He planned a special anniversary getaway with his wife… but investigators later discovered someone else had almost been part of the trip….
David Vander Meer killed his wife Bernadette on their tenth anniversary trip in Utah after inviting his mistress to join them, her mother tells PEOPLE
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Bernadette Vander Meer and David Vander Meer in 2006, shortly before he pushed her to her death.Credit : Courtesy Laura GudenKauf
The cheating pastor who killed his wife as they prepared to watch the sunrise on a mountaintop to celebrate their tenth anniversary had invited his mistress to join him on the trip.
David Vander Meer was arrested on June 22 by the U.S. Marshals Service on charges of murder and insurance fraud in the death of his wife, 29-year-old Bernadette Vander Meer.
Bernadette plunged to her death off Angels Landing in Zion National Park on Aug. 22, 2006 in what authorities initially determined to be an accident.
That accident was reclassified as a murder 20 years later when police and the Washington County Attorney’s Office in Utah learned David had been having a years-long affair with a high school student prior to his wife’s death.
David had even planned on meeting his 18-year-old mistress at Zion National Park, Bernadette’s mother tells PEOPLE.
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Two days prior to Bernadette’s death, David’s mistress said that she wanted to end their relationship, according to a copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by PEOPLE.
The affidavit also said that Bernadette expressed excitement about the fact that she and David would be going on this trip alone and not with members of his youth group.
It was through the church youth group that David met the 14-year-old girl who would go on to become his mistress just two years later when she was 16, according to an interview she conducted with authorities.
That same young woman would then drive back to Las Vegas from California after learning about Bernadette’s death to sit shiva for the deceased, according to the affidavit — alongside her newly-widowed husband.
Bernadette’s mother Laura Gudenkauf tells PEOPLE a slightly different story, revealing that the mistress was intending to join David and Bernadette on their anniversary trip.
Laura Gudenkauf says she was informed about her daughter’s death by David’s father, who then drove her and her other daughter Vanessa to Zion National Park.
Once they arrived, Gudenkauf says she heard one member of David’s family expressing sympathy for his mistress.
“[They] said, ‘Oh, [David’s mistress] and so-and-so were going to come up, but they had to turn around.’ Like, ‘oh, poor them,’” Gudenkauf recalls. “Well, poor Bernadette.”
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Gudenkauf was still living with David at the time, in the same home where he and his mistress sat shiva for Bernadette.
She says that her grief was all-consuming for some time after Bernadette’s death, but she then started to notice David was often with the mistress on the rare occasions that she did see him at the house.
“He came by with [his mistress] and members of the youth group and got a bunch of Bernadette’s stuff and ran out the door with it, which made me very sad,” Gudenkauf says.
She says that she started to become suspicious about what happened to Bernadette a few weeks after her death when David went bike riding with his mistress.
Gudenkauf gathered some evidence to try and build a case, but a lawyer friend informed her it was all circumstantial.
However, once that evidence was combined with interviews conducted by police, tips about David from former co-workers and records previously unavailable to police, it proved crucial in getting a judge to sign off on his arrest warrant.
David’s arrest quickly became bittersweet however: he died just days after being booked into the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada.
Gudenkauf says she feels justice was served, but cannot help but feel sympathy for David’s family and loved ones. She too knows the pain of losing a loved one.
