A former Las Vegas youth pastor is due in court facing charges in connection with the death of his wife, roughly two decades after she fell to her death during a hike. According to the report, David Vander Meer is accused in the death of his wife, Bernadette, who died while the couple were hiking at Zion National Park, in a case that has now been reopened after many years.
The death was initially treated very differently. According to the report, when Bernadette died after the fall, the case was ruled an accident at the time, and for years it was not pursued as a crime, leaving the couple's hike at the national park officially recorded as a tragic accident rather than a homicide.
That conclusion has now been overturned by investigators. According to the report, detectives who revisited the case now believe that Vander Meer pushed his wife, transforming what had long been considered an accidental fall into an alleged act of murder that has brought him before the courts about twenty years later.
Court filings point to an alleged personal motive. According to the report, court documents claim that Vander Meer was in a relationship with an underage girl, a detail that investigators have highlighted as part of the background to the reopened case and to the charges he now faces.
The former pastor has not yet given his account in response. According to the report, Vander Meer has yet to respond to the charges against him, and he is due to appear in court, where the formal accusations connected to his wife's death are expected to be addressed.
The case stands out because of how long it took to surface. According to the report, the allegation that a fatal fall at a popular national park was in fact a deliberate killing, raised roughly twenty years after the event, underscores how long-dormant cases can be reopened when investigators reach new conclusions about old evidence.