The 1976 Campground Murder | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

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

Wisconsin, 1976, 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys are murdered while camping. The case goes cold until 2015 when new DNA science reignites the investigation.

Now in its fifth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

Brief Summary

The episode details the 1976 murders of David Schuldes and Ellen Matheys, leading to the identification and arrest of Raymand Vannieuwenhoven in 2019.

Key points

Brutal Murders in Marinette County. A young couple is found murdered in a secluded campground, shocking the community.
The Investigation Begins. Detectives start their search for the killer, but the case quickly goes cold.
New Hope with DNA Technology. Advancements in forensic science reignite the investigation into the 20-year-old double homicide.
Justice for David and Ellen. The conviction of Raymand Vannieuwenhoven brings closure to the decades-old case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What could drive a person to commit such a brutal act?

Nancy Grace questions the motive behind the murders.

0:36WatchMay 4, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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