Kristin Smart Part 1: Her Last Walk Home

On Memorial Day weekend 1996, 19-year-old Cal Poly freshman Kristin Smart left a party and never made it back to her dorm. The last person seen with her had a black eye, three different stories, and a reputation that should have raised red flags long before that night. This is where it all began — the disappearance that would haunt a family, baffle investigators, and remain one of California’s most heartbreaking cold cases for over two decades. Without A Trace begins its three-part series on the Kristin Smart case.