ST. LOUIS (AP) - An Air Force veteran known as an experienced hiker has died, along with his two young sons, after apparently getting lost on a desolate Missouri trail in heavy rain and rapidly plunging temperatures.

Reynolds County Sheriff Tom Volner says 36-year-old David Decareaux of Millstadt, Ill., and his 8- and 10-year-old sons were found Sunday, a day after they ventured out on the trail, about 110 miles southwest of St. Louis. Decareaux died at the scene, and the boys were declared dead at a hospital.

Volner says Decareaux knew the trail but apparently took a wrong turn and was ill-equipped for temperatures that sank from 60 degrees to the 20s.

Decareaux’s father-in-law said Monday that his daughter and the couple’s three other children stayed at the lodge during the hike.

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