00:00:00
[GRIM MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Marinette County,
Wisconsin, July 9, 1976-- sadly, on this day, a loving
young couple meets a cruel end.
00:00:24
JERRY SAUVE: David
was deceased outside of a rustic campground toilet. 400 yards away, in ferns and
bushes and brush in the woods,
00:00:36
they found the female victim. NANCY GRACE: What
could drive a person to commit such a brutal act?
00:00:44
This was sexually motivated. He wanted to sexually
assault Ellen, but he had to get rid
of David to do that.
00:00:52
NANCY GRACE: Other campers tell
police a mysterious individual is lurking in the park.
00:01:00
They saw an individual
walking out of the woods carrying a rifle. NANCY GRACE: Detectives
pursue many leads,
00:01:10
but the case goes cold. PATT MORRISON: Police
just ran out of options, ran out of possibilities, and
nothing further could be done.
00:01:20
NANCY GRACE: This is the
story of a 43-year-long search for the killer of a young,
engaged couple, a couple who had
00:01:29
their whole lives before them. I'm Nancy Grace. This is "Bloodline Detectives."
00:01:35
[THEME MUSIC] [FOREBODING MUSIC] NANCY GRACE:
McClintock County Park, a scenic natural park located
in Marinette County, Wisconsin--
00:02:08
in 1976, it's a popular spot for
camping and outdoor activities. BARRY DEGNITZ: McClintock County
Park has a small campground
00:02:17
in the south part of it. And north part of it,
there's another parking area.
00:02:22
There's some hiking
trails there. It's a very,
very secluded park. It's kind of a big,
circular driveway
00:02:31
that has little offshoots
that are campsites. NANCY GRACE: In this
seemingly serene park,
00:02:38
a terrible discovery
is about to be made. DESHEA MORROW: On July 9,
1976, a park caretaker--
00:02:47
his name was Stanley-- he went into the camp area. And when he got
to the restroom--
00:02:55
which is basically like an
outhouse-- he saw a body. He went up to the male and
couldn't get a response.
00:03:02
There was no telephone in
McClintock Park at that time. And right after he
made this discovery,
00:03:09
there was another
man, Lance Timper. He and his girlfriend
were driving, happened to drive through the
McClintock Park camping area.
00:03:18
And Stanley flagged
him down and said, hey, there's this man over here
that's not responsive.
00:03:25
Lance Timper was actually
an off-duty Marinette police officer. And so Lance Timper
went over and discovered
00:03:31
that the male was deceased. And so Stanley, after hearing
that, drove up to Goodman Park,
00:03:39
which had a telephone, and
that's about a 10-minute drive. NANCY GRACE: Stanley,
the park caretaker,
00:03:47
rushes to Goodman Park
and finds the payphone. DESHEA MORROW: And so then
Stanley went up and called
00:03:54
Marinette County dispatch and
was received at, like, 2:53 PM. The first patrol officer
was Deputy Girou.
00:04:02
And so he went there and, yes,
helped to secure the scene, basically, with tape, indicating
that it was a police scene
00:04:08
and that people could not
enter without authorization. They knew enough
that this was probably
00:04:14
going to be a big enough scene
that they needed to contact the State Division of Justice.
00:04:19
So basically, they just
secured the scene that night, as it was getting close to
dark, when most help was
00:04:25
able to arrive and
waited until the Crime Lab and Department of Justice
arrived in the morning.
00:04:33
When they arrived and they
saw the body of the male by the women's restroom
there, they looked around.
00:04:40
Basically, what he was wearing
was a T-shirt, some shorts. He had a camera that had
been around his neck.
00:04:48
He had a hat that was
not on his head anymore, but was on the
ground next to him.
00:04:55
GARY HAMBLIN: Items of
clothing that may be damp or whatever, you
want to make sure
00:04:59
that you put those in paper
bags and preserve them, not in plastic bags. If you put them in
plastic bags, the evidence
00:05:04
will deteriorate quickly. The sheriff's office
did an excellent job of preserving the crime scene
and immediately requesting
00:05:11
a field response unit from
the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, rather than trying
to pick up things on their own
00:05:17
that they may or may not
have handled appropriately. DESHEA MORROW: They also
found a wallet as well,
00:05:24
and that was significant because
if it had been a robbery, then they would have
expected that valuables
00:05:30
would have been taken,
and that was not the case. BARRY DEGNITZ: They
found a billfold that
00:05:35
had his identification
in it, and they got his name off of that. The male victim was
identified as David Schuldes.
00:05:42
NANCY GRACE: So far, police have
identified one homicide victim, but their investigation
is just beginning.
00:05:49
Detectives searched the
area for more evidence, and soon, they discover a nearby
tent and a terrible crime scene.
00:05:58
TODD BALDWIN: When the officers
went and viewed the tent, they were able to determine that
there was probably a female who
00:06:05
was with him, but
not, of course, located at the
scene at that time. Now, Lance Timper had
gone to the campsite.
00:06:12
There was a car, an AMC Gremlin,
and had looked inside the car, and he noted a female's
purse inside the car.
00:06:21
But at that point, they
did not locate the female. TODD BALDWIN: It was
shortly after they
00:06:27
began the search
that they did locate the body of Ellen Matheys. They located her about
150 yards away from David.
00:06:37
And she was in a wooded area,
and she was partially clothed. GARY HAMBLIN: There
was a short-sleeve,
00:06:46
summer-weight sweater that
was partially over her head. It appeared to investigators
that she was-- possibly had
00:06:55
been stripped because the
undergarments were gone, but the shorts
were partially on.
00:07:01
They did locate her
underwear about 10 to 15 feet away from the body. In Wisconsin, the
coroner is called
00:07:09
to the scene of any unexpected
death and any violent death. The coroner makes the
pronouncement of death.
00:07:17
The bodies would have been
transported to Madison. BARRY DEGNITZ:
During the autopsy,
00:07:22
they're looking for the
cause and manner of death. TODD BALDWIN: It was
determined that David Schuldes
00:07:30
died pretty much immediately
with the gunshot wound to the neck. Ellen Matheys, it was
determined that she had died
00:07:37
from two gunshot wounds,
one to the chest, one to the upper abdomen. She likely was shot
in the abdomen first.
00:07:45
That would not have killed her. It would have dropped
her to the ground. The shot that likely
would have killed her
00:07:52
would have been the shot
to the right breast, going out the left breast,
because it transected
00:07:56
the aorta and the heart. Because of some of the
scrapes and scratches and cuts and the semen
found in her shorts,
00:08:05
they had pretty much
determined that there was a sexual assault that occurred. NANCY GRACE: Marinette County
detectives attend the funerals
00:08:12
of both victims, hoping they
might see some attendees acting suspiciously. They went to the
young couple's funeral
00:08:22
and were vigilant for people who
were not members of the family, were not friends, who
were hanging out there
00:08:28
for what reason. Because sometimes killers do get
a kick out of seeing how people
00:08:33
react to their crimes,
the mourning, the grief that people are suffering. Some of them, shall
we say, get off on it.
00:08:40
It's just one more step that
police departments and sheriff's offices can take
to try and develop
00:08:45
information when none exists. Investigators now on
the hunt for suspects in a double homicide.
00:08:54
Will their leads
be strong enough to catch a cold-blooded killer? We find out next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:09:02
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SOMBER MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: 1976,
Marinette County, Wisconsin,
00:09:16
a young couple brutally murdered
July 9 at a popular campground. The victims are ID'd
as an engaged couple,
00:09:26
25-year-old David Schuldes
and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys. David Schuldes shot in the neck,
Ellen also killed by gunshot,
00:09:38
but not before she's
brutally raped. He was attending
the University of Wisconsin in
Green Bay and worked
00:09:51
at the "Green Bay Newspaper." Ellen, she had graduated
from the University
00:09:56
of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and
worked in the library there. But they were a happy young
couple, and they were engaged.
00:10:06
They had no enemies. And they just enjoyed getting
out in nature and spending time
00:10:11
together. They liked to camp, and they
liked to get away and do things. Appeared, by all accounts, to
just be a young couple in love,
00:10:22
planning to be married
later that year. And they were
excited about that. In '76, it was pretty rare
to see any kind of homicides
00:10:33
or violent crimes being
committed in Marinette or Marinette County. [TENSE MUSIC]
00:10:38
JERRY SAUVE: It
just always stood out to me as like,
how could something like this happen there?
00:10:45
TODD BALDWIN: In
fact, to this day, people don't go to
McClintock Park out of fear
00:10:50
and because of what
had occurred there. NANCY GRACE: Marinette
County detectives
00:10:56
ask the local community
for any information that could lead them to the killer. DESHEA MORROW: They went
all over Marinette County
00:11:04
to different convenience
stores, campgrounds, you know, just any place that people
would have frequented,
00:11:11
trying to see if anybody saw
anyone suspicious or anything suspicious. They did an immense
amount of work
00:11:20
on the ground to try to
develop any type of lead. TODD BALDWIN: They arrived at
approximately 2:00 PM on July 9,
00:11:26
1976, set up their
camp, put things away. Their tent was
very neat and tidy. David did enjoy taking pictures
of the wildlife and things
00:11:39
like that. So finding him with a
camera around his neck, officers at the time believed
that they were probably
00:11:45
attempting to go for a
nature walk and see some of the wildlife in the area. [OMINOUS MUSIC]
00:11:56
Ellen had to use
the bathroom, so she went into one of the outhouses. And when David was
waiting outside,
00:12:04
somebody from a
distance fired a round and shot him through his neck
with a high-powered rifle.
00:12:13
At that point, Ellen was
taken from the bathroom, marched into the
wooded area, where
00:12:19
she was sexually assaulted. After the sexual
assault occurred, the suspect allowed her to
put her jean shorts back on.
00:12:31
And as she was putting her
shirt back over her head, when it just got
over her head, is
00:12:37
when we believe the shots were
fired, striking her in the chest and the abdomen, killing her.
00:12:44
As the word got out about
the murders in McClintock Park, some information was generated.
00:12:52
There were people that came
forth with information. They were two police
officers from Green
00:12:57
Bay, Wisconsin, which
is about an hour south of Marinette County. He and his wife and another
officer and his wife
00:13:03
were there camping prior to
the murders in McClintock Park. As they were sitting around
the campfire in the evening,
00:13:11
they said they noticed
a person standing off some distance in the woods. They could see the silhouette
of an individual standing there.
00:13:19
They started to walk
toward that individual, and the person disappeared. So they came back, sat around
the campfire some more.
00:13:28
Got a little bit
later in the evening, and noticed a silhouette some
distance away in the woods
00:13:35
again. That time, instead of going
toward the individual, they went to their tent to
retrieve their service weapon.
00:13:43
When they came back, the
individual was gone again. At the time, they thought
it was suspicious,
00:13:51
but didn't give it
a lot of thought until they also learned of the
murders in McClintock Park.
00:13:57
And at that time,
they came forward with that piece of information. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
focus on the crime scene,
00:14:06
and they locate a vital
piece of evidence. TODD BALDWIN: Investigators
recovered a bullet
00:14:14
fragment, a jacket
from a fence that was outside of the outhouse. That bullet had gone
through David's throat.
00:14:23
And that one had grooves
and striations on it that the crime lab
was able to tell
00:14:29
our investigators that
if you locate this gun, we can positively ID it. So a lot of effort
went into looking
00:14:35
for a 30 caliber rifle,
which is what they determined caused the homicide. GARY HAMBLIN: Unfortunately, 30
caliber weapons are extremely
00:14:44
common in Northern Wisconsin. It's a very common
hunting weapon. So in the course of
the investigation,
00:14:50
we collected a number of
weapons, 30 caliber weapons, and submitted them to the crime
laboratory, none of which,
00:14:55
of course, matched
the bullets that were recovered at the scene. TODD BALDWIN: The day after
these homicides occurred,
00:15:02
two young men indicated
to their parents that they might have seen
the suspect in the case.
00:15:09
McClintock Park has
a sister park that is actually a walking park. It's about a half a mile
north of the campgrounds.
00:15:20
And they had stopped
there at the time, and they were walking
around down by the river
00:15:26
when they heard a gunshot. [GUNSHOT] DESHEA MORROW: It sounded
like a rifle shot.
00:15:32
These were young men that
were experienced hunters and grew up around
that, so they knew
00:15:36
what a rifle shot sounded like. And those two got
back in the vehicle. And then they traveled
out to the main road,
00:15:43
and they drove south towards
McClintock Park campground. As they were driving, they
look off to the right,
00:15:50
and they see an individual
who they described as about 20 to 30 years old, dressed
in a military-style jacket,
00:15:56
wearing boots, and
carrying what they thought was like a 30 caliber rifle. And he was walking through the
woods at a pretty good pace.
00:16:04
They assumed he was
about 15 to 20 feet away from them when they drove by. Unusual, but not unheard of.
00:16:10
People do hunt out of season. That's called poaching. That does happen here.
00:16:14
And so that's kind of what
they thought was happening. Somebody was hunting
out of season.
00:16:18
And didn't give
it a whole lot more thought until they heard about
the homicide investigation.
00:16:24
So they briefly caught
a glimpse of this man and described that man to law
enforcement as best they could.
00:16:32
Law enforcement engaged the
services of a composite artist, and they developed a
pretty rudimentary sketch
00:16:38
of this person that they saw. There was also, on the other
side of the road from where
00:16:44
this man had been spotted,
the other side of Parkway Road, a Plymouth vehicle. And one of the young
men was able to give
00:16:50
a partial license plate. It appeared to be like a
Michigan license plate. Obviously, one of the
first things that we did
00:16:55
was contact the
Michigan State Police and got a printout
of any license plate that could possibly come
up with that combination.
00:17:03
So law enforcement
went off what they had, which was this person
walking with the 30 caliber
00:17:10
rifle and the description
and the composite, as well as looking
for this vehicle.
00:17:16
They went and scoured all of
the surrounding campgrounds or convenience
stores, any place that
00:17:23
may have information
where somebody may have driven through. And so then asked
people if they had
00:17:28
seen a vehicle similar to the
one found across the road, if they had seen anyone
matching that description
00:17:34
or seen anything
suspicious at all, or if they had seen
Ellen and David. Unfortunately, the
leads really weren't
00:17:43
significant at that time. The main thing they
were focusing on, again, was the composite sketch.
00:17:50
That's really the
only thing that they had that was solid at the time. NANCY GRACE: Unfortunately,
investigators
00:17:59
cannot identify that
mysterious man in the woods. Meanwhile, new
leads are drying up.
00:18:07
Weeks turned into months. Marinette County investigators
are losing their momentum.
00:18:15
BARRY DEGNITZ: In the later
'70s, it really dropped off, not due to lack
of effort or lack
00:18:21
of wanting to solve the crime. They had gone through all
the investigative leads
00:18:25
that they could,
and it didn't lead them anywhere to a resolution. NANCY GRACE: The
case may be cold,
00:18:34
but Marinette County detectives
will not give up in solving this double homicide.
00:18:40
As the years pass,
so do advancements in forensic science,
and it offers new hope.
00:18:46
Can the killer's DNA be the
key to unlock this mystery? That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives."
00:18:55
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Marinette
County, Wisconsin, 1996--
00:19:07
detectives looking for
new clues in a 20-year-old double homicide. 25-year-old David Schuldes
and his beloved fiancée,
00:19:18
24-year-old Ellen
Matheys, are discovered murdered in a campground 1976. A double homicide
investigation is active again,
00:19:30
but new leads are scarce. BARRY DEGNITZ: Back in 1976,
technology was a little bit
00:19:35
different than it
is now, and they relied heavily on fingerprints
and serology and blood typing.
00:19:43
And serology is, like,
the analysis of fluids. And then blood typing, if
they have blood available,
00:19:49
they can, like, do a type of,
like, A, B, O, or whatever. And in some fluids, like
semen, some men are excreters,
00:19:56
and you can determine
their blood type because they are excreters. CECE MOORE: Typically,
the best result
00:20:02
comes from a blood sample. However, we also can get very
pristine DNA samples from semen.
00:20:10
NANCY GRACE: Investigators
make a breakthrough. They identify the blood
type of the killer
00:20:16
from semen samples taken from
Ellen Matheys's clothing. GARY HAMBLIN: All we had was the
fact that the person was a type
00:20:24
O blood and was a secretor. And unfortunately, type
O-positive is the most common
00:20:29
blood type, and so that
didn't help us much as far as identifying anyone. It was extremely important that
evidence be collected properly.
00:20:37
It was extremely critical that
our state crime laboratory preserve that evidence, and
as long as it was preserved
00:20:44
and was able, as
technology improved, to eventually develop
a DNA profile. NANCY GRACE: Despite this
solid lead, the case,
00:20:55
again, goes cold. Then, in the mid '90s, a new
generation of detectives pull
00:21:01
the cold case off the shelf. BARRY DEGNITZ: Detective
Sergeant Craig Bates, he was tasked with investigating
the old homicide cases that were
00:21:10
not resolved in Marinette
County, and one of them was the McClintock
County Park homicides.
00:21:16
The early '90s was
kind of the start of using DNA in police work. NANCY GRACE: Detective Bates
learns about advancements in DNA
00:21:25
profiling, and he
hopes an updated analysis of the
biological sample will lead police to a suspect.
00:21:34
BARRY DEGNITZ: And he took some
of the evidence from the case and sent it to a couple
of different labs
00:21:40
throughout the country
that did DNA analysis, and they were able to develop a
DNA profile from the semen that
00:21:46
was in the shorts. That profile was entered into
the CODIS, which is Combined DNA Identification System.
00:21:53
It's a computerized
database for known offenders and for unknown suspects. And they kind of compare
them on a regular basis.
00:22:03
So if you have an
unknown suspect profile, you import that into
the DNA database.
00:22:09
And if it matches,
you'll get a notification that there's a match. TODD BALDWIN: The
results were negative.
00:22:14
We weren't able to
connect our suspect's DNA with any other suspects
in the United States
00:22:20
or any other crimes
in the United States. NANCY GRACE: Investigators
still unable to locate
00:22:26
a match for the suspect's
profile in the CODIS database. Then in 2018, they
turned to Parabon
00:22:34
NanoLabs, a DNA technology
company based in Virginia. Parabon is a leader
in forensic science.
00:22:45
CECE MOORE: Parabon is a
genetic technology company. So they do a number of things,
and those include snapshot
00:22:52
phenotyping, where they
can predict someone's physical traits based on
their DNA, so hair color, eye
00:23:00
color, shape, face, skin color. If they are contracted to
do so from law enforcement,
00:23:06
they can create an image
that is an approximation of what someone would look
like, just based on their DNA.
00:23:13
So it's not meant to be a
photographic image of somebody. However, it should be consistent
with that person's traits.
00:23:21
JERRY SAUVE: Detective Baldwin
came in to see me and said, we need to talk about this.
00:23:27
We want your take on this. This is something we
should pursue in this case because we have this profile.
00:23:35
When I started watching what
Parabon NanoLabs was doing and Cece Moore's work and
her associates at work,
00:23:44
I almost came off of my chair. I remember thinking,
my goodness, yes, we have to do that.
00:23:49
We primarily work
cases where there's an unidentified
violent criminal, a rapist or a murderer.
00:23:57
Many of these
cases are very old. They've been cold cases
for years or decades.
00:24:01
We also work some
more active cases. So what we are
trying to do is help law enforcement
identify the person
00:24:08
responsible for a violent crime. And if it's a more
active case, we might even be able
to help them stop
00:24:14
that criminal in their tracks. And we coordinated
with the crime lab and them to provide
the DNA sample to them
00:24:22
so they could do
their work on it. DESHEA MORROW: And Parabon
did do a phenotype sketch
00:24:26
of the suspect based on the DNA
found in Ellen Matheys' shorts. BARRY DEGNITZ: They told us
that it was a male, primarily
00:24:34
of Northern European descent,
fair-complected, either, like, reddish or light
brown hair, blue eyes,
00:24:41
and probably had some freckling. It was, like, 40
years after the event, so if he was 25 at
the time, 65 would
00:24:48
have been his approximate age,
we thought, when we conducted the sketch through Parabon.
00:24:54
After we did get that sketch,
we had a press conference and put that out
to the TV stations.
00:24:59
DESHEA MORROW: To the
newspapers and to the public, asking if there were any new
leads or information that could
00:25:05
be generated based
on the suspect having these particular
physical characteristics.
00:25:13
And we developed
probably about 70 leads from various people. We started to track down
these people and, you know,
00:25:21
talk to them. Hey, what do you
know about this case? Would you be willing
to consent to give
00:25:25
us DNA to compare in the case? TODD BALDWIN: And we were
able to go out and swab
00:25:33
each one of those individuals. None of the 70, of course,
ever hit on the DNA profile
00:25:39
that our suspect had. NANCY GRACE: The
suspect still at large, but this new generation of
investigators will not give up.
00:25:49
Once again, detectives look
to Parabon NanoLabs for help. They want to try a
revolutionary, new forensic
00:25:58
technique that's cracking
the coldest of the cold cases across the country. BARRY DEGNITZ: So
when Parabon told us
00:26:06
about the sketch and the
genetics of the person, they said another
service they do
00:26:12
is this investigative
genetic genealogy. And they told us that
based on the person's DNA,
00:26:18
they could compare DNA to people
that are in other data banks and try to match DNA and
build family trees from that.
00:26:27
CECE MOORE: I'm one of the early
pioneers of using autosomal DNA to help people learn more
about their family tree
00:26:35
and their genetic heritage. Autosomal DNA is the type
of DNA you inherit from all
00:26:41
of your great-grandparents,
back to your third and fourth great-grandparents. So you inherit 50% from your
mother and your father--
00:26:49
everyone does-- about 25% from
each of your grandparents, and about 12.5% from
each great-grandparent.
00:26:57
And so it can inform us about
all the different branches of your family tree. And it became apparent
very early on in my work
00:27:06
that this incredibly powerful
tool for human identification was applicable to
law enforcement
00:27:12
cases, both unidentified
human remains and identifying unknown
violent criminals.
00:27:19
NANCY GRACE: December 21, 2018-- Parabon NanoLabs deliver
Marinette County investigators
00:27:26
an incredibly strong lead. The genealogists
have generated a pool of suspects using the killer's
DNA from the crime scene.
00:27:38
That DNA is linked to the
Vannieuwenhoven family. They live in the Green
Bay, Wisconsin area.
00:27:48
DESHEA MORROW: They had
a number of children, including four sons. They looked at the
Vannieuwenhoven sons
00:27:56
in the beginning of 2019. BARRY DEGNITZ: Todd Baldwin
was the primary lead investigator in this case.
00:28:04
And the first of the
brothers that they focused on was the closest in age to what
we thought the person was.
00:28:10
And they wound up doing
a garbage or a trash pick at his house. As soon as he put the garbage
out, me and another detective
00:28:19
went, obtained the garbage. BARRY DEGNITZ: And
they went through it, and they developed
things out of the garbage
00:28:25
that they thought
would contain DNA. One of them being an inhaler. BARRY DEGNITZ: The DNA collected
from that garbage pull,
00:28:34
it was in the right family,
according to the crime lab, but not the right person.
00:28:40
Investigators progressed
on to another brother, who lived up in Florence County.
00:28:44
An investigator
named Tom Shallow has a cabin just down the
road from this other brother.
00:28:50
And he said, yeah, he comes
over for coffee all the time. So one day, the brother
came over for coffee.
00:28:56
Tom picked the coffee cup
up and sent that in as well. And that was the same thing--
00:29:04
same family, wrong brother. That narrowed us
down to two brothers. One was deceased, and then we
had Ray, who was still alive.
00:29:13
Detectives now have
a current DNA sample from Raymand Vannieuwenhoven. But are investigators are
ready to corner a killer?
00:29:24
That's next on
"Bloodline Detectives." [AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:29:36
NANCY GRACE: Marinette
County, Wisconsin, 2019-- detectives investigating the
1976 murders of 25-year-old
00:29:45
David Schuldes and his fiancée,
24-year-old Ellen Matheys, the two found shot dead
in a local campground.
00:29:55
Now, over 40 years later, police
narrow down the suspect list to one of four brothers.
00:30:04
His name, Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven. TODD BALDWIN: Raymand
lived in a real remote area
00:30:12
on a dead end road. And I surveilled him for
approximately a month, was unable to ever
obtain any kind
00:30:21
of DNA left behind from him. And he also didn't
have a garbage pickup where he was located.
00:30:29
You had to take your
garbage to the dump. So it was going to be hard
to obtain garbage from him.
00:30:35
So I asked an individual I
used to work with quite often if he could do something
for me and try to obtain
00:30:42
Raymand Vannieuwenhoven's DNA. The current chief deputy of
Oconto County and Detective
00:30:49
Baldwin developed a plan to
conduct a survey with Ray because Ray kind of lived
in the middle of nowhere,
00:30:55
and it was hard to actually
do surveillance and follow him around and try to get
a discarded cigarette
00:31:00
butt or something like that. PATT MORRISON: They knocked
on his door and said, hey,
00:31:07
we're doing a survey of
what you think of policing in this particular township.
00:31:12
Gave him the survey. Raymand filled out the survey,
put it in the envelope, and licked the
envelope to seal it.
00:31:21
NANCY GRACE: Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven's saliva sample is compared to the DNA
left at the crime scene
00:31:27
over 40 years before. It's a match. We are very excited
because we finally had narrowed down on a suspect.
00:31:36
And now it was just
a matter of putting the rest of the
pieces of the puzzle together as best as we could.
00:31:42
We developed a plan
to go arrest Ray and conduct a search warrant of
his residence at the same time.
00:31:47
And we went there, and Detective
Baldwin and I went in first, while the rest of
the crew staged
00:31:51
to conduct the search warrant. And we met Ray at his house. He invited us inside.
00:31:58
We explained, hey,
we're from the Marinette County Sheriff's
Department, and you're
00:32:01
under arrest for homicide. Ray just kind of put his head
down and turned kind of pale
00:32:08
and just went along with us. He didn't argue. He didn't ask what
this was about.
00:32:12
Nothing. TODD BALDWIN: Throughout
the investigation, we were under the impression
that the suspect was going to be
00:32:19
probably in his 60s or so. I never expected that I would be
handcuffing an 82-year-old man
00:32:27
for a first-degree homicide. BARRY DEGNITZ: We were hoping
we could find the murder weapon
00:32:33
or some kind of evidence. Ultimately, we did
find a 30 caliber 30-30 rifle in his garage.
00:32:41
DESHEA MORROW: They
found some shell casings. They sent those off
to the crime lab,
00:32:46
but those were not a match
for the bullet fragments that had been found
at the crime scene.
00:32:52
But again, this was 40-something
years after the homicides. Very likely he just disposed of
any shell casings that was used.
00:33:02
BARRY DEGNITZ: He grew
up in the rural Green Bay Area and the Suamico area. He worked as a metal
worker his entire life.
00:33:09
And we were told from
talking to people that he was either
working or he was drinking
00:33:13
and drunk and angry. PATT MORRISON: Raymand was 20
years old in 1950 when he was
00:33:19
arrested for attacking a couple
of teenage girls, a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old.
00:33:25
The 17-year-old was walking
with friends when he grabbed her and pulled her into a cemetery.
00:33:32
She was screaming, and her
friends came to her aid. He was already married, but he
attacked these two young women.
00:33:43
He spent six months in prison,
and that seemed to be that, although, nowadays, we would put
him on a sex offender registry,
00:33:50
which would flag him in
a way that didn't happen back in the 1950s and '60s.
00:33:55
NANCY GRACE: Marinette
County detectives finally have a prime suspect in the
double murders of David Schuldes
00:34:02
and Ellen Matheys back in 1976. The suspect's name? Raymand Vannieuwenhoven.
00:34:10
And as we see next on
"Bloodline Detectives," it's time to confront him.
00:34:16
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [GRIM MUSIC] NANCY GRACE: Marinette
County, Wisconsin, 2019--
00:34:28
detectives questioning Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven in the 1976 murders of 25-year-old
David Schuldes
00:34:36
and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys. Vannieuwenhoven
accused of shooting both and raping Ellen Matheys.
00:34:46
BARRY DEGNITZ: And then when
Detective Baldwin kind of brought out the
pictures of the victims,
00:34:50
Ray got kind of angry
and really defensive. He didn't show any
signs of sympathy
00:34:56
for the victims or any
remorse for what he'd done. And claimed to have absolutely
no knowledge of the crimes
00:35:05
of David and Ellen. DESHEA MORROW: He was
charged with two counts of what was then called
first-degree murder
00:36:29
in the Wisconsin statute. The sexual assault charge
we could not go forward with because at
that time, there was
00:36:35
only a six-year
statute of limitations, and that had expired. NANCY GRACE: Charged
with two murders,
00:36:42
Raymand Vannieuwenhoven
is put in custody while he awaits trial. BARRY DEGNITZ: We're
concerned that he's
00:36:49
gonna have some kind of medical
event or medical condition, which was gonna, you know,
take him away from us
00:36:54
before we had a chance
to put him on trial. He had a stroke
and ended up being sent to Mendota Mental Health
in Madison to be evaluated.
00:37:03
Initially, they thought he was
probably not competent to stand trial or aid in his
defense, and ultimately,
00:37:08
they decided he was competent. DESHEA MORROW: The trial
did not commence until, I
00:37:15
believe it was July 19 of 2021. So yes, when you're dealing
with someone in their 80s
00:37:21
who did have some health issues,
certainly, that's a concern. He was wheeled
into court, but I
00:37:28
thought his demeanor
was just cold and didn't care what
was going on around him.
00:37:33
Prosecutor Mark Williams
gave the opening statement for the state and just basically
outlined the evidence that we'd
00:37:40
collected from the crime scene,
and particularly, the shorts, and how that was collected,
how those were preserved,
00:37:48
and then the DNA from those
shorts from, you know, 45 years earlier. And then ultimately, a DNA
profile was taken from that.
00:37:58
He then talked about the
different investigative techniques that the Marinette
County Sheriff's Office had
00:38:03
used, and how we ultimately came
to the Vannieuwenhoven family and to Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven himself,
00:38:08
and how the evidence is going
to show the inarguable link between Mr. Vannieuwenhoven
and the DNA in Ellen Matheys,
00:38:16
and how we were going to
put that together and show that only Raymand
Vannieuwenhoven could
00:38:20
have killed Ellen and David. NANCY GRACE: Prosecutors have
a strong case against Raymand
00:38:26
Vannieuwenhoven, even though
his defense team tries to maintain his innocence. They tried to separate
the sex and the semen
00:38:36
from the homicide to
try to say that there wasn't a link between the two. And then they tried to argue
that this male that had been
00:38:46
seen by our two witnesses
when they were driving on Parkway Road,
they tried to argue
00:38:50
that that was some different. Somehow, [LAUGHS] Raymand
had sex with Ellen the day or two
before she goes up
00:38:58
with her fiancé
on a camping trip, and then some other
random male kills them. The jury didn't
buy that argument.
00:39:09
GARY HAMBLIN: The only thing I
can say about somebody like that is he had to be a psychopath.
00:39:13
He knew what he was doing when
he was going through the woods, carrying a rifle.
00:39:18
David and Ellen just happened
to be in the wrong spot. He saw them there
and took his weapon
00:39:26
and killed them both, knowing
full well what he was planning to do and carrying it out in the
way and the manner that he did.
00:39:34
This case is a really good
illustration of how powerful investigative genetic
genealogy is for revealing
00:39:41
secrets of all kinds. Your DNA can absolutely
tell the story, no matter how old a
case is, no matter
00:39:49
when or where it happened. [SOMBER MUSIC] These young people were
killed, 24, 25 years old.
00:39:58
Never had a chance
to live their lives. JERRY SAUVE: A tragedy. He went on with his
life for that long,
00:40:06
and Ellen and David
were taken as a mid 20s, vibrant, young couple. Didn't seem fair,
didn't seem right.
00:40:14
But in the end, justice was
done, and we're proud of that. NANCY GRACE: It
never seems right
00:40:22
when a young couple like David
Schuldes and Ellen Matheys are struck down in cold blood.
00:40:29
Their dreams of a life
together with a family are shattered forever. But still, thanks to the
"Bloodline Detectives,"
00:40:39
a form of justice
is served up with the conviction of their killer,
Raymand Vannieuwenhoven.
00:40:47
He would die almost
exactly 46 years after he stole the lives of
a beautiful, young couple.
00:40:57
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here
on "Bloodline Detectives."
00:41:03
[AUDIO LOGO] [AUDIO LOGO] [THEME MUSIC]