A woman’s fatal plunge from a landmark spire at Zion National Park is now being called a murder, and her husband has been arrested.
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David Vander Meer was charged last week with murder and insurance fraud in the August 2006 death of Bernadette Vander Meer at Angel’s Landing, the Washington County Attorney’s Office said. He was arrested on Monday, June 22.
The Las Vegas couple was at Zion, in southwest Utah, to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary when the 29-year-old woman fell 1,200 feet to her death during a predawn hike.
According to an , David Vander Meer said he had turned away while setting up a photo of her at the top of the iconic tower, and when he turned back, she was gone.
Though investigators reportedly thought the case was suspicious, the death was ruled an accident.
The investigation was revived after almost 20 years because of a tip from the senior pastor of a church where David Vander Meer had led the youth group. His suspicion that the death was not an accident led investigators to interview Vander Meer’s second wife, whom he had reportedly been having sex with since she was a teen in the church group, the affidavit says.
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That woman reportedly said that Vander Meer had told her before he left on the Zion trip that the only way they could be together was if his wife were to die.
Vander Meer and the younger woman were married from 2008 to 2014. Now 49, he has been married twice since then, the affidavit said.
In addition to interviews about “inappropriate behavior” as a youth pastor that led to Vander Meer’s firing, the affidavit covers the time of sunrise on Aug. 22, 2006 — which does not correlate with the suspect’s statements — and the improbability of a fatal fall at that particular site on Angel’s Landing.
The insurance fraud charge relates to the payout on Bernadette Vander Meer’s life insurance policy. Shortly before the trip, the couple had increased the policy amount from $150,000 each to about $550,000 each, the affidavit says.
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