Trevor Boelter: Student who kissed Kristin Smart before she was killed reveals his link to Scott Peterson
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A classmate of Kristin Smart, who was one of the last to see her alive, revealed chilling links to two other high-profile murders during his student days at Cal Poly Tech University. Trevor Boelter, now 47, revealed his meeting with convicted murderer Scott Peterson and the time FBI questioned him about the whereabouts of two other students in San Luis Obispo, California, in the late 1990s.
Boelter, then 20, met Smart, then 19, at an off-campus party in May 1996. The teenager, who referred to herself as "Roxy," kissed him twice that night, but Boelter turned her down. She disappeared just hours later after being escorted home by Paul Flores. It is believed Flores killed the teen during an attempted rape and then disposed of her body, The Sun reports. He was sentenced last week to 25 years to life in prison for first-degree murder.
RELATED ARTICLES
Why did Scott Peterson kill wife Laci? Inside doomed marriage of 'happy couple' that ended in murder
What was Trevor Boelter's connection to Scott Peterson?
Although the tragic case hasn't left Boelter's mind in the past 25 years, he claimed that his experience with Smart "isn't even the weirdest thing" that happened to him while he was in college, "and that's already pretty high up on the list of weird." "I feel like I'm the Forrest Gump of weird happenings," added Boelter with a laugh. "I kissed Kristin Smart at the party, I met Scott and Laci Peterson in their home, and then when two students went missing, the FBI came right to my door because I lived near a bridge where one of them was abducted." He continued, "I think I was probably on some list at one point. But other than that I had a pretty idyllic college experience."
How did Trevor Boelter meet Scott Peterson and Laci?
Boelter, now 47, sold advertising space to nearby businesses in 1997, about a year after Smart disappeared, while working for 'The Mustang Daily,' Cal Poly's student newspaper. He claimed that one day he received a call from a woman asking him to come to her house to discuss ad rates because she and her husband had just opened a new restaurant in the neighborhood called The Shack. When Boelter complied with the request, Laci, whom he thought was "gorgeous and incredibly nice," met him at the door. She welcomed Boelter inside and introduced him to her husband, Scott.
'He was totally douchey'
Smart's classmate who is now 47 described Scott as hostile, patronizing, and "totally douchey," in contrast to the friendly and accepting Laci. "I go inside and her husband is in there cooking hamburgers, and he's just the complete opposite of her," said Boelter. "I remember meeting Laci and thinking, Wow, she's so pretty, so nice and so friendly." He continued, "But he wasn't like that at all, he was totally douchey. He kept saying to me 'Are you going to make us millionaires bud by putting little ads in your paper?' "He was just really dismissive and kind of rude. But I thought, 'whatever, a sale is a sale.'" he said.
'The Petersons would not pay their bills'
With the Petersons' agreement, Boelter settled on a price and began routinely advertising The Shack in the newspaper. The Petersons did not pay their bills for several weeks until Boelter's manager called him to let him know. Scott handled all of the Petersons' financial matters, and when he contacted Laci, she said she did not know what had happened. He then gave her Scott's cell phone number and instructions to contact him immediately. Laci's husband was driving when Trevor first reached him. The "check's in the post, buddy," he told Boelter calmly, but the payment never arrived.
'He looked pretty mad'
As a result, The Shack's ads were abruptly removed from 'The Mustang Daily' A short time later, Boelter's manager called him again just as he was getting out of class. "Hey, do you remember that couple whose ads we stopped running because they weren't paying? Well, the husband just came here looking for you, and he looked pretty mad," Boelter recalled the manager saying.
'My boss told me I should watch myself'
Scott was irate, and the manager tried to appease him by saying that he "had to pay his bills and the issue wasn't Trevor's fault," but it didn't really help. "My boss told me I should watch myself," recalled Boelter. "He said, 'I just don’t want him to come up here and hit you because he was complaining his business had dropped off.' Boelter continued, "But eventually I forgot about it, I didn't care about it anymore and I graduated and moved to LA. Then all of a sudden I kept seeing this guy's face all over the TV but I couldn't place who he was," as per The Sun.
Was Scott Peterson involved in Kristin Smart case?
It was Scott Peterson, arrested in April 2003 for the murder of his wife, Laci, and their newborn son, who finally shined a light on them. Before Paul Flores was charged with Smart's murder, Peterson's name was also mentioned by his defense team, suggesting he might be involved somehow. There were rumors that he might have been at the meeting the night the teen disappeared, as he had been a student at Cal Poly in 1996, according to reports. The allegations were never verified, and Peterson's attorneys criticized the action as desperate, claiming Flores' team was running a "publicity stunt to take the attention from the defendant."
How is Trevor Boelter connected to Newhouse and Crawford cases?
When Boelter learned that Peterson was the one who had threatened to harm him over the withdrawn newspaper ads, he claimed he could not believe it. But strange coincidences continued to occur during his time at the college. Rachel Newhouse, a 20-year-old Cal Poly student, disappeared November 18, 1998, while on her way home from a party at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Then, on March 11, 1998, Aundria Crawford, a 20-year-old Cuesta College student, disappeared from her San Luis Obispo apartment. That was nearly five months later. For a time, it was feared that Smart's absence might be connected to the abduction of the two young women.
'Oh geez, something bad is happening here'
Residents of the lively college town were terrified that a serial killer might be on the loose. Boelter claimed that some of his peers only realized something sinister had probably occurred to Smart just over a year earlier after Rachel Newhouse vanished. "People were like, 'Oh geez, something bad is happening here,'" he stated. "Before that, there was a lot of talk on campus that maybe Kristin had run off to Hawaii or someplace. People didn't want to think that someone had been murdered on campus and her body hidden."
FBI knocked on Trevor Boeltor's door
The partygoer, Boelter recounted that the FBI knocked on his door after the cases of Newhouse and Crawford were connected and some of Newhouse's blood was discovered nearby, under a bridge. "I remember I opened my door early on a Saturday morning. I was like 22 and this guy from the FBI was waiving his badge in my face," said Boelter. "And he asked me where I was on such-and-such night when Rachel disappeared and I told him, 'well, I actually have an alibi. I was on the radio,' because I was part of the college radio station. He doubled check I was there that night but it was all just so strange. I had those three occurrences all during my time at Cal Poly and it's just bizarre to think about." He added, "Over the years I can imagine that - even though Paul Flores was always the most probably and obvious culprit - they must've seen my name on all these lists and thought, 'maybe we should talk to Trevor again. We can't rule anything out.'"
Was Kristin Smart's case connected to Newhouse and Crawford cases?
As per reports, Rex Allen Krebs, also known as the "Sadist of San Luis," was convicted of kidnapping Newhouse and Crawford in 2001. He was disqualified from being a suspect in Smart's disappearance because he was serving a 10-year sentence for rape in prison at the time.