Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) freshman Kristin Smart disappeared on May 25th, 1996, at the age of nineteen. She was last seen walking to her dorm room with Paul Flores, another nineteen-year-old Cal Poly freshman, after attending a party off the Cal Poly campus. With the combination of a lack of immediate action and the spread of misinformation, Smart’s case faded into brief glances at a pretty face on a billboard.
That is until Chris Lambert sparked an interest in the case worldwide. Your Own Backyard - The Disappearance of Kristin Smart, a documentary podcast series centered around the disappearance of Smart, aired its first episode on September 30th, 2019, and currently has a total of seven episodes. The podcast aims not only to raise awareness about the case, but also to give the face on the billboard of the Arroyo Grande Village a name, a personality, and a story.
Multiple attempts have been made by individuals inside and outside of SLO County to bring justice to the Smart family, each with their own method of rallying support and raising awareness. From bringing in cadaver dogs to rallying outside the homes of the suspect’s parents, these flickers of action often center around the suspect and his family.
Smart was declared legally dead in May 2002, but the search for her remains has not halted. Your Own Backyard refers to the Central Coast, where Lambert grew up, but may also be a nod to Susan Flores’s backyard, a location in which many suspect Smart’s remains were once buried. The podcast presents many details of which the general public was not aware, including a piece of potential evidence brought up by a couple who lived in Flores’s house after Smart’s disappearance. A beeping was heard in the backyard at 4:20 in the morning several nights in a row. Smart was a lifeguard who worked early shifts and often had to wake up around this time. Small details of the case like these are highlighted in Lambert’s podcast.
According to the podcast’s website, “Lambert is a freelance journalist and podcaster.” His interest in Smart’s case led him to meet her family and other individuals involved in the case, with any and all ties and connections, no matter how seemingly minute.
Your Own Backyard does what its title implies—makes it local. Personal. The podcast is especially chilling for Arroyo Grande and SLO natives, who can envision the locations mentioned in the podcast, including Arroyo Grande High School (AGHS). Flores, the only suspect, graduated from AGHS in 1995.
Flores has spoken very little publicly about the case—and what he has stated has been convoluted and even contradictory to other statements of his. He has been the target of several angry phone calls, mailed letters, and face-to-face confrontations from individuals in the Arroyo Grande community who want justice for Smart.
Lambert, in a discussion led by Jason Stewart with AGHS students and faculty, clearly stated that the goal of Your Own Backyard is not to harass the Flores family, which admittedly, some people with good intentions have been guilty of. Lambert came to the AGHS library on January 31st to answer questions and open a discussion, where he clarified that he wants to help legal institutions find justice for the Smart family, not just gain fame and notoriety by signing his name on a case that has remained unsolved for over two decades.
The Smart family has been subject to true crime episodes and talk shows and countless interviews which have been a grab for money and momentary attention. They yielded no success in furthering the development of their daughter’s case. Lambert’s podcast, however, has brought Smart’s disappearance back to the forefront of Arroyo Grande and SLO residents. The sheriff's department has made advances in the case, and people who weren’t even alive at the time of the disappearance have gained knowledge far beyond people who knew Smart in her lifetime.
Your Own Backyard has done more than present a timeline of Smart’s life and the aftermath of her disappearance. It has taken a face on a billboard and turned her into a person with interests and quirks and a life which was taken far too soon. Anyone under the age of 24 was not alive at the same time as Smart, but there is now a way to feel empathy—a connection—that is local. Personal.
To learn more about Smart and her disappearance, listen to Your Own Backyard - The Disappearance of Kristin Smart on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or yourownbackyardpodcast.com.
This article was originally written for the AGHS newsmagazine The Eagle Times.