Neighbor Sentenced 44 Years After Nursing Student's Death

UPDATE Sep 14, 2024 2:30 PM CDT

More than 44 years after a nursing student was slain in her home in Kansas, her neighbor at the time has been sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison for killing her. After the investigation of the shooting death of Mary Robin Walter, 23, was reopened in 2022, new evidence developed with recent technology pointed investigators to Steven Hanks. Now 70, Hanks was sentenced for second-degree murder on Thursday, after Barton County District Judge Steve Johnson broke with the plea agreement, the AP reports. It had called for five to 25 years in prison. Sheriff Brian Bellendir said he thinks it's the state's oldest cold case ever to result in a conviction. "It bothers me that many of the people who were so affected by this tragic crime have since passed away prior to bringing the suspect to justice," Bellendir said Friday.

Dec 11, 2022 9:20 AM CST

A Kansas man has been charged in the 1980 shooting death of a 23-year-old neighbor after investigators who reexamined her death turned up new evidence, authorities said. Kansas Bureau of Investigation officers arrested 68-year-old Steven Hanks, of Burden, on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Mary Robin Walter, who was a wife, mother, and nursing school student when she was killed, said Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir, per the AP. Hanks is jailed on $500,000 bond, according to court records.

Bellendir said Detective Sgt. Adam Hales decided in April to reopen the investigation into the Jan. 24, 1980, killing, which happened at a trailer park near the airport in Great Bend, a city of about 15,000 residents in central Kansas. "After taking a fresh look at the case, it became evident that some of the information had been initially overlooked and some had been added at a later date," the sheriff said. "This was unknown to the original investigators." Bellendir directed two additional officers to join the investigation. In October, new evidence was discovered, though authorities declined to disclose it.

story continues below

Bellendir said Hanks was investigated as a suspect immediately after the shooting, "but the case went cold." He didn't disclose a possible motive for the killing. Hanks spent time in prison for another crime. He was arrested in 1981 and charged with rape, battery, robbery, and burglary. He was sentenced in 1983 and discharged in 1993, according to online records from the Kansas Department of Corrections. (More cold cases stories.)