DENVER — It's been more than 40 years since Sid Wells, a 22-year-old student at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU), was murdered, but it feels like yesterday for his family.
“The older I get, the harder it is to stay composed," said his older brother Robert Wells, his eyes growing misty.
Robert Wells described his brother as a gregarious person who treated everyone with dignity and respect.
“His sense of humor was amazing," Robert Wells said with a smile. "He could be tenacious when he needed to be. He wanted to be an investigative journalist or fly jets for the Navy. What a great combination."
In 1983, Sid Wells was dating Shauna Redford.
“When he first called me, he said, 'I met this beautiful girl, beautiful strawberry blonde hair, and we've been out on a couple of dates.' And he was very excited about this new person in his life, and they'd gone out about three times," Robert Wells recalled. “He said one of the cadets in the ROTC came up to him and said, 'What's it like dating Robert Redford's daughter?' He had no idea.”
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Hunt ongoing for killer in student's '83 murder
One of the Wells brothers, Sam, found Sid Wells dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head on August 1, 1983. Investigators identified a suspect, Thayne Smika, who was a roommate of the Wells brothers at the time of the murder.
Smika was arrested in October 1983. However, during a grand jury process to determine if and what charges Smika might face, it was discovered in District Attorney Alexander Hunter’s case file that the office had reached an agreement with Smika that the grand jury would not be able to come back with a “true bill” charging Smika with any criminal conduct, meaning he wouldn’t face any charges no matter what the grand jury determined.
Smika was eventually let out of custody and stayed in the area for a couple of years. A warrant for his arrest on forgery charges was issued out of Denver in early 1986, but he was never arrested, and the warrant was eventually dropped.
Smika's family said the last time they heard from him was in 1986, when he said he was leaving town. According to court documents, he told his family members to get passports in order to visit him, implying that he would be leaving the country, but his family claims they haven’t heard from him since.
An abandoned car registered to his father, who said he gave the car to Smika before he left town, was found in Beverly Hills, California, in 1986, but there was no sign of Smika.
A different Boulder County district attorney, Stan Garnett, put together a new arrest warrant for Smika, which was approved on Dec. 2, 2010. It carries first-degree murder charges, a $5 million bond, and the conditions that Smika have no contact with the Wells family should he ever be caught.
“In this case, we have answers. We know who did it," Robert Wells said. “The day he's found and brought to justice is the day we'll find out the rest of the story. Until then, that story is cold.”
Sid Wells' mother became one of the founding members of the nonprofit Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons (FOHVAMP), which has advocated for those impacted by such cases since 2001. Eventually, Robert Wells became the executive director of the organization, a position he held for more than two decades.
"We're here to make sure that these families' cases are never forgotten," said Robert Wells. “That murderer living amongst us doesn't make for a safe society, and they need to be held accountable, and they need to be brought to justice. And as long as we're around, we're going to do what we can to ensure that happens.”
On Wednesday, Robert Wells introduced the new executive director of the organization: Kirby Lewis, who previously worked as an assistant director of investigations at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“I couldn't have found a better person for this. His heart is in it," Robert Wells told Denver7. “I'll be falling back to a senior advisor position and probably handle a little bit of media. And Kirby Lewis will be up to his elbows in cold cases and working directly with the families.”
Lewis said he is both excited and intimidated to take on this new role.
“Recently, with COVID-19 especially, some grant money dried up or went away, so the organization is limited financially," Lewis explained. “We're going to make a big push for fundraising so that we can, maybe, FOHVAMP can finance some forensic investigative genealogy. We can maybe do some age progression on photographs, work with the media partners and get some case information out there and try and generate leads or tips for law enforcement to follow up on.”
FOHVAMP connects the families of cold case victims with law enforcement, providing an outlet for dialogue between the two.
“I cannot speak for their law enforcement agency, but kind of tell the family what's going on behind the scenes that they may not understand or may not see," Lewis said.
For Robert Wells, this change within FOHVAMP is a new chapter, and one that warms his heart.
“Sid, much like my father, would probably say, 'God, you've done a great job, Rob. What are you going to do tomorrow? What's next?'” Robert Wells said. “I'm not going away. I will be quietly in the background, doing the best I can, given health concerns and challenges, until they throw dirt on me.”
The Boulder Police Department sent Denver7 a statement that said Sid Wells' case is still open and active, adding that "the search for the suspect has never ceased."
The statement continued to say that "no matter how much time goes by, Boulder Police are deeply committed to finding justice for this family and that will never stop."
