San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said investigative leads and other evidence led to a judge signing off on this week’s search warrant for Susan Flores’ Arroyo Grande home, but what’s allowed under the search warrant and why do others need to be obtained before the investigation at the home wraps up?
“It's not what we believe, it's what we can prove," Sheriff Parkinson said.
Susan Flores is the mother of Paul Flores, the man found guilty of Cal Poly student Kristin Smart's 1996 murder. Flores was convicted even though Smart's body was never found. Investigators believe that at some point, she was buried at the Flores home. The property has been searched before, but nothing was found.
The sheriff’s office got a new search warrant for the home this week, thanks to a judge believing there are fresh and relevant reasons to search the home.
“Any time investigators want to obtain a search warrant, they have to themselves be convinced that the area that they want to search is likely to produce evidence of a crime that they believe has been committed," explained San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow.
The current search warrant for Susan Flores’ home prevents her from re-entering the home until the search is over and gives the sheriff’s office access to the entirety of the property and part of a neighbor’s yard. However, this search warrant prevents them from breaking ground.
RELATED| SLO County Sheriff: Results of soil testing at Flores home consistent with human remains
Sheriff Parkinson said the common misconception about search warrants is that they can do whatever they want.
“People always ask, well, why in '96 didn’t they just tear up all the concrete? Well, that's not the way a warrant works," Parkinson said, referring to a patio in Flores' backyard.
Dow said specific criteria are needed for each search warrant; however, investigators don’t need to start over every time.
“In any investigation, one step leads to the next step," Dow said. "In fact, what we often call those piggyback warrants, because you have an initial warrant that allows you to look at something, and then you obtain information that says, you know what? Now I want to do it over here.”
Parkinson said with their new leads, they’ll be filing for as many search warrants as needed to be content with the search.
“We're prepared to go as long as it takes until we either find Kristin, find evidence, and are satisfied that everything has been searched," Parkinson said.
