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Suspect named in 1976 murders

DNA evidence cited in Marinette County cold case investigation

Marinette County Detective Todd Baldwin, left, listens Friday as Sheriff Jerry Sauve holds a newspaper with DNA prediction images from an investigation into the killing of an engaged couple in Silver Cliff on July 9, 1976. Suave identified Raymand Vannieuwenhoven, 82, of Lakewood, Wis., as the suspect in the murders. (Brian Christensen/Daily News photo)

MARINETTE, Wis. — Authorities say DNA analysis led to the arrest Thursday of an 82-year-old man now accused of killing a couple in Marinette County more than four decades ago.

Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve identified Raymand Vannieuwenhoven of Lakewood, Wis., as the suspect in the murders of 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys on July 9,1976, in the Town of Silver Cliff.

Vannieuwenhoven was arrested after his DNA matched a sample that had been taken from Matheys’ body, Sauve said during a news conference Friday at the Marinette County Law Enforcement Center, where Vannieuwenhoven now is in jail.

No criminal complaint has been filed or court date scheduled at this time. “This investigation is far from over,” Sauve noted at the news conference.

Schuldes and Matheys, an engaged couple from Green Bay, Wis., were killed after making camp at McClintock Park in western Marinette County.

Raymand Vannieuwenhoven

Schuldes’ body was found in the park; Matheys was found the next day in a nearby wooded area, where she had been sexually assaulted. Both had been shot.

Two witnesses believed they saw a man, estimated to be in his 20s, walking with a rifle in the woods around the time the crimes were committed. Vannieuwenhoven would have been 39 at the time.

The witnesses’ description of the suspect produced a police sketch. DNA taken from the victims’ clothing remained in a database regularly checked by state and national authorities.

Though the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office and the Wisconsin Department of Justice continued to work the case as an open investigation, no arrest had ever been made.

But last July, Sauve released composite images of the possible suspect created by a Virginia-based technology company specializing in phenotyping — the prediction of physical appearance and ancestry using DNA.

Working with the same company’s genetic genealogy division, police were able to identify Vannieuwenhoven, Sauve said.

“When you get the call and the first thing you’re asked is if you’re sitting down, you know it’s going to be interesting,” the sheriff said.

By contrast, Vannieuwenhoven “didn’t seem too surprised,” when arrested, Sauve said.

Sauve described Vannieuwenhoven’s criminal record as minimal and said there was no known connection between him and the slain couple.

Lakewood, however, is in northwestern Oconto County, just south of Marinette County and only about 20 miles from McClintock Park, according to online mapping information.

Vannieuwenhoven is a widower with several children, Sauve said. A search online showed his wife, Rita Vannieuwenhoven, died in 2008; they had been married since 1956.

Sauve thanked his predecessors as well as current and former investigators in several law enforcement agencies for their hard work in the many years since the murders.

Sauve said he also sympathized with the surviving family members of the victims and empathized with those related to Vannieuwenhoven.

Brian Christensen can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 29, or at bchristensen@ironmountaindailynews.com.

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