Cheating Pastor Sent Teenage Mistress to Confront Heartbroken Wife During Church Tryst Months Before Murder
NEED TO KNOW
David Vander Meer began grooming a 14-year-old girl in 2002, and then in 2004, began having a sexual relationship with the high school student
His wife Bernadette Vander Meer eventually grew suspicious and went to confront him at church one night, but David sent his teenage mistress out to lie to his wife for him
Less than a year later, David killed Bernadette by pushing her off Angels Landing in Zion National Park
The cheating pastor who murdered his wife by pushing her off a cliff once sent his teenage mistress to confront his angry spouse.
David Vander Meer, 49, was arrested for the murder of Bernadette Vander Meer on June 22, but died three days later after being found in his Nevada jail cell with self-inflicted injuries, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
It was revealed during the investigation into David that he had been having a years-long affair with a teenager at the time he murdered his wife. One time, he sent the teenager to confront his wife when she arrived at a church where David, then 25, and the mistress, then 17, were planning to have sex one night.
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Six years into her marriage, Bernadette sensed a shift.
Her husband became more distant, she told family and friends, and she saw less and less of him.
Bernadette was working the graveyard shift at the famed New York-New York Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip at the time, and making good money.
She was the breadwinner of the family, but it was David who handled the finances, so each week she would hand over her paycheck and tips to her husband.
David was a local youth pastor, and seemed to spend any free time he had with his youth group rather than his wife.
In a note dated Nov. 9, 2003, that is included in the probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE, Bernadette expresses “loneliness and dissatisfaction within her marriage.”
Unbeknownst to her at the time, her husband was grooming a 15-year-old girl in his youth group, according to the affidavit.
Eight years into the marriage, things got even worse for Bernadette, her family and friends previously told PEOPLE.
David became even more distant, and money suddenly became an issue.
Bernadette's co-workers told investigators that she reached a point where she couldn’t even afford a new pair of $6 stockings for her uniform or her daily trip to Starbucks.
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These things were deemed too extravagant by David, who was making an annual salary of $38,000.
In a pair of handwritten notes from 2006 that are detailed in the affidavit, Bernadette wrote about her “sadness in her marriage and how she feels David does not publicly show his love towards her, and that he gives other people the same/more attention.”
By this point, Bernadette was more than suspicious of David and the teenage girls who would call their house at all hours. So, one night, she decided to confront her husband.
She drove to his church and banged on the door, according to investigators, screaming for David to come outside.
Eventually a teenage girl answered the door and explained to Bernadette that David was not inside or at the church.
Unbeknownst to Bernadette, David was inside and was having a sexual relationship with the 17-year-old girl he sent to confront his wife.
The money David withheld from Bernadette was being used to pay for the high school student's phone and eventually rent on her apartment, so David did not have to keep paying for motels every time the pair wanted to have sex.
Bernadette eventually told David that she wanted a divorce, a notion he balked at because of his role in the church, her mother told PEOPLE.
But things appeared to be improving after that, and as they set out for Zion National Park on Aug. 21, 2006, to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary, Bernadette felt hopeful about the shift in her husband.
She told friends she was excited to finally be alone with David, and in the predawn hours of Aug. 22, 2006, the pair began the hike up Angels Landing.
They were close to the summit of the mile-high mountain just before the sun was set to rise, the very moment Bernadette was so excited to see.
But she never did see that sunrise.
Instead, David shoved her off the side of the mountain and sent her plummeting to her death.
Read the original article on People
