EDUCATION

Authorities seeking student remains find 'items of interest'

Associated Press
Published | Updated

A sign outside the James R. Murphy, Jr. law office in Arroyo Grande, Calif., offers a reward for information in the 1996 disappearance of Kristin Smart, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016. FBI agents sifted through dirt Wednesday at an excavation site on the edge of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where they hope to find remains of the student. Smart, 19, of Stockton, Calif., was last seen in the early morning of May 25, 1996, while returning to her dorm after an off-campus party. (AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

A sign outside the James R. Murphy, Jr. law office in Arroyo Grande, Calif., offers a reward for information in the 1996 disappearance of Kristin Smart, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016. FBI agents sifted through dirt Wednesday at an excavation site on the edge of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where they hope to find remains of the student. Smart, 19, of Stockton, Calif., was last seen in the early morning of May 25, 1996, while returning to her dorm after an off-campus party. (AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

Authorities say "items of interest" have been found by authorities digging for the remains of a California college student who vanished in 1996.

FBI agents and local sheriff's deputies have been excavating a site near a concrete letter "P'' on the edge of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

They're hoping to find the remains of 19-year-old Kristin Smart of Stockton, who was last seen returning to her dorm from a party more than a decade ago.

San Luis Obispo County sheriff's spokesman Tony Cipolla (Kih-POH'-luh) says Thursday that "items of interest" have been found. He won't describe them, but he says they're being analyzed to see if they're related to Smart's disappearance.

The excavation site is one of three identified in January by dogs trained to detect human remains.