Paul Flores confessed to killing Kristin Smart to a terrified teenager 26 YEARS AGO who kept it a secret
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA: Jennifer Hudson, the woman whose testimony played a major role in the Kristin Smart murder trial, recently opened up about a social gathering in 1996 where she met Paul Flores. She alleges that Flores confessed to the murder of Kristin Smart when she spoke to him but she kept this chilling conversation a secret for more than twenty-six years because she was terrified she would be his next victim.
Jennifer Hudson, now 44, was just 17-year-old when she met Flores at a gathering in a rural area outside Arroyo Grande where she said she "briefly" interacted with Flores, who at the time, was a freshman at California Polytechnic State University. Hudson said the gathering was held just a few weeks after Smart’s disappearance in the summer of 1996. Smart had mysteriously disappeared on May 25, while walking home from a college frat party. Paul was the last person spotted with Smart as they were headed back to their dorms.
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Hudson said, she and Flores, whom she never met, were sitting on a couch facing a skate ramp in the backyard of a home in San Luis Obispo when public outreach messages about Smart's disappearance rang out on the radio during commercial breaks. "And Paul looked right at us and said, 'That b**ch was a d**k tease and I got sick of her s**t'," recounted Jennifer to The U.S. Sun. "I'm not sure if he then said he 'put her under' or 'put her at', but he said he'd buried her under a skating ramp at his place in Huasna."
Hudson said the look in Flores’ eyes when he made the chilling confession continues to haunt her today. "His eyes were just empty; he had dead eyes, that's what I remember the most, the expression on his face, and just how serious he was." Jennifer said "I just got up and left, and as I was walking away one of my friends told me, 'I went to school with this guy, and he's always been a s**t talker. But I knew he wasn't joking or lying; he was 1,000% serious, I called my boyfriend and made him leave with me ... I just had to get out of there."
Jennifer said Flores’ confession left her physically sick and traumatized. She also claimed dark thoughts also began to creep into her mind that Flores may harm her too. "I knew he'd done this to Kristin, and I thought to myself that if he did that to this girl who was older than me, in what was assumingly a well-populated campus area ... what was he capable of doing to me," said Jennifer. In my head, I wasn't going to turn out like Kristin, I was not going to entice this monster to come after me by going to the police.
She added "I just wasn't going to do it ... because if I did and it wasn't enough to arrest or charge him, 100% I would've been next, that's what I was thinking. Looking back maybe that was a bit paranoid, but I think it was a rational fear too.
She kept the confession secret for 6 years but finally decided to let the fear go and told her roommate Justin Goodman about the incident in 2002. Goodman later reported it to the FBI and a local blog. "I told him I was scared, and that's why I hadn't gone to the law, and I said I needed him to promise never to tell anyone," she said. Hudson then said she realized how much pain she might have caused Smart's family by not telling them about Flores’ confessions. "It wasn't until I had my son, becoming a mother and growing another human inside me that I realized my next breath depends on his, and knowing that he's safe," she said. "My next breath doesn't happen if my son's doesn't happen, right?" Hudson first publically acknowledged the chilling encounter on the 'Your Own Backyard' podcast in 2019. The statements Hudson made on the podcast helped the authorities in their investigation in 2020.
For those who are unaware, Flores was finally found guilty of murdering Smart after a 3-month-long legal trial against him. Investigators also claimed that his father Ruben Flores assisted his son in concealing Smart’s dead body. He will be sentenced in December and faces the possibility of life imprisonment.