Editor’s Note: Steven Hanks on Thursday was sentenced to 10-25 years for the 1980 murder of Mary Robin Walter. Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir provided the following information.
On January 24, 1980, Mary Robin Walter was found murdered in her home west of the city of Great Bend in Nelson Trailer Park near the airport. She was 23 years of age at the time. She had been shot multiple times by an unknown assailant. A 22-caliber handgun, later confirmed to be the murder weapon, was recovered at the scene. The Sheriff’s Office investigated the case with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and assistance from the Great Bend Police Department. Suspects were developed and interviewed but no conclusive evidence was discovered.
One of the suspects was identified as Steven Hanks, who was a neighbor to the Walters’ family at the time of the homicide. He was 25 years of age at the time.
Over the years, dozens of law enforcement officers looked at the case to no avail. In mid-2022 I was approached by Detective Sgt. Adam Hales to reopen the case using new techniques and technology that were now available at the time of the murder. In all honesty, it was with some degree of skepticism that I authorized the expenditure of manpower and resources. Hales along with Lieutenant Paden, Detective Travis Doze and Detective Brian Volkel reopened the case looking at it with new eyes.
The first order of business was to consolidate the hundreds of documents accumulated over 40 years into an organized case file. Many interviews had been conducted decades apart, some documents were missing. Eventually, everything was indexed and consolidated. Under the direction of Sgt. Hales, evidence was re-examined and submitted for testing including DNA. (No DNA was found) Numerous interviews were conducted.
Detectives from the Sheriff’s Office, the Kansas Bureau of investigation and the Great Bend Police Department all assisted. Many of the witnesses as well as law enforcement officers that were originally involved in the case had died and interviews were not possible.
Charges filed in 2022
Eventually, by late 2022 an affidavit was presented to the District Court and an arrest warrant for Steven Hanks was issued. Hanks was arrested on Dec. 8, 2022 and charged with murder in the second-degree.
The Kansas Atty. Gen.’s Office prosecuted the case represented by Associate Deputy Atty. Gen. Jessica Domme. On April 15, 2024, Hanks was bound over on a charge of second-degree murder in a preliminary hearing. By August 8, 2024, a plea agreement was reached, sentencing was scheduled for September 12, 2024.
The agreement that was reached under the 1980 Kansas Statutes was for a sentence of not less than 5 years and not more than 25 years. At the sentencing hearing Barton County District Court Judge Hon. Steve Johnson departed upward from the plea agreement and sentenced Hanks to not less than 10 years and not more than 25 years. Hanks remains in the custody of the Sheriff’s Office and will be released to the Kansas Department of Corrections upon receipt of the necessary paperwork.
We believe this is the oldest cold case in the State of Kansas to be solved and result in a conviction. From the date of the homicide to the sentencing was 44 years, 7 months and 19 days.
On a personal note, I was 18 years old and a senior in high school when this homicide occurred. I remember it well. By 1982 I had started with the Sheriff’s Office as a reserve deputy and have been associated with the Barton County Sheriff’s Office ever since. I worked for the four sheriffs that preceded me and this homicide has haunted all of us. 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. 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.
The Barton County Sheriff’s Office wishes to thank the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Great Bend Police Department as well as the Office of the Kansas Atty. Gen. for their assistance.
