A convicted rapist was sentenced to at least 10 years behind bars Thursday for the 1980 murder of his neighbor — closing the book on Kansas’ oldest cold case.
Steven L. Hanks, 70, was brought to justice 44 years after gunning down Mary Robin Walter, 23, in her Great Bend trailer home.
“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,” Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said in a statement Friday .
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“I consider myself fortunate that I had the resources and the diligent personnel to close this case. The credit for solving this homicide goes to the dedicated officers that had the tenacity to bring it to a conviction.”
Walter was a wife, mother and nursing school student when she was shot multiple times on Jan. 24, 1980. Police found a .22-caliber handgun at the scene and confirmed it was the murder weapon.