Trigger Warning: This post talks about brutal violence and sexual assault.
This is for entertainment purposes only. I’m a fan of and a believer in tarot cards, but there is a reason the justice system doesn’t convict or acquit people based on “psychically divined” evidence. Even setting aside healthy skepticism and taking it as indisputable fact that there is truly some divine guidance at play, either through some universal spirit or through harnessing the power of one’s own intuition (I believe both!), the message gleaned from the cards is reliant on each reader’s own interpretation of them. Please see my introductory blog for more of my thoughts on tarot cards and my methods.
I conducted a “metaphysical investigation” into the fate of Kristin Smart 25 years after her disappearance, but as fate would have it, just two days before an arrest was finally made for it.
For those, like me, who are/were less familiar with this case, Kristin was a freshman at California Polytechnic State University who disappeared on May 25, 1996 after attending a party off-campus. As college students are apt to do, she had allegedly gotten heavily intoxicated to the point that she required assistance walking back to her dorm. Two of her acquaintances came upon her and recognized this on their way out and valiantly stepped up to be her escorts. A third, Paul Flores, intentionally caught up to them and offered to take the lead in seeing her safely home. Per the female acquaintance, Paul suggested at least once during the trek that she and the other male were welcome to leave him and Kristin behind, but she found him doing so weird and the four walked together. However, their dorm buildings came up first in their path and she and the other male did retire into them, which left Paul as Kristin’s sole escort for the remaining short stretch to hers. She was never seen again.
I found there to be multiple infuriating aspects of this tragic case, not the least of which is that there seem to be flashing arrows pointing to a suspect for it and it has still proven to be a frustratingly difficult one to solve. Or to legally prove anyway; everyone seems to have drawn the same conclusions. The university and its security were unconscionably slow to treat her disappearance as important enough to investigate it, and in fact, allowed several locations that may have provided crucial evidence to be cleaned, and rather suspiciously swiftly and thoroughly at that. Further, the cops did not make the most of an early search warrant they were granted for a key location and would not be able to obtain another for a very long time. It is always heartbreaking when justice is denied, but it is mindbreaking when it is largely down to gross incompetence by those who are paid to know and do better. But 25 years too late or not, it may be on the verge of being served, and this is what matters the most. I don’t know that many of my true crime readings will end up having the opportunity to be validated or debunked, but I’m grateful for any and all exceptions, primarily since it means the victim’s loved ones may get their cruelly withheld measure of peace.
My cards did point their fingers at the recent arrestees but the full tale they told is more complicated and dark than the one being floated by the cops and presumed true right now. I concede, the cards’ version feels a stretch comparatively speaking, but is not implausible and isn’t yet refuted by the evidence, that I am at least aware of anyway. What we learn of the full events of that night will likely depend on what the cops can learn directly from the suspects and how loyal they remain to each other.
But to finally dive into it, here is what my cards had to say:
Paul had been interested in Kristin for some time prior to this evening and she was to him a “shiny object” that he was drawn to. He felt in some sense that they were meant to be together and/or that his desire for her was enough to entitle him to a relationship of some sorts with her. He likely at least believed he had genuine feelings for her beyond lust- but this is relative to how he would define or recognize this and I believe it would have been a far lower bar than it would be for most people as his emotional capacity was very limited. Kristin had at some point considered the possibility, but ultimately chose instead to focus on her studies. Just because something has the potential to be, doesn’t mean it will be and people can make their free will choices. However, in being aware that she hadn’t ruled “them” an impossibility from the start, suggesting, explicitly or implicitly, some underlying interest, Paul struggled with this concept and felt he was being unfairly denied. How big of a deal it/he ever was to Kristin and/or how seriously she entertained the idea of getting involved with him is unclear, but it seems likely he was a relatively minor character in her story up until that night. He may have over-estimated how hard it was for her to say no, and may have misinterpreted a delicate refusal as a conflicted one.
When Paul saw Kristin being escorted home due to her inebriation, he saw an opportunity for himself to be her hero for the evening and/or exploit her more vulnerable state. Something in how she was behaving towards him raised his hopes over his chances with her that night, and potentially beyond. So when he got her into her dorm room, he made his move expecting her to be a receptive and willing participant. However, she instead rejected him decisively and in a manner that did not spare his ego and/or feelings. This humiliation sparked a deep rage in him, and in retaliation, he attempted through brute force to sexually assault her. Kristin put up one hell of a fight, but unfortunately, the cards do imply that he ultimately overpowered her. How ferociously she fought back not only required that he use considerable strength to prevail over her, it added fuel to his rage and he ultimately struck her with such force that he severely injured her. He feared potentially fatally (even if not immediately so) and/or too damningly for him to escape consequences. Either way, she was now in a very bad state and he was in one of panic. And this is where the cards diverge from what is theorized so far by the cops and other couch detectives… Kristin was in dire shape, but still alive when Paul then called his dad for help.
Ruben Flores instructed his son to bring Kristin to his house to ensure no one would discover her while they planned their way out of this dilemma. So Paul found a way to smuggle her out of the room and then used some type of vehicle (a golf cart has been suggested) to get them to a spot where his dad could pick them up. Kristin was still unconscious, but they put measures in place to prevent her from leaving, should she have become capable of trying. I believe they were somehow able to keep Paul’s mother unaware of her presence in the house, at least initially. It is unclear if Paul went back to the house with his father or came over later, but the cards suggest that Kristin was alive at least through the following night and that Paul was there for her final moments.
The two men couldn’t decide on a way out and ultimately brought Paul’s mother into the ordeal. She was the one to make the call that their only way out was Kristin’s death. It wasn’t a certainty she would recover anyway, but following his mom’s directive, Paul was the one to then make sure she didn’t. How he did isn’t clear.
The three of them then worked together to dispose of her body. The cards suggest that her body is at the house where “love was turned upside down”, and Paul’s parents did ultimately divorce (it looks possible that the mom may have already moved out by then), so I believe they are validating that she is somewhere on their property. The three have, of course, done all they could since then to thwart the investigation into her disappearance and have with their silence remained loyal to each other throughout.
None of the three have been plagued by much guilt, if any, since. Paul’s lack of character and a moral compass don’t allow for this. These are deficiencies he has demonstrated throughout his life. Kristin is likely his only murder victim, but unlikely the first or the last that he has assaulted to varying degrees of severity through varying degrees of violence/means of force. For their part, his parents believe their actions were justified because they were acting to save their son from life-ruining consequences, which is, in their mind, what parents are supposed to do. And unlike most parents would (I hope), they didn’t feel there was a price too steep to pay to do so.
If the cards are to be believed, all three of them belong in prison but only time will tell if their loyalty and protective instincts, that none of them deserve but have been shown by at least the parents so far, flow both ways.
It seems inevitable (fingers crossed) that at least Paul and likely Ruben will serve time though, and that’s not nothing. And that may, in reality, be all that justice warrants, since, as I led with, the cards are not irrefutable evidence that events unfolded as they suggest they did. So again, this reading is only one hypothetical version of events and should not be taken as absolute fact.
On the surface, this version of events seems a bit less plausible for not being as simple of an answer as Paul did it himself and his father helped hide the crime after the fact. But on the other hand, when I think of which these questions is most likely to lead to the suggestion of bringing Kristen to his home vs. meeting him at an unassociated obscure location: “Dad, I have a dead body, what do I do with it?” “Dad, I hurt a girl and I don’t know if she’s going to be ok, I don’t know what to do, can you help?”, the latter one actually does start to make more sense.
Regardless of exactly what went down that night, Kristin’s legacy deserves to be more than that of a victim of evil. And it deserves to be more than I can do justice to based on snippets of quotes from her loved ones I came across on Google and it is hard not to slip into overused cliches. However, it is clear she was, still is, and would have been loved by so many. She was said to have been a gifted writer, an avid lover of nature, most especially the ocean, and to have had a bold spirit with a courageous and contagious zest for life. So I hope her soul is enjoying peaceful adventures on the other side and that her memory shines as inspiration to those who were lucky enough to have known her during her tragically too brief life.
talesofthetarot.com 