The defendant in a more than 40-year-old double murder case in Marinette County has been found competent to stand trial. The ruling was made at a competency hearing for Raymand Vannieuwenhoven Wednesday after a competency exam and corresponding report by Clinical Psychologist Dr. Kevin Miller determined that the 83-year-old Vannieuwenhoven is, at the time, able to aid in his own defense. Vannieuwenhoven is accused of shooting and killing Ellen Matheys and David Schuldes in McClintock Park in 1976 and was arrested after new technology matched DNA recovered from the scene to his own in 2019. Judge Jim Morrison says the lengthy proceeding- with a jury trial now tentatively scheduled for next July- is due in large part to the complex nature of the matter combined with the unanticipated impacts of COVID-19.

Vannieuwenhoven was previously deemed incompetent as the residual effects of a stroke and was ordered to undergo treatment at Mendota Mental Health to attempt to restore that competency. He’s now been remanded to the custody of the Marinette County Jail on a $1 million cash bond.