The former youth pastor who was just charged with killing his wife 20 years after she fell to her death in Zion National Park is dead, a judge said Thursday.
Judge Eric Goodman informed reporters of David Vander Meer’s death at the start of an extradition hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court, NBC affiliate KSNV of Las Vegas reported.
Later, Las Vegas police said in a statement that a 49-year-old male inmate at the Clark County Detention Center died after he had been transported to a local hospital Thursday for treatment for “self-sustained injuries.”
It did not name the inmate. Vander Meer was 49, and he is no longer listed as an inmate at the detention center, records show.
Vander Meer was facing charges of murder and insurance fraud in connection with the death of his first wife, Bernadette, who fell at the park in Utah on Aug. 22, 2006.
Barry Diamond, the former senior pastor of the church where Vander Meer once worked, said he was informed early Thursday by Jessica Bate of Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah, who led the investigations, that Vander Meer hanged himself.
“There are no winners here,” Diamond told NBC News. “This is a tragedy for Bernadette’s family; this is a tragedy for Dave’s family. They’re good people and they’re hurting, too.”
Diamond said the silver lining is that now the woman identified in court papers as SH, who had been a member of the youth group Vander Meer led and later became his second wife, “won’t have to testify in court and revisit all of this.”
“I talked to her earlier today,” said Diamond, who is retired and lives in California. “We’re still in touch, and I know that David once came by her house and frightened her. She has children. I told her that now you’ll never have to worry about him showing up on your door.”
Bate, reached at her office in St. George, Utah, declined to comment on the unexpected end of the investigation she launched last year into Bernadette Vander Meer’s death.
Vander Meer had been in the lockup since Monday, after U.S. marshals arrested him on a warrant out of Utah.
Bernadette Vander Meer’s death was ruled an accident at the time, even though “investigators felt the circumstances were suspicious,” a probable cause affidavit filed in Fifth District Court in Washington County said.
Among other things, Vander Meer told investigators he increased his and his wife’s life insurance policies from $150,000 to $600,000 shortly before she died.
The investigation was relaunched last year, according to the affidavit, after Diamond told Washington County Attorney’s Office investigators that “he believed the death was not an accident and that David pushed Bernadette.”
“I didn’t suspect David at first, not even after learning about the life insurance,” Diamond said. “But I had been in contact with people who had been in his youth group, and when I learned about his involvement with SH, well, I thought to myself, ‘That’s a motive.’”
Diamond said he called the FBI and other police agencies “and nobody would listen to me.” But he did not give up.
“My relationship with God is that he wouldn’t leave me alone,” he said. “Finally, I called a friend who is a lawyer in Salt Lake City who put me in touch with the former Washington County attorney. Next thing I knew, Jessica was investigating.”
Vander Meer and his wife were both 29 and celebrating a wedding anniversary when they set off before dawn to hike Angel’s Landing, a towering 1,488-foot sandstone rock formation at the park, the court affidavit says.
Vander Meer told investigators that when they reached the summit, he went to set up the camera to take a photo of the sunrise while his wife was standing near the edge.
Vander Meer said that he went to move their backpacks out of the shot and that when he turned around, his wife was gone.
“David heard her scream as she fell,” the affidavit says.
On April 6, 2022, investigators “received a tip” from a person identified in the affidavit as a “previous youth group member,” who accused Vander Meer of “using his position of special trust to groom kids,” the document says.
SH, who had been a member of the youth group, told a Washington County sheriff’s detective that she had been in an ongoing sexual relationship with Vander Meer that started when she was 16, according to the affidavit.
In an interview with the detective, SH said she broke it off the night before Vander Meer left for Zion National Park with his wife because she “felt it was wrong,” the document says.
The detective indicated “further follow-up and investigation was needed,” according to the affidavit.
But for reasons still unclear, there was no follow-up until last year, when Bate re-interviewed SH, according to the affidavit.
During the interview, SH said that she recalled Vander Meer’s telling her that “the only way they could be together is if Bernadette was not alive” and that his wife suspected he was cheating on her, the document says.
SH admitted that she and Vander Meer resumed their sexual relationship and eventually got married in 2008, “so David could be on SH’s health insurance,” according to the affidavit.
Vander Meer had been fired for “throwing parties for the underage members of his church” at his house, where there were liquor and gambling, the affidavit says.
Diamond said they hired Vander Meer back after his wife died and were not aware of his relationship with SH at the time.
“We felt for David,” he said. “He’d been through a tragedy. Bernadette had been a part of our church. We cared for her very much. Whatever we could do for David we wanted to do.”
Vander Meer and SH divorced in 2014, and Vander Meer married two other times, it says.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 or go to 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
