Ex-youth pastor dead after being charged in 2006 murder of wife
James PowelLAS VEGAS – A former Las Vegas youth pastor accused of killing his wife in Zion National Park in a 20-year-old cold case died in police custody, a judge in the case said on June 25.
David Vander Meer, 49, was identified as deceased by Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman at the start of what would have been an extradition hearing, court video shows. Authorities did not identify how he died.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said in a statement that a 49-year-old male inmate was transported to the University Medical Center hospital for "self-sustained injuries" on June 24 and was pronounced dead by hospital staff on June 25.
Vander Meer was arrested June 22 in Summerlin, a Las Vegas suburb, on murder and insurance fraud charges connected to the 2006 death of his first wife Bernadette Vander Meer, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Why was Vander Meer facing charges?
Bernadette Vander Meer died on Aug. 22, 2006, after falling from Angels Landing at the park, according to a probable cause affidavit from the Washington County District Attorney's Office published by KSNV.
The death was originally ruled an accident but the affidavit states that the investigators felt the circumstances surrounding the fall were suspicious.
Vander Meer told investigators at the time that he had stepped away from the edge of the rock formation to move some backpacks for a photo of her during the sunrise. He then said he heard his wife scream as she fell, according to the affidavit. He also claimed to investigators that he had always been faithful to Bernadette.
Authorities reopened the case in October when police received a tip from Vander Meer's former boss at the Las Vegas church. where Vander Meer was once a minister. The former boss told investigators that he believed Vander Meer pushed his wife off the cliff, the affidavit said.
Jessica Bate, the investigator named in the affidavit, stated she learned from the ex-boss that Vander Meer had "inappropriate" relationships with members of his youth group, including one that was "sexual in nature."
A woman identified in the affidavit only by her initials told investigators that Vander Meer had groomed her starting in 2002, when she was 14. She reported that the relationship became sexual when she was 16. He never spoke of the two of them having a future together but told her that the only way the two would be together was "if Bernadette was not alive," according to the affidavit.
The woman told investigators that Bernadette had begun to suspect Vander Meer of infidelity, but their relationship, which included secret phones and meetings at pay-by-the-hour motels, continued. She ended the relationship on Aug. 20, 2006, the day before the Vander Meer left for their anniversary trip to Zion National Park.
The affidavit states that park officers told investigators that the spot the fall occurred at was "unusual," that Vander Meer's behavior after the incident was "contrived" and that solar patterns were inconsistent with Vander Meer's original statements.
Family had suspected former youth pastor in daughter's death
Laura Gudenkauf, Bernadette's mother, told KSNV that she suspected Vander Meer was behind her daughter's death "all along."
"She came to me that morning and said, 'Mother, we upped our life insurance policy,'" Gudenkauf said. "She didn't realize that he kept the other one as well."
The affidavit states that Vander Meer purchased $150,000 life insurance policies on himself and Bernadette in March of 2005 and added $400,000 to each policy November of that year. Vander Meer collected $567,000 in life insurance from his wife’s death, according to the affidavit.
Gudenkauf told KTNV that the family always believed that Vander Meer's arrest "would come" but that the arrest brought "no real closure."
"I miss everything about her," Gudenkauf said of her daughter. "She was so special, so sweet . . . wonderful."