Youth Pastor Who Claimed Wife Accidentally Fell From Angels Landing in 2006 Charged With Her Murder Before Dying From Self-Inflicted Injuries
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Bernadette and David Vander Meer married in 1996. They connected over their faith and devoted much of their lives to church ministry. David would go on to serve as a youth pastor in Las Vegas, where they helped establish New Song Church.
Bernadette was born in November 1977 in Phoenix, Arizona. Friends and family described her as someone who loved music, nature and the outdoors, and she often spent her free time hiking. She worked at the New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas while also serving as a worship leader at New Song Church.
In the early 2000s, David allegedly became increasingly close to the teenagers in his youth group and developed a relationship with one of the teenage girls, who would later be identified in court documents only as S.H.
According to investigators, David began grooming S.H. when she was around 14 years old, and the relationship later became sexual when she was about sixteen. The Vander Meers were still married, and at this point Bernadette was unaware of her husband's relationship with the teenager.
In the spring of 2005, David Vander Meer increased the value of both his and Bernadette's life insurance policies, and in early 2006, Bernadette became suspicious that her husband might have been having an affair due to his emotional coldness towards her and the changes in his behavior in general. She was so concerned that around a month before she died, she confided in a friend.
Investigators would later say that on one occasion Bernadette went to the church to look for David and he was not there. KTNV reported that sometime around 2004 or 2005 David rented an apartment as a place where he could meet with S.H and be physically intimate.
On August 21, 2006, the day before Bernadette's death, S.H. reportedly cut things off with David. David and Bernadette drove to Utah together for their 10th wedding anniversary, where they planned to hike the Angels Landing Trail in Zion National Park, Utah. This would be the last hiking trip Bernadette would ever take.
S.H. had told David that she wanted to be with a boy her own age whom she had met at the church.
According to David, the pair reached the summit before sunrise. He claimed that he wanted to take a celebratory picture of himself and Bernadette with the sunrise in the background.
He claimed that Bernadette began walking towards the cliff edge to get into position as he turned his back to her to move their backpacks when he heard a scream. He claimed that Bernadette had accidentally fallen from the cliff while his back was turned, plunging approximately 1,200 feet to her death.
There was nobody around to witness how the fall happened.
Although concerned by the circumstances, the death was initially ruled an accidental fall and, at the time, no criminal charges were filed. Investigators later questioned whether the location from which Bernadette supposedly fell was consistent with David's account.
David later collected more than $567,000 in life insurance proceeds.
Bernadette's father, in a later interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said his daughter loved hiking and described her as "a mountain goat," adding, "For her to fall off a cliff? No." He said he did not trust David Vander Meer and had told his daughter the same when she first started dating him.
In a People exclusive, Kathy Page, a friend of Bernadette's, said that S.H. was sitting next to David at his wife's memorial service. She added that David did not appear particularly distraught and never cried.
In 2008, he quietly married S.H., and the pair remained married until 2014.
The pair had reportedly separated for around three months after Bernadette's death before getting back together.
David later married multiple times and continued his work in various roles, including school counsellor, youth pastor and even yoga instructor.
Bernadette's family were deeply unhappy with the ruling of their loved one's death as accidental and pressured the authorities to give the case a second look.
In early April 2022, a former member of the youth group David led when he first met S.H. came forward with new information that prompted investigators to reopen the case.
Over the following years, they reviewed David's relationship with S.H., insurance records, witness statements and phone records. They also identified inconsistencies in David's original statements and timeline, including his description of the location where Bernadette supposedly fell and his account of the sunrise that morning.
In 2022, S.H. told investigators that David had told her before Bernadette's death, "the only way they can be together is if Bernadette is not alive."
Prosecutors later argued this statement demonstrated motive.
Barry Diamond, a senior pastor at the church where Vander Meer had worked at the time of Bernadette's death, told investigators in 2025 that he did not believe her death was an accident. According to WFMD, Diamond relayed to the Washington County Attorney's Office that "multiple members of Vander Meer's former youth group reported engaging in sexual relationships with him while they were underage."
On June 22, 2026, David Vander Meer was arrested by U.S. Marshals while working as a yoga instructor. He was charged with first-degree murder and insurance fraud. Nearly twenty years after Bernadette's death, David was, for the first time, accused of intentionally pushing his wife to her death for financial gain. David pleaded not guilty and was held at the Clark County Detention Center while awaiting trial.
On June 25, David was found injured in his cell from apparent self-inflicted injuries. He would later die from those injuries.
Initially, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reported that an inmate had died "with self-sustained injuries." That inmate was later identified as Vander Meer.
