Las Vegas man accused of killing wife at Zion dies before extradition hearing

A Las Vegas school counselor’s murder case took a shocking twist Thursday when a judge announced that the suspect had died.

David Vander Meer, who also worked as a yoga instructor, was scheduled to be asked if he planned to fight extradition to Utah on a murder charge for allegedly killing his wife at Zion National Park two decades ago. But at the hearing, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman said he had learned that Vander Meer had died.

“I found out 15 minutes ago that he’s deceased,” Goodman said. “That is all the information I have.”

The judge said he would take the case off his calendar. Online court records now show that the case is closed.

In a news release, the Metropolitan Police Department stated, “On June 24, 2026, a 49-year-old male inmate at the Clark County Detention Center was transported to UMC to be treated for self-sustained injuries. On June 25, 2026, medical personnel at UMC pronounced the inmate deceased.”

Metro, which operates the detention center, did not name the inmate and did not explain how he was able to so severely injure himself while in custody. But the news release announcing the death noted that the inmate had been booked on Monday, the same day Vander Meer was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service. Vander Meer turned 49 on Wednesday.

The department refused a request for an interview about the circumstances of Vander Meer’s death and said it would not hold a news conference.

Vander Meer was arrested in Summerlin on murder and insurance fraud charges in the death of his first wife, Bernadette Vander Meer. She was 28 when she died on Aug. 22, 2006, after falling from Angels Landing at Zion.

Authorities said the death was considered suspicious, but it was ruled an accident at the time and the case was closed.

‘Deceptive nature’

The Washington County, Utah, attorney’s office said in an affidavit leading to David Vander Meer’s arrest that it received a tip in 2022 that the former youth pastor had been using his position to groom children, and that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with one of those children.

Another tip came in October of last year, when David Vander Meer’s former boss at the church contacted the office to say he did not believe the death was an accident. An investigator then interviewed several prior members of the church youth group.

“I learned several things about David,” the investigator wrote. “I learned about his inappropriate behavior with the children/minors in his youth group ministry which he oversaw as the youth pastor. I learned of David’s infidelity and unfaithfulness during his marriage to Bernadette, which went on for years prior to Bernadette’s passing. I learned about David’s deceptive nature, and descriptive story telling which led several witnesses to believe David had pushed Bernadette to her death.”

One of the former youth group members told the investigator during an interview in December that David Vander Meer took her virginity in 2002, when she was 16, and that the relationship continued until she was 19 or 20.

According to the affidavit, Bernadette Vander Meer suspected her husband was cheating on her, and the two talked of divorce. David Vander Meer’s lover, whom he had been grooming since the age of 14 in his church youth group, broke off the affair the day before he and his wife left for their trip and two days before the fatal fall, according to the affidavit.

David Vander Meer collected $567,000 in life insurance from his wife’s death, authorities said.

He and his former lover resumed their relationship two or three months after the death, according to the affidavit, and were later married. They divorced in 2014.

A reporter approached the woman at her home on Thursday, and she declined to be interviewed.

Records show that David Vander Meer was married and divorced two more times.

He had been listed as a counselor for Somerset Academy Lone Mountain on the public charter school’s website and Facebook page. A spokesperson for the school said in an email this week that he had been placed on administrative leave.

An Instagram profile also described David Vander Meer as a yoga teacher. He worked at the TruFusion yoga studio in Summerlin and posted on social media about peace and happiness.

‘I’m sad for him’

Las Vegas attorney Robert Draskovich arrived at the hearing on Thursday with the intention of having a discussion with the defendant, whose family had contacted him about the Utah case.

Instead, marshals told him that David Vander Meer was dead.

Draskovich said the fact that he died in custody is concerning.

“We have yet another death,” he said. “A string of untimely deaths of those in the custody of either the NDOC or the Clark County Detention Center. Outside of that I don’t have any other information.”

NDOC is a reference to the Nevada Department of Corrections, the state’s prison system.

Kari Krute, a former co-worker of Bernadette Vander Meer’s, was sitting in court with a picture of her friend when she learned of David Vander Meer’s death.

“Justice right there,” she said after she heard the news.

The parents of Bernadette Vander Meer, who did not attend Thursday’s hearing, were more sympathetic.

“I’m sad,” said her mother, Laura Gudenkauf. “I’m sad for him. I am sad for his family.”

In a Tuesday interview at their home, Gudenkauf and her husband, Richard, said they became increasingly suspicious of their daughter’s husband over time, and they had hoped that one day authorities would arrest him in her death.

“Instead of bad-mouthing him, I should have been praying for him,” Richard Gudenkauf said on Thursday.

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