The Last Walk Home – The Case of Kristin Smart

In May 1996, 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart disappeared after attending an off-campus party near California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. In the early morning hours, she was last seen being helped back toward the dormitories by fellow students. She never made it home. What began as a missing-person case soon became one of the most well-known unsolved investigations in California. Suspicion quickly focused on a student who had been with her that night, yet despite years of tips, searches, and growing suspicion, the case remained unresolved for decades. Over time, new witnesses, renewed investigative efforts, and advances in forensic techniques brought fresh momentum to the investigation. Eventually, the case reached the courtroom, marking a major turning point after more than two decades of uncertainty. In this episode, we reconstruct the night Kristin Smart disappeared, the long investigation that followed, and the legal battle that finally brought a measure of accountability in a case that haunted a family for more than twenty years.












This episode includes AI-generated content.