The former Vegas youth pastor accused of pushing his wife off a cliff 20 years ago before taking his own life in jail proclaimed his innocence but admitted he was “selective” about revealing how his spouse died in a suicide note he left behind in his cell.
David Vander Meer – who was charged with murder over the 2006 death of his wife Bernadette Vander Meer – was awaiting extradition to Utah when Clark County Detention Center officials found him unresponsive in his cell on June 24, just two days after being booked into the Nevada facility.
A letter and will were found near his body – and Vander Meer, who was also charged with insurance fraud, protested his innocence but acknowledged he would likely be convicted if the case went to trial, KUTV reported.
“When I came here on Monday, I thought our life was going to be inconvienced [sic] for a month or two,” he wrote.
“I’ve always been very selective with what I share to people about how Bernadette died, soley [sic] because I know how bad it looks.
“I was never afraid of legal action though, because I didn’t kill her, and I never thought it would lead to an arrest.
“The additional allegations I have heard about are largely false, but not entirely. They paint a picture that can’t be escaped. They spell conviction.”
Vander Meer continued to proclaim his innocence and told his family he loved them.
“I was naive to think that just because I didn’t kill Bernadette that there would be no problem with the charges,” he said.
“This is just calculated risk at this point. Reports of the affidavit contain small amounts of truth, but paint a picture I will probably not be able to overcome.”
He then addressed an unidentified person who appeared to fund his legal battle before turning to his family.
“I don’t deserve the finacial [sic] sacrifices of [redacted person] to try to fight this.
“[The person] doesn’t deserve to be a part of my past failures, and this current mess. None of my family does… I love you all.” The note was signed off David.
Vander Meer was rushed to the University Medical Center – less than two miles from the detention center – with what cops described as “self-sustained injuries” and was pronounced dead on June 25.
He “strangulated himself, and he did it in what I would say a unique and novel way,” Kevin McMahill, the Clark County Sheriff, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The cop said there would be a “robust review” into the death.
Bernadette Vander Meer plunged more than 1,000 feet off the Angels Landing trail at Utah’s Zion National Park on August 22, 2006 – one day after she and David, who were both 29 at the time, traveled to the tourist attraction to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Her death was initially ruled accidental “due to a lack of evidence” and “limited investigation,” court documents claimed – but investigators “felt the circumstances were suspicious.”
In the months leading up to Bernadette’s death, Vander Meer applied for life insurance policies of $150,000 before hiking them to $550,000 each. He was paid out $567,439 in July 2007, and lived “lavishly,” according to the docs.
The case was cold for around 15 years before cops received a tip-off in April 2022 from a youth group member that claimed Vander Meer “had been using his position of special trust to groom kids.”
He allegedly began having a sexual affair with an underage girl when she was 16, and had told her that they could only be together if his wife were “not alive,” court papers claimed.
Bernadette had reportedly grown suspicious of her husband’s infidelity in the year before her death, while the pastor was paying rent for the place to have sex with the underage girl, the affidavit said.
Vander Meer married the woman with whom he had an affair before they divorced in 2014 over allegations of infidelity, according to the documents.
Charges against Vander Meer were filed — around eight months after his ex-boss told law enforcement he believed the pastor had pushed his wife.
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