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Murder of Ronald Holtz

In the 1970s, Alice Uden worked as a nurse in the psychiatric unit of a veteran hospital. There, she met 24-year-old Vietnam veteran Ronald Holtz, who became her third husband in September 1974. The marriage collapsed right away.

In late 1974 or early 1975, 25-year-old Holtz was sleeping when 35-year-old Uden shot him in the back of his head. She put his body in a cardboard barrel.

She got it in her trunk and dumped it in an abandoned gold mine.

She was granted a divorce from Holtz in July 1975 and married Gerald Uden in November 1976.

Another Crime

According to WyomingNews, Gerald went on to commit a grisly crime of his own in 1980. He lured 32-year-old Virginia Uden, and her kids, 12-year-old Richard Uden and 10-year-old Reagan Uden, on a hunting trip in Wyoming. Gerald killed Virginia and her kids with a rifle that Virginia had brought.

He then concealed the bodies in gold mines, but retrieved them a month later, place them in 55- gallon drums and dropped them in the Fremont Lake.

Virginia’s vehicle was found, and it had her blood in it but not her son’s. Leaving some to suspect the boys might still be alive.

Virginia’s family suspected Gerald was the perpetrator, but investigators didn’t have enough to arrest him, and he remained free.

Investigation

In 1994, one of Alice’s sons told police that she confessed to killing Holtz. Police looked into the claims, but there wasn’t enough evidence to make an arrest. Things changed when the barrel with Hotlz’s body was found on April 4th, 2013.

5 Months later, on September 26th, 2023, 74-year-old Alice was arrested in Missouri and charged with murder. She snitched that Gerald was involved in the murder of his ex-wife and her two kids, and he was arrested the following day.

According to CNN, he confessed to the triple homicide.

Aftermath

Alice went to trial in May 2014.

According to TheMississippiLink, he claimed that Holtz was abusive. She said he knocked her to the ground one night and marched toward her 2-year-old daughter angry because the toddler wouldn’t stop crying. Alice claimed she feared he would attack the little girl, so she shot him in the back of the head as he stood over her daughters crib.

To bolster her case, her lawyer presented medical records showing Holtz had a history of drug use and violent behavior.

The prosecution refuted the defenses claims and said Holtz was killed in his sleep.

According to TheMississippiLink, when jurors got the case, 11 of them were in favor of a first-degree murder conviction. One juror held out, saying they felt Alice was only guilty of voluntary manslaughter. After 13 hours of deliberations, they compromised and convicted Alice of second-degree murder.

On August 25, 2014, she was sentenced to life in prison.

In a separate proceeding, Gerald pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

According to WyomingNewsNow, Alice died on June 12th, 2019, at a hospital in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. She was 80 years old.