Page 2 - Me Sid News Today

>> at this point, thayne smika was our primary suspect. friends and acquaintances of mr. smika reported him as behaving erratically. they thought that he was using drugs and just kind of going downhill fast. we also interviewed another witness. jeff cohen was a friend of sids. we learned from jeff that everybody had been up the night before into the early morning hours of august 1st. he told us that what was supposed to happen that evening or early morning was thayne was supposed to return some ...

In december of 2010, 27 years after sid wells was murdered, the d.a. signed off on an arrest warrant accusing thayne smika of murder in the first degree. >> after getting the warrant, we put together a coordinated search which included sending detectives to every place where there was members of the smika family or close friends of the smika family. unfortunately, the family without exception told us they did not know where thayne was and did not know how to locate him. >> i think mistakes were ...

And it went into the bathroom. >> in the downstairs bathroom, we noticed that there was a red ring in that toilet. >> an inference that the police had was that perhaps the shotgun used to murder sid wells had been cleaned in that toilet bowl. >> interestingly enough, the bathroom on the first floor was thayne smikas bathroom. what was most interesting to us was on the coffee table next to where sids body was found, we found a note and an envelope. the envelope had the numbers $300 written on it....

Jeff told us that his friend sid had been selling small amounts of cocaine in the previous months, and that sid had suspected that thayne smika was stealing cocaine from sid. its our belief that thayne smika that night didnt have the cocaine or the money to give back to sidney wells. >> im the father of a college student, and i think it would be very naive to not think that your college-aged son might be trying recreational drugs. he might sell recreational drugs here or there. its not a reason ...

Close to the same age, so they almost looked like triplets. and they were just active, happy little boys. >> it was a wonderful childhood, absolutely amazing. i had two younger brothers, sid and sam, and a great dad who loved the outdoors. i mean, colorado, it doesnt get any better than this. we came from very humble roots. i would say we were lower middle class but when it came to the richness of love in the family, i think we were at the upper scale. very, very close family. >> sid was fun, ou...

>> the trail in the apartment went into thayne smikas bedroom and it went into the bathroom. >> in the downstairs bathroom, we noticed that there was a red ring in that toilet. >> an inference that the police had was that perhaps the shotgun used to murder sid wells had been cleaned in that toilet bowl. >> interestingly enough, the bathroom on the first floor was thayne smikas bathroom. what was most interesting to us was on the coffee table next to where sids body was found, we found a note and...

Enjoying his life, such as it is, no justice in that at all. sids murder has been agonizing for us. my brother who found sid, his life has been forever changed. its almost like hes frozen in that moment in time. >> theres not a day that goes by that i dont think about it. i would like to see thayne smika arrested and charged duly. it would make me very happy. id be probably the happiest guy alive. >> because of a terminal illness, i dont know that ill live long enough to see a resolution in this...

On august 1st of 1983, i received a phone call from my brother, sam. he told me sid was gone, that he was killed, and murdered, and that he walked in and found him. >> the first thing the police look for in any type of a homicide scene is sign of a forced entry through the door or window, or a sign of a struggle, and they didnt see any sign that there had been an obvious burglary, robbery or assault in this apartment. that leads investigators to think that they should be looking from within, the...

We pulled a box off the shelf and inside that box we found a 20 gauge shotgun. we knew that mr. wells had been killed with a 20 gauge shotgun. what added to that suspicion was thayne smikas sister lived in the house, telling us that they had just cleaned that room and that previous to august 1st, 1983, that gun wasnt in that bedroom. i remember feeling at the time that we probably had our man. >> in early october, 1983, thayne smika was arrested for murder in the first degree. >> we heard thayne...

Was our primary suspect. friends and acquaintances of mr. smika reported him as behaving erratically. they thought that he was using drugs and just kind of going downhill fast. we also interviewed another witness. jeff cohen was a friend of sids. we learned from jeff that everybody had been up the night before into the early morning hours of august 1st. he told us that what was supposed to happen that evening or early morning was thayne was supposed to return some money to sid, and in addition t...