Cal Poly to honor Kristin Smart with new memorial grove 30 years after her disappearance

A new space memorializing Kristin Smart, the Stockton native whose 1996 disappearance became one of California's most infamous missing-person cases, is being created at Cal Poly.

The university announced Tuesday that Kristin's Grove will be built near Dexter Lawn on the San Luis Obispo campus.

Cal Poly says the grove is designed as more than a traditional memorial, giving students and visitors a place to gather, reflect and connect while honoring Smart's life and legacy.

"By acknowledging the past and actively building a safer campus for the future, they have demonstrated the kind of compassionate leadership that truly honors Kristin's life and dreams," the Smart family said in a statement.

Smart's family worked closely with Cal Poly on the project, while students from the university's College of Architecture and Environmental Design helped design the space.

Smart was 19 and a freshman at Cal Poly when she disappeared over Memorial Day weekend in 1996 after attending an off-campus party. The Stockton native was last seen walking back toward campus with fellow student Paul Flores.

Flores was convicted of first-degree murder in 2022. Smart's remains have never been found, and investigators have continued searching even after his conviction.

In May, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office spent several days searching the Arroyo Grande home of Flores' mother, Susan Flores, but no remains were recovered.

Cal Poly's announcement of Kristin's Grove comes three years after the university publicly apologized to Smart's family for its handling of her disappearance. In 2023, Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong acknowledged the school should have handled the case differently after Smart vanished.

Construction is expected to be finished by the end of summer, with the grove opening to the public by the beginning of Cal Poly's fall semester. A formal opening ceremony is expected later in the year.