Reigniting a Cold Case
Actor Robert Redford (A&S ex’58, HonDocHum’87) arrives in Longmont, Colo., in August 1983 for the funeral of Sid Wells (A&S ex’84).
It was Aug. 1, 1983, when Sid Wells (A&S ex’84), who was about to start his senior year at CU, was shot to death execution style in a Spanish Towers condominium in Boulder.
His killer was never arrested.
Twenty-eight years later, Boulder Deputy Chief of Police David Hayes, originally assigned to the case, convinced District Attorney Stan Garnett to ask to have an arrest warrant opened for Wells’ roommate Thayne Smika, a longtime prime suspect in the case.
Smika, 51, is thought to be alive and living under an assumed identity, although he vanished in 1986.
The case drew international attention because Wells was dating Shauna Jean Redford (Art’85), daughter of actor Robert Redford (A&S ex’58, HonDocHum’87). Hayes has always believed Smika was responsible for the terrible crime because shotgun pellets retrieved from Wells’ body seemed to match those found at Smika’s eastern Colorado family home.
While police tested the pellets in the late 1990s, there were concerns about flaws in the tests.
“The current technology came through for us, and it finally came together,” Hayes told the Boulder Camera.
Smika was arrested on Oct. 6, 1983, two months after the slaying, but then-district attorney Alex Hunter (A&S’59, Law’63) declined to charge him, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. A grand jury was derailed by Hunter two years later, according to the Camera.
Photo from the Boulder Daily Camera