SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The family of Kristin Smart filed a complaint against Ruben Flores on April 21, 2021, claiming he moved Kristin Smart's body from his home after a recent search. The complaint said that action caused the family "intentional infliction of emotional distress."
The claim suggests Ruben moved the body from his home just days after the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department served a search warrant at his Arroyo Grande home in February 2020.
According to the claim, Ruben Flores, his son Paul, who has been charged with the murder of Kristin Smart, and two other people helped Ruben remove the remains to another location, away from the original spot, which officials believe was in the "lattice enclosure below the deck" of Ruben's home.
The other two people will be named as defendants in the case, along with the Flores family, according to the complaint.
The Smart family believes that the Flores family and the two other people who helped moved the body to another spot in San Luis Obispo to try to "cover up the complicity of Paul Flores in the death of Kristin Smart and to conceal the complicity of Defendant Ruben Flores and Doe defendants 1 and 2, thereby insuring the remains would not be found should another search warrant be executed."
Officials from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department conducted another search at Ruben Flores' home a year later in 2021 and found dirt had been removed from a hole in the lattice area under the deck, according to videos and forensic evidence taken at the scene.
The Smart family said in the complaint that the actions of Ruben and Paul Flores and the two other people caused them "severe emotional distress" because they cannot get closure in the death of their daughter.
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Flores is accused of helping his son cover up the death of Kristin Smart nearly 25 years ago.