More than four decades after a University of Colorado student was found shot to death inside his Boulder apartment, the FBI is asking for the public's help by releasing new age-progression images of the man accused of killing him.Investigators on Thursday unveiled updated renderings of Thayne Alan Smika, who authorities said has spent decades evading arrest after the Aug.1, 1983, killing of his former roommate Sidney Lee Wells, 22.Police responded to an apartment complex in Boulder that day and found Wells lying on the living room floor with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the FBI.
Wells was a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder studying journalism and was enrolled in the Navy ROTC program.FUGITIVE TIED TO DECADES-OLD SLAYING OF PUNK ROCKER ROOMMATE CAUGHT IN TROPICAL HOT SPOT: FEDSAn undated photo released by the FBI shows Thayne Alan Smika, who is wanted in connection with the 1983 killing of his former roommate, University of Colorado Boulder student Sidney Lee Wells.(FBI)Smika, who was a 24-year-old student at the time, was identified as a suspect during the initial investigation but was not immediately charged.
Three years later, in October 1986, authorities found his abandoned car in Beverly Hills, California, with a stolen license plate.He has remained on the run ever since.A Boulder County judge issued a state warrant charging Smika with first-degree murder in December 2010.
Days later, federal authorities charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and obtained a federal arrest warrant.The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to Smika's arrest and conviction.WOMAN ADDED TO FBI'S TEN MOST WANTED LIST ARRESTED HOURS LATER AFTER TIPS POURED IN FROM FLORIDA: PATELAn FBI age-progression image depicts what homicide fugitive Thayne Alan Smika may look like today if he is clean-shaven.Investigators hope the updated images generate new leads in the decades-old case.
(FBI)"It is never too late to hold a mu...