Sheriff's Facebook Post Announces Sentencing of 70-Year-Old Man For a 1980 Cold Case (go.com) 102
In 1980 a 23-year-old woman was shot multiple times by an unknown assailant in a small county in central Kansas.
44 years later, the county sheriff made a Facebook post... 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... Many of the witnesses as well as law enforcement officers that were originally involved in the case had died and interviews were not possible.
A statement from the Kansas attorney general's office says the police investigation culminated with an interview with Steven Hanks, a neighbor of the woman, who admitted to the killing. Hanks (who is now 70 years old) was arrested and charged with murder and second-degree, according to the county sheriff's Facebook post: 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 Sheriff's 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 Facebook post ends with a 1980 photo of 23-year-old Mary Robin Walter — who besides being a nursing school student was also a wife and mother — next to a booking photo of 70-year-old Steven Hanks.
Hanks has been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison
44 years later, the county sheriff made a Facebook post... 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... Many of the witnesses as well as law enforcement officers that were originally involved in the case had died and interviews were not possible.
A statement from the Kansas attorney general's office says the police investigation culminated with an interview with Steven Hanks, a neighbor of the woman, who admitted to the killing. Hanks (who is now 70 years old) was arrested and charged with murder and second-degree, according to the county sheriff's Facebook post: 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 Sheriff's 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 Facebook post ends with a 1980 photo of 23-year-old Mary Robin Walter — who besides being a nursing school student was also a wife and mother — next to a booking photo of 70-year-old Steven Hanks.
Hanks has been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison
Re:As the saying goes (Score:5, Informative)
Women would rather be alone in the forest with a bear than a man.
As a woman I would narrow that down to alpha males, criminals and sexually repressed religionists since nowhere near all men are rapist nutcases but yeah, if the bear gets violent you can pepper spray or shoot it and everybody sees it as self defence. Pepper spray or shoot a human male while he is trying to rape you and a choir of delusional a-holes instantly starts going on about how the poor man just made a mistake, locking him up would ruin his promising future and how the whole thing was actually your fault because you tempted him by walking through his field of vision wearing provocative clothing like jeans and a sweater.
Re:As the saying goes (Score:5, Insightful)
Pepper spray or shoot a human male while he is trying to rape you and a choir of delusional a-holes instantly starts going on about how the poor man just made a mistake
You, as a woman, could also go to jail for killing your rapist [nbcnews.com] WHILE he's raping you. Though in this case the verdict was eventually thrown out. That said, there is another case, which I can't find, where the woman was abused by her husband/boyfried by him beating her and dragging her by her hair, she kills him, and now she's going to jail.
As for making a "mistake", I present Brock Turner [npr.org]. His father's statement at sentencing:
"That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life. The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work, and how he will be able to interact with people and organizations."
The judge was rightfully pilloried for his reasoning of six month's in jail with release after three for good behavior:
"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others,"
Because clearly the woman Brock Turner raped suffered no severe impact on her life.
Re:As the saying goes (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually dated a woman who killed her boyfriend and spent the better part of 10 years in jail as a result of it, after physical abuse.
It's very much not open and shut. If you don't deliver the correct case in court, you'll spend a long time in jail. It took a very long delayed appeals court decision to reverse her conviction.
Read about the case here. [findlaw.com]
The bottom line was the counsel screwed up as well as did the trial judge, but these things happen regularly.
Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
Wow that was an interesting rabbit hole. She straight up premeditated murdered that dude and only ended up serving six years. What was she like in person??
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Hmm. Very very attractive. She'd been a dancer most of her life. Had that kind of body. A lot controlling. Wanted to redo my diet and also wanted to move in within the first couple weeks of meeting her, to the point of shifting all her medical treatments to near my house from where she lived, 30 miles away, because she was so sure she was going to get invited to live with me.
Never happened. I had to break up with her because of the control issues. It wasn't even the murder rap, as it turned out. She
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Of course restorative justice is impossible in cases of murder.
I think as a 70-year old man, he's less of a danger to others than he was in 1980, so incapacitation to protect the public is significantly less important now.
And he's not likely to live out his sentence, so retributive justice will not be fully satisfied.
What's left
Re: As the saying goes (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: As the saying goes (Score:4, Insightful)
These cases are very rare, but essentially the verdict is "murderers ought forever be afraid, even decades later".
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That, exactly, is the reason why cold cases like this are re-opened from time to time.
And why severe crimes like murder have not statute of limitation in most countries.
It's all part of the deterence part of punishment.
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the problem is that there's little if any correlation between sentence severity and crime deterrence
the real correlation comes with economic opportunity and economic justice which both correlate with much lower crime rates
go figure
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Both of these things can be true.
I'm sure there is some deterrence. Years ago I spoke to an expert in the field and he said there's basically three types of people: Those who are criminals by nature, those who don't commit crimes not for fear of punishment but because they believe in doing the right thing, and those who would commit crimes if they had the opportunity. He said most stuff is about keeping the 3rd group on the right side of the fence. You don't need to worry about the 2nd, and the 1st you can
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Hello Tom;
With all due respect, yes there is a deterrence effect but that effect is nominal. The reason is that rational people realize unethical acts are both counter productive and result in a loss of self-respect. We obey laws because it is rational to do so. The entire concept of criminality is based on a misconception of ethics and law. When laws are ethical, people who are unethical must be held both accountable and responsible otherwise they cannot learn. Laws should enforce responsibility, and resti
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The National Sheriff's Association says that "Increased felony thresholds have not resulted in higher property crime or larceny rates". [sheriffs.org]
California also has a new epidemic of red light running. What's common between that and the recent increase in shoplifting is a lack of police enforcement since COVID.
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if there was equal economic opportunity, all that shop lifting of course wouldn't have happened and we wouldn't be seeing our cities become crime ridden war zones
what did people think was going to be the result of years of rampant classism?
when our leaders cheat and steal is it any wonder many of the rest of us do to?
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if the laws were rational and the bike paths and roads were well designed, cyclists wouldn't need to share the road with cars nearly as much
better design and better laws are better than stiffer deterrence
i don't want to live in a punishment based society
people watch too much hollywood and glorify authoritarianism but it's not working, just look around
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such logic is exactly what leads to a police state
no thanks
those who would trade security for freedom, soon have neither ...
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The reason is that rational people realize unethical acts are both counter productive and result in a loss of self-respect
I see you believe everyone belongs to category 2.
That isn't true.
There genuinely are people who think the rules don't apply to them.
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if there was equal economic opportunity, all that shop lifting of course wouldn't have happened
That is demonstrably false. There are plenty of cases where people who could easily afford the items were caught shoplifting. There are other reasons for crime than just economic disadvantage.
Also, most poor people aren't criminals. So from both sides, the argument falls flat.
when our leaders cheat and steal is it any wonder many of the rest of us do to?
That is totally true. We sadly moved away from a world where leaders tried to be examples.
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I don't think you don't understand. People who think society's rules don't 'apply to them' are by definition sociopathic, as in pathological, as in broken. There's no point in hurting broken people just because it makes you feel better to blame them for being broken. The proper course of action is to fix the broken people.
For some mentally ill people, there is no fix nor guarantee. Sociopathic people who cannot be non-violent need to be humanely maintained and restrained; becasue it is ethical and responsib
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It should be, "I think you don't understand ..."
Re: As the saying goes (Score:1)
It's not true. Who looks to politicians for guidance on correct thought or behaviour?
Noone hopefully.
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It's not that easy.
Because most things are a spectrum. Most of us think that it's ok to peek at the neighbour during a test or to sometimes park where it's not allowed or to bend the rules a bit on the tax return statement. Some of us think that goes further and bend the rules a bit. A few go beyond that and only follow the rules when someone is watching. Some lie and swindle their entire life.
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Not anymore.
Half a century ago, at least in my country, that was different. Politicians led by example and demonstrated the principles they stood for.
Today, I agree, politicians rank well below used car salesmen, and telling someone that they're liars is the same as telling them that water is wet.
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You must be a libertarian, the kind who believes in pure freedom which, paradoxically, leads to slavery. Hard pass!
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Though it is a good point. If you start going down the road "He is not a danger, he should be let free because he is old and never did anything" is wrong thought to have. It just means "if you get away with it and wait, you CAN get away with murder" full stop. You HAVE to draw a line some
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Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
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the fact is I wouldn't trust him nor would you, in my opinion, humane institutionalization is the only answer and we're just too cheap to do what's ethical and effective
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Why the hell did this guy confess after 44 years?!!?
He certainly had nothing to gain by this and everything to lose, which he did....
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That said, there is another case, which I can't find, where the woman was abused by her husband/boyfried by him beating her and dragging her by her hair, she kills him, and now she's going to jail.
There are a couple of such cases in the news, the key factor in each being that, at the moment she killed him, she was not in fact in immediate danger of death of grievous bodily harm. Sometimes the woman is acquitted by a sympathetic jury, other times convicted. In one example of the former, Marcia Thompson, a 44-year-old U.S. Customs agent, shot her husband in the back while he lay unarmed on the living room couch, then walked free.
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It possible to feel completely trapped though. No way to just report the husband or boyfriend to the police, because that just leads to more beatings. A restraining order very often doesn't restrain the abuser. In such situations you can consider this as a victim of a kidnapping, and whether or not it is justified for a kidnap victim to violenty escape.
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The Brock Turner case caused an immense amount of controversy, and the judge was recalled. It is still a controversy, with many supporting the judge even though they disagreed with the sentence, and lots of public defenders worried about a backlash if judges felt that they had to get-tough to keep their jobs. It did feel way to much to me though that the perp got a lighter sentence by being a Stanford man with a bright figure, as compared to if the perp had been just a common day laborer from a poor famil
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Because clearly the woman Brock Turner raped suffered no severe impact on her life.
Given the context, I feel sick in saying this; however, Justice is not about "an eye for an eye".
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As a woman I would narrow that down to alpha males . . .
"Alpha male" is complete pseudoscience. And damned sexist.
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I recently saw a comedian claim that alpha, beta, gamma males, etc, was just astrology for incels.
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I recently saw a comedian claim that alpha, beta, gamma males, etc, was just astrology for incels.
Yep... and they really don't understand the concept. They think that wolves have a dominant social structure, where as it's usually the oldest wolf that leads the pack. The scientist who originally observes "alpha" behaviour did it on wolves in captivity and spent his entire career trying to convince other people that he was wrong (because he was). For animals that do have a dominant social structure (I.E. meerkats and giraffes) the females frequently sneak away to mate with the vanquished males... seems k
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The 80s (and earlier) casual no-bra appearance is mostly out-of-fashion. Likewise, the evening dress (most being bra-unfriendly) worn during the day, is a rarity. Modern women suffer higher violent assaults than previous generations, politicians and concerned women tell us. It's interesting that removal of the usual culprits, skimpy clothes and tolerance for hands-y men has, for some reason, not made women safer.
Re:As the saying goes (Score:4, Interesting)
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Let's try the question again, with a small twist. Would you rather be in the forest with a bear or with a black man?
When you are being raped and tortured the skin colour of your abuser is completely irrelavant.
Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
Likewise, the species of bear is equally irrelevant when your flesh is being ripped from your still living body and consumed by said bear, or it just decides to gore you for getting too close to its cubs.
It takes a special level of delusion for these women making this stupid comparison to just assume every single man they see must want to have sex with them at any cost.
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“ Lots of men are worse; like you, rationalizing and dismissing a woman's fear. As a guy, myself, I'd also choose the bear instead of a man.”
This sounds like an attempt to be enlightened at the expense of being rational. I think you can fully acknowledge a woman’s fear of men without buying in to an ignorant position.
In my area, bears are generally disinclined to be around or bother people but we get them on our property and we do pass them when hiking in the our mountains, and I suspect
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Hm, oddly enough: I would chose a woman. My girlfriend would be first choice.
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Re:As the saying goes (Score:4, Insightful)
In a population of this size, you can find lots of edge cases.
Given the average woman, the average man, and the average bear, the woman would be safer with the man. Most men wouldn't take unfair advantage of the situation.
OTOH, there are the others, for which the earlier comment about pepper spray is reasonable. People prepared to be be dangerous are more dangerous than a bear. (And it also true that you can't always tell who's who. "Banks of the Ohio" was written for a reason.)
Re:As the saying goes (Score:4, Interesting)
Most bears are not aggressive to people. Aggressive *displays* are a warning -- the bear telling you to go away. Same with vocalizations, or charges where the bear doesn't actually attack. When bears actually predate on large animals, they stalk and ambush. The first sign the prey has that something is going on is five hundred pounds of bear hitting them at thirty miles per hour.
A bear making an aggressive display is a dangerous situation, no doubt. Statistically speaking, a woman encountering a bear or a strange man isn't facing a creature that wants to hurt her, but because people understand each other better than they understand animals there is a real danger of the woman escalating the situation with the bear inadvertently.
With respect to men, the most dangerous men for women are their intimate partners. However violence from strange men does happen, as do attacks perpetrated by bears -- typically human-habituated bears in starvation conditions. I'd say it wouldn't be unreasonable for, say, a female through hiker to be more concerned about meeting strange men than bears, even though a random man doesn't present a high likelihood of danger. It's pretty common for female through hikers to report creepy encounters with men, though.
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Most bears are not aggressive to people.
Most bears are not aggressive to people because we treat them with the upmost caution and fear. If every woman avoided going anywhere near men I'm sure we'd have a lot less men > women incidents as well.
Not being aggressive does not mean something isn't a major fucking threat, statistically orders of magnitude worse than an alternative being postulated.
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You might be surprised the degree of caution women employ in avoiding situations where they could be alone with men.
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Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
A few days ago near the Redondo pier I saw some girl on girl domestic violence. It was kind of hot actually.
Re: As the saying goes (Score:1)
Correct. The person who modded you a troll is a brainwashed imbecile
Re: As the saying goes (Score:2)
You left out even if you were the last man on earth...oh, wait
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Women would rather be alone in the forest with a bear than a man.
What about a bare man? A werebear?
The real problem is that it's hard to find man spray that actually works. And bells only attract those critters!
What technology was used to make him admit? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's not clear from the article what made Hanks admit to the crime? Were some latest techniques and technology used at all to solve this case?
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Indeed, it's totally unclear. I would speculate they kept the casings for all that time and only now a police sergeant thought of sending them for DNA analysis.
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I read the Facebook post to see what evidence they had but it said no DNA was found.
Re:What technology was used to make him admit? (Score:5, Funny)
It's not clear from the article what made Hanks admit to the crime? Were some latest techniques and technology used at all to solve this case?
From the Facebook post (and summary)...
"...new techniques and technology that were now available at the time of the murder."
Clearly it was a time machine.
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AI + Facebook information. The man looked like the killer but while a human has biases the AI does not so when it caught him, we could trust it's unbiased opinion!
When confronted with the evidence, the perp admitted his guilt. We can't disclose the details of this amazing technology.... (because we need confessions.)
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Apparently, cellular tracking technology has advanced to the point that they were able to identify this gentleman as being present at the murdered father's home for an hour or so before he arrived home from Little League practice with his son.
So, that
now available at the time of the murder (Score:2)
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.
The technique used to solve this case was undoubtedly just checking the cell phone location records of everyone, something they couldn't do at the time due to better privacy laws back then.
Re: now available at the time of the murder (Score:2, Informative)
1980. The first cell phone was released in 1983. There were car phones but most people didn't have them.
Re: now available at the time of the murder (Score:4, Informative)
Whoosh. The joke is the typo in the summary saying the technology is NOW available AT THE TIME OF THE MURDER.
Clearly they got a time machine.
senescence (Score:2)
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So as I was saying, this is an old case and the man may have been mentally disabled when he confessed. Justice isn't perfect.
Re: senescence (Score:1)
Imperfect 'justice' isn't justice
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I'd read elsewhere he has terminal cancer. So at this point he probably figured he didn't have much to lose.
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Remember the autism molestation panic, where parents were being charged based on the sick fantasies of people using Ouija boards and calling it 'facilitated communication'?
I think maybe we're at the point where every police interview should be recorded and at some point reviewed by a third party (i.e., not working directly for the police or a government prosecutor) to get a sign off that no coercion or other techniques were applied that would bring the value of a suspect's responses into question.
It's not g
why (Score:3, Interesting)
Why is this on slashdot? A warning to nerds, maybe?
Re: why (Score:2)
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The way they specifically avoid talking about which information was critical to them, which was not, and what was the evidence, makes me think it's deliberate omission. Either they're not very proud of the low quality evidence, or they're not allowed to mention due to the terms of the plea agreement.
The fresh look made clear that “some information had been initially overlooked and some had been added at a later date” that the original investigators hadn’t been aware of, Bellendir said in 2022.
The officers spent the next stretch consolidating “hundreds of documents accumulated over 40 years into an organized case file,” indexing items and figuring out what interviews were there and what information was missing. They then submitted DNA for testing (although that didn’t lead anywhere) and conducted several interviews, although many of the original witnesses and investigating law enforcement officers had died by then.
Eventually, their diligence paid off. By October 2022, new evidence had been uncovered.
“Sgt. Detective Adam Hales and Lt. David Paden re-interviewed Hanks. ... In his interviews, Hanks admitted to killing Walter,” the Kansas Attorney General’s Office said in a news release Friday.
https://www.kansas.com/news/lo... [kansas.com]
deliberate omission (Score:2)
I totally agree and thinking through this lack of details, I can imagine a few warranted (no pun intended) scenarios:
1. Circumstantial evidence that could not be admitted into court may have drawn investigators to interrogate the neighbor. They may have triggered a guilty plea that was used for conviction. If this were the route, it's likely the court case outlines the interrogation, but would not be allowed to include the circumstantial evidence. The local news sto
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Why is this on slashdot? A warning to nerds, maybe?
Because:
1} Someone submitted it and it was otherwise a slow submission day.
2} It involved some new crime-solving technology that isn't explained in any way.
Not even that. (Score:2)
/. was inundated with non-nerds about eight, maybe nine years ago. You know the type - they wouldn't know serial from parallel, but they sure know how to push a Law 'n' Order agenda. Sadly, they've left us the chore of Making Slashdot Nerdy Again - MSNA.
Then again, maybe not. Welcome to the new X.
Re: why (Score:2)
This article should be filed under Why longevity or immortality may not be all it's cracked up to be for two hundred, Alex
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Why is this on slashdot?
reopen the case using new techniques and technology
It's the new technology.
Soon, there won't be anywhere to hide. In fact, any time now, we can expect news about Hillar --~{po ~poz~ppo [no carrier]
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Why is this on slashdot? A warning to nerds, maybe?
Life outside mom's basement is creepy, scary, and vengeful. But that's not news to nerds.
Re:why (Score:4, Informative)
The thing I kept coming back to, though, was: think about the year 1980. VCRs (for over-the-air television). Most banks didn't even have ATMs -- you had to walk up to a teller window, during banking hours, if you wanted to get your cash back. Fast forward through time, and they're solving the case -- and then announcing it on a 2024 social media site. All the news sites are spreading the news, based on... a Facebook post.
We live in interesting times. It just felt very futuristic to me...
Crimes expire in my country. (Score:2)
There is no such thing here as a 44 year old case. That's ridiculous. Is this poor elderly man the same person as he was 44 years ago?
What are we achieving here?
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It doesn't matter. There are a few crimes for which there is no statue of limitations, nor should there be. Murder and rape among them.
What tech was used? (Score:1)