SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Investigators at the home of the mother of Kristin Smart's killer have detected the presence of human remains but have not found a body, authorities said Friday.

Authorities have been at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores in San Luis Obispo County this week, testing the soil for any signs of human decomposition. Their results have been "positive," meaning remains have been detected, but that's it so far, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday.

Parkinson said, "We believe that, based on what we're looking at, evidence-wise, scientific evidence, that a human remains were there at one time," he said. "So we can't call it Kristin but you know, we think there's, there's evidence to support human remains there."

But, Parkinson added, investigators won't leave until they are sure they've done all they can. Investigators believe Smart's body may have been moved multiple times after she was killed.

"Our search goes on, and I don't know how long we're going to be there," Parkinson said at a press conference updating the public on this week's search efforts.

If anything is ultimately found, authorities will return to dig, which would require another warrant, which means "you are going to see some delays," he said.

As authorities continued their work Friday, work trucks lined the curb as reporters and podcasters talked on camera outside Susan Flores' colorful house. In the neighbor side yard driveway, soil scientists loaded a truck, having gathered more soil vapors for the day.

Near the sheriff's headquarters along Highway 1, a short distance from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a pair of billboards read "Kristin Smart Help bring her home."

Earlier this week, sheriff's investigators along with experts in human decomposition descended on the home of the mother of Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing Smart after she disappeared in 1996. They've been sampling soil gases and using ground-penetrating radar to look for signs of her body.

Parkinson said he does not know when the work will be done.

"It's a methodical step each each time we get something, we go in another direction. We get something, we pursue that," he said.

He added that the ground-penetrating radar had found anomalies on the property, but those could be sewer lines, so more analysis is needed.

Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart as the two walked toward her dormitory at Cal Poly after a 1996 Memorial Day weekend party. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison three years ago for Smart's murder. But her body has never been found.

Three years ago, a group of scientists working from Susan Flores' neighbors' backyard using soil vapor sampling detected the presence of volatile organic compounds that they say may be associated with decomposing human remains.

The work they were doing there this week was similar, but more advanced.

The technology has evolved, the sheriff said Friday, like cellphones or computers. The samples are being analyzed at a local lab, he added.

The public's on-again, off-again interest kept Smart's disappearance in the news sporadically, but a podcast called "Your Own Backyard," begun in 2019 by Chris Lambert, shined a new spotlight on the cold case.

In November 2019, soil engineer Tim Neiligan, a former FBI chemist, began researching how bodies decompose in soil. Two months later, he recruited Steve Hoyt, another Cal Poly grad with a doctorate in environmental science, who has built a business on the Central Coast testing soil samples. Brian Eckenrode, a retired FBI forensic scientist and expert in human decomposition, joined them in 2021.

"We're rooting around for answers," Nelligan told The Times this week. "We all want to bring Denise and Stan Smart some peace after all these years."

Authorities had repeatedly searched the backyards of homes owned individually by the parents of Paul Flores. Sheriff's deputies even used ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs to search Ruben Flores' Arroyo Grande property in 2021. No remains were uncovered, but a month later, both Flores men were arrested and charged in connection with Smart's murder.

Susan Flores is currently considered a person of interest in the case like Ruben Flores was and should Smart's remains be found on her property, authorities would seek to criminally charge her, Parkinson said.

Smart, then 19, of Stockton, disappeared on Memorial Day weekend 1996.

About 8:30 p.m. on May 24, she and three companions left their dorms, a staggered row of brick and concrete buildings set against a steep incline known as Poly Hill.

They grabbed a ride in a truck to a party at an unofficial fraternity house near campus. Her friends did not want to go to the party, so they dropped Smart off a couple of blocks away.

Tim Davis, a senior who helped stage the party, told investigators he was shooing away the last stragglers about 2 a.m. when he spotted a tall girl later identified as Smart sprawled on a lawn next door, apparently passed out. He roused her. She was in no condition to walk home alone.

Davis and Cheryl Anderson were going to walk her home when Flores, a 19-year-old from the nearby town of Arroyo Grande, volunteered to help. Smart was last seen walking home with him, authorities said.

Busloads of volunteers, horses and ground-penetrating radar were called in for a search after Smart went missing.

Though Paul Flores was eventually convicted in Smart's killing, he is working on an appeal, Parkinson said. Should that be exhausted, Parkinson said he hopes Flores would cooperate and say where they could find Kristin Smart.

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