Kansas cold case ends 44 years later as man is sentenced for killing his former neighbor in 1980

GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) — More than 44 years after a nursing student was slain in her home in Kansas, her former neighbor has been sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison. The investigation into the 1980 shooting death of 23-year-old Mary Robin Walter, of Great Bend, had gone cold until 2022, when officials reopened the investigation. They developed new evidence that pointed to Steven L. Hanks, who was 25 at the time and had been a suspect early on. Hanks, now 70, was sentenced for second-degree murder Thursday in what officials believe is the oldest cold case in Kansas to be solved and result in a conviction.