A 44-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, 25 years after the then 19-year-old college student Kristin Smart, disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in the city of San Luis Obispo between San Francisco and Los Angeles in 1996.
The two were seen together after a party, the same night the woman disappeared.
It writes the news agency A.P.
The man is said to have been seen with the woman that evening.
The arrest took place after the arrested man’s father was taken into custody in connection with another incident. The 44-year-old is now suspected of murdering the then 19-year-old woman.
Extremely emotional day
The news comes about a month after the youngest of the two members of the family was identified as the main suspect in the disappearance case.
Crime technicians are said to have searched his father’s home with both dead dogs and ground-penetrating radars, but Smart has not yet been found.
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The family of the missing 19-year-old has not yet commented directly on the arrest, but says through his spokesman that the arrest has led to an extremely emotional day.
Arrested earlier
The 44-year-old has also previously been linked to the disappearance, but has chosen to remain silent, until a potential trial.
He was last arrested in February, in connection with a weapons charge, but was released on bail.
Although Smart has not yet been found, she was pronounced dead in 2002, six years after she disappeared.
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