An ex-pastor accused of pushing his spouse off a cliff earlier than taking his personal life after being charged along with her homicide 20 years later left a suicide notice and can in his jail cell, based on stories.
David Vander Meer – who was charged over the 2006 dying of his spouse Bernadette Vander Meer – was discovered face down and unresponsive inside his cell on the Clark County Detention Heart in Nevada, at round 9:30 p.m. on June 24, KSNV reported, citing police paperwork.
Officers carried out chest compressions on the homicide suspect simply half an hour after he was seen sitting upright and awake inside his cell, the place he was alone due to “the character of his case,” the report mentioned.
Vander Meer, 49, was rushed to the College Medical Heart in Las Vegas with what police described as “self-sustained accidents.” He was pronounced useless simply after 2:35 a.m. the next day.
The report didn’t specify when Vander Meer was admitted to the hospital – positioned lower than two miles from the detention heart.
However “a handwritten suicide letter and a handwritten will” had been left behind in his cell, cops mentioned of their report.
Police mentioned he hadn’t expressed any suicidal intentions whereas being held, awaiting extradition to Utah, the place Bernadette’s deadly plunge occurred.
No additional particulars concerning the notice and the can have been launched.
Health workers haven’t but revealed Vander Meer’s explanation for dying.
Vander Meer’s dying got here simply three days after he was booked into the detention heart on homicide and insurance coverage fraud costs regarding his spouse’s dying.
Bernadette Vander Meer’s dying was initially thought-about unintentional after she plunged greater than 1,000 toes off the Angels Touchdown path at Utah’s Zion Nationwide Park.
However the practically two-decade-old case was reopened after his former church boss tipped off investigators that “the dying was not an accident” and that “David had pushed Bernadette,” based on Washington County court docket paperwork.
The couple hiked to the highest of Angels Touchdown to rejoice a marriage anniversary on August 22, 2006.
Vander Meer claimed that he was setting as much as take dawn pictures when he rotated and heard his then 29-year-old spouse “scream as she was falling.”
He then ran by way of the path to search out somebody with higher service to name 911, with Bernadette’s physique being discovered hours later on the base of Angel’s Touchdown.
Court docket paperwork additionally uncovered particulars about Vander Meer’s infidelity main as much as his spouse’s dying.
Whereas Vander Meer was a youth pastor, he allegedly started having a sexual affair with an underage lady when she was 16, and had informed her that they may solely be collectively if his spouse had been “not alive,” court docket papers claimed.
Bernadette had reportedly grown suspicious of her husband’s infidelity within the yr earlier than her dying, whereas the pastor was paying lease for the place to have intercourse with the underage lady, the affidavit mentioned.
The lady, who was by then of authorized age, ended the four-year affair with Vander Meer the day earlier than the ill-fated journey to Zion Nationwide Park.
The youth pastor was allegedly axed from his church job round two years after Bernadette’s dying for allegedly throwing events for underage members the place there was booze current.
Vander Meer later married the lady with whom he had an affair earlier than they divorced in 2014 over allegations of infidelity, based on the paperwork.
Vander Meer was by no means charged with any crimes for having a sexual relationship with a minor.
He married and divorced thrice following Bernadette’s dying, based on Clark County information.
The paperwork additionally claimed Vander Meer elevated his spouse’s insurance coverage coverage from $150,000 to $600,000 shortly earlier than her dying.
Vander Meer was charged with homicide and insurance coverage fraud – however Bernadette’s mother and father mentioned his dying marks some type of justice.
“A aid to not must go to court docket,” her mother Laura Gudenkauf informed KLAS.
