David Vander Meer, a former Vegas youth pastor charged with killing his wife Bernadette more than 20 years after she fell in Zion National Park, died before a court appearance, a judge said Thursday. Las Vegas police later said a 49-year-old male inmate died a
When David Vander Meer arrived in a Las Vegas lockup and waited for an extradition hearing, the case still belonged to the courtroom. Then the hearing began—and the judge told reporters he was dead.
Judge Eric Goodman informed reporters of Vander Meer’s death at the start of an extradition hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court on Thursday.
Hours 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.” The statement 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 had been facing charges of murder and insurance fraud tied to the death of his first wife, Bernadette Vander Meer, whose fall in Zion National Park was reported as an accident at the time.
Bernadette Vander Meer died after falling at the park in Utah on Aug. 22, 2006—an episode that would later resurface after investigators reopened the questions around how it happened. In court filings years later, investigators described circumstances they found suspicious even though the death was ruled an accident initially.
The charges also landed in the middle of painful relationships that never fully cooled. Barry Diamond. the former senior pastor of the church where Vander Meer once worked. said he was told early Thursday by Jessica Bate of the Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah that Vander Meer “hanged himself.”.
“There are no winners here,” Diamond told the outlet. “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 one practical change now is that SH — the woman identified in court papers as having been a member of the youth group Vander Meer led and later becoming his second wife — “won’t have to testify in court and revisit all of this.”
Diamond said he talked with SH earlier Thursday. “We’re still in touch, and I know that David once came by her house and frightened her,” he said. “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’s timeline stretches back to the days just before the fall. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Fifth District Court in Washington County. Vander Meer told investigators that 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, the affidavit says, after Diamond told Washington County Attorney’s Office investigators that he believed Bernadette Vander Meer’s death “was not an accident and that David pushed Bernadette.” Diamond said he initially did not suspect Vander Meer.
“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 kept pressing. “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.”.
In the affidavit, the account of that June-to-September era remains tightly defined. Vander Meer and his wife were both 29 when they set off before dawn to hike Angel’s Landing. a 1. 488-foot sandstone rock formation at Zion National Park. while celebrating a wedding anniversary. according to the court filing.
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. The affidavit says Vander Meer told investigators 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.
The case also included allegations far removed from the park’s trailhead. On April 6, 2022, investigators “received a tip” from a person identified in the affidavit as a “previous youth group member.” The tip accused Vander Meer of “using his position of special trust to groom kids.”
The affidavit 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.
In her 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. ” according to the affidavit. The detective indicated “further follow-up and investigation was needed. ” the document says. but for reasons still unclear. there was no follow-up until last year. when Bate re-interviewed SH.
During that later interview, SH said she remembered Vander Meer 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, according to the affidavit.
SH also told investigators 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.
The affidavit further states that Vander Meer had been fired for “throwing parties for the underage members of his church” at his house, where there were liquor and gambling.
Diamond said he and the church hired Vander Meer back after Bernadette Vander Meer died. and they 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.”.
The affidavit says Vander Meer and SH divorced in 2014, and Vander Meer married two other times.
On Monday, U.S. marshals arrested Vander Meer on a warrant out of Utah, and he had been in the lockup since then.
By the time the extradition hearing reached the start line, the case was no longer moving toward court. Vander Meer’s death changes what could have followed—questions that were set to be tested, and a process that was already months into a reopened investigation.
For now. the last concrete fact in the public record is that a 49-year-old inmate at the Clark County Detention Center died after being transported to a local hospital Thursday for treatment for “self-sustained injuries. ” and the man who had faced murder and insurance fraud charges connected to Bernadette Vander Meer’s death is no longer in custody.
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.
David Vander Meer Bernadette Vander Meer Zion National Park murder charge insurance fraud extradition hearing Clark County Detention Center SH Jessica Bate Eric Goodman