According to authorities, a Kansas man has been charged in the 1980 shooting death of a 23-year-old neighbour after investigators reexamined her death and discovered new evidence.
Officers from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation arrested 68-year-old Steven Hanks of Burden on Thursday on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Mary Robin Walter, a wife, mother, and nursing student when she was killed, according to Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir at a news conference Friday. According to court documents, he is being held on a $500,000 bond and does not have an attorney.
Detective Sgt. Adam Hales decided in April to revive the investigation into the Jan. 24, 1980, killing, which occurred in a trailer park near the airport in Great Bend, a population of about 15,000 people in central Kansas, according to Bellendir.
“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,” said the sheriff. “This was unknown to the original investigators.”
Bellendir assigned two more officers to the probe. New evidence was discovered in October, but authorities refused to release it.
Hanks was investigated as a suspect shortly after the shooting, according to Bellendir, “but the case went cold.” He made no mention of a possible motivation for the murder.
Hanks served time in prison for another offence. In 1981, he was arrested and charged with rape, violence, robbery, and burglary. According to internet data from the Kansas Department of Corrections, he was sentenced in 1983 and released in 1993.