Who Murdered Sid Wells? How Robert Redford's Death Renewed the Hunt for Solutions
Robert Redford flew to daughter Shauna Redford's aspect after her boyfriend Sid Wells change into killed in 1983—and he stayed invested within the case after the police's main suspect went free.
Robert Redford change into on the level of shoot The Pure in 1983 when he stumbled on out his daughter's boyfriend Sid Wells had been murdered.
Shauna Redford, a 22-year-frail pupil at College of Colorado Boulder, change into “convulsed with confusion, in a unsightly enlighten,” the actor recalled to biographer Michael Callan. So he without extend left the effect of his movie in Buffalo, N.Y., to be with her, chartering a jet and selecting up spouse Lola Van Wagenen from their house in Utah along the manner.
Wells had been stumbled on uninteresting from a .22-gauge shotgun injure to the wait on of his head within the lounge of his Boulder condominium on Aug. 1, 1983.
Shauna began courting Wells at some level of their freshman year of faculty after he requested her to a Navy ROTC dance, unaware at the time she change into the daughter of a huge title.
And whereas she change into devastated, her father change into furthermore shaken by the tragedy.
Redford change into “repeatedly considerably retiring, however he change into reclusive after that,” The total President's Men director Alan Pakula advised Callan. “I in most cases puzzled change into it some natural paranoid response, some recognition that he and his household were greater-profile targets than the leisure of us.”
After attending Wells' funeral at Christ Congregational Church in Longmont, Colo., Redford had to salvage wait on to work in Buffalo.
Nonetheless when cameras began rolling on The Pure, his concentration change into “obviously dented,” the Oscar winner advised Callan. “I change into pondering of my daughter's spot, no longer any fictional mission.”
When he change into killed, Wells had been renting a room to Thayne Smika, a 24-year-frail college dropout who, per police, had fallen within the wait on of on his payments.
Investigators stumbled on a masks from Smika at the scene announcing he'd long previous to focus on along with his fogeys for a few days, per a 2010 arrest warrant got by Other folks. When police went to his household's house to expose him of Wells' loss of life, Smika acknowledged, per the warrant, he change into there to net his hair permed and make his laundry, however authorities stumbled on out Smika got a perm a week earlier than Wells change into killed and confirmed that the condominium complicated had laundry products and providers.
Smika change into arrested Oct. 6, 1983, however he change into launched from custody weeks later after then-District Licensed legit Alex Hunter positive there wasn't ample proof to value him in Wells' loss of life.
“The proof pointed to Thayne,” Wells' mother June Menger advised NBC's Dateline in 2013. “The police division felt that manner, his friends and roommates felt that manner. We couldn't realize why they let him skedaddle.”
A titanic jury furthermore refused to indict Smika in 1985 and, per the FBI, he vanished a year later.
Menger advised Boulder Reporting Lab's Silvia Pettem in 2012 that, after within the origin being concerned her son's reminiscence change into being overshadowed, she “in the end realized that I desire the Redford connection to retain the case originate.”
Shauna stayed in contact with Menger, and her dad change into aloof following the investigation when the Boulder County District Court docket issued a warrant for Smika's arrest for first-diploma execute in December 2010. (A federal warrant change into furthermore issued on a price of unlawful flight to handbook clear of prosecution.)
“One day, I change into in my place of work and my secretary acknowledged, ‘Robert Redford's on the cell phone. Compose that you just would possibly also be seeking to talk over with him?’” ancient Boulder District Licensed legit Stan Garnett advised 9News after the actor's loss of life Sept. 16 at the age of 89. “I acknowledged clear.”
He and Redford “had a brief, however very cordial dialog,” the felony legit, now in non-public notice, recalled, “in which he thanked me and the Boulder Police and my place of work for persevering with to listen to to the case and work in the direction of getting a warrant in the end.”
Garrett acknowledged that his call from Redford years within the past mirrored the star's “field about his daughter and about this young man who'd misplaced his lifestyles very tragically.”
A day after Redford died, the FBI's Denver field place of work posted data about Wells' execute and the explore for Smika, moreover age-progression illustrations of the now-66-year-frail suspect, on social media.
Based entirely on the FBI, the final identified value of Smika change into when his automotive, carrying a stolen vehicle plate and scrubbed desirable of fingerprints, change into stumbled on abandoned in Beverly Hills, Calif., in October 1986. Police next bought tips of alleged sightings of Smika from California and Mexico in 1998 after the case change into featured on forty eight Hours.
The arrest warrant issued below D.A. Garnett on Dec. 2, 2010, change into spurred by unusual ballistics assessments conducted on shotgun pellets stumbled on in Wells' physique, Boulder Deputy Police Chief David Hayes advised the Day-to-day Digicam after the warrant change into unsealed Jan. 13, 2011. Investigators believed the pellets matched shotgun shells stumbled on at the Smika household house in japanese Colorado, per Hayes.
“There hasn’t been a nationwide or worldwide hunt for Mr. Smika,” Boulder Police Chief Designate Beckner acknowledged at the time. “There will be now.”
The FBI is aloof offering a $10,000 reward for data leading to Smika's arrest and conviction, and asks that anyone with data call their local FBI place of work or nearest American embassy or consulate.
As Hayes effect apart it on Dateline in 2013, “Right here’s no longer a whodunit, however reasonably a 'the effect is he?'”
Source credit : eonline.com
