News Staff
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December 10, 2022 -
Law Enforcement
KIller caught after 48 years
Steven Hanks Lawrence
Mary Walter
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Steven Hanks probably didn't expect to be arrested for murder by now.
DLNews Crime:
HE KILLED THE MOTHER OF A 6-YEAR-OLD
It is justice – even albeit late.
Police have now arrested 68-year-old Steven L. Hanks of Burden, Kansas. The man murdered then-23-year-old Mary R. Walter in her trailer at Nelson Mobile Home Park, east of Great Bend Municipal Airport, on Jan. 24, 1980, shooting the young woman at least nine times with a small-caliber rifle.
Mary Walter was only 23 years old.
Douglas Walter, 24, the victim's husband, found his wife dead in the back bedroom where the murder occurred when he returned home from work at 6:45 p.m. that day. He had left for work before 8 a.m.
Officers investigating at the time estimated that Hanks committed the murder between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Mary Walter had not attended her nursing class at Barton County Community College - so the crime stood out. However, there were no signs of a fight, sexual assault, robbery, or forced entry, authorities said at the time.
A .22-caliber handgun was found in the apartment.
The couple had a daughter, Pamala, who was 6. Police have not yet disclosed how they now tracked down the perpetrator.
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