the case. Cadaver dogs from the FBI were brought in and investigators were preparing to spend approximately four days excavating an area on the Cal Poly campus. After three days, items were found at all three dig sites located on the same hillside near Smart's dorm. A spokesman for the sheriff's office said, "The items are being analyzed to see whether they are connected to the case, which could take days, weeks, or months". The items uncovered were still being investigated . On April 20, 2021, it was announced by the prosecutor that they believe Kristin's body had been buried beneath the deck of Ruben Flores's home, but had recently been removed. Biological evidence was found by using ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs. Legal proceedings Smart was declared legally dead on May 25, 2002, the sixth anniversary of her disappearance. In 2005, her parents, Denise and Stan Smart, filed a civil case of wrongful death against Flores, one of the three students who walked Smart to her dorm. The Smart family was represented by James R. Murphy, on a pro bono basis. The suit was dropped due to lack of evidence after Flores pled the Fifth Amendment. In 2006 or 2007, the Flores family filed a lawsuit against the Smart family for emotional distress, but the lawsuit never resulted in a judgment. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office regularly reviewed the case, and spent thousands of hours and dollars during the period 2011–2016. The FBI had her on file as a high priority missing person investigation, with a reward of $75,000 for information leading to finding her or resolving her case. Terry Black, a Delta-area man, offered a $100,000 reward for Smart's body. Publicity Beginning on September 30, 2019, the musician Chris Lambert released a series of ten podcast episodes. The podcast recounts, in detail, Kristin's probable abduction and subsequent death at the hands of another student on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, 23 years prior. The podcast has been downloaded over twelve million times. Renewed public interest led to a new billboard being put up in Arroyo Grande in January 2020 to replace the original, which had been up since 1997. On January 18, 2020, the Stockton Record reported that the FBI informed Smart's family that additional news about her disappearance would be coming and that the family "might want to get away for a