MISSOURI — A married Missouri couple who were both arrested last week have each been charged for the killing of their former spouses in separate incidents more than three decades ago.

Gerald Uden, 71, was charged in Fremont County, Wyoming, with killing his wife and her two sons from a prior marriage in 1980. Alice Uden, 74, was charged in Laramie County with killing her husband in 1974.

Court documents do not explain how Gerald and Alice Uden met or if there was any connection between the murders and their later marriage. 

According to a criminal affidavit, filed in Fremont County, Gerald Uden confessed last week to shooting his wife, Virginia Uden, and her sons Richard, 12, and Reagan, 10, with a .22-caliber rifle, after taking them in his car to hunt birds. He then concealed their bodies, the affidavit said.

Alice Uden was accused of shooting her former husband, Ronald Holtz, in the back of the head with a .22-caliber rifle while he slept, wrapping his body in a blanket and stuffing it into a cardboard barrel that was dropped into an old mine shaft, according to an affidavit from Laramie County authorities.