FILE – This undated booking photo provided by the Marinette County, Wis., Jail shows Ray Vannieuwenhoven. Eighty-two-year-old Vannieuwenhoven has been charged in Marinette County with first-degree murder in the deaths of David Schuldes and Ellen Matheys at a park in Silver Cliff, Wis., 43 years ago. Sheriff’s detective Todd Baldwin testified Wednesday, June 19, 2019, that tests of Vannieuwenhoven’s DNA from a licked envelope matched DNA from the crime scene. He’s scheduled to enter a plea July 1. (Marinette County Jail via AP File)
MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — An 82-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a couple at a Wisconsin park 43 years ago.
Raymand Vannieuwenhoven (van-EE’-ven-hoh-ven) entered the pleas Monday in Marinette County Circuit Court. He’s accused of killing 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys in 1976 at McClintock Park in Silver Cliff, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Milwaukee.
For decades, the widower and father of five grown children lived quietly among the 800 residents of Lakewood , a northern Wisconsin town surrounded by forests and small lakes.
Investigators didn’t have any major leads until last year, when a DNA lab in Virginia identified the genealogical background of the suspect. Investigators say tests of Vannieuwenhoven’s DNA from a licked envelope matched DNA collected at the crime scene.
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