A former youth pastor has killed himself in jail three days after he was charged with his wife’s 2006 murder at Zion National Park.

David Vander Meer fatally injured himself at Las Vegas’s Clark County Detention Center earlier on Thursday, KSNV reported.

His suicide was announced ahead of a planned extradition hearing that sought to move him from Nevada to Utah to face charges.   

Vander Meer, 49, was charged on Monday with the August 2006 murder of his wife Bernadette. 

Bernadette, 28, fell to her death from a cliff during a trip to the iconic Utah beauty spot. 

Her death was initially thought to have been an accident, and the case was initially closed due to a lack of evidence. 

But a warrant was issued for Vander Meer’s arrest by the Washington County District Attorney’s Office this week for Bernadette’s murder after new information came in that implicated him. 

Vander Meer was arrested by a fugitive task force in Summerlin and booked into Clark County Detention Center on Monday, according to an arrest report obtained by the outlet. 

David Vander Meer, pictured, killed himself in jail on Thursday, three days after he was charged with murdering his wife Bernadette during a trip to Zion National Park in 2006 

Bernadette Vander Meer is pictured before her death, which was initially believed to have been an accident

After hearing of his sudden death, Barry Diamond, the former senior pastor of the church where Vander Meer had previously worked at, told NBC News that he was informed that he had hung himself. 

‘There are no winners here. 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,’ Diamond said. 

Bernadette’s death was ruled an accident decades ago, but ‘investigators felt that circumstances were suspicious,’ according to a probable cause affidavit seen by the outlet. 

Her heartbroken parents, Laura and Richard Gudenkauf, have said they long suspected that Vander Meer played a role in their daughter’s death. 

‘I did a lot of hiking with her, Richard told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ‘She was a mountain goat. For her to fall off a cliff? No.’ 

The couple said they later found out that Vander Meer was allegedly having an affair with a younger woman, and that he increased his and Bernadette’s life insurance policy just before her death, per the outlet.  

At the same time, Bernadette was preparing to leave her husband, Laura revealed. 

‘She was getting ready to leave him. She told him if he didn’t change, she was going to divorce him because he kept spending all this time with the other woman.’  

Bernadette, 28, fell to her death from a cliff during a trip to Zion National Park, an iconic Utah beauty spot. (Pictured: File photo)

Her heartbroken parents, Laura and Richard Gudenkauf (left and middle), have said they long suspected that Vander Meer played a role in their daughter’s death

According to reports at the time of Bernadette’s death, she and her then-husband set out for a hike on the Angels Landing trail around 6.30am on August 22, 2006, before she fell 1,200ft to her death. 

The then 29-year-old pastor said she had fallen while he was trying to take a picture of her near the trail’s edge, court documents previously stated. 

Investigators opened the case back up in 2022 after receiving word from a former youth group member that Vander Meer used his position at New Song church to ‘groom kids,’ documents read, according to the New York Times. 

Officials said he had been involved in an ‘inappropriate sexual relationship’ with an underage member of the youth ministry, and that he allegedly told the girl that they could be together if his wife was ‘not alive,’ the report stated. 

The girl, who has only been identified as ‘SH’ in court documents, and Vander Meer would have sex at the church and hotels for years after they met around 2002, the NYT said. 

At the same time, Bernadette was preparing to leave her husband, her mother Laura revealed

The girl cut things off with him just two days before Bernadette’s death, prosecutors said. 

Bernadette, who worked at a Las Vegas hotel, suspected her husband was cheating on her, the report stated. 

She was the fifth person to die at the dangerous trail since 1983.  

Judge Eric Goodman, who was supposed to preside over Vander Meer’s case, informed reporters of his death at the start of his extradition hearing on Thursday. 

‘That is all the information that I have,’ Goodman told the court. ‘That’s all I know, he’s not here, he’s deceased, so let’s take it off camera.’