Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. Sit is Saturday, November the eighth, and
Speaker 1: the hunt is on for a killer, for the killer
Speaker 1: who murdered a University of Colorado college student forty plus
Speaker 1: years ago. But there's a renewed effort to find this
Speaker 1: killer because of the death of Hollywood legend Robert Redford.
Speaker 1: And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people don't even know this connection.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating to hear. But a guy has been on
Speaker 1: the loose for forty plus years, and after Robert Redford's death,
Speaker 1: there is a whole new effort to find this guy.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: Robert Redford died September sixteenth. The next day. The following day,
Speaker 3: the FBI announced in a social media post that it
Speaker 3: was offering a ten thousand dollars reward for information leading
Speaker 3: to the arrest of sid Wells's murder suspect, the name
Speaker 3: Thane Allan Simca. And it was a deliberate decision to
Speaker 3: use the death of Robert Redford to renew the effort
Speaker 3: to find this guy who has been on the run
Speaker 3: since nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: So what's the connection and who cares and why would
Speaker 1: Robert Redford care where there is a connection here, and
Speaker 1: it seems a little bit ro like you said it
Speaker 1: that way, and I know you didn't mean it negatively,
Speaker 1: and the authorities don't either. They used his death well.
Speaker 1: It was a brilliant move because everybody's talking about and
Speaker 1: it was talking about Robert Redford in this cold case
Speaker 1: of forty plus years. Now there was attention on Robert
Speaker 1: Redford and his life and his background and his family
Speaker 1: and his daughter, and people started to make the connection
Speaker 1: and hear about this story that he has for forty
Speaker 1: years been wanting to find the guy who killed his
Speaker 1: daughter's boyfriend when they were in college.
Speaker 3: That's right, So his daughter was dating Sidwells. He was
Speaker 3: twenty two years old. This is such a just a
Speaker 3: tragic and sad and all murders are, but this one
Speaker 3: just seems so pointless. He was literally weeks away from
Speaker 3: beginning his senior year at the University of Colorado Boulder
Speaker 3: and his daughter, Shawna this was her boyfriend for several years.
Speaker 3: They were both about to go into their senior year.
Speaker 3: But the murder happened on August first, nineteen eighty three,
Speaker 3: in his own apartment when his roommate found him shot
Speaker 3: execution style in the back of the head in his
Speaker 3: living room with a twenty two gage shotgun wound. That
Speaker 3: is what police had to go by. This was a
Speaker 3: kid who was well liked again, had a wonderful girlfriend,
Speaker 3: and was close with Robert Redford and his family. And
Speaker 3: when news of this murder happened, Robert Redford was actually
Speaker 3: filming The Graduate at the time, and he was in Buffalo,
Speaker 3: New York. And they actually stopped production of the movie
Speaker 3: so that Robert could fly to Boulder to be with
Speaker 3: his daughter and attend the funeral. And as you might imagine,
Speaker 3: that made national headlines.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I never I've never heard the story before
Speaker 1: his death. Never, And we were doing a story about
Speaker 1: this is the point and why authorities did take advantage
Speaker 1: of this moment. They want to solve this crime, and
Speaker 1: why hasn't been solved. Well, here's the thing, folks. They
Speaker 1: believe they know who killed sid Wells, the boyfriend of
Speaker 1: Robert Redford's daughter, back in nineteen eighty three. In fact,
Speaker 1: he was arrested and it went before a grand jury
Speaker 1: just a couple of months after the killing. But that
Speaker 1: person was they refused at the time to file charges
Speaker 1: the district attorney and then that suspect was the name
Speaker 1: again Thane.
Speaker 4: His name is Thane Allen Smika Faine. Smika was a
Speaker 4: roommate of sid Wells. Now they arrested him charges not
Speaker 4: filed robes, and that was in nineteen eighty three. For
Speaker 4: the most part, he been seen.
Speaker 3: Since that is true, he basically the grand jury refused
Speaker 3: to indict Smca in nineteen eighty five, and according to
Speaker 3: the FBI, he vanished a year later. So as of
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty six, he has not been seen. But this
Speaker 3: hasn't been the first renewal of an effort to try
Speaker 3: and find Smicha. And let's go over the evidence of
Speaker 3: this young man. So a note was found at the
Speaker 3: scene at the apartment, and Smicha had written out a
Speaker 3: note saying, apparently writing it to sid that he had
Speaker 3: gone to visit his parents. So investigators immediately drove to
Speaker 3: Smika's home that evening or his mother's house that evening
Speaker 3: to tell him about the death. And they started to
Speaker 3: ask him, why are you back home, and he said, oh,
Speaker 3: I had to do some laundry and I needed to
Speaker 3: get a perm That might sound silly. But part of
Speaker 3: the reason why they got suspicious is that turns out
Speaker 3: where they lived in Boulder had a laundry facility, and
Speaker 3: they found out he had gotten a perm the week before.
Speaker 3: So what he told them, the reasoning behind why he
Speaker 3: went to go visit his parents was not true. And
Speaker 3: so that's when they started looking into Smike. And we're
Speaker 3: concerned about his activities, his drug activities specifically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so again, people are innocent to approving guilty. But
Speaker 1: this is the guy, and it's always been the guy.
Speaker 1: He's the only person who for the most part, fell
Speaker 1: under suspicion of authority. So they arrest them, they don't
Speaker 1: charge him. A new DA comes I believe around twenty
Speaker 1: tennish around that area, who decides, you know what, I
Speaker 1: got enough evidence and I'm going after this guy. Reissued
Speaker 1: an arrest warrant that was thirteen or so, thirteen years ago.
Speaker 1: He ain't heard a peep from Thane Smika, correct.
Speaker 3: And so yes, they actually used modern DNA testing to
Speaker 3: try and specifically link Smika to the crime. And they
Speaker 3: also have a friend who has come out and said
Speaker 3: that Smca confessed to the murder after a night of
Speaker 3: drinking they have another woman who told police that Smicha's
Speaker 3: sister told her that she had to wash his bloody
Speaker 3: clothes that evening, the evening of the murders. So they
Speaker 3: have evidence now that they've been able to gather and
Speaker 3: they want to then actually have him now face a
Speaker 3: jury of his peers. So in twenty ten, as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: they obtained an unarrest warrant to try and find him.
Speaker 3: And that's when Robert Redford actually and this is interesting.
Speaker 3: This was an article that was published by the Reporter
Speaker 3: after Redford's death, but he talked about this now retired
Speaker 3: DA talked about how impactful it was to have Robert
Speaker 3: Redford call the police office and say thank you, thank
Speaker 3: you for continuing to pay attention to this case, thank
Speaker 3: you for trying to solve this crime that has plagued
Speaker 3: me my daughter. And there are folks who say Robert
Speaker 3: Redford was never the same after this murder, that he
Speaker 3: got quieter, that he was chilled, and he was concerned
Speaker 3: even perhaps for the safety of his own daughter at
Speaker 3: that point, and he really did take a step back
Speaker 3: from his very public life after this murder.
Speaker 1: I get these were and again this is something I
Speaker 1: didn't know what his daughter sewn. At the time. These
Speaker 1: folks had been together four years. He was a part
Speaker 1: of their family. He did vacations with them, He went
Speaker 1: to his their house and sun dance and right rode horses.
Speaker 1: I've right as well in an article with somebody who
Speaker 1: interviewed Sidwell's mom said, Robert Redverord actually flew flew this
Speaker 1: kid to New York to meet Tom Brokaw. I mean
Speaker 1: this was a family member. Who know, they might have
Speaker 1: been talking about marriage and going down that road. This
Speaker 1: was somebody who was essentially a family member who was murdered.
Speaker 1: This wasn't just some extension or some friend of his daughter.
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine how it didn't have an impact. And
Speaker 1: we think, I mean that movie. Was it an he
Speaker 1: got his Oscar direct? Was it the Natural? I don't
Speaker 1: know where the Natural falls in history, But this is
Speaker 1: considered if you start talking about Robert Redford, that's going
Speaker 1: to be one of the first two or three movies
Speaker 1: that comes out of somebody's mouth. And to think, in
Speaker 1: the middle of putting together what is I guess considered
Speaker 1: Hollywood history and royalty when it comes to filmmaking. He
Speaker 1: stopped in the middle of filming The Natural to go
Speaker 1: be with his daughter whose boyfriend had just been murdered.
Speaker 1: I had no idea.
Speaker 2: I didn't either.
Speaker 1: That's remarkable to hear that.
Speaker 3: It is, and to hear about this murder and this
Speaker 3: mystery and this unsolved cold case that I didn't even
Speaker 3: know existed. So it was incredibly smart of the FBI
Speaker 3: taking advantage. And yes, I'm glad you pointed that out.
Speaker 3: I wasn't meaning it in a negative way.
Speaker 1: And they aren't either. I would say it again. They
Speaker 1: took advantage of the moment. Nothing wrong with that, and
Speaker 1: you should. We're trying to give justice to a family,
Speaker 1: and absolutely that is what they should do in this moment. Again,
Speaker 1: Robert Redford died and I found out something from forty
Speaker 1: years ago that I had no idea about, and that
Speaker 1: there is somebody on the loose and they have a
Speaker 1: name what this guy would be in his sixties.
Speaker 2: Sixties points it would be his age right now.
Speaker 3: And yes, so it's benefactive that now there have been
Speaker 3: several news articles written about this cold case that most
Speaker 3: of us haven't heard of, and the FBI didnver field
Speaker 3: off of sharing that social media post they put on
Speaker 3: that new flyer that they've now released, and you can
Speaker 3: check it out if you go look onto their website,
Speaker 3: it's there. But they actually have a an age progressed
Speaker 3: drawing of what they think Smicha might look like now
Speaker 3: and again reiterating that they're offering that ten thousand dollars
Speaker 3: for any information because they're just looking for one lead,
Speaker 3: one bit of information, because they when they had that
Speaker 3: renewed effort back in twenty ten, they went back to
Speaker 3: his parents, They took their phones. They were looking for
Speaker 3: any kind of communication that may have been occurring between
Speaker 3: his parents and between Smicha, and they could find none, which.
Speaker 2: Is really really remarkable.
Speaker 3: Even his parents all the time claimed they did not
Speaker 3: know where he was once he left in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: They said they never saw him and they never heard
Speaker 3: from him again.
Speaker 1: Possible he's dead, I guess, I mean not necessarily old age.
Speaker 1: Who knows what could have happened. But you lived to
Speaker 1: be sixty something, You could have medical issues, could have
Speaker 1: had and hit by damn bus. Have no idea, but
Speaker 1: the behavior or the ant what his parents are saying
Speaker 1: suggest a guy who is actually on the run who
Speaker 1: doesn't want to be found.
Speaker 3: And who knows he's guilty. There's a reason why he
Speaker 3: never showed back up, There's a reason why he left,
Speaker 3: there's a reason why he's never resurfaced, and so a
Speaker 3: lot of people think that points to his guilt as well.
Speaker 3: Now where could he be now, Well, we do know
Speaker 3: that according to the FBI, the last known trace of
Speaker 3: Smika was when his car, which had a stolen license
Speaker 3: plate and was actually scrubbed clean of fingerprints, was found
Speaker 3: abandoned in Beverly Hills in October of nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 3: So that is the last known connection to Smicha that
Speaker 3: police have been able to actually tangibly set their hands.
Speaker 1: On forty years ago. I don't know how people fall
Speaker 1: off the face of the earth, but he has apparently done.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 1: Look, I don't a lot of families out there who
Speaker 1: wish that their unsolved crime could get this kind of attention.
Speaker 1: And I get that, but they say, this is a
Speaker 1: case that has never gone cold, This is a case
Speaker 1: that has remained active. But now there is a tension.
Speaker 1: And I don't mind that Robert Redford is being used
Speaker 1: this way or his death is being Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: bad to say it that way, but to think that
Speaker 1: a guy forty years ago who haven't heard a trace
Speaker 1: of him forty years ago. My question after you said
Speaker 1: that was who's been looking for him this type of actively? Like,
Speaker 1: who has been they are raising awareness of this somebody
Speaker 1: now like, oh that guy. I don't think it'll be long.
Speaker 1: I actually don't, because people keep writing artists and talking
Speaker 1: about this. But that was the thing that jumped to mind,
Speaker 1: is that how hard have they been looking for him?
Speaker 1: I think we had to be forty years man, But
Speaker 1: this is the time, This is the moment I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna catch his guy.
Speaker 3: I love your positivity. I think that's incredible. And here's
Speaker 3: another thing to your point. Every time there's been some
Speaker 3: sort of renewed interest in this case, tips have come in.
Speaker 3: So there was a time when this actually was featured
Speaker 3: on forty eight hours, the CBS news program that was
Speaker 3: back in nineteen ninety eight. They had a bunch of
Speaker 3: tips and sightings police say of Zmika from California and Mexico,
Speaker 3: but nothing actually ended up bearing fruit. But the point
Speaker 3: is when you get tips and you get information and
Speaker 3: you can start following them down, maybe one of them
Speaker 3: lead you to this guy.
Speaker 2: And that's the hope in this case.
Speaker 1: Wait what did you just say? There? They wait, repeat
Speaker 1: that they've wait, repeat what you just said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's part about they've the lead.
Speaker 1: They saw him somewhere, do they think, And you were
Speaker 1: looking into this a little more than I was, So
Speaker 1: my question there is possible sightings or they think he was.
Speaker 1: They do think in fact, positive sightings. They just didn't
Speaker 1: catch up.
Speaker 3: With possible sightings and they didn't catch up with him.
Speaker 3: So that's what happened in nineteen ninety eight. And right
Speaker 3: around that same time, the parents of Smicha were actually speaking.
Speaker 2: To reporters and they told.
Speaker 3: They told this reporter that Smicha told them that he
Speaker 3: planned to flee and move to another country, so they
Speaker 3: knew he was leaving, and they knew that his plans
Speaker 3: involved going to another country. And he even told them
Speaker 3: at that point. This may be the reason why you know,
Speaker 3: you said he could be dead. This is interesting. He
Speaker 3: told his parents to get their passports ready so that
Speaker 3: they could come and see him once he had settled in,
Speaker 3: but then he never reached out afterwards, they never heard
Speaker 3: from him again again.
Speaker 1: In a sentence, will proven guilty. But this is the
Speaker 1: only person they have been looking at for this crime,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, it just doesn't look good. But still
Speaker 1: there is they believe a killer on the loose, and
Speaker 1: they do believe they have his name. Well, stay here, folks.
Speaker 1: It's almost unbelievable to think of what happened on that
Speaker 1: Colorado campus in how Robert Redford's daughter was involved in that.
Speaker 1: But like you said, Robes, this changed him. Many people
Speaker 1: believe forever Robert Redford. And only barely a year after
Speaker 1: this tragedy, that same daughter had another terrible scare. We'll explain.
Speaker 1: Stay here, all right, folks, welcome back to Amy and TJ.
Speaker 1: The huntas for a killer, the killer of sid Wells
Speaker 1: A University of Colorado. Soon do they say? Colorado University
Speaker 1: is see you when we see it all the time?
Speaker 1: But the correct way should? Do they not like to
Speaker 1: be called the University of Colorado.
Speaker 3: It's so funny because obviously, if if you're a fan
Speaker 3: of this program, you know that my youngest daughter goes
Speaker 3: to we just say Boulder, so but yes, see you Boulder,
Speaker 3: but University of Colorado Boulder.
Speaker 1: I don't what's officially the right? Okay? Apologies folks in Boulder,
Speaker 1: that's the correct way to do it. But yes, Robert
Speaker 1: Redford his death has renewed an effort to find the
Speaker 1: killer of Sidwell. Sidwells with the boyfriend of Robert Redford's
Speaker 1: daughter when they were in school back in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1: That murder happened on August first, execution style, and the
Speaker 1: person they believe killed sid Wells has been on the
Speaker 1: run for forty plus years or arrested once but never
Speaker 1: formally charged, and now another arrest warrant has been issued
Speaker 1: for him. Roges, this was we talked about you, and
Speaker 1: maybe you can talk about elaborate a little more about
Speaker 1: how people say this really impacted Robert Redford, who was
Speaker 1: at the top of his game certainly at that point
Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty three, had certainly more work to do,
Speaker 1: but he was a Hollywood heavyweight at that time.
Speaker 2: He absolutely was.
Speaker 3: And yes, The Natural ended up becoming such a huge hit,
Speaker 3: but yes, he had just begun production on that film
Speaker 3: when this all went down, and those around him say
Speaker 3: there was something inside of him that got fearful. He
Speaker 3: kind of had this larger than life, just a life
Speaker 3: of the party kind of personality, and they say after this.
Speaker 2: When he came back from.
Speaker 3: That funeral, he came back a changed man, and he
Speaker 3: came back different, and he never really resumed that care
Speaker 3: free version of himself before because suddenly, now this was
Speaker 3: obviously an unbelievable tragedy to happen to anyone, but then
Speaker 3: to have it be unsolved, to know that then this
Speaker 3: person who his friends, his family, and police all believed
Speaker 3: killed sid on the loose.
Speaker 2: You're looking over your shoulder.
Speaker 3: You're concerned for your safety, You're concerned for your daughter's safety,
Speaker 3: your family's safety. And he had that. There was just
Speaker 3: a chill that washed over him that never left him.
Speaker 3: And this was such an important part of his life.
Speaker 3: He wanted to do everything he could, and police say
Speaker 3: he did. He offered anything and everything he could to
Speaker 3: try and help find this man once he escaped.
Speaker 1: You're talking about how fearful they were of somebody out there.
Speaker 1: Robin Redford reportedly paid for security for the family because
Speaker 1: they didn't know where the killer was and wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure they were safe. I mean, so I am
Speaker 1: learning now that yes, this was the boyfriend of his daughter,
Speaker 1: But the more I read up on it, this sound
Speaker 1: like a family member of Robert Redford died.
Speaker 3: Yes, he considered him probably a son in law, a
Speaker 3: future son in law at the very least. That's how
Speaker 3: serious these two were. And yeah, the pictures of the
Speaker 3: two of them are everywhere. They were such a sweet couple.
Speaker 3: And yes, his mother the interview was sids mother. She's
Speaker 3: since passed, but just spoke so highly.
Speaker 2: She said. At first she was upset.
Speaker 3: She thought that the Robert Redford connection was overshadowing the
Speaker 3: death and the murder of her son, and she was
Speaker 3: concerned that maybe people were too excited about Robert Redford's
Speaker 3: connection and not interested enough in actually solving the crime.
Speaker 3: But then she said, she came to realize she needed
Speaker 3: Robert Redford and that his focus and that his celebrity
Speaker 3: actually drew attention to the case, and that was she
Speaker 3: thought at that point. Yeah, the only hope they had
Speaker 3: of actually getting enough eyeballs.
Speaker 2: You see, we've seen this over the years in crimes.
Speaker 3: Family members are desperate to get media to pay attention
Speaker 3: to their families, their loved one story, whoever was killed,
Speaker 3: especially if there's someone on a loose or someone who
Speaker 3: has and faced justice. They are desperate to get the
Speaker 3: media to pay attention to their story and this was
Speaker 3: an obvious way to do it, and she realized it
Speaker 3: eventually and was grateful for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and why not? And here we are again,
Speaker 1: And I really wonder what she'd have thought. We talked
Speaker 1: still about this being a family member. Was there was
Speaker 1: You probably saw the photo as well, but it was
Speaker 1: freaking adorable of them when they were freshmen. I think
Speaker 1: sid wells his dad was in the military, so he had,
Speaker 1: you know, this sense of milily even if he wasn't
Speaker 1: going into the military. He I think it was rotc
Speaker 1: but he had some freshman first dance he had to
Speaker 1: go to and he needed a date, and that's when
Speaker 1: he asked Sean O to be his date. And low
Speaker 1: and behold, they stayed together throughout all those years. This
Speaker 1: was a significant relationship. And I just had no idea
Speaker 1: about this story. But Robes this same daughter. So this
Speaker 1: murder was in August of nineteen eighty three. I think
Speaker 1: it was early summer nineteen eighty four. His daughter was
Speaker 1: in a really serious car accident in which her car
Speaker 1: plunged into a river and she had to be pulled out.
Speaker 1: She escaped without very serious injuries, but the very next year.
Speaker 1: So to your what you were saying about his daughter
Speaker 1: and how this changed him, and how he lived in fear,
Speaker 1: and you know he had to worry about his daughter.
Speaker 1: She was not in the home or nearby necessarily when
Speaker 1: the murder took place. But still, this is somebody that
Speaker 1: close that violence, that close to home, and that close
Speaker 1: to somebody you loved the way you would love your daughter.
Speaker 1: Then the very next year this happened. I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I would like to go back and study him now
Speaker 1: to a certain degree, at least his public life, and
Speaker 1: I bet you you very well could see a difference
Speaker 1: in him from nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty nine ninety.
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how this one year changed this man.
Speaker 3: And you know what, it is a remarkable thing. I
Speaker 3: think a lot of us see celebrities and we think
Speaker 3: they they live this charmed life where they don't deal
Speaker 3: with pain or tragedy, or they're insulated from some of
Speaker 3: that by their celebrity and their money.
Speaker 2: No, and it's so this is just.
Speaker 3: Another glaring example of just the human side of all
Speaker 3: of us, and that no matter who you are, murdered death,
Speaker 3: all they touch you in such a deep traumatic way
Speaker 3: you can't recover oftentimes, and that's what it seems to
Speaker 3: have been the case with.
Speaker 2: Robert Redford and in Shauna. I didn't. I went and looked.
Speaker 3: She's married, she has two kids, she's living, she's a painter.
Speaker 3: Seems like she's lived a beautiful life. But I'm sure
Speaker 3: that pain and that not knowing and that emptiness is
Speaker 3: still there.
Speaker 1: And you know what, she's dealing with it again, she
Speaker 1: sees the what's in news, she sees the headlines, she
Speaker 1: knows what's happening. She just lost her dad. And this
Speaker 1: is a part of this story. Now, this will not
Speaker 1: be the last we hear of it. I just absolutely
Speaker 1: think because of this in depth, Robert Redford might be
Speaker 1: helpful in solving a crime and giving a family justice
Speaker 1: they've been looking for for forty plus years. So, folks,
Speaker 1: we just wanted to hop on this is one we're
Speaker 1: absolutely going to be following. So we always appreciate you
Speaker 1: spending some time here with us. So on behalf of
Speaker 1: Amy Robot. I'm TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to y'all real soon.