Raymand Lawrence Vannieuwenhoven was arrested on March 14, 2019 and charged in the July 9, 1976 murders of 24-year-old Ellen Matheys and 25-year-old David Shuldes in Silver Cliff, Wisconsin. They had been shot to death shortly after arriving at their camp site in McClintock Park. After setting up their camp they appear to have gone for a walk. Schuldes was found by park employees outside of the camp toilet. It appears he had been shot while waiting for Matheys to use the restroom. The suspect then forced or chased Matheys to a location in the nearby woods where she was raped and shot. She had been putting her clothes back on when she was shot in her chest and abdomen by an assailant standing in front of her. Her body was found the next morning in the bushes. They had both been shot with a .30 caliber rifle.
A DNA profile was obtained from semen collected from Matheys’ body and from the shorts she was wearing. The FGG investigation was conducted by Parabon Nanolabs. The initial confirmation was made through police surveillance followed by the surreptitious sampling of an envelope that Vannieuwenhoven had licked.
Vannieuwenhoven has prior convictions for two sex offences. He had attacked two teenaged girls in November of 1957, but they escaped. He served 6 months in prison.
In September of 2020, Vannieuwenhoven suffered a stroke and underwent a competency evaluation. He suffered this stroke after passing a previous competency evaluation. In January of 2020, he was being held at his attorney’s request in the Mendota Mental Health Institute, rather than in a correctional facility. On November 4, 2020, he was again found competent to stand trial and the trial was scheduled for July of 2021. The sexual assaults charges have been dismissed due to the statute of limitations, which would have expired after 6 years.
Vannieuwenhoven was convicted by a Marinette County jury on July 27, 2021 of two counts of first-degree murder. The defence had not disputed that the semen found on Mathey’s shorts was Vannieuwenhoven’s, but that the state could not prove when, where, and why that semen was deposited there. The jury deliberated for about two hours before coming to their verdict. On August 26, 2021 he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.
Vannieuwenhoven passed away at the age of 85 in the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in June of 2022. His attorneys are continuing with their appeal. They are challenging the police’s collection of his DNA on an envelope without his consent, arguing that the right to privacy in the information contained in one’s DNA should outweigh the interest that society has in solving serious crimes. The case is now before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.
Sources:
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State of Wisconsin v. Raymand L. Vannieuwenhoven. Criminal Complaint Issued by District Attorney. DA Case No.: 2019MR000196. State of Wisconsin Circuit Court Marinette County. 21 March 2019.
Tempus, Kent. “The Elderly Lakewood Man Charged with the 1976 Murders of a Green Bay Couple Has Been Found Guilty.” Green Bay Press Gazette, July 27, 2021. Accessed July 30, 2021. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/oconto-county/2021/07/27/raymand-vannieuwenhoven-lakewood-convicted-1976-murders/5389156001/.
Tempus, Kent. “Elderly Man Charged in Decades-Old Double Homicide Suffers Stroke.” Green Bay Press Gazette, September 21, 2020. Accessed December 28, 2020. https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/local/oconto-county/2020/09/21/elderly-man-charged-decades-old-double-homicide-suffers-stroke/5853919002/.
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