It's a cold and cloudy winter afternoon in San Luis Obispo, and I'm retracing missing

Cal Poly student Kristen Smart's last known steps.

In May of 1996 from a house just off campus, to the entrance of her red brick dorm building.

On perimeter road, seagulls are screaming overhead as I pass a huge modern looking wreck center,

with students on the second story looking down at me through Florida's ceiling glass windows

while they run on treadmills.

Other students walk by me having loud conversations on their cell phones.

Maybe I'm just self-conscious, but it feels like some of them are looking at me suspiciously.

I'm dressed pretty modestly and wearing a hat and a backpack, so I'm not sure what exactly

they're picking up on, but maybe I'm giving off some sort of vibration that says,

I don't belong here.

At 1.2 girls past me, and I clearly hear one say to the other, that guy did not look

our age.

So much for self-esteem.

I cross a bright green crosswalk, and on my right are a series of red buildings, with

California theme names and brass on their sides.

The full walk only takes me about 11 minutes, and by the end of it, I'm surprised to see

that the distance between the last place she was seen alive and the door to her dorm building

at Mirror Hall is just about 40 yards.

It's in these 40 yards that Kristen Smart disappeared over 23 years ago, and the case

is still unsolved.

There are currently more than a half million people missing in the United States.

...