorm since he lived closer. Flores stated to police that he walked Smart as far as his dormitory, Santa Lucia Hall, and then allowed her to walk back to her Muir Hall dorm by herself.

This was the last known sighting of her. She did not have any money or credit cards at the time she went missing.

Official Investigation

The campus police originally suspected that Smart had gone on an unannounced vacation, as was common among students over the holidays. It was because of this that the campus police were slow at reporting her as a missing person to local law enforcement.

During the high profile Laci Peterson murder investigation, there were unfounded rumors in the media that Scott Peterson had something to with Kristin’s disappearance since Scott attended California Polytechnic State University at the same time as Smart. There was a brief initial inquiry into whether Peterson had any involvement. Peterson was totally ruled out as a suspect by police. Scott has publicly denied any involvement in the Kristin Smart case.

Smart’s disappearance remains essentially an unsolved case however, and no firmly proven explanation for her disappearance exists. Her body has never been found.

Legacy

Smart’s disappearance and slow response by the California Polytechnic State University Police Department resulted in the Kristin Smart Campus Security Act being written and sponsored by Democratic state Senator Mike Thompson, passed 61-0 by the California State Legislature, and signed into effect by then Governor of California Pete Wilson on August 19, 1998. The law took effect on January 1, 1999 and requires all public colleges, and other publicly funded educational institutions to have their security services have agreements with local police departments about reporting cases involving or possibly involving violence against students, including missing students.

Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in May 25, 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance. Smart’s parents, Denise and Stan Smart, took a civil case of wrongful death against Paul Flores in 2005, but dropped it after Flores pleaded the fifth amendment.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office still reviews the case monthly. The FBI have her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a local businessman and friend of the Smart family, has offered a $100,000 reward for Smart’s body.

In 2005, Paul Flores’s mother Susan Flores and her boyfriend Mike McConville filed a lawsuit claiming loss of employment, harassment and emotional distress against Kristin Smart’s parents and a family friend who operates a website tracking Flores.

The murder of Jeffrey Wheatley

STOCKTON - Jurors on Friday found the second of three defendants guilty of shooting, stabbing and then burning a man to death last year in what prosecutors said amounted to the highest level of suffering a person could endure.

It took jurors less than four hours to return a guilty verdict Friday against 26-year-old Valerie Nessler. They found her guilty of arson and the first-degree murder for helping kill her roommate, 49-year-old Jeffrey Wheatley, on April 7, 2010.



On Wednesday, a separate jury had deliberated just 40 minutes to find 33-year-old Robert Turner guilty of arson, first-degree murder and the special circumstances of torture and arson.

A third defendant, Allen Periman, 31, awaits trial this fall.

According to the prosecution, Nessler had heard Wheatley brag of killing a man in 1994 with a gun. That crime resembled the way Turner said his own brother had died. Nessler told Turner, who then sought revenge against Wheatley, prosecutors said.

But San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Mark Ott said that in reality Turner's brother shot himself, and when that happened Wheatley was in Georgia, so he couldn't be responsible for killing Turner's brother.

Ott added that Turner had a violent history involving arson. He had been convicted of burning down a Shasta County man's home in retaliation for an unpaid debt.

"He uses fire for revenge," Ott said. "He is a violent, violent man."

Nessler could spend 26 years to life in state prison, and Turner faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ott said the pair will be held accountable for brutally murdering Wheatley.

"They tortured him," Ott said. "They lit him on fire while he was alive."

All through the trial several of Wheatley's relatives attended to see that he received justice.

His sister, Wendy Wheatley-Fishburn, of Ashland, Ore., said outside the courtroom that the guilty verdicts won't bring back her brother, but she was satisfied that the first two defendants were convicted on all charges.

She added that her brother was more than a murder victim. He had served in the Coast Guard and had owned and ran his own restaurant and bar in Georgia. An old knee injury, which caused him to use pain pills, turned into a drug addition, she said.

According to trial testimony, the residents of the home in which he lived and died used drugs. But Wheatley-Fishburn said she didn't want that to define his life story.

"He was funny and smart," she said. "He was a good guy."

She said many of his relatives expect to attend the sentencing, set for Aug. 23, when they will show pictures and talk about his life.