Engineers use soil vapor samples in search for Kristin Smart's body
ARROYO GRANDE — There is a new effort to locate the body of Kristin Smart, the Stockton native and Cal Poly student who went missing in 1996.
Paul Flores was sentenced her murder earlier this year. Her body remains missing. Now, a group of engineers is seeking to locate the remains using science.
Tim Nelligan is an engineer and Cal Poly graduate who met Smart weeks before her 1996 disappearance and over the decades has followed her murder case.
Now he is working to help locate and bring her remains home.
"The intent here was not to solve a crime," Nelligan said, "but rather to help a family find their daughter."
Nelligan shared an image showing a heat map identifying a possible decomposing human body, using soil tests done by his team of engineers searching for Smart's body.
"What that shows are very high concentrations of the total VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, associated with human decomposition," Nelligan said.
The location of Nelligan's search is the back fence line of the Arroyo Grande home where the FBI and San Luis Obispo sheriff served a search warrant in 2020. Susan Flores lives at the home. She is the mother of Paul Flores, who was long a suspect and has now been convicted of killing Smart.
Nelligan showed photos of his team in Susan Flores' neighbor's backyard, where she allowed the engineers to take samples capturing the soil gasses. It's a test that is certified by the EPA to find pollution but is not used by law enforcement to locate bodies.
Steve Hoyt is an engineer who has processed the backyard samples.
"I can't answer specifically about Kristin's body but I think that the test show we have a significant number of compounds that have a clear indication that there is some type of decomposition of a body going on in this location," Hoyt said.
The group has shared their findings with Smart's family and law enforcement.
"As far as the investigation goes, that's really not our scope," Nelligan said.
CBS13 reached out to Smart's family. They did not return a request for comment.
The San Luis Obispo sheriff issued a statement reading, in part, "Until the appeals process in the Smart murder case is finished, they aren't able to make any comments at this time."
