Thayne Alan Smika was 27 when he left his Denver, Colorado, home and was last seen on October 1, 1986. At the time he vanished he was facing an arrest warrant for alleged forgery and theft connected to his work as a bookkeeper. He had previously been arrested as a suspect in the August 1, 1983, killing of his roommate, University of Colorado student Sidney Wells, but the district attorney then declined to file charges for lack of evidence.

After the 1986 disappearance Smika’s car turned up abandoned in Hollywood, California, with a stolen license plate; a search of the vehicle produced no leads. The case lay cold for years until December 2010, when prosecutors obtained a first-degree murder warrant alleging new ballistics evidence linked shotgun pellets from the Wells crime scene to shells recovered at Smika’s family home. A federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution followed, and age-progressed photos were released, but Smika has not been located.

Anyone who knew Thayne, his movements in 1986, or has information that could help locate him is asked to come forward.