Friday 2 September 2022 11:10 PM Archeologist tells Kristin Smart murder trial they found proof of dead body ... trends now
An archaeologist has told the Kristin Smart murder trial that while there was no body beneath suspect Paul Flores' home when they dug up ground, human decomposition stains suggest a body had indeed been buried there at some stage.
They also said the body had likely been 'encapsulated' in either 'tarp' or a 'coffin or bag' - a graphic detail that prompted tears from one of the jurors.
Flores is being charged with murdering Smart, a California college student who vanished in 2002 after attending a party. Her body has never been found, but police believe she was buried beneath the deck of Paul Flores' family home for years.
They think Flores and his father Ruben then moved the corpse once police started closing in on them last year, galvanized by renewed interest in the case that was brought on by a murder mystery podcast called Your Own Backyard.
Paul Flores listens during opening statements in his murder trial on Monday in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas, Calif. He's accused of killing Kristin Smart in 1996
Kristin Smart was last seen May 25, 1996, with Flores, who walked the 19-year-old to her dorm at California Polytechnic State University after a party off-campus
Paul Flores, now 45, is charged with murder in the commission of a rape or attempted rape. His father, Ruben Flores, now 81, is charged with accessory after the fact
The podcast is one of the few media outlets that was accredited to attend the Flores murder trial.
On Friday, its hosts relayed the testimony of archaeologist Cindy Arrington.
'First, we take a close look at the surface to see if there are any signs of disturbance. Then we start removing the soil very slowly.
'One of the first things that will appear [in a burial] is a stain. Liquids spread out and leave a stain around the remains,' she said.
In March 2021, her company was contracted by police to excavate beneath the Flores home.
She said they noticed 'an anomaly' - 'a disturbance in the soil.'
'I began to see some staining, inconsistent with the surrounding walls of the hole.
In April 15, 2021, defendants Paul Flores, top left, and his father, Ruben Flores, bottom right, appear via video conference during their arraignment in San Luis Obispo Superior Court
'Some soil had been taken out and put back in. The continuity was jumbled. It tells me there had been a previous hole dug. The staining should have been a nice bowl shape, but was now not. The soil had been disrupted.'
She said she noticed the disruption just 2ft beneath ground level, and that it was obvious someone had dug 'by hand'.
'There were no mechanical marks. It was not machine-dug, but dug by hand,' she said.
The fact that she found no human bones, she said, suggested 'he body was encapsulated in something. A coffin, a tarp, a bag.'
'Fluid was leaking, likely from decomposition. You have an irregular pattern where the soil is darker than the soil within it and out of it.
'Fluid has leaked into the soil slowly over time, not quickly, or the lines would be thicker,' she said.
Traces of human blood were discovered by investigators under the deck at Ruben Flores' Arroyo Grande residence. Prosecutors allege Smart's body was stashed there and moved
Paul Flores, 45, was arrested in April 2021 for Smart's murder
