Classmate of Kristin Smart Briefly Detained, Police Search Home Decades After Her Disappearance

Kristin Smart.Photo: Facebook

The longtime person of interest in the disappearance ofKristin Smartwas briefly detained Wednesday morning before being released, multiple outlets report.

Smart, a freshman student atCalifornia Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, vanished in 1996 after attending an off-campus party.

Paul Flores, a classmate of Smart’s, was the last known person to see her alive. Floresvolunteered to walk the 19-year-old homein her inebriated state from the party, police have said.

According toThe Tribune,ABC7andCBS2, Flores, now 43, was briefly detained but then released. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tony Cipolla confirmed the news toThe Tribune.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The SLO County Sheriff’s Office said in apress releaseon Wednesday that it had “served search warrants for specific items of evidence inside four separate locations in California and Washington.”

“Two of those locations are in San Luis Obispo County, one location is in Los Angeles County and one location is in Washington State,” the release stated.

The investigation is still ongoing, the sheriff’s office said.

Kristin Smart.Facebook

Cipolla told theNew York Times, “We would like nothing more than to bring closure to the Smart family in this case.”

In January, the sheriff’s office confirmed that evidence in the case includes two trucks that belonged to family members of Flores at the time, PEOPLEpreviously reported.

Investigators have collected 140 “new items of evidence” since 2011, in addition to searching nine different locations, serving 18 search warrants, and resubmitting 37 pieces of evidence from the investigation’s early stages for more-current DNA testing and conducted 91 face-to-face interviews, PEOPLE previously reported.

source: people.com