
A 29-year-old woman headed out for a sunrise hike at one of the most intense peaks in the country, only to "fall" to her death. A youth pastor in her life is revealed to be a groomer..and murderer.
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Heath
What is going on? True crime fans, I'm your host Heath.
Daphne
And I'm your host, Daphne.
Heath
And you're listening to Going West.
Daphne
Hello everybody. Hope you're doing well today. We are covering a case that was closed for a while actually, but. But then one phone call brought this back into the light and it exposed a ton of disturbing secrets and grooming in the church.
Heath
Yeah, and if you guys thought that Eli Weaver was bad boy. Do we have another God fearing or supposedly God fearing piece of shit for you guys today?
Daphne
Yeah, this actually has had major updates this summer, so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of you have been hearing about this one in the news. I feel like we we're getting even more stuff but now you know we have official closure on this case.
Heath
Yes, we do. So without further ado, this is episode 629 of Going West. So let's get into it.
Daphne
In August of 2006, a 29 year old Nevada woman headed out for a sunrise hike at one of the most intense peaks in the country, only to fall to her death when she reached the summit. But when a senior pastor made a phone call to investigators, they looked deeper into the woman's life and uncovered a trove of disturbing behavior. Grooming and murdered. This is the story of Bernadette Vandermeer. The pastor's secret. Bernadette Gudenkopf, often called Bernie by her friends and family, was born on November 16, 1977 in Phoenix, Arizona to parents Laura and Richard Gudenkopf. But she grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada alongside her sister Vanessa. From a young age, she was very active and musical. She absolutely loved to sing. So later her mom Laura described her adult sing himself by saying, quote, she was a wonderful person, a good Christian woman. She sang in the church worship. She had a beautiful voice. She was making a demo cd. She sang like Christina Aguilera. A co worker of hers named Kathy said of her quote, she was talented, a singer. She danced just a beautiful spirit inside and out. So she was very artistic. She loved her church and her church community and she was actually homeschooled. So she spent a lot of time with her loving family. And then at the age of 16, she met a fellow 16 year old named David Vandermeer while participating in a church play. And they hit it off right away. You know, they both loved the same kind of music, they shared their love of the Christian faith. So they began dating. And at the young ages of 18 in 1995, Bernadette and David got married. Thus she became Bernadette Vandermeer.
Heath
Man, they did not waste any time. They really didn't graduated and then boom, right into marriage.
Daphne
Well, actually her friend Kathy later kind of asked her why she got married so early and she said that she was mature for her age, but it seemed like they really did love each other and that things were going well. You know, they're. I feel like we see this sometimes in the Christian religion as people marry quite young. Sometimes that is true. But I will say she wasn't ready to like settle down or start a family quite yet. So David worked his way up in the church while she continued to perform, eventually working as Betty Boop at the MGM theme park in Las Vegas, which, by the way opened in 1993 and it closed in 2000. It wasn't open for very long before they replaced it with a bunch of condominiums. But she really enjoyed working there. You know, she sang and dance for kids. But she really did want her own music career. Like her mom said, she had been working on a demo CD before she died and she Even hoped to audition for American Idol, which is just a
Heath
sign of the Times. The early 2000s. Yeah, that was American Idol. Let's go.
Daphne
Every singer is like, gotta get on American Idol.
Heath
Yep.
Daphne
So at some point, Bernadette began working as a cocktail waitress at the four star New York New York Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. But this really wasn't a lifestyle that she fit into. Well, because her coworker said that, you know, she wasn't a drinker, she wasn't a partier. Like, this job was really just a job for her. She, she was more so outdoorsy and she loved to hike. She wasn't like going out on the town.
Heath
Yeah. She wasn't kind of like falling into the nightlife that the Strip would offer her.
Daphne
Not at all. Though I will say some of her co workers wondered if she didn't go out very much because she had a controlling husband at home. Because according to them, she gave all her tips and paychecks to her husband and then he gave her an allowance.
Heath
Yeah, that just shows the controlling nature
Daphne
of David, especially because she was considered the breadwinner. So she's making the money and he's getting to decide what is done with that money.
Heath
He's taking it in and then saying, oh, here's your, here's your monthly allowance that you get.
Daphne
And this was, I'll say, like, especially disheartening because she'd only recently been able to switch to day shifts because she had previously, for years, been working graveyard shifts. So now she's like in this position where she's working better shifts and she's getting better hours and she's making more money after years of working overnight shifts and still giving her money to her husband, and now she's finally to a point where she's making better money, she's doing well for herself, and she still does not get to decide what she does with her income. And by the way, fellow cocktail waitress Dolly Wong later told the Las Vegas Review Journal, quote, bernadette would not spend $6 on a pair of pantyhose without asking David. She handed every dollar over to that man.
Heath
Which is just so sad because she's working her ass off. I mean, she's working hard and this guy's just a leech. He's just a taker.
Daphne
Especially because she wasn't doing what she loved to do quite yet. You know, she's, she's working as a cocktail waitress. Again, that is not her vibe. So she's working a job that she, she finds joy in for sure. She loves her coworkers and she's a very positive, loving person, but he's just taking it all away.
Heath
Well, I will say that Bernadette always put on a good face. So friends, co workers and customers alike remember her big personality and her vivacious and fun spirit, also describing her as, quote, pure and a little naive. So to them, she didn't seem bothered that her husband was controlling of her life and their money, or I guess I should say her money. And although none of her co workers had met David, they went so far as to say that she seemed happy with him until shortly before she died. Well, about a month earlier In July of 2006, she was at lunch with one of her cocktail waitress friends. This is Kathy Page. And she told Kathy that she believed her husband David was having an affair. Now, she didn't know for sure, but she felt that David was keeping things from her and was kind of, you know, sneaking around at this point. And not only was it disappointing and disheartening for her to feel this way, but it felt additionally disturbing considering the fact that 29 year old David was a youth pastor at Las Vegas's new Song Christian Church, where Bernadette sang in the choir. You know, he was someone that was trusted in the church for his faith and his traditional, respectable values. But it's additionally sickening because the person that he was believed to be having an affair with was a teenage girl of around 18. And we are very much going to dive deeper into his grooming of this girl because there are so many more horrors under the surface of that iceberg. But for now, this is part of why Bernadette was so concerned about the potential cheating. She didn't just think that he was cheating. She noticed that he was spending too much time, you know, extended inappropriate alone time at that, with young pupils that he guided at their church. Now, by this point, Bernadette had been unhappy in their marriage for a few years, even writing in a note on her computer in November of 2003 that she was feeling lonely and dissatisfied with David. So Bernadette approached him about a divorce, telling him that she believed that he was being unfaithful and that if he didn't change his ways, she was going to seek a divorce. She even told her parents about her fears. But guess what? David said he asked Bernadette what people would think if he, a pastor, got a divorce. He wondered how that would make him look, because to him, you know, despite him being the one that was stepping out on her, the idea was essentially unacceptable. You know, he's saying, there's no way that I can get a divorce. That's not going to look good in the church's eyes.
Daphne
And from our pov, we're like, okay, then be faithful to your wife. And you love her because you chose to marry her.
Heath
Exactly. Shit or get off the pot, buddy.
Daphne
But for him, he's like, I, I'm going to look for a way around this.
Heath
Yeah.
Daphne
Well, mere days after this conversation, coming up on their 10 year wedding anniversary, the couple headed to a popular hiking spot in Utah, Zion National Park. Now, they frequently hiked together over the years. Actually, David even proposed to her during a hike back in the 90s. And then of course, as we know, this was a major hobby of Bernadette. So, you know, her family, everybody that knew and loved her knew that she loved to hike. Like her dad called her a mountain goat.
Heath
Yeah.
Daphne
Because of how skilled she was and honestly how careful she was out on any mountain that she hiked. So Angel's Landing is what we're going to be talking about today. This is at Zion national park and it's just under a three hour drive from Vegas. But David's father owned a cabin in Brian Head, Utah, which is still about an hour and 45 minutes from Angel's Landing, which is also of course a in Utah. But this is why they were in Utah, because of his dad's connection with that cabin.
Heath
So they could stay at the cabin and then they could go and do as many hikes as they want in Zion National Park.
Daphne
Absolutely. Obviously, as you and I know and many other people listening and watching this know, Zion national park is a gorgeous.
Heath
Oh yeah, it's stunning.
Daphne
Amazing place really for, for outdoorsy people like Bernadette. But this place is intense. Angels Landing, inside Zion national park in Southern Utah is one of the most famous hikes in the country. Like, people travel from all over the world to hike Angels Landing. It's like a bucket list for many, many people because not only does it have incredible views once you get to the top, but it also is quite difficult to hike. So a lot of people who love hiking and, and do it recreationally, you
Heath
want like a little challenge.
Daphne
Exactly. So the hike itself is a little over five miles round trip, and it climbs almost 6,000ft from the canyon floor in elevation, so above sea level. But that's not the vertical hike to climb it. It's more like 1500ft from the trailhead. So it's essentially like climbing the Empire State Building or just a little Bit higher than the Eiffel Tower. So as we're going to unfold the next few, few details, for anybody who has not been to Angel's Landing, but has been to the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building, picture all this happening at the top of those buildings. So at first you follow this paved trail for a while and then you work your way up a series of steep switchbacks. But then you reach the part that everybody talks about that last half mile. Instead of a wide hiking trail, in some places you can. It's only a few feet wide with huge drop offs on both sides.
Heath
Sounds terrifying.
Daphne
I agree. This sounds like my freaking nightmare. So because of this, chains are bolted onto the rock that hikers use to pull themselves along because of how exposed these parts are. So like, you know, it's basically sudden death on either side as you're making your way up to the top of the summit, pulling yourself along these rocks. But I will say, as long as you're taking your time and you're being super careful, it's really not that dangerous. But it is incredibly physically challenging. Thus thousands of people complete it every year without issue. And apparently your odds of dying from a fall at Angel's landing is 1 in 2.6 million because 18 people have fallen to their death there since the year 2000. So like, it happens and just not that often. Just not that often. For comparison, five to six people die every year climbing Mount Everest. So that's a lot deadlier in a totally different.
Heath
That's, I mean, that's much more of a challenge to, to climb Mount Everest, but you know, six times more deadly just considering the fact that, you know, 18 people have died since 2000. It, it goes to show you that this isn't just some, you know, kind of beginners hike.
Daphne
Yeah, it's definitely. Again, if you're on YouTube and you're looking at these pictures or if you go to our socials and look at them, you're probably going to be a little bit queasy.
Heath
Well, and like you said, the views are just incredible because when you finally reach the summit, if you're brave enough to attempt it, you're standing on this broad sandstone platform and everywhere you look are these towering red and cream colored cliffs and winding canyon walls and layers upon layers of rock stretching for miles in every direction. You can even see the Virgin river way down below. So you can imagine why people, many people, like beginning their hike before sunrise so that when you actually do reach the top, two hours later, you have this beautiful Colorful sunrise to paint the back of this landscape.
Daphne
Yeah, that's the time to go.
Heath
So this is exactly what Bernadette and David did that fateful morning. So the night before, on Monday, August 21, 2006, Bernadette and David headed towards the mountain to his dad's cabin, and they stayed the night, waking up early the next morning while it was still pitch black outside, to bike to the trailhead, headlamps and all, and then finally begin their summit, which they apparently started around 4:20am Now, Google Maps and social media has made a lot of hiking spots and tourist spots more popular as the years go on. And this is exactly the case for Angel's Landing, because actually now you actually need a permit to hike that chain section of Angel's Landing, where before you didn't have to have a permit to do that. But back in 2006 when this story takes place, there was no permit system. And although it was still a widely known trail, it was generally less crowded back then. So as the years go on, more people start knowing about it, they start hiking it more often, which is why
Daphne
you need a permit, because they can, they need to like regulate how many people are up there for everybody's safety.
Heath
Especially since like when you get closer to the top, the trail gets much more narrow. You don't want people trying to squeeze past each other to get to the summit. Well, as they hike this on a Tuesday, August morning, like I said, arriving around 4:20am on their bikes hours before dawn, they were some of the only hikers out there at the time, meaning that there was no one there to witness the horrific events of Today's story.
Daphne
Over two hours before sunrise on Tuesday, August 22, 2006, 28 year old Bernadette and 29 year old David biked to Zion national park for what should have been a beautiful sunrise hike. Much of which though would have taken place in the dark of morning. But again, the latter portion of which would have been as the late summer sun rose above the canyons. They made it all the way to the top of the summit, but interestingly, they reached it over 30 minutes before the sun began to rise. Meaning what happened to Bernadette occurred when it was still dark on that mountain peak. Because around 6am that morning she fell approximately 1200ft down to the base of Angel's Landing, slipping off the narrow rocks. After they reached the top of the summit at 6:20am, David Vandermeer made his way down the trail to find cell service and called 91 1, explaining that his wife had fallen down the summit after they were getting ready to take a photo with the sunrise, he said that he set up the camera, remember this is back in 2006, and move their backpacks so that they wouldn't be in the photo. And that while he had his back turned, he heard his 28 year old wife scream. And when he turned around, she was gone. Which means he also explained that he never actually saw her fall or triple, but assumed since they were up there alone, that she had lost her balance near the edge. But this news just really didn't sit right with her family when they found out from the start with her dad highlighting over and over in his mind how careful she always was when she hiked. He called her a frickin mountain goat, you know.
Heath
Exactly. Yeah.
Daphne
And also just how she never would have even gotten close enough to the edge to be able to fall. She knew what she was doing, she was an experienced hiker. But that wasn't the only thing that stood out to them or the police. Because one of the starkest of the many red flag raising facts was this. This guy could not have looked the way he described at 6:20am so he said again, they were taking a photo of the sunrise, not that they were going to, but that they were actively getting the camera set up to take that photo when she fell.
Heath
Right in that moment they're saying, hey, the sunrise is coming up, let's get a photo real quick.
Daphne
And it wouldn't have been pitch black at that time anyway because the sun would have been turning like a shade of blue by then, maybe some and some pink in there, but still those canyon walls would have been casting deep shadows at that time because the sun didn't begin to rise that morning in that spot until 6:54am over 30 minutes after David called 91 1.
Heath
And because Angel's Landing is in a remote part of Zion National Park, National Park Service rangers were dispatched and search and rescue personnel began working to locate Bernadette below this cliff that she had supposedly fallen off of. Now, given the steep terrain, they have to determine where she would have fallen based on David's account. And eventually that same day, Bernadette's body was located at the base of Angel's Landing. Now, as you can imagine, the injuries that she sustained on the way down and when she reached the bottom were unsurvivable. But despite falling over 1,000ft, it would have taken her only 10 seconds to hit the ground. So it seemed that she essentially died instantly.
Daphne
Still, What a terrifying 10 seconds.
Heath
I mean, yeah. Can you even imagine falling a thousand feet?
Daphne
I can't. That's, that's why I was trying to really put that picture in your guys head of being at the top of the Eiffel Tower or at the top of the Empire State Building. It's so tall.
Heath
Yeah, it's incredibly tall. So her autopsy report does remain sealed. So the extent of her injuries are unknown to the public. But after it was conducted, her case was ultimately closed as an accidental death because no witnesses or evidence could prove otherwise. However, even her old co workers were skeptical of David. With Bernadette's old friend and coworker, Dolly Wong saying, I didn't even know her husband, but immediately I was like, he did it. Her longtime church friend Kathy Page recently told the Las Vegas Review Journal, quote, the story I was told was that they were going to take a picture. She was standing near the edge. And he said, just hang on a second, let me get the camera ready. And she slipped backward. That doesn't sit well with me. I don't see her doing that. Well, her parents were just as skeptical, especially due to the information their daughter had given them before her fateful plan plunge. So days before her death, Bernadette told her mom that David had talked her into upping their life insurance policies to around half a million dollars each, you know, in case anything was ever to happen to them. He explained this to investigators as well, that they had recently bumped their insurance from $150,000 each to nearly $600,000 each.
Daphne
Well, let's get back to that affair that David was having. I feel like I can't even really call this an affair because this was with a teen is an illegal relationship.
Heath
No, this is straight up just pedophilia.
Daphne
Yeah. So I'm going to call it an affair for ease, but we all agree that is not what this was. He was absolutely cheating on Bernadette with a fucking teenager. And he told investigators that he had never been unfaithful to his wife.
Heath
Scumbag.
Daphne
So originally on that hike, Bernadette and David weren't going to be alone. So as we know, prior to her death, David had been spending extensive time with his youth group, with one teenager in particular, a girl named Sarah. So when David asked Bernadette to go on this hike together to commemorate 10 years of marriage, she had actually been quite excited about it, despite of course, her belief that he was cheating because they had hardly been spending any time together since he had been so busy with his youth group.
Heath
Yeah, so busy grand grooming. Children, you freak.
Daphne
No, literally. But then David said that, you know, all the time that he's spending with them clearly isn't enough, because some of his pupils were going to be joining them on this hike. But at the last minute, that changed, which can only make us wonder if it's because he hatched this plan. Now, it's come out that this teenager was named Sarah, but she's referred to in court filings as SH because their affair allegedly began only four years after Bernadette and David got married, around 2000 or 2001, when David was 24 and Sarah was 14. At the time, David was already working as a youth pastor at the New Song Christian Church in Las Vegas, which is precisely how they were introduced, because she joined his youth group. So this is a man who is supposed to be like a guide to her, a mentor. A mentor. Thank you. That's the word I was looking for. And he is using his role to prey upon her. Sixteen years passed after Bernadette died, with no one's suspicions resulting in any change. And like Heath said, her case officially closed, because, again, nobody had any evidence. They just had these gut feelings that he had done something. But obviously, a gut feeling is sadly not enough.
Heath
Yeah, and there's not much that you can do in that scenario. You know, they're at the top of a mountain. There's nobody around. It's still kind of dark. Like, who's gonna see. Who's gonna see you if you do something nefarious?
Daphne
Even though, buddy, as we've talked about very recently, I don't know why we have another top of the mountain outdoor push death. Like, what is up with this summer that we're talking about all these.
Heath
Yeah, we're on. We're on mountain cases and, like, sailing cases or boat and, like, religious cases. Yeah, that too.
Daphne
What is happening? I don't know. We're on this weird, like, theme. But these fall deaths never feel like somebody actually fell, especially in this type of situation where the husband is suspicious. We know what's going on.
Heath
Yeah. Incredibly suspicious as it is.
Daphne
Well, so 16 years passed. Right. But then on April 6, 2022, someone from David's old youth group went to local law enforcement with a tip explaining that back in 2006, David Vandermeer had been using his position of special trust to groom kids and that he had been having a sexual relationship with a teenager named Sarah. So investigators sought out SH Will also call her SH for an interview. And she confirmed that she and David had been having an ongoing sexual relationship since she was 16 years old and that it continued until she was about 19. Well, guess when that affair ended. On the night of August 20, 2006, less than two days before Bernadette died.
Narrator/Announcer
This episode is supported by FX's the Shards, a seductive drama from executive producer Ryan Murphy. Set in 1980s Los Angeles, the series follows a group of glamorous, deeply entangled high school seniors drawn into a life of wealth, beauty, parties and excess. At its center is Brett, whose reality begin to unravel when the arrival of a new student coincides with a series of mysterious murders. FX's the Shards premieres August 5th on FX and Hulu.
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Heath
so like Daphne said before that quick break, two days before Bernadette fell from Angels Landing Summit, her husband, who was cheating on her with a 19 year old that he groomed for years, was broken up with by said girl. SH had felt like what they were doing was wrong, especially since Bernadette was clearly onto them. So she ended the relationship and even started seeing a boy her own age from the church, which is why she and other pupils from the youth group didn't join on that hike like they were originally supposed to. But it seemed like David had been planning something nefarious even before she broke up with him. Because, as we know, prior to their split, he had bumped up Bernadette's life insurance and made it clear that as a youth pastor, divorce would not look good for him.
Daphne
Neither does having sex with a minor.
Heath
Yeah, absolutely. But what was also clear is that he wanted to be with S.H. and he was ready to get rid of Bernadette to make that happen. Which is why two to three months after Bernadette died, after her death was ruled an accident and David filed a claim for her insurance, David and SH Got back together. I mean, even Bernadette's family knew that he was with this girl because they saw them together.
Daphne
It's like they're not even really hiding it at this point.
Heath
No, no, no, no. And you know, I fucking I hate people like David you know, the reason why is because he's this, he's this guy that wants to still appear to be young. He wants to be validated by a younger girl. He wants to come off. And this is going to be very clear, clear when we get into, like, more about the youth group. But he's just the type of guy that feels like he needs to have control over other people. And the only way to do that is to put himself in a position to be like a youth pastor. Right, right. Because he's, he can easily manipulate people that are younger than him.
Daphne
Well, it's so unfortunate when we see this because not everybody who's in a position of power, obviously, but there are a lot of people that are in an authoritative role and they take advantage of it. And that's exactly what he's doing by grooming kids. And he's, he's in this position of power and instead of using it for the right reasons and being a good mentor and helping these kids and being a good Christian, he's, he has other motives.
Heath
That's the other thing that pisses me off, is like you, you say that you live by all these rules, these religious rules, and that, you know, you're an upstanding Christian, but you're not doing anything that you're preaching to other people. You're doing the complete opposite. You're just a phony and a loser.
Daphne
Such a loser.
Heath
So, of course, you know, Bernadette's family is seeing David with sh, which only made her family that much more suspicious of David's deed. But even so, no one had any evidence that he had pushed her at Angel's Landing? So everybody just had to kind of, you know, carry on all while David seemed to have his cake and eat it too. Because remember how we told you guys that David was taking Bernadette's tips and paychecks and doling her out a simple allowance, one where she wasn't allowed to buy new clothes for work or even a coffee for herself. Well, all the while he was using her money to pay for sh's apartment as well as a secret cell phone for her. So he's literally taking money from his hard working wife and giving it to his underage mistress, buying her an or paying for her apartment and whatever else she wants.
Daphne
Eli Weaver called and he wants his M.O. back.
Heath
Yeah, and get this. After Bernadette died and he received over $567,000 from her life insurance policy, he bought sh her own fucking house.
Daphne
It's just, it's just, you can't make this shit up. Well, David was making around $38,000 a year from his job as a youth pastor. But Bernadette's family later said, quote, he was living the high life. He always had the best of everything, that is Expensive guitars, all while his wife couldn't go to frickin Starbucks.
Heath
Yeah, it's so crazy. She's making all the money in this relationship. He's making a puny $38,000 a year being a youth pastor, and he's just taking all of her money and he's spending it on himself.
Daphne
Well, he's the one who's choosing like, okay, $38,000 a year, fine, but he's the one who's choosing that career path so that he can continue his. His disgusting habits. And then he's. He's kind of like you said before as well, having his cake and eating it too, is like. He doesn't make a ton of money, but his wife does.
Heath
Yeah, he doesn't want to be the breadwinner, he just wants to be the bread getter.
Daphne
Yeah, exactly.
Heath
And also the bread spender.
Daphne
Be able to groom kids. So this is. He's getting everything he wants. And unfortunately, he was able to manipulate Bernadette into giving him what he wants.
Heath
He's just simply an evil fuck.
Daphne
Well, before Bernadette passed, a future investigation proved that David and his high school mistress would spend time at Las Vegas hotels together to have sex with David, paying for rooms by the hour. And apparently, David was doing this while Sh was between 16 and 18 years old. For two years, he was doing this as a man of 27 to 29. Which is why David started paying for her rent so that they wouldn't have to go to hotels anymore. Because in 2005, the year before Bernadette's fall, David convinced sh to move out of her family home and into an apartment that he. Well, I really should say Bernadette. Yeah, Bernadette paid the rent for all while he got himself a nice new car. A GMC Yukon that had a $1,000 monthly payment.
Heath
Insane. Bernadette can't even buy $6 pantyhose, but he goes out and gets a car with a grand monthly payment.
Daphne
Well, also, you told us a minute ago that he bought his mistress a house with his life insurance policy that he received after Bernadette died. But you know what makes all this worse and honestly shadier, is he married sh in 2008 and also paid off her student loans.
Heath
That's so crazy.
Daphne
But I do want to add, by the way, because it's kind of confusing. Why? Because he bought her that house in 2008, 2009. So you're probably like, he would have bought them a house. He actually bought himself a house, and then he bought her a house separately. Because for the first two years of their marriage, he was living at his house with two young men who used to be in his youth group while SH lived in a different house because they didn't tell people that they were married until 2010, for whatever reason.
Heath
Yeah, I think he was just trying to kind of, like, divert suspicion away from himself because, you know, if he right away came out with it that, you know, him and SH Were dating, you know, they would look at him in a bad light because obviously your wife just died.
Daphne
Well, you know what? I also kind of wonder if. Which this will make sense to you guys even more as we continue on, because he's such a cheater. I wonder if he. During those two years of marriage to SH, if he was bringing other girls around or seeing other girls and got two years of, like, somebody not, you know, watching over him.
Heath
Yeah, yeah.
Daphne
It's just a theory I have. Well, also, in 2008. This is fun. David was fired by a senior pastor named Barry diamond from his youth pastor job after he provided underage youths with alcohol at parties that he was throwing for the youths at his house. He is having kids parties at his house and giving them alcohol again.
Heath
This guy is just so fucking pathetic. Like, he's the type of dude that, like, I don't even know if he peaked in high school. He probably fucking didn't because he's such a goddamn loser.
Daphne
Never peaked.
Heath
Yeah, never peaked. But he just wants to be so cool to, like, the youth that he's like, you know what?
Daphne
Come to my house.
Heath
You know what, kid? Jesus loves you. Now take this shot. It's like, you're such a dork, bro.
Daphne
He's like, love you, Matthew McConaughey. He's like Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.
Heath
But, yes, kind of. Kind of the same vibes. But like, the religious Matthew McConaughey, he's getting older.
Daphne
Girls keep getting younger.
Heath
It was. He's. He keeps getting older and they stay the same age.
Daphne
Oh, that's what it was. Yeah.
Heath
Yeah.
Daphne
Sorry, Matthew. So before he got fired, by the way, as well, he had this kind of scheme going where he would report things missing from the church and then take the insurance money from it, which is very similar to Randy Roth, as we discussed in Cynthia Baumgartner Roth's episode the Lakes of Mamish drowning this month. Yeah, he was doing that with the church. So it seems like he's. He's really into these schemes where he can get some money in his pocket, because he seems really obsessed with money for a guy who's choosing a job that pays him 38k a year.
Heath
He's just a selfish little schemer.
Daphne
So, you know, all of this evidence existed at the time. He obviously received the life insurance payout from Bernadette. But detectives did not follow up with other youth group members in 2022 when that tip came in, even though the case notes indicated that follow up was needed. So the ball was really dropped in 2022 because it was clear that there needed to be an investigation into what happened to Bernadette. And for whatever reason, the detectives in Washington county just didn't go there quite yet. So that wasn't done until October 8, 2025, when the Washington County Attorney's office, which, by the way, Angels Count or Angel's Landing is in Washington county, received a tip from David Vandermeer's old boss, Barry Diamond. Yeah, this is where Barry comes back. So, again, he was the senior pastor of the church that David used to work at, and he was finally ready to talk about his belief that David played a role in his wife's death. Something that, of course, everybody had long suspected.
Heath
Yeah, I mean, everybody, you know, didn't believe David from the start, but they really just had no way to prove that he was responsible.
Daphne
There was nothing. I feel like if an investigator wanted to follow the insurance claims that he made and listen to anybody about the affair that he was having with this teenager, like they could have put the pieces together back then if they had investigated it. Yeah, but as we know, you know, they show up to a job. That job was at Angel's Landing that day, they find her body, they have no evidence, they move on. That's how these things work a lot of the time. Yeah, there just wasn't enough. I'm sure if everybody was like, david did it, David did it, maybe investigators would have taken another look, but maybe they wouldn't have. So it's. It's really hard to say. So not only did Barry diamond tell them that he believed that David was responsible for Bernadette's murder, Barry also explained that a number of David's old youth group members had come forward about David being inappropriate with them, with at least one of them claiming that he was sexually inappropriate, because, of course, he was and so even senior pastor Barry knows about this. This people knew who he really was.
Heath
Yeah, exactly. Well, for some reason, it took until Barry coming in for investigators to dig deeper and interview more members of the youth group who had been adults for about a decade by that point. And based on these various interviews, investigators learned, according to a police report, about his inappropriate behavior with the children minors in his youth group ministry, which he oversaw as the youth pastor. I learned of David's infidelity and unfaithfulness during his marriage to Bernadette, which went on for years prior to Bernadette's passing. I learned about David's deceptive nature and descriptive storytelling, which led several witnesses to believe David had pushed Bernadette to her death.
Daphne
Because people knew who he was. Everybody called him a storyteller, an embellisher, a liar.
Heath
Yeah, he's just a liar.
Daphne
Yes. So people knew that he was like this. And I think for whatever reason, I know that Bernadette's mom has talked about this on this interview with East Idaho News. And she basically explained she was actually living for a period of time. She was renting David's dad's cabin. And she was really worried that if she was wrong about David being involved and she told the police about it, and it came back to David that she had, you know, kind of ratted him out and then nothing was done, that she was gonna lose her home and everything that she had. So there is, like high stakes for a lot of people in her life not knowing, especially because they're all in the same church community. Sure.
Heath
So it seemed like David kind of had a lot of people wrapped around his finger.
Daphne
Exactly. Because you put an allegation like that out there, it could come back at you because they might not believe you. So that's why this was such a tough situation, even though it seemed like everybody really knew that he had done it.
Heath
Well, because of all these interviews that were going on. On December 17th of 2025, SH was interviewed by detectives yet again. And this time around, they learned that she was only 14 when she joined David's youth group. And that very quickly he began buying her gifts, giving her special attention, and then gradually showing physical affection, you know, from like knee touches to hugs, etc.
Daphne
That's how it starts.
Heath
That's always how it starts. At 16 years old, which was in 2002, four years before the Angels Landing hike, 25 year old David took Sh's virginity at his dad's cabin in Brian Head, Utah. She explained that every single time they met up after that, it always led to sex. And that one time they even had sex in the church after it closed.
Daphne
That's like what, you know, we talked about in the Barbara Weaver episode that Eli Weaver had sex with his mistress in his store when it was open. Which if you have not listened to that, that episode, you have to immediately.
Heath
And he was an Amish man.
Daphne
And he was an Amish man. And we thought that was bad. You're having sex with a 16 year old in church.
Heath
Yeah.
Daphne
Holy shit.
Heath
Well, what makes this even crazier is that Bernadette was outside of the church while this was happening. She was pounding on the door to get inside because she had this inkling that David was doing something that he was not supposed to be doing. And David was such a fucking coward that he had sh go to the door and tell Bernadette that David wasn't there.
Daphne
God, I hate this guy.
Heath
He's just the worst.
Daphne
So David is clearly as scummy as we all know that he is. Because only a few years into his marriage with Ash, she began to suspect that he was now cheating on her. Because he's like, you're too old for me now. Oh, God.
Heath
Because he's a disgusting human being.
Daphne
So the reason that she started to suspect this is because she found hotel receipts. Obviously she knows that that's what they were doing.
Heath
So he's doing the same thing to sh that he did to Bernadette.
Daphne
Yeah, exactly, because now they're married and stepping out on her. Clearly this man should not be married. By the way, she also found a bunch of condoms in his belongings. And just like he did, whenever she tried to talk about Bernardet's death, he denied, denied, denied, and shut the conversation down. But I do want to tell you guys that she did try to talk about Bernardette's death. And a big reason for that is because before Bernardet died, he told Sarah that the only way that they could be together is if Bernadette was, quote, no longer alive.
Heath
Yeah. So he basically kind of like soft outed himself to Sarah even before Bernadette was killed.
Daphne
Yeah, because they always kind of do, right? They always kind of tell somebody or, or, or say something beforehand that makes people look back and say, man, they did say this. So he did that. And so after Bernadette died and they're spending more time together and they get married, she's trying to talk about it, and he's always shutting it down because he doesn't want to tell her. So according to SH, he never confessed to her that he murdered Bernadette.
Heath
And I hate this situation because we see this a lot in cases that involve people that are with certain religions. Like, they're like, oh, I can't get a divorce. The church is going to, like, look down upon me because of it. But it's like, so they're not gonna look down upon you for killing someone?
Daphne
I think they never think they're gonna get caught. I think they come up like, he came up with this scheme and thought it was the perfect thing to do. Oh, I was just setting up the camera and she must have fallen. I didn't see it. That's the perfect murder.
Heath
Oh, yeah. With how egotistical this guy is, I truly believe that he thought he was gonna get away with it.
Daphne
They always do because they're stupid. Well, when sh found that her cheating suspicions were actually true. She and David officially divorced on March 4, 2014, six years after they wed. And just six months later, David married another woman. Because this is a serial wife searcher, a serial marrier. This woman was named Debbie, by the way. She was not a minor or a teen. Reports indicate that she was David for
Heath
once a. Yeah, she.
Daphne
They were both about 37 when they got married. But of course, he cheated on Debbie, too. So they divorced after only a couple years together. And By July of 2018, he would marry again. This is his fourth wife, this time to a woman named Young Sook. She was known as suki. From late 2025 to early 2026, the investigation into Bernardet's death deepened with investigators interviewing people in her life, like everybody. And all of these people were still suspicious of David. Like, an officer even went so far as to collect the moon data from the time of her death to help determine that. David's story about setting up the camera just after 6am Wouldn't make any sense because the sun didn't rise above the canyons that morning until 6:54am which I think is really interesting. They really use this moon data to their benefit because they're like, wait a second, you're setting. Because he called at 6:20 and he had to hike down the trail to get cell service, which means she would have died around 6, 6, 10 or so. And that was 45 plus minutes before the sun rose.
Heath
Yeah. And they also didn't have any physical evidence to. To go on here, so they kind of had to just work with what they got.
Daphne
Yeah. And they, they didn't have very much. But that's what's so amazing about them doing this, is this is something that they have and they're utilizing it. And they also checked every report of a fatality that occurred at Angel's Landing stemming back to the 1980s to compare. And they found that every single fatality that occurred where Bernardet fell, there were four were either determined suspicious in nature or. Or had proven to be suicide. The police report states, quote, where Bernadette fell is not a normal spot where accidents occur.
Heath
Yeah. Well, leading up to the most recent and biggest development in this case, 48 year old David Vandermeer was working as a school guidance counselor at Somerset Academy, Lone Mountain in North Las Vegas, which is this K through 8 charter school or a college prep school. He had been working there for at least 10 years, meaning that he was hired around 2016. So two years before he married Suki on the side, he was teaching yoga and had been doing so for years at Trufusion in the Vegas neighborhood of Summerlin. Now Tru Fusion is a like dynamic and immersive fitness studio that hosts yoga, Pilates, it's. It is it Bare Bar. Oh, Bar Bar and other fitness classes. And David was known as a beloved instructor, but only because nobody knew the real person that he was.
Daphne
Yeah, he's like this Zen man.
Heath
Yeah. Oh my God, I hate the pipeline here. The pipeline from youth pastor to corny ass fucking yoga instructor. It just pisses me off. It reminds me of.
Daphne
It's because he always has.
Heath
It reminds me of Russell Brand's character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He's just like the most corny fuck.
Daphne
So true. And it is a good thing to point out because I think those two things going from youth pastor to yoga instructor, both things on the outside seem like it's this, you know, youth pastor is supposed to help the youths and yoga instructor is supposed to be.
Heath
Yeah, I mean if you were calm, if you weren't such a scumbag, this would seem like a perfectly fine pipeline. Like it would be a nice peaceful way to live your life. But just knowing who David is, it's like, of course you did that.
Daphne
And he gets to be around women in minimal clothing and help. Oh, let me just reposition you, Martha, and let me grab your arm and your waist and don't forget tip this way, you know, it's like that's what this guy is doing.
Heath
Well.
Daphne
And he's watching kids at school.
Heath
Yeah, well, actually with their problems, even his wife Suki was often taking his classes. And many people in their yoga community knew them as this kind of ideal yogi couple.
Daphne
Well, just like how Everybody thought that Bernadette and David were this ideal Christian couple.
Heath
Exactly.
Daphne
Never how it looks.
Heath
But everything would come crashing down on David when on Monday, June 22, 2026, 48 year old David was arrested at Trufusion by the U.S. marshals Service for the murder of his first wife Bernadette. Almost exactly 20 years since he pushed her off of that cliff.
Daphne
What a crazy thing to witness. Like you just go in for a relaxing yoga class and then you come out with this crazy story that your instructor was arrested for murder.
Heath
I know, yeah. Sane. Well, he was booked into the Clark County Detention center pending extradition to Utah, where he'd make his first court appearance on June 25. But because old David is a massive coward, he would never make it to that hearing. Because on the evening of June 24, 2026, at 9:30pm, correctional officers found David lying face down, unresponsive inside his jail cell after sustaining self inflicted injuries.
Daphne
So disappointing. I mean, yeah, but like, yeah, but
Heath
obviously, you know, he, he hate this guy. He knew that he was cooked. He knew that he was cooked and there was nothing he could do about it.
Odoo Advertiser
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Heath
Well, after he was found unresponsive, he was transported to a local hospital. But David was soon pronounced dead, having left a handwritten suicide note beside him. Though his cause of death as well as the contents of this note have never been released publicly, the public found out he was dead when the judge, Las Vegas justice of the Peace Eric Goodman, arrived to his hearing and announced that he had just found out that David had died. Therefore the charges against him could no longer be pursued. Now, at this time we only know that he was born in June of 1977, but it seems that he died on or just after his birthday. As many reports suggest that he had turned 49 after he was already jailed.
Daphne
I read one report that his birthday was June 24, but I don't know. You can never really trust when something just happens.
Heath
Imagine like looking forward to your birthday. You're like, yes, my birthday's coming up and you spent it in jail because you're a murderer.
Daphne
Yeah. As you should, you know, I mean the fact that he wasn't arrested until he was just about 49 and he committed the crime against Bernadette when he was 29.
Heath
Yeah.
Daphne
He had 20 years of good old freedom.
Heath
Yeah. And there were many things that were going against David at this point. Not only the fact that he was being looked at for the murder of his wife Bernadette, but also for the grooming charges and all of that. But the crazier thing here is that the prosecution only had circumstantial evidence. They didn't really have any physical evidence or any witnesses to prove that David had pushed Bernadette. But instead of, like, even waiting to go through the trial and possibly try to get off, he decided to end his own life.
Daphne
I think it's a really interesting look into his mind, and I think it
Heath
kind of proves his guilt.
Daphne
Absolutely. But I think I also wonder what else he may have done, because we have to look at this across the board. We know that he groomed a teenage girl who was a minor. We know, well, circumstantially, that he murdered Bernadette, although I'm sure he would have been found guilty. There may have been other kids that he groomed, somebody else that he did something to. And I feel like in his mind, he probably knew all the bad things that he did and that it was going to come out, it was going to destroy his life, destroy his reputation, and then he probably would have been killed in prison.
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Yeah.
Heath
So his own, his whole entire life was a lie.
Daphne
He knew what he did, and he knew that he wasn't going to get away with it, whatever it was. If it's just what we know and have talked about today, or if there is a lot more under the surface,
Heath
I completely agree with you.
Daphne
Well, it seems in many ways that Bernadette's family was kind of relieved at this news. But more than anything, they were just grateful that somebody had finally listened and that the case had finally been reopened after all that time, because from the day their daughter died, they believed David was responsible. Bernadette's mother, Laura, recently said, quote, I think he knew his goose was cooked very well.
Heath
Said he was cooked.
Daphne
He was cooked. But at the same time, that's really one of the cruelest parts of this story, that he never had to face a courtroom. He never had to face Bernadette's parents. He never had to tell anybody what he did.
Heath
He never had to suffer for any of. Any of the things that he did.
Daphne
Yeah. Tell his wife, tell his own parents, tell his family that he's a pedophile and a murderer. He never had to face those people. He never had to face his church. He never had to face Barry diamond in court or Sarah in court. He just knew that he was cooked and that he was done and he let himself out. But there was something that Bernadette's family had been fighting for since August 22, 2006. For someone to finally say that her death deserved another look. And after nearly two decades, somebody finally did so to them. In some ways, since they knew that they could never get their daughter back, that could be enough. Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West.
Heath
Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Hopefully you guys will give us a follow over on our socials. We're on Instagram @goingwestpodcast. We're on Facebook as well as TikTok. And for anybody who's new to the show, we are now on YouTube. So if you want to see us in the studio, go check it out. We. We like to often put up photos of the cases that we cover and maps and all sorts of things. So check it out.
Daphne
It's a fun place to ingest Going West. I think having those, you know, it makes it a more immersive experience, if you will. And also, you know, it's fun to just put us on when you're hanging out after dinner or while you're cooking or what have you. So check us out on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe, turn on notifications, all that good stuff, like our videos. Feel free to comment as well. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this one. I just, I. David is just such a disappointing excuse of a man.
Heath
Yeah. And, you know, it's. The one thing is that he didn't get away with it.
Daphne
Right.
Heath
It's like Bernadette's family had to spend all that time, you know, wondering if their daughter was ever gonna get justice. And in some small way, they did. And Bernadette did get justice. But, you know, David didn't get to live out the rest of his life like he thought he was going to as this corny ass yoga guy, even
Daphne
though sitting through that trial would have been incredibly painful for her family. And to really learn the details of what else he did. I'm so sad that prosecutors didn't get a chance to build a case against him so that everything that he did could come out so that he had to sit in that courtroom and live with his actions and live with the consequences and hear people heckling at him, all that stuff. Like, I'm so sad for them that they didn't get the full closure that they deserve.
Heath
Yeah. And like we said, you know, he's such a coward. He even had sh. Go to the door because he couldn't face. He couldn't face Bernadette when he knew that he was cheating on her.
Daphne
Horror. Horrible piece of shit. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode with us, and we will be back with another one for you next time.
Heath
All right, guys, so for everybody out
Daphne
there in the world, don't be a stranger.
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July 28, 2026
Hosts: Daphne Woolsoncroft & Heath Merryman
This episode delves into the haunting and recently resolved case of Bernadette Vander Meer (née Gudenkopf) – a vibrant, talented woman whose suspicious 2006 death atop Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park remained ruled an accident for two decades. The catalyst for reopening the case was a single tip that exposed long-whispered secrets: predatory grooming, manipulation, and a pattern of abuse underlying her husband David’s “God-fearing” image. With recent updates—including David’s arrest for murder and subsequent suicide—the hosts meticulously piece together Bernadette’s tragic story and the insidious abuse that eluded justice for years.
Date: August 22, 2006
Only David and Bernadette were on the summit before sunrise (6:00am).
David called 911, claimed she fell while he was setting up a sunrise photo.
Skepticism arose due to:
Quote [19:42, Daphne]: “He said again—they were taking a photo of the sunrise… But the sun didn’t rise until 6:54am, over 30 minutes after the 911 call.”
Reopening of the Case:
Detailed Witness Interviews:
Arrest [49:19–49:39]:
After nearly 20 years, the death of Bernadette Vander Meer is finally seen in the light her loved ones always suspected: as a murder orchestrated by her controlling, predatory husband. Thanks to the persistence of survivors and community members, and a late but dogged police investigation, the ugly truth about David’s double life came to light—though his jailhouse suicide meant a courtroom reckoning never came. For Bernadette’s family, the case offered some solace, but serves as yet another chilling reminder of the dangers lurking behind abusive relationships and trusted community figures.
For further discussion, see Going West's visuals and bonus content on YouTube and social channels.