The stunning blonde in the poster below is Kristin Smart. The 19-year-old freshman vanished from a campus beer party at Cal Poly in May 1996 and was declared deceased in 2002, although her remains were never found.
This month, however, “excavation” of the college grounds has begun at various locations which, according to a report by the Washington Post, cadaver dogs have hit upon.
The FBI also revealed that a new lead had “developed” during the past couple of years that prompted them to target those “high visibility” sites in September.
The renewed effort to solve Smart’s mysterious missing-persons case follows two decades of sporadic inquiries which resulted in only one individual being labeled a ‘person of interest’ -- a male student who escorted the inebriated undergrad to her dorm room that spring night.
He wasn’t identified in the Post’s article this week, but police say the man had been repeatedly questioned when Kristin "Roxy" Smart first disappeared and, while he’s back on their radar again in 2016, still hasn’t been named a suspect in her puzzling cold case.
And he may never be, due to the amount of time that has passed and lost evidence.
A barely conscious and barely dressed Smart was last seen alive in the young man’s company wearing only “running shorts” and a “short cropped” tee shirt.
A female classmate of Smart’s told the Associated Press that she’d attempted to alert university officials about her friend’s subsequent unexplained disappearance and that they declined to take any action, insisting “she’ll be back” after the Memorial Day break had ended.
But Kristin Smart was never seen or heard from again.
