Lead Suspect Arrested More Than 30 Years After Murder
New mother, Robin Walter, was shot in her home in 1980
On January 24, 1980, twenty-three-year-old Mary, who went by her middle name Robin Walter, was found fatally shot in her home. Robin was married, a new mother, and a nursing student in Barton County, Kansas.
Law enforcement went to the home when neighbors reported hearing several gunshots nearby, and it was then they discovered Robin’s body inside. Detectives canvassed the area and quickly learned of a neighbor, Steven Hanks, who soon became a lead suspect in the murder case. However, there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest him, and he was eventually released.
Hanks was arrested and charged with another crime in 1981 when he broke into a coworker’s home. He was charged with sexual assault, battery, robbery, and burglary. He had stalked this victim for months and attacked her in her home on two separate occasions. He served a decade behind bars and was released in 1993.
The case eventually went cold and became Kansas’ oldest cold case murder. It had been reopened and reinvestigated over the decades, but nothing notable came up. In April 2022, the case was reassigned to Detective Sergeant Adam Hales, who restarted the investigation from the very beginning. Around the same time that he was…
