The Backstory of the Kristin Smart Case: The California Register
Editor's Note: This series was originally published on Paso Robles Press in 2021.
Before there was the Your Own Backyard podcast, there was The California Register Newspaper.
In January of 2014, David Smallwood printed his first issue of The California Register with, “Protected by the First Amendment: ‘Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…’ Ratified: December 15, 1791” printed on the top left corner of the front page.
In large bold print, read the headline, “The Unsolved Mystery of Cal Poly Student Kristin Smart Law Enforcement Still Baffled After 17 Years of Investigating.”
The first eight pages of the paper covered the Kristin Smart case.
Photos of Kristin growing up lined the bottom of the page, a tip he received from an FBI agent. Let the suspect know that the person they murdered was more than just a college student.
Smallwood worked as the paper’s editor, writer, and publisher. He did it all and with no background in the industry—just the desire for justice and the willingness to know more.
The first issue of The California Register was mailed to Central Coast residents for free. The paper even read, “For Inquisitive Readers, the Price is Free!”
Smallwood’s goal was to get people talking about the case again. And boy, talk about the case they did.
Like many cases, Kristin’s disappearance went years without any progress. Only to be mentioned during the 6 o’clock news on her birthday or anniversary of her disappearance.
But The California Register changed that.
Frustrated with seeing no results from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Department, Smallwood began investigating on his own, just like any other investigative reporter would.
Paul Dostie, a retired police detective sergeant, contacted Smallwood after his sister who lives in the North County sent him a copy of the Register. He gladly offered his services.
Dostie now works as a forensics investigator with grave detection (cadaver) dogs.
In 2014, Dostie brought his cadaver dog Buster (who has since passed) to search the perimeter of Susan Flores's home at 529 East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande.
Buster himself is accredited with finding over 200 human bodies. His most known finding was in Tarawa, where he located over 35 WWII Marines lost after the Battle of Tarawa 72 years ago.
It was on June 2, 2014, that Buster confirmed the corner of Susan's backyard as a location of human remains.
At that time, Dostie took soil samples from the neighbor's property and sent them to Dr. Arpad Vass, who was the senior research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratories from 1989-2012.
One of the soil samples Dostie sent came back as a "weak positive" for human remains. Dostie suspected the concrete block wall that separates the properties could have been interfering with the regular migration of human contaminants through the moisture in the soil.
Smallwood brought these findings to the Smart Family's attorney Mark Connely.
Smallwood assumed that Connely then brought the findings to the SLO Sheriff's Department, where the evidence was deemed as insufficient and not enough to obtain a search warrant.
Smallwood released this information in Issue 2 - Volume 2 of The California Register.
But it would be the controversial headline on Issue 2 - Volume 2 that would grab the attention of anyone who had heard the name Kristin Smart.
“Kristin Smart’s Body Finally Found? Two Dog Alerts and Positive Soil Sample!”
The Smart Family and others called the headline misleading and understandably so.
It is obvious that Smallwood is not shy about his feelings towards the SLO County Sheriff’s office and the handling of the case.
He is aggressive, sarcastic, and pointed in his accusations.
For some, his methods to gain attention and tell the story have made him uncredible. Many had written Smallwood off as a little bit of a “nut” or just an internet sleuth before internet sleuths existed.
But there is a lot about David Smallwood that people don’t know.
There is a reason he is aggressive. There is a reason he has a need for justice. There is a reason he is the way he is. Just no one has ever asked him about it.
Smallwood was a US Navy anti-submarine warfare pilot on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the South China Sea during the Carter administration. He served a total of ten years as a pilot in the Navy.
After serving two deployments in the South China Sea, Smallwood joined the naval reserves where he was stationed at the tactical air base Dallas Naval Air Station in Texas.
It was during his time in the reserves where Smallwood experienced an abundance of corruption within the military.
His subordinate Chief Petty Officer Michael Tufariello brought him evidence of massive payroll fraud and reported his findings.
On June 20, 1984, Tufariello was accused of being suicidal and seized by Marines to be put into a mental ward for four days. He was held in the mental ward just long enough to discredit his whistleblower assertions.
“They made life miserable for both of us,” said Smallwood.
Tufariello ended up being a critical testimony for the Military Whistleblower Protection Act of 1988.
Smallwood left the Navy in 1986, but he left a changed man.
His time in the Navy left Smallwood with a thirst for justice to be served and an eye for governmental corruption.
Fast forward to 2013, and Smallwood stepped into the Kristin Smart case.
With a blessing from the Smart family, Smallwood begins piecing together Kristin's disappearance and printing the story in his newly published paper, The California Register.
Smallwood began conducting interviews. One of the first was with Joe Lassiter and Mary Lassiter (now Brown).
The Lassiters rented Susan Flores's home at 529 East Branch Street in Arroyo Grande following the disappearance of Kristin Smart.
Mary and Joe signed paperwork in June 1996 but could not move in until July 1996 because the Flores family was finishing a concrete project in the backyard.
Kristin Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996.
Neither Mary nor Joe knew about the disappearance of Kristin Smart or the Flores family's involvement when they moved in until they began receiving "hate mail."
Smallwood interviewed the now-divorced couple separately.
Both recalled Ruben Flores's strange behavior.
While Mary and Joe lived in the East Branch Street home, Ruben would come by their home every day for up to six hours at a time and sometimes even drunk.
Knowing the Lassiter's are Raiders fans, Ruben would bring a Raider's souvenir when he visited.
Both Joe and Mary said Ruben was adamant about getting what Joe described as a metal "old school trash can" that was left in the backyard.
Neither of them looked inside the trash can.
It was after Ruben finally took the trash can that Mary found the infamous earring in the driveway.
Mary, a nurse at Sierra Vista Hospital at the time, saw the dried blood on the back of the earring. After seeing Kristin's billboard in front of Attorney James Murphy's office, Mary believed the earring was very similar to the necklace in the billboard photo. Kristin’s hair in the photo concealed the earrings.
Two detectives from the sheriff’s office received the earring from the Lassiter's as evidence.
Mary and Joe each separately described the detectives taking a photo of the earring before placing it carefully in an evidence bag. This is the same earring that allegedly disappeared when the Smarts demanded to see it.
Then, Mary described to Smallwood the watch beep she would hear every morning at 4:20 a.m. coming from the backyard.
At the time, Mary told Smallwood she thought it was related to 420, a slang term for marijuana.
But when Chris Lambert, creator of Your Own Backyard podcast, asked Denise Smart about the watch alarm. Denise told Lambert Kristin was a lifeguard and would get up around 4:30 a.m. for work.
Mary also claimed to have found dried blood on the shower curtain in the bathroom, which she claims to have taken a swab of with a Q-tip and still has in a box somewhere in her garage.
At first, the Lassiters were visited by law enforcement and questioned on their involvement with the disappearance. Specifically, Joe was said to be harassed by officers asking him what his involvement was.
The Lassiters were under the impression by Susan that they had no right as renters to let anyone on the property.
Susan eventually evicted the Lassiters before their six-month lease was over.
That was when the Lassiters learned as renters, they have the final say of who can do what on the property under Tenants Rights.
So Mary and Joe let people begin searching the home.
"I know that trash can had something to do with it," said Mary, "Too many things threw up red flags."
Mary told people they could dig up the backyard then. But no one did.
Smallwood said, “She [Kristin] is next to the concrete block wall, or she’s in the footing underneath the concrete wall. She’s there.”
Of course, like any unsolved case, everyone has their own theory as to what happened to Kristin Smart.
If you ask Smallwood, he says, "I don't think they [SLO Sheriff Department] ever really wanted to solve the Kristin Smart case."
He continues, "I'm sure the police have more information than I do. They're supposed to. That's their job. But I'm a results-oriented kind of guy, and right now, still not too many results."
In essence, Smallwood undoubtedly believes Kristin's remains are in Susan Flores's backyard.
And he isn’t the only one.
This article specifically covered David Smallwood and the California Register's part in the Kristin Smart case.
We have reached out to Smart's attorney Mark Connely for comment but have received no response.
We did reach out to the SLO Sheriff's Office, who sent us the following statement, "As a result of Judge Van Rooyen’s suppression order in this case, the Sheriff’s Office is unable to comment at this time."
In Part Two of this series, we will be sharing Paul Dostie's involvement in the case, including his credentials to find clandestine graves worldwide.
And soon, we will be speaking to Dr. Arpad Vass, where we will further explore the soil samples, his grave detection machine, and his conclusion as to why he firmly believes a human body, most likely Kristin Smart's remains, is in Susan Flores's backyard.