Officials charged a former youth pastor with the murder of his wife, Bernadette Vander Meer, 20 years after her suspicious fall from Angels Landing in Zion National Park. The man, David Vander Meer, was allegedly having an affair with an underage girl around the time of the incident.
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KSL News reports that on August 22, 2006, 29-year-old Bernadette Vander Meer fell approximately 1,200 feet from the Angels Landing trail while she was hiking with her husband in Zion to celebrate their anniversary. This week, the Washington County Attorney’s Office announced officials are reopening the case based on new evidence.
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New information that has come to light, according to KSL, includes David Vander Meer’s “history of infidelity, grooming teens grooming teens in his youth group, and substantially increasing Bernadette’s life insurance policy just before her death.”
Vander Meer was ultimately charged with murder and insurance fraud.
See a local news report about the incident below:
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