Opening statements in the murder trial of Kristin Smart began on Monday, with the first witness taking the stand on Thursday: Denise Smart, the victim’s mother. Prosecutors allege that Paul Flores murdered 19-year-old Smart in his dorm room in 1996 while the two were freshman at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and that his father, Ruben Flores, helped him hide her body, which has not been found. The men were arrested in 2021. Denise Smart recalled the initial days after her daughter went missing, sobbing as she remembered feeling ignored by college and law enforcement authorities. “I felt like the life of my daughter had no value to anyone except her family,” she said. Smart last saw her daughter, whom she described as “inseparable” from her siblings, over Easter in 1996. This is the first time in more than 20 years that Paul and Reuben Flores have had to sit in the same room as Denise Smart.