STOCKTON, Calif. — Kristin Smart was a former Lincoln High School graduate, who disappeared in May of 1996 after an on-campus party at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University. After 23 years, the family might be drawing nearer to closure.
According to the Stockton Record, Kristin's mother, Denise Smart, said she was contacted by the FBI and told, "Be ready. This is really going to be something you don't expect. We want to give you the support you need."
The Record also reported that the FBI suggested Denise Smart secure a family spokesperson and the family "might want to get away for a while."
To that, Denise Smart told the newspaper, "It's like, Can you give me the flight plan? When is this happening?"
However, the FBI wouldn't tell her when the new development might be announced.
"I wish I knew when because it's very anxiety-producing" Smart told the Record.
For awhile, the Smarts believed communication with the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office was "marginal" but improved as years passed.
"We are, you know, very happy happy with the communication with the sheriffs department right now and the line of communication is open and that by itself gives us hope," Denise Smart said in 2011.
Smart was officially declared dead in 2002.
In 2016, a tip led to the digging of a Cal Poly hillside, but her remains were not found.
Fellow student Paul Flores was the last person seen with Smart and became an immediate suspect in the case.
Perhaps soon, we may all finally know just what happened to this intelligent, bright Stockton teen who had her whole life still ahead of her.
"Someone knows where she is... it's not a magic trick. She did not vanish into the air. She did not disappear. She did not take herself away and hide herself. Someone took her," Smart told then News 10 reporter Tim Daly in 2011.
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