Gerald Uden
Most couples have simple things in common like taking long walks, going to movies, and enjoying sunsets. But police say Gerald and Alice Uden had one extra thing in common: spousal homicide.
The Udens had been living in rural Missouri since the early 1980s, and neighbors said they were a friendly couple and lived a quiet life. “They’re the kind of neighbors you leaned over the fence and talked about your chickens with,” neighbor Allen Bishop told KSPR-TV. But it turns out they harbored a shocking secret: according to police, the couple killed their ex-spouses and had been hiding out in a remote location for years.
Now Gerald Uden, 71, and Alice Uden, 74, are in custody in Christian County, Mo., awaiting extradition to Wyoming to face several first degree murder charges. Alice Uden is accused of the 1974 killing of her then-husband Ronald Holtz, 25, whose remains were discovered recently in an abandoned mine in southeast Wyoming. After being brought in for questioning and revealing what she knew about the death, she was arrested.
Her husband, Gerald Uden, is accused in the 1980 killing of his wife Virginia, 32, and their two children Richard, 12, and Reagan, 10, the Associated Press reported. Authorities say Mr. Uden confessed that he shot and killed his wife and two sons with a .22 caliber rifle his wife had purchased for bird hunting and then concealed their bodies near Pavillion, Wyo., in Fremont County.
It is unclear exactly when and under what circumstances Gerald and Alice Uden met, or exactly when they were married. Court records don’t show a motive and officials are saying little about their investigation, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Ah, romance.