A former youth pastor and Las Vegas school counselor charged with murdering his wife nearly 20 years after she fell to her death at Zion National Park has died in custody before a scheduled court appearance, a judge said Thursday.
At the start of an extradition hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court, Judge Eric Goodman announced that David Vander Meer, 49, was deceased, telling the courtroom, “That is all the information I have,” as captured by NBC News. Goodman said the case would be removed from the court’s calendar.
Later Thursday, Las Vegas police said a 49-year-old inmate died after being transported from the Clark County Detention Center to a hospital for treatment after “self-inflicted injuries,” NBC News reports. Authorities did not identify the inmate, but Vander Meer, who was being held at the jail on a fugitive warrant from another state, was 49 and is no longer listed in jail records.
Vander Meer’s death comes after he was arrested and taken into custody Monday in Las Vegas by U.S. Marshals, according to a statement released by the Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. He faced allegations of murder and insurance fraud stemming from the August 22, 2006, death of Bernadette.
The criminal investigation into the 2006 incident was recently reopened after law enforcement officials received an undisclosed tip, the prosecutor’s office previously said.
Details regarding what prompted the arrest warrant remained unavailable Wednesday, as the accompanying affidavit is under seal, Washington County Deputy Attorney Phillip Soelberg told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
At the time of the incident, park officials reported that Bernadette Vander Meer, 29, died after falling about 1,200 feet from the Angels Landing trail during a hike with her husband.
Following the arrest, an online staff directory for Somerset Academy Lone Mountain, a public charter school where David Vander Meer was employed as a counselor, removed his profile.
Barry Diamond, the former senior pastor of the church where Vander Meer once worked, said he learned of the suspect’s death Thursday morning from Jessica Bate of Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah, who led the investigations, NBC reports.
“There are no winners here,” Diamond told the outlet. “This is a tragedy for Bernadette’s family, this is a tragedy for Dave’s family. They’re good people and he hurt them too.”
Bernadette Vander Meer had worked at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. An obituary published in August 2006 by the Review-Journal described her as a devoted wife and daughter who had a passion for stage performance, music and nature.
The trail she fell from, Angel’s Landing, is known for being one of the most dangerous routes in the U.S. According to Deseret Morning News archives, fatalities at the site have included the 2004 death of a 14-year-old on a Boy Scout outing, the 1997 death of a 36-year-old man who was rappelling down the rock formation and the 1989 death of a 28-year-old man who fell 150 feet.
In 1997, the outlet reported, 36-year-old Patricia Bottarini of Medford, New Jersey, fell about 500 feet as she was hiking to the park’s Observation Point with her husband, James Bottarini. In 2002, he went on trial in federal court on charges related to Patricia Bottarini’s death, of which he was acquitted.
The Independent has contacted Somerset Academy Lone Mountain officials for comment.
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