Sentencing scheduled Thursday in 1976 double murder

The terms of an elderly Lakewood man’s life sentences are scheduled to be determined Aug. 26 in Marinette County Circuit Court.

A jury July 27 convicted Ray Vannieuwenhoven, 84, of two counts of first-degree murder in the 1976 shooting deaths of David Schuldes, 25, and and Ellen Matheys, 24, at the McClintock Park campground in the Town of Silver Cliff in Marinette County.

Judge James A. Morrison asked prosecution and defense attorneys each to submit a memorandum outlining the options for sentencing Vannieuwenhoven, who was not on investigators’ radar until 21st century DNA technology identified him in 2019 as the only man who could have committed the crime based on evidence found on Matheys’ clothing. Those memos were filed Aug. 2.

He was charged with first-degree murder because that was the name of the offense in July 1976, and Morrison must abide by the sentencing guidelines in effect at the time of the crime, which is now called first-degree intentional homicide.

In her memo, District Attorney DeShea Morrow said those earlier statutes require that the defendant be sentenced to life in prison and not be eligible for parole for 20 years, when Vannieuwenhoven would be 104 years old.

Defense attorney Travis Crowell asked that Morrison consider “a sentence that is sufficient, but not greater than necessary to either comply with any statutory directives or comport with any applicable case law as were of record in 1976.”

Crowell cited a 1968 American Bar Association document on alternative sentencing that said in part, “The sentence imposed in each case should call for the minimum amount of custody or confinement which is consistent with the protection of the public, the gravity of the offense and the rehabilitation needs of the defendant.”

While conceding that Vannieuwenhoven understands the seriousness of the crimes he committed, Crowell noted his client’s “litany of health and medical issues” since his arrest in March 2019.

“He has maintained a close relationship with his children who have supported him,” Crowell wrote. “His children and grandchildren are understandably shocked and devastated by both the charges and subsequent convictions.”

Victim impact statements were filed with the court on Aug. 19, but those documents are not released to the public.