RAYMAND VANNIEUWENHOVEN

An 83-year-old Lakewood, Wis., man accused of killing a Green Bay couple at a Marinette County campground more than four decades ago was ruled incompetent to stand trial Thursday.

Raymand Vannieuwenhoven does not understand court proceedings and cannot assist in his own defense, Marinette County Circuit Judge James Morrison declared at a hearing in Marinette County Circuit Court.

The decision came after the court heard testimony from clinical psychologist Dr. Steven Benson, whose evaluation concluded Vannieuwenhoven had significant gaps in recall and could not make rational decisions.

Special Prosecutor Mark Williams and defense attorney Lee Schuchart acknowledged Benson’s opinion that Vannieuwenhoven could be restored to competency with treatment.

Morrison ordered Vannieuwenhoven be placed in an outpatient competency restoration program and, if necessary, be medicated involuntarily.

A status conference is set for June 24.

Vannieuwenhoven is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, a felony punishable by up to life in prison, in the deaths of 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys on July 9, 1976, in the Town of Silver Cliff.

Schuchart entered a not guilty plea on Vannieuwenhoven’s behalf July 1.

Vannieuwenhoven would have been 39 in 1976 when Schuldes and Matheys were killed at the McClintock Park campground.

According to the criminal complaint, Schuldes was fatally shot through the neck with a .30-caliber firearm as he waited for Matheys outside a bathroom. The shooter then either ordered or chased Matheys into a nearby wooded area, where she was sexually assaulted and, after being allowed to put some of her clothing back on, shot in the chest and abdomen, authorities claimed.

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 2018, investigators submitted evidence to Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs, which traced the DNA to a specific couple with ties to the Green Bay,

Wis., area, the complaint stated.

Further investigation led to Vannieuwenhoven, a widower living in Lakewood, Wis., authorities said. A DNA sample obtained from Vannieuwenhoven in March 2019 proved to be a match, investigators claim.

Vannieuwenhoven also was charged with first-degree sexual assault, but Morrison dismissed the count in May because the statute of limitations had passed. There are no such limitations for homicide.

The 83-year-old remains jailed at the Marinette County Law Enforcement Center on a $1 million bond.