Ex-youth pastor accused in wife’s 2006 death collected insurance payout
A 2022 tip reopened Bernadette Vander Meer’s 2006 fall at Zion, leading to murder charges and insurance-fraud allegations against her husband before his death in custody.
A new tip on April 6, 2022, reopened Bernadette Vander Meer’s 2006 death at Zion National Park and eventually led to murder and insurance-fraud charges against her husband, David Vander Meer, who died in custody before his first court appearance. Bernadette Vander Meer was 29 when she fell about 1,200 feet from Angels Landing on Aug. 22, 2006, while the couple was celebrating their anniversary on a route that is a steep, narrow ridge with exposed edges and sheer drop-offs.
The case had been closed as an accident for years, even as investigators continued to view the circumstances as suspicious. The reopened inquiry turned in part on an alleged relationship between David Vander Meer and a girl identified as SH, who began attending the church youth group around 2002 when she was 14. The relationship later became sexual in 2004, and David Vander Meer allegedly told SH the only way they could be together was if Bernadette Vander Meer were not alive. Bernadette Vander Meer wrote a note on Nov. 19, 2003, expressing loneliness and dissatisfaction with the marriage. Senior pastor Barry Diamond believed Bernadette Vander Meer’s death was not an accident and that David Vander Meer pushed her.
Bernadette and David Vander Meer each obtained $150,000 life insurance policies in March 2005 and increased them to $550,000 each in November 2005. David Vander Meer collected more than $567,000 after her death, and court records allege he lived lavishly afterward. Court records also allege he bought vehicles for the girl he had groomed and another youth-group member, and that he took youth-group members on all-expense-paid trips.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police arrested Vander Meer on June 22, 2026, and he was held at the Clark County Detention Center before being transported to a local hospital with self-sustained injuries. A Las Vegas judge announced on June 26, 2026, that he was dead before the court appearance he had been set to make that day. The Clark County Coroner’s Office had listed the cause and manner of death as pending.
Since April 1, 2022, anyone continuing beyond Scout Lookout needs a permit obtained through recreation.gov.
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