On Aug. 1, 1983, University of Colorado journalism student Sid Wells was shot execution-style in the back of his head in a condo in Boulder. He was ready to start his senior year and was dating the daughter of the late actor and director Robert Redford. Years later, I interviewed Sid’s mother, June Menger, who has since died.
Although June was close to Redford’s daughter Shauna, June told me she felt as though her son’s case had been “overshadowed by the Redford connection.” Then she added, “I finally realized that I need the Redford connection to keep the case open.”
The case is still open, and an arrest warrant is still active for Sid’s roommate, Thayne Smika.
Sid was born in Norton, Kansas, and was the youngest of three boys. His childhood photos show him as a happy, busy and outgoing kid, with lots of friends. The family moved to Longmont, Colorado, where Sid graduated from high school in 1979. Then he entered CU, in Boulder.
His father, Dick Wells, had been in the Navy, and Sid was raised with an appreciation for the military. In Sid’s freshman year, he joined the Navy’s Reserve Officer Training Corps. He needed a date for the Navy ROTC dance and invited a girl from his dorm, not knowing, at the time, that Shauna was the daughter of actor Robert Redford.
Sid and Shauna continued their relationship throughout their sophomore and junior years. This chapter of Sid’s life was a whirlwind of activity, with his studies interspersed with trips with the Redford family, including horseback riding at the then-newly opened Sundance Institute in Utah.
Robert Redford even flew Sid to New York to meet television journalist Tom Brokaw, who planned to hire him as an intern.
June described Sid’s college years as “glamorous.” Then came the unthinkable, when Sid’s brother Sam found Sid’s body in the apartment he shared with roommate Thayne Smika.
“Shauna came and crawled in bed with me and we cried together,” June recalled. Shauna later married and had a family of her own, but the women kept in close contact. June said she would always think of Shauna as her daughter-in-law.
The Boulder Police Department arrested Thayne Smika for Sid’s murder on Oct. 6, 1983. On Oct. 24, the case went to a grand jury. A week later, June watched helplessly when former District Attorney Alex Hunter declined to charge Smika, stating there was not enough evidence. After that, Smika was set free and disappeared.
In 2011, with new evidence that centered on the testing of shotgun pellets recovered from Sid’s body, then-newly elected District Attorney Stan Garnett issued a new warrant for Smika’s arrest. Even so, the alleged murderer is still at large.
Sid was never forgotten as June’s life, inevitably, moved on. Her marriage in 1984 to Jim Menger was followed by the welcome birth of her first grandchild.
June found strength through the Parents of Murdered Children organization, educated herself on the legal process of a murder investigation and went to the state legislature, where she won a battle for victims’ rights. She then became an active member of the Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons organization (FOHVAMP) and completed a term as a family member on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Task Force.
When interviewed in 2012, June stated, “I’ve moved beyond the grieving stage, but the pain is always there. Most of all I miss Sid’s presence — just having him around. I’ve never given up. How can I? I need justice for Sid.”