LAS VEGAS — The contents of a suicide note written by the man accused of killing his wife on Angels Landing in Zion Natonal Park claimed he didn't do it.
David Vander Meer took his own life last month while in his Las Vegas jail cell, days after he was arrested in the 2006 death of his wife, Bernadette.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released the partially redacted note that Vander Meer wrote before he died by suicide on June 24.
In the note written to an undisclosed person, Vander Meer wrote:
"I've always been very selective with what I share to people about how Bernadette died, solely because I know how bad it looks. I was never afraid of legal action though, because I didn't kill her, and I never thought it would lead to an arrest."
Vander Meer went on to write that the "additional allegations I have heard about are largely false, but not entirely. They paint a picture that can't be escaped. They spell conviction."
A second page of the note, which was sent to a redacted name "and family," said, "I was naive to think that, just because I didn’t kill Bernadette, that there would be no problem with the charges. This is just calculated risk at this point. Reports of the affidavit contain small amounts of truth, but paint a picture I will probably not be able to overcome.”
Channel 13 senior reporter Alyssa Bethencourt spoke to Bernadette Vander Meer's family after the arrest:
Bernadette died after a 2006 fall from the top of the Angels Landing trail. Following her death, Vander Meer claimed he was turned around when he heard Bernadette "scream as she was falling."
An investigation into Vander Meer, a former church youth pastor, was reopened earlier this year after the Washington County Attorney's Office received a tip about him from his former boss at church.
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Court documents alleged that while serving as a youth pastor, Vander Meer began a sexual affair with an underage girl at his church, and told her that the only way they could be together was if his wife "were not alive." In 2006, the same girl, who was then of legal age, broke off her 4-year relationship with David the day before the Vander Meers left for Zion National Park.
Within a year or two following the Zion fall, Vander Meer was fired from his church job for allegedly throwing parties for underage members and providing them alcohol at his house.
Two years after Bernadette's death, Vander Meer and the former church congregant with whom he was having an affair married in a private arrangement, only to divorce in 2014 over accusations of infidelity.
Vander Meer was never charged with any crime related to sexual impropriety or abuse of a minor.
