The Uden Family Case

Status: Remains never recovered. Fremont Lake, Sublette County, Wyoming. The search is active, and the team is going back.

In September 1980, Virginia Uden and her two young sons drove out to meet her ex-husband for a bird hunting trip. They were never seen again. Thirty three years later, Gerald Uden confessed to killing all three and sinking their bodies in steel barrels in Fremont Lake, in water at least 450 feet deep. In August 2026, a multi-agency team organized by WyoFind went down nearly 400 feet and brought a barrel back to the surface. It was the wrong barrel. This page is the full case file: what happened, what the killer said, what the search found, and what happens next.

The Victims

None of the three has ever been found. There is no grave. Bringing them home is the entire point of the search.

September 12, 1980

Virginia, Richard, and Reagan were last seen at about 1:30 in the afternoon, leaving the Riverton home of Virginia’s mother, Claire “Peg” Martin, in her borrowed station wagon. They were headed to meet Gerald, who was to take the boys bird hunting. The boys had a .22 rifle in the car for the trip. They never arrived anywhere. No one who loved them ever saw them again.

On October 4, 1980, the wagon was found near Trout Creek Canyon in the Wind River Canyon area of Fremont County. Someone had driven it toward the canyon edge and tried to push it over. It lodged on rocks 75 feet below the rim and was covered with pine branches. Inside was a large amount of Virginia’s blood.

Sheriff Tim McKinney, Fremont County, Wyoming. Twenty months into his first term, the disappearance of Virginia Uden and her sons landed on Sheriff McKinney’s desk. His office took Claire Martin’s report on September 13, 1980, found her station wagon hidden in Trout Creek Canyon with Virginia’s blood inside, and combed the mountain for bodies. On November 14, 1980, his captain, Larry Mathews, sat Gerald and Alice down one at a time. The investigators walked out of that room certain they had their guy, and Gerald walked out certain they could never prove it without bodies. The pressure the office kept on the Udens helped drive them out of Wyoming in 1982. Years later, McKinney put it plainly: “We had nothing else to go on. No bodies were discovered, so it became a cold case. It was very frustrating.” The case went cold, but it was never forgotten in that office. McKinney served three terms, modernized the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, and is a member of the Wyoming Law Enforcement Hall of Fame.

The Confession

The case stayed cold for 33 years. It broke open because of a different murder, covered below. In September 2013, Gerald Uden voluntarily spoke with investigators, confessed in detail, and on November 1, 2013, in a packed Lander, Wyoming courtroom, pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder. He received three life sentences.

His sworn account, given in court: he met Virginia and the boys at an agreed location in Fremont County, drove with them to a spot near an irrigation canal outside Pavillion, and shot all three with the .22 rifle Virginia had brought, first Virginia, then Richard, then Reagan as the boy ran and fell in a ditch. He said the murders were premeditated. His stated motive was the 150 dollars a month he was paying in child support.

He first hid the bodies in the old gold mines at Lewiston, in the South Pass area. About a month later he went back, sealed Virginia in a 55 gallon steel drum and both boys together in a 35 gallon drum, drilled holes in the drums so they would sink, took them out on Fremont Lake to a point at least 450 feet deep, and dropped them. In his words, “they sank rapidly.”

Fremont Lake, north of Pinedale, Wyoming, is commonly reported as the deepest natural lake in the state, more than 600 feet at its deepest. In 46 years, no search has ever recovered the drums.

The Other Murder: Alice Uden and Ronald Holtz

Gerald was not the only killer in this story. His wife, Alice Uden, had a secret of her own.

In December 1974, Alice shot her then husband, Ronald Lee Holtz, in the back of the head with a .22 rifle while he slept. She put his body in a barrel and dumped it down an abandoned mine shaft at the Remount Ranch, between Cheyenne and Laramie. She told people he had run off. She got away with it for almost 39 years.

On August 27, 2013, Holtz’s skeletal remains were recovered about 40 feet down that mine shaft, a .22 bullet in his skull, and confirmed by DNA. Alice was arrested on September 26, 2013. When Gerald heard of her arrest, he believed investigators had discovered what he had done to Virginia and the boys. Trying to take the blame and protect her, he asked to speak with investigators, and confessed to everything. A jury later convicted Alice of second-degree murder for killing Holtz, rejecting her claim of self-defense, and she was sentenced to life in prison on August 26, 2014. She died in custody on June 12, 2019.

To be clear, because this point is often gotten wrong: Alice Uden was never charged in the murders of Virginia, Richard, and Reagan. Her conviction was for Ronald Holtz alone.

A Possible Fifth Victim: Donald Prunty

There may be one more name on this list. Donald “Don” Prunty was Alice’s second husband, and the father of her youngest child, Erica. He and Alice worked as caretakers at the Remount Ranch, the same ranch where Alice would later dump Ronald Holtz’s body in a mine shaft.

Don died in 1973, at 45. His death was certified as alcoholism. There was no autopsy, and nobody called it suspicious at the time.

Forty years later, after Alice was arrested for killing Ronald Holtz, a tip sent Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents back to Don’s medical records. An agent later said publicly that the symptoms recorded in those records were consistent with poisoning, specifically by antifreeze, and that Alice had remarked at the time that she was giving Don something that would stop his drinking. Don’s body was exhumed, and his tissues were tested for ethylene glycol. Because he had been embalmed, nothing usable could be recovered. The test could never prove anything either way.

His daughter Erica has said the family believes her dad may have been Alice’s first victim. That belief has never been proven. Alice was never charged in Don Prunty’s death, and his certified cause of death has never been changed. He is presented here as what the record supports: a possible fifth victim.

Thirty Three Years of Silence

Claire “Peg” Martin reported her daughter and grandsons missing and spent the rest of her life not knowing what had happened to them. She died on April 4, 2013, at 92, five months before the arrests that finally answered the question. The 2013 break came too late for her.

After Gerald’s plea, the story seemed closed, except for the one thing that mattered most: Virginia, Richard, and Reagan were still at the bottom of Fremont Lake.

The Recantation, and the New Letters

Two days after Alice died in June 2019, Gerald wrote to Wyoming author Ron Franscell, who has corresponded with him for years, recanting his confession and claiming Alice had killed Virginia and the boys and he had confessed only to protect her. The courts were not persuaded. His attempt to withdraw his guilty plea was rejected in September 2019, and the Wyoming Supreme Court dismissed his later appeal on August 25, 2020. His convictions stand.

In September 2026, Gerald, now 84 and serving his life sentences at the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington, floated two more stories in a letter: that he dumped the barrels in the Pacific Ocean off Astoria, Oregon, and that Alice and her adoptive father buried the three in the Owl Creek Mountains. These are Gerald’s unsworn claims. They contradict the detailed account he swore to in court in 2013, and he ended the letter by saying he could not tell anyone where the bodies are even for ten million dollars and a pardon. The sworn account remains the only version given under oath, and it points to Fremont Lake.

In August 2026, a team organized by WyoFind went to Fremont Lake with a map Gerald had drawn for Stacy Koester, who had corresponded with him. ROV teams located a steel barrel at 388 feet, a depth this log keeps separate from the 450 feet of Gerald’s sworn account. A roughly 400 pound mechanical claw named JAWZ, built by Dave “Heavy D” Sparks and the Sparks Motors team, raised the barrel intact. On August 31, 2026, Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie announced it held no human remains, only lake sediment. A second object, appearing to be a trash can, was spotted but could not be retrieved. In September 2026, Gerald, now 84 and serving his life sentences in Torrington, floated new stories in a letter to author Ron Franscell: a dump in the Pacific Ocean off Astoria, Oregon, and a burial in the Owl Creek Mountains. Unsworn Claims Those stories are Gerald’s alone, they were never given under oath, and they contradict the account he swore to in court in 2013.

Then, on September 22, 2026, Gerald wrote to Stacy Koester and took it back. He said the Franscell letter was written, in his words, “just trying to jerk his chain,” that he never expected Franscell to publish it, and that the scenarios in it were “pure B.S.” He stated plainly that Virginia and the boys are buried in Fremont Lake, and he added a detail he had never given in any account before: on the night of the burial, he checked the depth at that spot with a plumb line 450 feet long, and the lake was deeper than the line. The walk-back is still Gerald, a man who admits in the same letter that he toys with the people who write to him, and like everything he has written since his plea, it is unsworn. But it points the same direction as the only account he ever swore to in court: Fremont Lake.

The Map

The search exists because one woman would not stop writing letters. Stacy Koester of WyoFind built a correspondence with Gerald Uden and kept asking questions. Gerald eventually drew a map of where he said the containers went into Fremont Lake. Stacy took that information to Bill Dohse of O-SAR, and the teams began assembling the people and technology able to search and recover at depths no diver can work.

Case Timeline

The People

The Case

The August 2026 Recovery Operation

What Happens Next

Virginia, Richard, and Reagan are still down there, and a second object is still on the bottom of Fremont Lake waiting to be identified. The next operation needs the same things the first one did: funding for fuel, boats, ROV time, and travel for a volunteer team working in Sublette County, Wyoming. If this story moved you, help send the team back.

Support the search: donate to United Search Corps

WyoFind is also holding a fundraiser this October to support this case and their work for families across Wyoming.

Have Information?

This case is still open. If you know anything about the disappearance of Virginia, Richard, and Reagan Uden, contact the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office or the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. You can also send a tip to United Search Corps through our tip form. You may submit anonymously. Your name stays yours; tips are reviewed privately and shared with the investigating agency.

Sources

• The Charley Project: case pages for Virginia Lynne Uden, Richard Loren Uden, and Reagan Cordell Uden (charleyproject.org)
• Wyoming Supreme Court, State v. Uden, 2020 WY 109 (Gerald Uden’s sworn plea account)
• SweetwaterNOW: Gerald Uden’s guilty plea, November 1, 2013; barrel recovered from Fremont Lake and coroner’s findings, August 31, 2026; second object located, September 1, 2026
• Associated Press: the 2013 arrests and Alice Uden’s 2014 conviction and sentencing
• Fremont County Coroner Erin Ivie, statement of August 31, 2026
• Ron Franscell, Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story (2019), and his published correspondence with Gerald Uden, September 2026
• Wyoming newspaper coverage of Claire Martin’s search, December 1980
• People magazine, ‘Raised by Killers,’ February 3, 2014: Erica Hayes tells her story