Raymand Vannieuwenhoven

MARINETTE, Wis. — Marinette County authorities were able to get a crucial DNA sample from a Town of Lakewood resident by having Oconto County’s chief deputy invite him to participate in a survey on policing in the area — and then ask the man to seal that survey in an envelope.

Saliva from the envelope was used to match the man to semen taken from a woman raped and shot to death, along with her fiance, in 1976 at a campground in western Marinette County, detectives from the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office claim in a criminal complaint filed this week.

Raymand Vannieuwenhoven, 82, now has been formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault.

He is accused of killing 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys on July 9, 1976, in the Town of Silver Cliff. The couple from Green Bay, Wis., had made camp at McClintock Park.

Vannieuwenhoven, who would have been 39 in 1976, made his initial appearance in Marinette County Circuit Court via video link Friday afternoon.

He does not have an attorney and does not qualify for a public defender. His daughter, who said she has his power of attorney, told the court all the attorneys contacted wanted a $25,000 deposit to take the case.

The initial appearance was continued to April 30 to allow Vannieuwenhoven time to secure legal representation. That date can be moved up if he hires an attorney sooner, Marinette County Circuit Judge James Morrison advised.

Bond has been set at $1 million cash.

According to the criminal complaint, Schuldes was fatally shot through the neck as he waited for Matheys outside a bathroom at the campground. The shooter then either ordered or chased Matheys into a nearby wooded area, where she was sexually assaulted and, while being allowed to put some of her clothing back on, shot twice, in the chest and abdomen.

A county parks worker discovered Schuldes’ body about 2:30 p.m. that day. A check of their campsite indicated a woman was missing as well; Matheys was found early the next day, according to the criminal complaint.

Though the case went cold, Marinette County detectives continued to have DNA from semen left in Matheys’ shorts periodically analyzed to see if a possible match might surface, according to the criminal complaint.

In March 2018, information provided to Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs yielded a profile of what the suspect looked like: ancestry mainly from northern Europe, fair to very fair skin, blue eyes, reddish-brown hair and some or a few freckles. Parabon also provided images of how the man might have appeared at age 25 and 65.

Marinette County Sheriff Jerry Sauve released those images at a news conference in July.

But what turned the case around was Parabon’s work with a genealogist that in December traced the DNA to a specific couple with ties to the Green Bay, Wis. area, according to the criminal complaint.

Marinette County then began investigating the four sons of that couple, working to obtain DNA samples from each for comparison. With one, they grabbed garbage left in a curbside container, finding a medical inhaler. Saliva left on the device was not an exact match but had characteristics in common with the suspect’s profile, according to the criminal complaint.

A neighbor who was a retired detective said he regularly had coffee with another of the sons at his cabin and agreed to save the cup used for the Marinette County sheriff’s office. It, too, yielded DNA that was closely related but not an exact match, according to the complaint.

The third son investigated was Vannieuwenhoven, who was asked by Oconto County Chief Deputy Darren Laskowski at his Lakewood home to participate in the “survey.” The Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory in Madison confirmed DNA from the saliva matched the semen left in Matheys’ shorts, according to the complaint.

Vannieuwenhoven was arrested March 14. At Friday’s hearing, he declared without prompting he plans to plead not guilty to all charges. He remains jailed at the Marinette County Law Enforcement Center.

At a news conference March 15, Sauve described Vannieuwenhoven’s criminal record as minimal and said there was no known connection between him and the slain couple. A check of the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access system showed only a speeding ticket in March 2018, until these charges were filed Thursday.

Lakewood 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 last week. A search online showed his wife, Rita Vannieuwenhoven, died in 2008; they had been married since 1956.