Man accused in 1976 double slaying to get another psych exam

MARINETTE, Wis. – A judge ordered another competency exam Monday for an 83-year-old man charged with killing a couple in a northeastern Wisconsin park in 1976.

An attorney for Raymand Vannieuwenhoven asked for a second opinion on the most recent psychiatric exam, which showed the defendant is competent to proceed with the case against him.

Vannieuwenhoven was arrested and charged last year in the long-unsolved fatal shootings of 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys in McClintock Park in Silver Cliff, about 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of Milwaukee.

Marinette County Judge James Morrison ordered another exam, the results of which will be reviewed Oct. 12, WLUK-TV reported.

Vannieuwenhoven told the judge during a video appearance that he believes he is competent, online records indicate.

In March, Morrison ruled that Vannieuwenhoven did not understand the proceedings and could not assist in his own defence and ordered him to undergo inpatient treatment at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.

For decades, the widower and father of five children lived quietly among the 800 residents of Lakewood, a northeastern Wisconsin town surrounded by forests and small lakes.

Investigators didn’t have any major leads until 2018, when a DNA lab in Virginia identified the genealogical background of the suspect. Investigators say tests of Vannieuwenhoven’s DNA from a licked envelope matched DNA collected at the crime scene.