Robert Redford’s death reignites interest in 1983 Boulder cold-case murder
Mark Leffingwell / Daily Camera
Sid Wells
The FBI is offering a $10,000 award for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in the 1983 murder of a University of Colorado Boulder student, the agency announced in a post Wednesday.
Boulder police are searching for Thayne Smika, who is accused of murdering his then-roommate, Sid Wells. At the time, Wells was dating Shauna Redford, the daughter of famed director and actor Robert Redford, who died Tuesday.
Wells was found in his apartment on Aug. 1, 1983, with a gunshot wound to his head, according to Daily Camera reporting. Smika was arrested several months later on suspicion of Wells’ murder, but later released when then-Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter declined to charge him, citing insufficient evidence. In 1986, Smika disappeared.
In 2009, then-District Attorney Stan Garnett said he would review the case and consider running old evidence through new DNA tests. Boulder police obtained an arrest warrant for Smika in 2010.
Wells’ murder has drawn national attention because of his connection to Redford, who stopped filming “The Natural” to attend Wells’ funeral in Longmont in 1983.
Boulder police released five photographs that show how 1983 homicide suspect Thayne Smika is believed to look today. The photographs were created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory using age progression technology and a 1983 arrest photo of Smika. Smika is a suspect in the homicide of Sid Wells.
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