Parkinson talked to the family twice Tuesday and said “they're feeling a bit of relief.”
Parkinson said he has assured the family his investigators will continue to search for Smart's body.
“But, as you can imagine, until we return Kristin, to them, this is not over,” Parkinson said. “We have committed to them that we are not going to stop until Kristin has been recovered, no matter what the cost, no matter what the time.”
The news comes about a month after the sheriff named Flores, a former Cal Poly student, the "prime suspect" in the case and investigators searched his father's home and property in the city of Arroyo Grande, about 15 miles south of the university, using ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs.