DENVER — The murder of a Boulder college student will be the first investigation featured on a new podcast that seeks justice for cold case homicide victims, in addition to missing and exploited children.
Watch Colette's report in the video player below:
The idea behind The Casebook Files came directly from the family of 22-year-old Sid Wells, who was shot and killed in 1983.
Robert Wells described his brother, Sid Wells, as a tenacious young man who wanted to fly jets for the Navy one day and was enrolled in the Journalism School at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder).
Sid Wells was also an intern at Denver7 before his untimely death.
"I think Sid deserves a little justice after all this time," Robert Wells said.
Robert Wells is the driving force behind the new podcast, which brought together key investigators on his brother's case for their first recording on Wednesday.
"Seeing the passion that they still had in solving the case after all these years, that's what warmed my heart," said Robert Wells.
One of the Wells brothers, Sam, found Sid Wells dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head on August 1, 1983, according to court documents. 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 Smika would face charges and what those would be, it was discovered in then-Boulder District Attorney Alex 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 would not face any charges no matter what the grand jury determined.
In 1986, a warrant for Smika's arrest on forgery charges was issued out of Denver, but he was never arrested and the warrant was eventually dropped. Those charges were related to allegations that Smika allegedly forged 14 checks to himself, totaling to $63,850.59, while employed with a Denver company.
A different Boulder County district attorney, Stan Garnett, put together a new arrest warrant for Smika connected to Sid Wells, which was approved on Dec. 2, 2010. It carries a first-degree murder charge and a $5 million bond.
When interviewed by a Boulder Police Officer posing as a student journalist in 1997, Smika's family said he changed his name, left Denver, and the last time they heard from him was in 1986.
The documents continue to claim that Smika's family said he changed his name and left town "out of fear for his life." Smika allegedly told his family members to apply for passports in order to visit him, implying that he would be leaving the country, but his parents said he never contacted them.
During that same interview conducted by an undercover investigator, Smika's parents said the family purchased a car for him in 1986 in order to leave the state, which was found in Oct. of that year abandoned in California.
Boulder
Boulder cold case catalyzes one family to fight for others
Robert Wells is still hopeful that one day his brother's case is resolved.
"Somebody out there knows why Sid was killed," Robert Wells said.
The Casebook Files will also utilize a self-contained artificial intelligence application, which aims to find patterns between cases that could be relevant.
The Casebook Files is expected to launch later this year, according to Wells.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.