Cold Case Campground on the Peshtigo River
N14201 CTH I (Parkway Road), Athelstane, WI 54104
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Marinette County campsite fees apply; day use may be free. Check marinettecountywi.gov for current rates.
Access
Limited Access
Wooded, gravel paths, uneven ground near river
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1976 · Cold Case History · DNA Forensics · Violent Crime
McClintock Park occupies a stretch of the Peshtigo River in the town of Silver Cliff, Marinette County, Wisconsin — ten non-electric campsites set in a north-woods landscape accessible from County Highway I. For most of its history it was a quiet county holding, better known for ATV trails than for anything somber.
On July 9, 1976, that changed. David Schuldes, 25, and his fiancée Ellen Matheys, 24, were camping in the park when they were shot to death. Their bodies were discovered by other campers. Despite the recovery of forensic evidence at the scene — including biological material that would later prove decisive — investigators found no suspect, and the case went cold.
For 43 years, the Schuldes-Matheys murders remained one of Wisconsin's most prominent unsolved cases. In 2018, investigators released newly generated suspect sketches based on DNA phenotyping. In 2019, Marinette County investigators used a technique involving a saliva-laced envelope to obtain a DNA sample from Raymand Vannieuwenhoven, an 82-year-old Wisconsin man. The sample matched. Vannieuwenhoven was arrested in 2019, convicted by a Marinette County jury in 2021, and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He died in the Oshkosh Correctional Institution in June 2022.
Today the park continues to operate as a county campground. The 1976 site of the crime is not marked.
Sources
The paranormal reputation of McClintock Park is thin and recent — a scattered set of visitor reports rather than a sustained folkloric tradition. People describe hearing unexplained sounds in the tree line after dark. Photographs taken at the campsite have produced orbs that reviewers attribute to the unresolved deaths of 1976.
For 43 years, the murders had no suspect, no resolution, no named perpetrator. That kind of sustained uncertainty — a violent act in a specific place without public accountability — tends to generate local legend. Visitors who knew the history of the campsite arrived with a particular alertness.
There are no documented paranormal investigations of the property. No ghost tour operators include it on a circuit. The reported phenomena — sounds, orbs — are consistent with a site where the primary power is historical rather than supernatural: a place where something documented and terrible happened, and where that knowledge travels with anyone who camps there.
Walk the wooded campsites along the Peshtigo River where, on July 9, 1976, David Schuldes and Ellen Matheys were shot to death. The case went unsolved for 43 years before DNA evidence led to a conviction in 2021. The park is ATV/UTV accessible and functions as an active county campground.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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