ELLSINORE, Mo. -- An Ellsinore man's wife and son have been charged with his death after his body was found in a rural, wooded area near the southeast Missouri town of Ellsinore.

The Carter County Sheriff's Department and Missouri State Highway Patrol, based on alleged confessions from the suspects, found the body of Russell "Rusty" Adams, 47, Thursday off of Highway 60. He had been reported missing by his wife a week and a half earlier.

Authorities recovered a .22-caliber revolver, which they said was the murder weapon, in a separate, undisclosed location Thursday.

The victim's wife, Lori Adams, 40, and the couple's son, Dustin Adams, 19, were charged Friday with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.

Phillip Catlett Jr., 29, was charged with abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, said sheriff's department dispatcher Joyce Reynolds. Authorities said Catlett was a family friend.

The three, all Ellsinore residents, are each jailed on $200,000 bonds. The sheriff's department knew of no lawyers yet representing the suspects.

The victim's older sister, Janis Kay Herrington, spoke about her brother, Rusty Adams, in a voice cracking with emotion Saturday evening.

She said Adams had been ill for about six or seven years, suffering from heart and back problems and hepatitis C. He used a walker or cane to get around, though sometimes his health was so poor he could not get out of bed or leave the family's trailer at all.

"He liked to hunt. He played music, the guitar. He used to do these things before he got to where he couldn't. He was an easygoing man," she said.

But his condition was taking a toll and he spoke to his sister about it. "He was getting depressed. He felt like he was a burden on his wife, crippled and sickly," she said.

Herrington said she did not know why her brother was killed.

She said she'd heard that Rusty had wanted his son Dustin to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at one point, but that his wife was opposed to the idea. Dustin was the couple's only child, though Rusty was a father to three other grown children.

Herrington said she always thought her brother and his wife had a strong marriage.

"They were fixing to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary next month," she said. Herrington said Lori never complained about caring for her brother.

"If they didn't want him around, why didn't they just ask him to leave?" she asked.

Herrington said she did not know much about Catlett.