I'm Lester Holt tonight on Deadline. She vanished one holiday weekend. Now the latest in the headline making mystery of college student Kristen Smart

This picture of my friend is on the TV

But was that she's missing and that's all we knew about anything for years

My parents were on relenting every last waking minute was dedicated to finding my sister

The police are kind of like well, maybe she's camping maybe she's out with friends. There was certainly a perception that long-force

They've kind of fallen short yet. There was some mistakes made early on

I'm retracing Kristen Smart's last-known steps this podcast sort of raised this case to a national level again

How many people contacted you? I think hundreds if not thousands. Something's got to break. Something's got to give

I

Was like holy smokes. This is the guy

Here's Josh Mego it's with the vanishing of Kristen Smart

She loved it here the Pacific open free full of possibility and adventure

Back then those words also described Kristen Smart it was really just that boundless energy and that boundless

Determination to live life to the fullest

Kristen just 19 years old

Everybody knew Kristen was there when she walked into a room because she was just tall and gorgeous and legs for days

A college freshman when she vanished now a quarter century has passed

Kristen Smart Kristen Smart it's a story that grew to more than the sum of its parts

The mystery that leaves this smart family haunted through the years through the graduations

Kristen's presence lingered

Quiet but constant in the poster on the highway

And on the pathways through the red brick dorms where she was last seen

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