Practically 25 years after Kristin Good vanished whereas strolling again to her dorm at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, investigators had been looking a close-by property Monday utilizing cadaver canines and ground-penetrating radar.
Detectives with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Workplace served a search warrant on the Arroyo Grande residence of Ruben Flores, the daddy of Paul Flores, who has lengthy been thought-about an individual of curiosity in Good’s disappearance and is now thought-about the “prime suspect,” authorities mentioned. Previously, he has denied any wrongdoing.
Paul Flores, who lives in San Pedro, was the final particular person seen with Good earlier than she disappeared in 1996. They had been each college students on the time.
A San Luis Obispo County decide approved the Sheriff’s Workplace to make the most of the canines and radar in conducting the search. The property was first searched within the Nineties.
“This course of might probably take one to 2 days to finish,” division spokesman Tony Cipolla mentioned. “The search warrant has been sealed. In consequence, we’re precluded by regulation from disclosing any additional particulars concerning it. That is an energetic and ongoing investigation. The Sheriff’s Workplace won’t be commenting any additional, and no extra info can be launched right now.”
The assertion dubbing Paul Flores a “prime suspect” versus a “particular person of curiosity” displays the rising depth within the investigation over the past yr.
In February, Flores was arrested by Los Angeles police on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm based mostly on info from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Workplace when it searched Flores’ residence in April, accompanied by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Flores has a earlier felony conviction for driving below the affect.
That search adopted one other in February on the residence within the 900 block of West Upland Avenue and three different places in California and Washington state. All of the search warrants have remained sealed.
A number of sources have instructed The Instances the searches are a part of an ongoing effort to assemble bodily proof, together with DNA, which will reveal what occurred to Good, who disappeared Might 25, 1996, because the 19-year-old was on her manner residence from an off-campus get together. Flores was seen strolling on a path to the faculty dormitories together with her the evening she went lacking.
Flores was questioned in Good’s disappearance on the time. He has lived in San Pedro for greater than a decade whereas working in Orange County, in accordance with sources.
Good’s household has sued Flores in civil court docket, however he has not been criminally charged. In response to the lawsuit, Flores has denied the allegation. He invoked his fifth Modification proper in opposition to self-incrimination earlier than a grand jury and in a civil deposition.
The search of the property of the prime suspect’s father marked the newest flip of occasions in certainly one of California’s most enduring chilly case mysteries.
After Good disappeared, regulation enforcement used helicopters, horses and ground-penetrating radar within the hunt for the lacking pupil. She was formally declared useless in 2002, though her physique was by no means discovered.
In 2016, federal investigators dug up a hillside close to the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus, searching for stays. Additionally they searched the yard of a house.
