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Wisconsin man pleads not guilty to killing couple in 1976

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Posted at 1:24 PM, Jul 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-01 14:24:30-04

MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — An 82-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a couple at a Wisconsin park 43 years ago.

Raymand Vannieuwenhoven entered the pleas Monday in Marinette County Circuit Court. He’s accused of killing 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys in 1976 at McClintock Park in Silver Cliff, about 200 miles north of Milwaukee.

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

Investigators didn’t have any major leads until last year, 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.