Just after noon this afternoon, Luke Viker correctly guessed the Secret Phrase and won the $200.00. His payout DOUBLED since a few weeks ago he purchased a Toy for Madi Iversen's Christmas Toy Drive to honor Kristin.

Terry Black is the owner of the Grand Island Mansion up in Sacramento. The Smart family will forever be grateful for his personal help in trying to find Kristin. Mr. Black:

1. Purchased full-page ads in SLO for Kristin.
2. Offered a $100.000.00 reward for Kristin.
3. Most importantly, got on the phone with SLO Detectives and demand that they follow up on the Ben Franklin lead. (This was in 2006 - three years AFTER the tips came in.)
4. A few days later, SLO Detective returned Mr. Black's call to inform him that they just checked the lead out and that it was nothing.
5. That made no sense to me because I personally drove up to Sonoma State and met with the head of the University's IT Department...Barry Blackburn.
6. Between 2003 and 2006, I would occasionally stay in touch with Mr Blackburn and his news was always the same: 'Dennis, no one has contacted me".
7. SLO Sheriff told Mr. Black they did not use Barry Blackburn as a source, they used another contact.

It really is very possible the this lead was checked out immediately by the SLO Sheriff's Department. If that is 'true' then I owe them a HUGE apology and I am more than happy to do so. ​​

1. The Eye of the Needle:  Barry Blackburn, head of the IT Department at Sonoma State personally told me: "Dennis, it doesn't matter who they went through, whoever that was, that person had to come to me to get the information and No One has contacted me!
2. Barry even contacted Campus Security to tell them to be looking for a subpoena request from SLO. He never received it.
3. Upon hearing that SLO used another contact at Sonoma State, Barry Blackburn became 'professionally angry' and assured me that there was in fact a 'match'.

So now you know what I know about this tip. Mr. Blackburn was as sincere and genuine as a person can possibly be. Over time, he became 'professionally angry' because he wanted to help the Smarts but would not break the University's 'Privacy Laws' to do so. Barry tried, he really tried.

NOTE: ***It took many more years - but eventually, even the SLO Detective confirmed that there was indeed a 'match'.

So here is the $64,000.00 question: "Why would people in charge of looking for Kristin not want to speak with Barry Blackburn, the IT admin person at Sonoma State after Mr. Blackburn confirmed he was in possession of potentially valuable information that could help in the investigation? How does Kristin benefit from this lack of effort?

`When I decided to share with you the 'Ben Franklin' lead, in my mind, I wanted to break it down into 2 distinct parts.

1. The actual tips that I received.
2. What has been done about this information.

Here is where things get a bit delicate because I have NO IDEA exactly what the SLO Sheriff's Department did regarding this lead and they darn sure have no duty and/or obligation to share anything with me. They may have in fact done a great job regarding this information.

The rest of this promotion regards what I am able to share with you regarding this tip. I will share with you my perspective and allow you to draw your own conclusion.

For today though, the basics are that:

1. I received the tip and shared it immediately with Law Enforcement and the Smarts.
2. Three years come and go and nothing seems to have come of it.
3. During this time  - I stayed in occasional contact with the IT Manager at Sonoma State, Barry Blackburn, just to see if he ever heard from anyone and his answer was always the same: "no".
4. Upon demands from Kristin Supporter Terry Black, in 2006, SLO Sheriff's report to Terry Black that they checked the lead out and it proved to be 'nothing'.
5. This report angered Mr. Blackburn because he has told me personally several times that there is 'a match' of a name at Sonoma State that matched the Union 76 co-workers and that no one has contacted him.
6. Due to US Privacy laws, Mr. Blackburn could only release the name if he received a subpoena
7. Despite Blackburn's complete willingness to help, the subpoena never came.
8. SLO Sheriff told Mr. Black they did not go through Mr. Blackburn.
9. Blackburn told me that regardless of who SLO Sheriff went through - 'that person' would have had to come to Mr. Blackburn to get the information.

Barry did share with us that, eventually, one day he WAS contacted by SLO Sheriff but the Detective only wanted to know if Barry had information that made it worthwhile for them to follow up and get the subpoena.

Question: Why does it take over three years to contact Barry Blackburn to ask him if it was worthwhile to go get a subpoena?

Barry assured the Detective that he did have information and to by all means go ahead and get the subpoena.

Mr. Blackburn has since retired from Sonoma State having never received a subpoena from the SLO Sheriff's Department regarding this tip.

Terry Black told me that he was informed by the Sheriff's Department that there was nothing to this lead.

Barry Blackman says there was a match.

Here, Ben Franklin goes to great lengths to describe the relationship that existed at the time between Paul Flores, Doug Roberts and Jeromy Moon.

The author also goes on to say that 'David Karp' is a good guy and was definitely 'not' friends with Paul. David was just a co-worker of Paul's at the Union 76 gas station.