June 26, 2026
Shocking Update: Former Youth Pastor Arrested For Murdering Wife, Dies In Police Custody
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RSS Feed We just told you about his arrest this week, and now the former Vegas youth pastor accused of pushing his wife off a cliff 20 years ago, has died by suicide while in police custody. 49-year-old David Vander Meer was finally arrested 2 decades after the death of his wife Bernadette during an anniversary hike in 2006. Tips came in from his senior pastor at church and one of his ex-wives who was his teenaged mistress at the time of Bernadette’s death. Investigators formally charged Vander Meer with first degree murder and insurance fraud this week, but say he died of “self inflicted wounds” on Thursday.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Friday, June twenty six, and it was just yesterday. Robah and I we're here telling you about a wild story that a former youth pastor is being charged with murder for killing his wife twenty years ago. Well, he was supposed to be in court yesterday to make his first court appearance. He's dead. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 3: Robes.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: You first brought this story to me, and you go back twenty years from start to finish. This is a bizarre story now this.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I do think police have some explaining to do. Aren't there protocols that are supposed to be in place? Didn't we learn something I don't know from Jeffrey Epstein? How is it that an inmate and someone who I would argue many people have waited decades to see finally have his day in court. They want to see justice prevail. This has been a long time coming. How he's able to and I think this is a fair way to put it, take the easy way out?
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yes, so there it is. Yes, they do say he did die by suicide, die by his own hand. They haven't given the details about how he was able to do that. But he has been in jail I believe since Monday. Robes in Las Vegas and was expected to be in court yesterday. It was on Thursday. But Robes, to your point, I don't know how it goes either. I don't know there are rounds that are to be done. I don't know if anything would have risen to the level of him being on some type of suicide watch that hasn't been talked about. But Romes, no, you're not supposed to. I mean, I guess you can't keep it all from happening. But yes, to your point, right, this seems like a disappointment for a lot of a lot of people who've been wait, he's gotten away with murder a lot of ten years.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: And it is an incredible disappointment. And we even talked about how this was going to be a remarkable trial if it went to trial, if he didn't plead guilty, because he's been able to live his life, get married and divorce multiple times, continued to be a youth pastor up until recently, and have access to young women who he is reportedly and at least one young woman says he's spent many, many years grooming young women for his own sexual desire.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: So here's a.
00:02:17
Speaker 3: Guy who was able to get away with all of this, including yes, murdering his wife according to prosecutors in two thousand and six. And so finally, finally he gets arrested, Finally he's held accountable, and he's about to be extradited to Utah, and he's dead.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: When you put it all that way, this wasn't the first thing that came to my mind. But you're right, Gropes, and have you set all that up? Five days, four days rose, he got caught and four days later he's dead. So there'll be answers that nobody's going to give that. His wife's family is never going to get answers about exactly what happened. But this man's name is David VanderMeer, and Ropes, you one brought this story to my attention. He was a youth pastor all those years ago in Las Vegas. He's forty nine, or he was forty nine when he passed. But he and his wife, as we explained, we keep going back and forth to explain why we was talking about Vegas in Utah. He's a Vegas youth pastor. But Roe twenty sixte and his wife took a trip to Utah supposed to be an anniversary hike.
00:03:19
Speaker 3: Yes, it was supposed to be an anniversary sunset hike. They were both twenty nine years old.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: On rise sunrise, sorry said sunset, thank you. I meant to say sunrise.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: He just sunset. Romantic yes, but no.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: But the sunrise thing I get.
00:03:33
Speaker 3: So he told police that he and his wife set out when it was dark.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: They had headlamps.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: They went up and chose and I mentioned this yesterday one of the most dangerous hikes in America. The hike is called Angels Landing. It's in Zion National Park. I have hiked this hike. It is frightening in the daytime with several people around holding onto ropes. So yes to do it with a headlamp. Find they made it up to the top twelve I think it's about a fifteen hundred foot steep rock formation. So if you look this up online you'll see what I'm talking about. And so he claims that she's standing on the edge. He's setting up the camera to take their anniversary sunrise photo at the top of this dangerous, daring hike. And when he goes to move the backpacks, he says, out of frame of the camera. He turns around, his wife is gone and he can hear her screaming as she plunges to her death.
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Again that this sounds horrific. This is the story being told at the time by a youth pastor robe, someone who is a leader, I guess in the community, someone that you would trust, you're not assuming, is going to try to kill his wife. And also ropes. Given the time it was and where they were, there are no witnesses. It's his word against what evidence do you have? So I guess, And that was a big part of the story that he told at the time is that he didn't see her her fall right his back was too and he was alerted with this.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: That is what he said.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: And so look, they claim police claimed that they were always suspicious, but they didn't have a smoking gun.
00:05:10
Speaker 1: Now they did know.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: And later this has been and was considered a part of the evidence that was going to be used against him in court that he took out. He already had one hundred and fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy on his wife, but he added five hundred thousand dollars or so to that, so it was six hundred thousand dollars plus life insurance policy that he took out shortly before her death. He was actually awarded all of that money because her death was officially ruled an accident, and it wasn't until a few years ago that his second I guess it would be his first ex wife or his second ex wife, but this young woman at the time said she was sixteen years old and was a member of his youth group when he was the youth group pastor, basically the youth pastor, and he began a sexual affair with her. She describes him grooming her other young women, and she claims the night before his wife's fatal plunge, she broke it off with him.
00:06:08
Speaker 1: She said just didn't feel right and.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: He had told her the only way we can be together is if my wife, Bernadette is dead.
00:06:16
Speaker 1: Wila voila.
00:06:18
Speaker 3: She dies, and she claims that she took back up a sexual relationship with him, eventually marrying him. But she came forward to police telling them this information a few years ago, and then his senior pastor came forward last year saying, I think he killed his wife, so they reopened the investigation, and that brought us to this week where an arrest was made.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: The young lady we're talking about it, we haven't said her name. His wife was twenty nine years old and name was Bernadette. They Robes. According to authorities, reports now and the ficial police, she had become suspicious of him. She had become suspicious that maybe he was having an affair and was seeing other folks. And they describe incidents in the back and forth that folks didn't really realize and you never really know. I suppose Robes was going on in somebody's life. But they pieced together a guy who was.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: A rose.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: He had demons again, a youth pastor. We say that name, but he was. And I don't know how much more could be known or should have been known, or could have been stopped at the time, but it seemed like once tips started coming in two thousand and two, two thousand and five, Robes, how many victims does he have out there? He was a youth pastor and people are telling similar stories about things he did and how he groomed and gifts he gave and giving alcohol. And it was a.
00:07:53
Speaker 1: Pattern Robes that he didn't stop more than one.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: So this story, I mean, yes.
00:07:59
Speaker 1: It might not be over.
00:08:01
Speaker 3: I think I was actually going to have that conversation with you, because yes, I was thinking the same thing, this type of crime and this type of man who's accused of these types of crimes against women leading up to obviously the most egregious crime or charge he was facing, which was murder. But this isn't typical behavior that just is a one off. This is usually a pattern.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: This is usually a way of life.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: And to have at least one woman come forward and to now understand exactly how his wife most likely died, Yes, I was thinking too that now since he has died, maybe maybe there is fear of repercussion, or there's fear of not being believed, or there's fear of just inserting yourself into a criminal proceeding. Now that he is dead, I was thinking that we may hear more stories because his young wife, who we only know her initials sh is the initials that she was given because she would have been, if her story is true, a victim of sexual assault sexual violence because she was under age, she was too young to give consent to have a sexual relationship with her youth pastor who was in his late twenties. But I'm imagining that there will be other women who would come forward and say, yeah, I got a story too.
00:09:21
Speaker 2: Well, they always say it's so hard to come forward. I mean, imagine the trauma of children been dealing with this for the past two years. They're adult now and maybe have their own families and whatnot. Do they want to bring this back up? I just wonder. I just didn't piece it together. But there are at least two women right who claim that he did the grooming.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: Correct, So did that's the case?
00:09:44
Speaker 2: He was a youth pastor for quite some time, and what did you get fired for? Yeah, it was giving alcohol with yes.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: Well, so the senior pastor who ended up coming forward to police, which ultimately reopened the investigation and led to his arrest, said he had to fire him because, yeah, he got caught times having huge house parties with underage children who he was supposed to be spiritually guiding and he instead is giving them alcohol, gambling with them, playing inappropriate games with them. But using his house is basically this safe haven for kids to do illegal things with him, and yes, that is wildly inappropriate. And to think he had access to these kids for decades, even after his wife's death and maybe should say murder. After he reportedly murdered his wife and got away with murder, he kept on doing what he was doing.
00:10:40
Speaker 2: You can take out the youth pastor part. I guess that makes it worse. But maybe anybody knows not to do this stuff. Any adult knows, any teacher, any cab driver, anybody going down the street knows this. And to think it was a youth pastor.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: Well, and those are the types of predators who insert themselves in circumstances to be around young folks because that's who they like sexually, that's who they want to be around. And so yes, you see these types of predators. If this is, if this is who this man was being things like coaches, educators, they do things. They choose jobs and positions where they have access and an assumed trust with parents, like I'm going to trust my kid with this person, because no one would put a monster in a church position of leadership. They wouldn't put a monster in a educator's position of guidance. Know that we don't assume the worst of people in certain positions, and yet those are the positions those types of folks seek out.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: We see it all the time. How many people are sitting behind bars convicted of some sex crime against a child and they were a pastor, a teacher, a coach. We see these stories. We cover these stories our whole careers. But this one in particular, Robes, Now, maybe this will be the final chapter. We won't get many answers, Robes. The two people who were up there are dead. We won't get answers as to what happened, how it went. Was there an argument? Was it a plan the whole time? We don't know, But like you said, I thought it was a couple of days. Did you say he broke it off or the young lady broke it off with.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Him the yay, the night before, the.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: Night before, the night before she breaks it off with him, and he goes and kills his wife the very next day. Well, he was expected in court yesterday and a lot of people were shocked at what ended up happening in court.
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Stare Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we really have I'm not using this word shocking. I know it's overused all the time in the media, but we have a shocking update to a story that we just brought to you about a former youth pastor.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: His name is David VanderMeer.
00:12:59
Speaker 3: Who was finally charged with the murder of his wife, Bernadette, twenty years after prosecutors say he murdered her pushed her to her death while hiking in Zion National Park. So he had a scheduled extradition hearing Thursday yesterday where they were going to move him from Vegas where he was and had been a youth pastor and was living, to Utah where the crime allegedly was committed. And at this extradition hearing, we get an announcement from the judge that nobody knew was coming.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: There's an update. The star of the show was not coming. And the way the judge put it robes was almost he was almost seemed disinterested. Oh well, when we're moving on. This was the judges quote announcing to everybody what was going to happen. At the extradition hearing. Quote, he's not here, he's deceased.
00:13:50
Speaker 1: Was like, Mike drop, that was it.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: He's not here, he's deceased. What's next on our docket? There's nothing to talk about, there's nothing to do. There is no extradition. So yeah, this judge is dealing with this as a matter of a crime that didn't take place in his jurisdiction. So now judge's looking at Okay, he's not here.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: He's dead, all right, move on next now, police, obviously there were questions and reporters and the media have been asking, Okay, we need some details, and I would think they have to from a transparency standp, but we have to know what happened. Yes, they said he died by.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: His own hands. Is that how they described it? So died by suicide.
00:14:28
Speaker 2: Self sustained injuries?
00:14:29
Speaker 1: Is self sustained injuries?
00:14:31
Speaker 3: That was the actual quote. I was trying to remember. But you know what you think about it? How does that happen? He's taken into custody on Monday, by Thursday he's dead.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: What did he have access to?
00:14:40
Speaker 3: I mean, the only thing that most people have access to are bed sheets, I guess. But did he not display any I guess you have to be on suicide watch or express some sort of ideation where authorities then set into motion a suicide watch. I guess that requires extra monitoring, and perhaps people on the payroll have to do extra hours to monitor someone like this.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, don't know, but they haven't answered those questions yet and they will need to because this says, look, any prisoner dies on your watch, that is bad and that needs to be looked into and it should not happen. We hope this is the high profile case, is the big case where justice had not been gained yet for this family. Right. I'm not saying it's okay that somebody already convicted and served in fifty years. It's okay for them to in their lives, but this is one where there is loss and more loss for people because this guy took his own life, and like you said, many people will view it that way. Yeah, he took the easy way out, took the coward's way.
00:15:42
Speaker 3: Out, perhaps absolutely, and I do think that will be the reaction. We haven't heard directly from Bernadette's family upon the news that David VanderMeer has now died by suicide, but we did hear from Bernadette's mother when he was arrested on Mondays saying finally her daughter was vindicated because she believed always that he had a hand in her death. And then Bernadette's father said, we've been waiting on the Lord for this day. So this was like this week, Not that you celebrate anything surrounding your daughter's death, but to know that finally, perhaps the person who is responsible for her death will finally get his day in court and you can be in that court room and you can look at him and you can see a jury or at least a judge perhaps say guilty. Like that is very important in the steps that lead to healing. And I would imagine her family has never fully healed because they always had questions. They never believed that their daughter, who was described as a mountain goat an avid hiker, would just fall off the top of a mountain because she was waiting for a photo. It wasn't like she was taking a photo or she was doing a selfie, or she was just standing there. How do you just fall standing there? It actually makes no And so yes, her parents were frustrated and waiting for this day, and now that day will not come, but maybe they will take some piece in knowing that David Vandermere is no longer on this.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: Earth and perhaps no longer harming people.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: You know what, that's a really good points.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: That's worth saying. Again, he could have been in prison, not hurting people, and still could have gotten some answers to this one. We'll keep an eye this. I can't imagine what turn the story could take next, but an unexpected and like rope said, a shocking one in the case of this Vegas former Vegas youth pastor. We always appreciate you spending a little time with us. From my dear Amy Robot, I'm TJ.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: Holmes.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Friday, June twenty six, and it was just yesterday. Robah and I we're here telling you about a wild story that a former youth pastor is being charged with murder for killing his wife twenty years ago. Well, he was supposed to be in court yesterday to make his first court appearance. He's dead. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:29
Speaker 3: Robes.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: You first brought this story to me, and you go back twenty years from start to finish. This is a bizarre story now this.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I do think police have some explaining to do. Aren't there protocols that are supposed to be in place? Didn't we learn something I don't know from Jeffrey Epstein? How is it that an inmate and someone who I would argue many people have waited decades to see finally have his day in court. They want to see justice prevail. This has been a long time coming. How he's able to and I think this is a fair way to put it, take the easy way out?
00:01:06
Speaker 2: Yes, so there it is. Yes, they do say he did die by suicide, die by his own hand. They haven't given the details about how he was able to do that. But he has been in jail I believe since Monday. Robes in Las Vegas and was expected to be in court yesterday. It was on Thursday. But Robes, to your point, I don't know how it goes either. I don't know there are rounds that are to be done. I don't know if anything would have risen to the level of him being on some type of suicide watch that hasn't been talked about. But Romes, no, you're not supposed to. I mean, I guess you can't keep it all from happening. But yes, to your point, right, this seems like a disappointment for a lot of a lot of people who've been wait, he's gotten away with murder a lot of ten years.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: And it is an incredible disappointment. And we even talked about how this was going to be a remarkable trial if it went to trial, if he didn't plead guilty, because he's been able to live his life, get married and divorce multiple times, continued to be a youth pastor up until recently, and have access to young women who he is reportedly and at least one young woman says he's spent many, many years grooming young women for his own sexual desire.
00:02:16
Speaker 1: So here's a.
00:02:17
Speaker 3: Guy who was able to get away with all of this, including yes, murdering his wife according to prosecutors in two thousand and six. And so finally, finally he gets arrested, Finally he's held accountable, and he's about to be extradited to Utah, and he's dead.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: When you put it all that way, this wasn't the first thing that came to my mind. But you're right, Gropes, and have you set all that up? Five days, four days rose, he got caught and four days later he's dead. So there'll be answers that nobody's going to give that. His wife's family is never going to get answers about exactly what happened. But this man's name is David VanderMeer, and Ropes, you one brought this story to my attention. He was a youth pastor all those years ago in Las Vegas. He's forty nine, or he was forty nine when he passed. But he and his wife, as we explained, we keep going back and forth to explain why we was talking about Vegas in Utah. He's a Vegas youth pastor. But Roe twenty sixte and his wife took a trip to Utah supposed to be an anniversary hike.
00:03:19
Speaker 3: Yes, it was supposed to be an anniversary sunset hike. They were both twenty nine years old.
00:03:24
Speaker 1: On rise sunrise, sorry said sunset, thank you. I meant to say sunrise.
00:03:29
Speaker 2: He just sunset. Romantic yes, but no.
00:03:31
Speaker 1: But the sunrise thing I get.
00:03:33
Speaker 3: So he told police that he and his wife set out when it was dark.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: They had headlamps.
00:03:39
Speaker 3: They went up and chose and I mentioned this yesterday one of the most dangerous hikes in America. The hike is called Angels Landing. It's in Zion National Park. I have hiked this hike. It is frightening in the daytime with several people around holding onto ropes. So yes to do it with a headlamp. Find they made it up to the top twelve I think it's about a fifteen hundred foot steep rock formation. So if you look this up online you'll see what I'm talking about. And so he claims that she's standing on the edge. He's setting up the camera to take their anniversary sunrise photo at the top of this dangerous, daring hike. And when he goes to move the backpacks, he says, out of frame of the camera. He turns around, his wife is gone and he can hear her screaming as she plunges to her death.
00:04:33
Speaker 2: Again that this sounds horrific. This is the story being told at the time by a youth pastor robe, someone who is a leader, I guess in the community, someone that you would trust, you're not assuming, is going to try to kill his wife. And also ropes. Given the time it was and where they were, there are no witnesses. It's his word against what evidence do you have? So I guess, And that was a big part of the story that he told at the time is that he didn't see her her fall right his back was too and he was alerted with this.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: That is what he said.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: And so look, they claim police claimed that they were always suspicious, but they didn't have a smoking gun.
00:05:10
Speaker 1: Now they did know.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: And later this has been and was considered a part of the evidence that was going to be used against him in court that he took out. He already had one hundred and fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy on his wife, but he added five hundred thousand dollars or so to that, so it was six hundred thousand dollars plus life insurance policy that he took out shortly before her death. He was actually awarded all of that money because her death was officially ruled an accident, and it wasn't until a few years ago that his second I guess it would be his first ex wife or his second ex wife, but this young woman at the time said she was sixteen years old and was a member of his youth group when he was the youth group pastor, basically the youth pastor, and he began a sexual affair with her. She describes him grooming her other young women, and she claims the night before his wife's fatal plunge, she broke it off with him.
00:06:08
Speaker 1: She said just didn't feel right and.
00:06:10
Speaker 3: He had told her the only way we can be together is if my wife, Bernadette is dead.
00:06:16
Speaker 1: Wila voila.
00:06:18
Speaker 3: She dies, and she claims that she took back up a sexual relationship with him, eventually marrying him. But she came forward to police telling them this information a few years ago, and then his senior pastor came forward last year saying, I think he killed his wife, so they reopened the investigation, and that brought us to this week where an arrest was made.
00:06:42
Speaker 2: The young lady we're talking about it, we haven't said her name. His wife was twenty nine years old and name was Bernadette. They Robes. According to authorities, reports now and the ficial police, she had become suspicious of him. She had become suspicious that maybe he was having an affair and was seeing other folks. And they describe incidents in the back and forth that folks didn't really realize and you never really know. I suppose Robes was going on in somebody's life. But they pieced together a guy who was.
00:07:21
Speaker 1: A rose.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: He had demons again, a youth pastor. We say that name, but he was. And I don't know how much more could be known or should have been known, or could have been stopped at the time, but it seemed like once tips started coming in two thousand and two, two thousand and five, Robes, how many victims does he have out there? He was a youth pastor and people are telling similar stories about things he did and how he groomed and gifts he gave and giving alcohol. And it was a.
00:07:53
Speaker 1: Pattern Robes that he didn't stop more than one.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: So this story, I mean, yes.
00:07:59
Speaker 1: It might not be over.
00:08:01
Speaker 3: I think I was actually going to have that conversation with you, because yes, I was thinking the same thing, this type of crime and this type of man who's accused of these types of crimes against women leading up to obviously the most egregious crime or charge he was facing, which was murder. But this isn't typical behavior that just is a one off. This is usually a pattern.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: This is usually a way of life.
00:08:26
Speaker 3: And to have at least one woman come forward and to now understand exactly how his wife most likely died, Yes, I was thinking too that now since he has died, maybe maybe there is fear of repercussion, or there's fear of not being believed, or there's fear of just inserting yourself into a criminal proceeding. Now that he is dead, I was thinking that we may hear more stories because his young wife, who we only know her initials sh is the initials that she was given because she would have been, if her story is true, a victim of sexual assault sexual violence because she was under age, she was too young to give consent to have a sexual relationship with her youth pastor who was in his late twenties. But I'm imagining that there will be other women who would come forward and say, yeah, I got a story too.
00:09:21
Speaker 2: Well, they always say it's so hard to come forward. I mean, imagine the trauma of children been dealing with this for the past two years. They're adult now and maybe have their own families and whatnot. Do they want to bring this back up? I just wonder. I just didn't piece it together. But there are at least two women right who claim that he did the grooming.
00:09:42
Speaker 1: Correct, So did that's the case?
00:09:44
Speaker 2: He was a youth pastor for quite some time, and what did you get fired for? Yeah, it was giving alcohol with yes.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: Well, so the senior pastor who ended up coming forward to police, which ultimately reopened the investigation and led to his arrest, said he had to fire him because, yeah, he got caught times having huge house parties with underage children who he was supposed to be spiritually guiding and he instead is giving them alcohol, gambling with them, playing inappropriate games with them. But using his house is basically this safe haven for kids to do illegal things with him, and yes, that is wildly inappropriate. And to think he had access to these kids for decades, even after his wife's death and maybe should say murder. After he reportedly murdered his wife and got away with murder, he kept on doing what he was doing.
00:10:40
Speaker 2: You can take out the youth pastor part. I guess that makes it worse. But maybe anybody knows not to do this stuff. Any adult knows, any teacher, any cab driver, anybody going down the street knows this. And to think it was a youth pastor.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: Well, and those are the types of predators who insert themselves in circumstances to be around young folks because that's who they like sexually, that's who they want to be around. And so yes, you see these types of predators. If this is, if this is who this man was being things like coaches, educators, they do things. They choose jobs and positions where they have access and an assumed trust with parents, like I'm going to trust my kid with this person, because no one would put a monster in a church position of leadership. They wouldn't put a monster in a educator's position of guidance. Know that we don't assume the worst of people in certain positions, and yet those are the positions those types of folks seek out.
00:11:42
Speaker 2: We see it all the time. How many people are sitting behind bars convicted of some sex crime against a child and they were a pastor, a teacher, a coach. We see these stories. We cover these stories our whole careers. But this one in particular, Robes, Now, maybe this will be the final chapter. We won't get many answers, Robes. The two people who were up there are dead. We won't get answers as to what happened, how it went. Was there an argument? Was it a plan the whole time? We don't know, But like you said, I thought it was a couple of days. Did you say he broke it off or the young lady broke it off with.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Him the yay, the night before, the.
00:12:19
Speaker 2: Night before, the night before she breaks it off with him, and he goes and kills his wife the very next day. Well, he was expected in court yesterday and a lot of people were shocked at what ended up happening in court.
00:12:32
Speaker 3: Stare Welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we really have I'm not using this word shocking. I know it's overused all the time in the media, but we have a shocking update to a story that we just brought to you about a former youth pastor.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: His name is David VanderMeer.
00:12:59
Speaker 3: Who was finally charged with the murder of his wife, Bernadette, twenty years after prosecutors say he murdered her pushed her to her death while hiking in Zion National Park. So he had a scheduled extradition hearing Thursday yesterday where they were going to move him from Vegas where he was and had been a youth pastor and was living, to Utah where the crime allegedly was committed. And at this extradition hearing, we get an announcement from the judge that nobody knew was coming.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: There's an update. The star of the show was not coming. And the way the judge put it robes was almost he was almost seemed disinterested. Oh well, when we're moving on. This was the judges quote announcing to everybody what was going to happen. At the extradition hearing. Quote, he's not here, he's deceased.
00:13:50
Speaker 1: Was like, Mike drop, that was it.
00:13:53
Speaker 2: He's not here, he's deceased. What's next on our docket? There's nothing to talk about, there's nothing to do. There is no extradition. So yeah, this judge is dealing with this as a matter of a crime that didn't take place in his jurisdiction. So now judge's looking at Okay, he's not here.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: He's dead, all right, move on next now, police, obviously there were questions and reporters and the media have been asking, Okay, we need some details, and I would think they have to from a transparency standp, but we have to know what happened. Yes, they said he died by.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: His own hands. Is that how they described it? So died by suicide.
00:14:28
Speaker 2: Self sustained injuries?
00:14:29
Speaker 1: Is self sustained injuries?
00:14:31
Speaker 3: That was the actual quote. I was trying to remember. But you know what you think about it? How does that happen? He's taken into custody on Monday, by Thursday he's dead.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: What did he have access to?
00:14:40
Speaker 3: I mean, the only thing that most people have access to are bed sheets, I guess. But did he not display any I guess you have to be on suicide watch or express some sort of ideation where authorities then set into motion a suicide watch. I guess that requires extra monitoring, and perhaps people on the payroll have to do extra hours to monitor someone like this.
00:15:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, don't know, but they haven't answered those questions yet and they will need to because this says, look, any prisoner dies on your watch, that is bad and that needs to be looked into and it should not happen. We hope this is the high profile case, is the big case where justice had not been gained yet for this family. Right. I'm not saying it's okay that somebody already convicted and served in fifty years. It's okay for them to in their lives, but this is one where there is loss and more loss for people because this guy took his own life, and like you said, many people will view it that way. Yeah, he took the easy way out, took the coward's way.
00:15:42
Speaker 3: Out, perhaps absolutely, and I do think that will be the reaction. We haven't heard directly from Bernadette's family upon the news that David VanderMeer has now died by suicide, but we did hear from Bernadette's mother when he was arrested on Mondays saying finally her daughter was vindicated because she believed always that he had a hand in her death. And then Bernadette's father said, we've been waiting on the Lord for this day. So this was like this week, Not that you celebrate anything surrounding your daughter's death, but to know that finally, perhaps the person who is responsible for her death will finally get his day in court and you can be in that court room and you can look at him and you can see a jury or at least a judge perhaps say guilty. Like that is very important in the steps that lead to healing. And I would imagine her family has never fully healed because they always had questions. They never believed that their daughter, who was described as a mountain goat an avid hiker, would just fall off the top of a mountain because she was waiting for a photo. It wasn't like she was taking a photo or she was doing a selfie, or she was just standing there. How do you just fall standing there? It actually makes no And so yes, her parents were frustrated and waiting for this day, and now that day will not come, but maybe they will take some piece in knowing that David Vandermere is no longer on this.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: Earth and perhaps no longer harming people.
00:17:15
Speaker 1: You know what, that's a really good points.
00:17:17
Speaker 2: That's worth saying. Again, he could have been in prison, not hurting people, and still could have gotten some answers to this one. We'll keep an eye this. I can't imagine what turn the story could take next, but an unexpected and like rope said, a shocking one in the case of this Vegas former Vegas youth pastor. We always appreciate you spending a little time with us. From my dear Amy Robot, I'm TJ.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: Holmes.
00:17:40
Speaker 2: Talk soon.