Man’s Past May Yield Clues to Fate of Women : Crime: Steven Walters killed himself when sheriff’s deputies knocked on his door. Later, they found credit cards and personal effects of several mystery women in his possession.

A suicide victim suspected of one woman’s murder and under investigation in the apparent disappearances of several other women was a “mentally disordered sex offender” who had been committed to a mental institution before serving two terms in prison, court records show.

Steven Christopher Walters, 30, who shot himself March 22 when two Orange County sheriff’s detectives knocked on the front door of his Lakewood home, had his first major run-in with the law at age 16, when he was convicted of kidnaping. And he was incarcerated almost continually until being paroled for the last time about three years ago, the records show.

The Orange County detectives had wanted to question Walters about the murder a day earlier of a woman whose body was found behind a Laguna Hills industrial park. Lori Mae Calhoun, 41, of Long Beach was answering an ad to rent a room from Walters at the time she was abducted and strangled, detectives said.

Although Walters was not considered a suspect at the time detectives appeared at his door, they said he has since become the focal point of an investigation, not only into Calhoun’s death, but also into the apparent disappearances of other women.

In addition to finding credit cards and other items belonging to Calhoun in Walters’ possession, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said, detectives found credit cards and personal effects of several other women. Olson said the women--whom he declined to name--have not been located. He said police are checking to see if missing persons reports have been filed for any of them.

“Until we start finding people, we’re not going to know who they (credit cards and belongings) came from,” Olson said.

Olson said detectives are also still looking into the significance of a stuffed animal collection found on a shelf in Walters’ bedroom. Police said Walters apparently asked women he dated to give him the stuffed animals.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said they have not ruled Walters out as a suspect in the strangulation death of 16-year-old Zuleima Valdez of Cypress, whose body was found March 19 in a Lakewood flood control channel about two miles from Walters’ home. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Lynda Edmonds said last week, however, that no connection has been made so far between the Valdez and Calhoun cases.

Records on file in Los Angeles County Superior Court show that Walters had a lengthy criminal history in the Long Beach area, where he grew up.

A native of Corpus Christi, Tex., Walters was reared in a broken home, one of three brothers and a sister, according to court records. Those records show that at age 16, while living in Long Beach, Walters served a six-month sentence in a juvenile facility for kidnaping. Details of the juvenile case were not specified in the records.

Working as a general laborer after high school, Walters, then 18, was convicted of receiving stolen property in Long Beach and sentenced to serve six months in Los Angeles County Jail on the misdemeanor charge.

While in custody, Walters escaped by simply walking away, court documents show. He was quickly brought back into custody, and another 60 days was added to his sentence.

On Sept. 9, 1979, according to his court file, Walters sexually molested an 11-year-old girl living at the Long Beach apartment of his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Williams.

Walters pleaded guilty to a felony charge on Dec. 24, 1979, under an agreement in which he would serve a seven-year sentence in a California state mental hospital rather than report to prison. Judge Robert A. Wenke of Los Angeles County Superior Court determined that Walters “is a mentally disordered sex offender, and that he would benefit by treatment in a state hospital.”

After serving 255 days in Patton State Hospital, however, hospital officials discharged him as “still a danger to the health and safety of others,” and a Los Angeles County judge remanded him to state prison to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Records show that Walters had violated rules of the state hospital, but no details were given.

Initially, Walters was ordered confined within the California Youth Authority. But CYA officials refused to accept him, saying, “At 20 years of age, Mr. Walters has had experience in county jail and a state hospital.”

Paroled Jan. 12, 1983, Walters was forced to register with state officials as a sex offender. He told a parole officer that his only plans were to move to Montana, where Williams had moved.

Walters was out of prison only a year, though, when he ran afoul of the law again. On the night of Jan. 28, 1984, he and a convicted prostitute stole a 1964 Volkswagen from in front of a Long Beach residence and took it to his apartment to “part out,” according to the court file on that case.

A neighbor notified police that Walters and the woman were up past midnight, dismantling the car in an open garage. When Long Beach police responded to the scene, they discovered a stolen van and motorcycle in the garage also, and they placed the two under arrest. Walters fled on foot but was quickly apprehended, court files said.

Walters, whose parole was revoked because of the crime, subsequently pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property. In sentencing, Superior Court Judge Charles D. Sheldon termed Walters a poor risk for probation and ordered him to serve three more years in state prison.

“His prior conviction of crimes as a juvenile into adulthood are . . . numerous and slowly becoming of increasing seriousness,” Sheldon said at Walters’ sentencing hearing May 23, 1984. “The defendant needs to go to state prison in a structured environment, where he can hopefully determine that when he gets out this next time, he’s not going to continue to commit law violations.”

Serving time at the California Men’s Institute in Chino and San Quentin prison, Walters was again discharged June 11, 1987. He went to work as a forklift mechanic for a Buena Park company. About a year ago, he rented a two-bedroom residence in the 11700 block of East 215th Street, a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood in Lakewood just off the San Gabriel River Freeway.

Walters lived inconspicuously, drawing little attention from neighbors or his landlord, Jean Gulik, a real estate agent in southeast Los Angeles County.

“I would see him once a month when he paid his rent,” Gulik said. “He never had a problem with me.”

“He was just a regular guy, as far as I know,” added Frank Livesy, his next-door neighbor.

Livesy said Walters drove a service truck for the company and kept it parked at home when he was not working. He used the truck to go out on forklift-repair calls, Livesy said.

Unknown to Gulik or the neighbors, Walters had taken out newspaper ads to rent a room out of his house. The ads specified “women only,” according to Orange County sheriff’s investigators.

Shortly before he took his own life, Walters had been rocked by the recent deaths of his father and two brothers.

Livesy said Walters told him one brother had committed suicide, and the other had been murdered. Livesy said he did not know which.

A sister, Mary Rand of Bellflower, declined comment when reached at her home.

“We’re all still grieving over this,” she said.