Ep 9. The Vanishing Women of San Luis Obispo

In Evil Talks Chilling Confessions season 1 episode 9 titled "The Vanishing Women of San Luis Obispo," viewers are taken on a deep dive into a perplexing case of abduction, murder, and an elusive serial killer. The episode opens with a background of San Luis Obispo as a small and peaceful college town in California where crime rates are relatively low. However, the beautiful town has had its fair share of terrible events over the years, and one of the most notable was the disappearance and murder of two young women.

Heather Robertson, a 19-year old college student, vanished without a trace in the summer of 1997. She was last seen on July 11th, leaving a party with a man known locally as The Campus Creeper. Despite the intense search by her family and the police, Heather's body was not found until three months later. Her decomposing body was found in a remote ravine about six miles from the San Luis Obispo campus in October 1997. The cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.

Three years after Heather's disappearance, Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old student from Stockton, California, went missing on May 25th, 2002, after attending a party off-campus near the Cal Poly Campus. She was last seen walking back to her campus dorm room with a student, Paul Flores, who was the last to see her alive. Despite a massive search effort, Kristin's body was never located, and the case went cold for years.

The episode takes viewers through the investigation process, and how the police worked to solve these complicated cases. Interviews with law enforcement officials, friends, family members, and forensic investigators highlight some of the breakthroughs in the case, including DNA evidence and cadaver dog search. The chilling moments of the episode come from the interviews with the convicted killer, Paul Flores. Flores was arrested for Kristin's murder in April 2021, almost two decades after her disappearance. In the interview, he reveals some shocking details, including how he was the last person to see Kristin alive.

The episode also highlights the criminal profiling that led investigators to both Heather and Kristin's murders and narrates some of the clues that pointed towards the killer and his eventual capture. Through it all, audiences will see a hauntingly accurate portrait of how killers work and how difficult it can be to bring them to justice.

Overall, "The Vanishing Women of San Luis Obispo" is a riveting episode in the series that takes viewers through the timeline of two unsolved murders that became the cold cases of the decade in California. From the disbelief of the victims' families to the efforts of the police, this episode brings to life the challenges of investigating cold cases and how the use of technology and criminal profiling led to the eventual capture of a killer. This episode is perfect for true crime enthusiasts looking for an insight into how some of the most complex cases are solved.