Left inset: David Vander Meer (Resoluna/YouTube). Right inset: Bernadette Vander Meer (KSTU/YouTube). Background: Zion National Park in Utah, where David Vander Meer allegedly pushed his wife Bernadette Vander Meer to her death from an area known as Angels Landing (KSTU).
A Nevada man has been charged with murder after allegedly shoving his wife to her death from a 1,200-foot cliff in Utah's Zion National Park. Police say the man was a pastor at the time and had been having an affair with a teen in his youth group ministry, whom he later married.
"(She) recalls David telling her, the only way they could be together is if Bernadette was not alive," an arrest affidavit obtained by Utah NBC affiliate KSL says about David Vander Meer, his slain wife Bernadette Vander Meer, and the now-grown teen who was in a relationship with David at the time of Bernadette's death in 2006.
For years, police thought Bernadette Vander Meer's death was "an accidental fall," according to KSL, after she was found at the bottom of Angels Landing, a popular trail where accidental deaths and falls had occurred previously but weren't common. Officials said she fell from a height of 1,200 feet.
David and Bernadette Vander Meer, who lived in Las Vegas, hiked to the top of the trail to take sunrise photos during an anniversary trip, according to the pastor turned yoga teacher. David Vander Meer told police that Bernadette approached the edge for him to take a photo of her and fell as he was setting aside their backpacks and grabbing "something out of his bag," according to the affidavit.
"David set the packs down and when he turned around, Bernadette was gone," the affidavit says, citing statements he provided to police. "David heard her scream as she fell. David stated he did not see her trip or hear anything before she fell."
Due to a lack of evidence and limited investigation at the time, authorities ruled Bernadette Vander Meer's fall an accident and closed the case. Investigators, however, say they "felt the circumstances were suspicious," according to the affidavit.
In 2022, police received a tip "from a previous youth group member, that stated David Vander Meer was employed as a youth pastor in a church, and had been using his position of special trust to groom kids" and that "he had groomed and actively been in a sexual relationship" with a teen girl in his ministry, per the affidavit.
The girl was allegedly in a sexual relationship with David Vander Meer from the time she was 16 until she was 19 or 20 years old before attempting to end the relationship the day before he left on the anniversary trip. They "re-engaged" their relationship roughly two to three months after Bernadette Vander Meer's death, the affidavit says.
The now-grown teen was interviewed by police and told them she legally married David Vander Meer in 2008 "so David could be on (her) health insurance," according to the affidavit. "(She) and David publicly married in 2010," the document says.
In November 2006, David Vander Meer allegedly filed a life insurance claim after Bernadette's death was ruled accidental. He received a payout of approximately $567,439 in July 2007, according to police.
As a result, David Vander Meer is also charged with insurance fraud in addition to murder. He was fired from his pastor job in 2008 for allegedly giving alcohol to juveniles. The now-grown teen he was in a relationship with divorced him in 2014 over infidelity accusations.
Police say that detectives interviewed David Vander Meer after getting the tip in 2022 and he began giving them conflicting statements. Instead of grabbing something out of his bag after setting their packs aside, as he claimed in 2006, David told the detectives that the packs were in the view of the camera shot and he was moving them out of the way.
In October 2025, a former boss at David Vander Meer's church allegedly contacted the Washington County Attorney's Office and said he believed Bernadette Vander Meer's death was not an accident "and that David had pushed Bernadette," according to the affidavit.
Police say that David Vander Meer was living "lavishly" off Bernadette Vander Meer's life insurance money after her death. He bought the teen he had the affair with a car, "along with another vehicle for another female from the youth group," according to the affidavit.
David Vander Meer also began taking kids from his youth group "on several trips, purchasing plane tickets … all expenses covered," the affidavit says.
In April 2026, investigators reviewed sunrise and terrain data from Angels Landing and compared it with David Vander Meer's original statements after his wife's death, according to Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV. They analyzed the lighting conditions that morning and found that the sun did not rise until 34 minutes after he called police to report the fall. David had claimed that it "was starting to get light" out as they approached the top of Angels Landing.
Police say David Vander Meer and Bernadette Vander Meer had marital problems and he "knew his wife was unhappy and they talked of divorce," according to the affidavit.
"David knew his wife was suspicious of the infidelity and was catching on to his actions," the document says, per KTNV. "In interviews, David knowingly gave misinformation to law enforcement[.] David made conflicting statements to others about how the incident occurred. Evidence shows that David's recollection of the visibility that morning to officers, could not have been accurate as the sun did not rise till much later."
Police and prosecutors say David Vander Meer committed the crime of murder "by intentionally pushing his wife," according to the affidavit.
"She was getting ready to leave him," said Bernadette Vander Meer's mother, Laura Gudenkauf, in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "She told him if he didn't change, she was going to divorce him because he kept spending all this time with this other woman."
Richard Gudenkauf, Bernadette Vander Meer's father, said that when he heard the news about David Vander Meer's arrest, he shouted, "Thank you, Jesus!"
He told the Review-Journal, "I did a lot of hiking with her. She was a mountain goat. For her to fall off a cliff? No."
David Vander Meer is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.