How Robert Redford’s Connection to a 1983 Cold Case Revived the Investigation

Sid Wells had big plans. He was going to be a journalist or a fighter pilot for the United States Navy following college graduation. But he still had one more year left at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he went to school with his girlfriend, Shauna Redford, the daughter of movie star Robert Redford. Sadly, he never had the chance to see those ambitions through. Wells, 22, was days away from starting his senior year when his life was tragically cut short.

On August 1, 1983, the journalism student was shot point blank in the back of the head—execution style—and left for dead. Wells’s brother, Sam, found his body that afternoon in the Boulder, Colo., apartment they shared with a third roommate, Thayne Smika.

Wells’s relationship with 22-year-old Shauna meant his murder was immediately thrust into the spotlight, and the investigation was subject to intense media scrutiny. The pressure was on to find Wells’s killer.

During the investigation, authorities failed to recover evidence of a murder weapon or shell casings from the crime scene, but a note allegedly penned by Smika, 24, and addressed to the Wells brothers that read, “I’ve gone home to visit my folks for a couple of days and I’ll be back Tuesday or Wednesday,” was discovered on a bloody coffee table next to the victim’s body, according to an arrest warrant obtained by KMGH-TV.

Authorities spoke with Smika, who allegedly claimed that at the time of the murder, he went to Akron, Colo., to “visit his parents, do laundry, run some errands and get a haircut and permanent,” the warrant stated. When questioned about firearms, he purportedly denied ever owning a shotgun, except for one his father bought him that he hadn’t seen in about seven years. Instead, he attempted to turn investigators’ attention toward another man, who he accused of stealing cocaine from Wells.

“It’s called misdirection,” Alex Baber, director of Cold Case Consultants of America, tells A&E Crime + Investigation. “That was his way of applying or injecting a misdirection to police.”

Initially, police bought his story and even placed him in protective custody out of fear for his safety. But they slowly zeroed in on Smika after a .20-gauge shotgun matching the murder weapon and bullets were found in his bedroom at his parents’ home, according to police. Investigators realized Smika’s story had several holes in it, and he was arrested that October.

Authorities suspected Smika—who was regularly late with his share of the rent payment—may have been motivated to kill Wells over a rent dispute. Smika was supposed to pay rent the day of the murder.

“And in addition to paying the rent, [he] was also going to give Sid some additional money and some cocaine,” Boulder County Deputy Chief Dave Hayes told CNN.

Weeks later, Alex Hunter, then the district attorney of Boulder County, decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Smika with murder, and he was released from custody.

In the meantime, Redford paused production on his classic sports drama The Natural so he could attend Wells’s funeral with his daughter in Longmont, Colo., the Daily Camera reported.

Years passed, and by 1986, Smika had fled the area. It was also the last year his family said they heard from him. Right before disappearing, he hinted to his parents that he was leaving the country and encouraged them to get their passports, police said. His abandoned car was recovered in Beverly Hills, Calif., that year, and he vanished without a trace, bringing the investigation to a grinding halt.

Baber speculates Smika may have sensed the case was heating up.

“Smika got extremely lucky, at the cost of the Wells family,” he says. “Innocent people don’t typically go on the run.”

Speaking with the Associated Press more than a decade later, Redford admitted Wells’s unsolved murder still disturbed him.

"It's like a partially opened door, with a very dark room behind it," Redford told the AP in 1997.

But in 2010, after investigators reanalyzed old evidence using new DNA technology, a judge authorized a new arrest warrant for Smika, charging him with first-degree murder in the death of Wells and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Still, 42 years later, the case remains unsolved. Redford’s death in September 2025 prompted the FBI to revive the investigation and call on the public for help in locating the alleged murderer.

Despite the time that’s passed, Baber is optimistic Smika will be caught.

“It's quite possible,” he says. “Everyone leaves a digital footprint. I would run an internet crawl with an AI program. Unless he's used an alias or has adopted a stolen identity, we should be able to track him and use the digital and genealogy identifications that are out there now.”

The FBI believes Smika may have been hiding out in Yelapa, Mexico, for years prior to 2007, according to its website. He might currently be living in California.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Smika’s arrest and conviction.