POSTHUMOUS IMPACT

Robert Redford’s Death Sparks New Hunt in Unsolved Murder

The death of the actor has reopened a decades-old case that rocked his family.

The death of Hollywood icon Robert Redford has triggered renewed interest in the unsolved murder of his daughter’s college boyfriend. Shauna Redford had met Sid Wells during their freshman year at the University of Colorado, and they were still dating when, just before he was set to begin his senior year, Wells was fatally shot in his apartment on Aug. 1, 1983. Robert Redford stopped filming The Natural to attend the funeral. According to NBC, Wells told his mother that his new roommate, Thayne Smika, was “weird and unsocial,” and Wells later had trouble collecting rent from him. Following Wells’ murder, the roommate became the prime suspect and was arrested. However, the district attorney at the time did not file formal charges, citing insufficient evidence, and Smika was released. In 1986, Smika disappeared. In 2010, after the district attorney decided to run old evidence through new DNA tests, the case was reopened, and a Boulder district judge signed an arrest warrant for Smika on a charge of first-degree murder. Following the decision, Redford called Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett to thank him and the Boulder Police for continuing to focus on the case. “I thought [the call] was a positive reflection of Robert Redford’s concern about his daughter and about this young man who’d lost his life very tragically,” Garnett said about his conversation with Redford. On Wednesday, the FBI posted a warrant for Smika on X, offering a $10,000 reward.