Authorities obtained a brand new tip in 2025, which reopened the investigation into Bernadette Vander Meer’s 2006 demise and resulted in her husband David’s arrest.
(Photograph: Tommy T / 500px by way of Getty Photographs)
Up to date June 25, 2026 10:40AM
This story includes dialogue of suicide.
Replace, 6/25/2026: David Vander Meer, a former youth pastor charged with pushing his spouse off of Zion Nationwide Park’s Angels Touchdown throughout a dawn hike in 2006, died in an obvious suicide forward of his first court docket date, authorities in Nevada mentioned.
In a video from Las Vegas information station Fox 13, magistrate Eric Goodman knowledgeable the court docket that Vander Meer was deceased, and that he had no additional info.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division mentioned that an unidentified inmate, later recognized as Vander Meer, had been discovered with what they described as self-inflicted accidents on the Clark County Detention Middle, and was pronounced lifeless after being transported to a hospital.
Vander Meer had been charged with homicide and insurance coverage fraud, and will have confronted as much as life in jail if convicted.
Authentic put up: Practically 20 years after Bernadette Vander Meer fell 1,200 ft from Zion Nationwide Park’s Angels Touchdown, U.S. Marshals arrested her husband, Las Vegas resident and former youth pastor David Vander Meer, on fees of homicide and insurance coverage fraud.
For many years, Angels Touchdown has gained recognition as an exhilarating and harmful hike that includes excessive publicity throughout a slender backbone. The 5.4-mile hike climbs about 1,500 ft by Zion Canyon earlier than its notorious slender sandstone fin, which is lined with chains to help hikers as they cross sheer cliffsides that plunge greater than 1,000 ft to the canyon flooring.
On the time of Bernadette’s demise in 2006, she was the fifth recognized particular person to have fallen from the summit since 1983.
On the morning of August 22, 2006, the Vander Meers set out earlier than daybreak to observe dawn from the summit of Angels Touchdown. In response to David Vander Meer’s authentic account to investigators, he was transferring backpacks round when he heard Bernadette scream. When he circled, he mentioned, she was gone.
By 6:30 a.m., he tracked down one other hiker with sufficient cell service to contact authorities. On the time, authorities thought-about Bernadette’s demise a tragic accident.
However the incident by no means sat proper with Bernadette’s dad and mom, Laura and Richard Gudenkauf, who defined that she was an avid, skillful hiker who wouldn’t put herself ready to fall from Angels Touchdown. Over the previous 20 years, the couple turned more and more suspicious of David, particularly as they discovered about a number of the occasions that led as much as Bernadette’s demise.
20 years later, prosecutors are claiming that David Vander Meer pushed his spouse from the cliff’s edge after regulation enforcement obtained a brand new tip from Vander Meer’s former boss. Along with claiming that the autumn wasn’t unintended, prosecutors allege that Vander Meer was concerned in an underage sexual relationship with a lady from his church youth group, recognized as “SH” in court docket paperwork.
A day earlier than the Vander Meer’s journey to Zion Nationwide Park, SH allegedly met with David to finish their relationship. SH advised detectives that David Vander Meer advised her that they might solely “be collectively if Bernadette shouldn’t be alive.” The story Vander Meer advised investigators was additionally barely completely different from the story he advised his youth group, wherein he mentioned he was taking {a photograph} of Bernadette when he turned to take one thing out of his bag, at which level she fell.
Prosecutors allege that the incident was premeditated, pointing to the truth that Vander Meer had elevated the couple’s life insurance coverage from $150,000 to roughly $550,000 a few yr previous to the incident. After his spouse’s demise was dominated unintended, Vander Meer filed an insurance coverage declare and picked up greater than $567,000.
The allegations in opposition to Vander Meer stay pending in court docket.
