Seeking Justice After Two Decades

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Right now they have a tough deal to beat just twenty five bucks a month for five years. Don't wait. callall eight eight eight for optimum or go to optimum dot com or stop by your local optimum store today, famously Fast fiber for twenty five bucks a month for five years That's a no brainer. Terms apply, see optimum. com for details Hey there folks. It is Thursday, june twenty fifth stop me when you heard this one before The man goes on a hike with his wife. She falls to her death claims it was an accident He gets arrested for murder later. However, there are a bunch of twists and turns in this story that make it like one you have never heard before. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and T.J. let's start with the fact that this was twenty years ago and this is the damn youth pastor we're talking about ropes. Yeah, you just you laid that out perfectly becausecause yes, it is unfortunately a stereotypical murder This is not like the others. That is true. David Vandermer, yes, he was a former youth pastor out of Las Vegas. in two thousand six He and his twenty nine year old wife are celebrating a wedding anniversary. What better way to celebrate your wedding anniversary than to go on a sunset hike on one of the most Dangerous Hiking trails in the United States of America. That was the choice. And again, they live out in that area. so to take up this they're from the Vegas area. So this was in Utah. I that right? Where was this? Yes, it's Zion National Park. It's it's all around this area. I've told you I've been on this hike because this hike was the most This was the scariest hike I think definitely I've ever been on in the United States It's called Angels Landing. If you don't know about it I encourage all of you Google it. lookook at the pictures. It is a steep thousand foot plus climb where you are literally holding onto chains. and for your dear life. And they decide to do this in the dark with headlamps so that they can make it to the top to the peak at sunrise. I get the idea and they want to get a picture sealing their wedding anniversary. They've just Theyve gotten up to the top of this dangerous hike and they have the picture to prove it. All right twenty nine years old, going for a hike, young couple, youth pastor, This is something they assume, hikers. you don't just start hiking and take on this one.. She's an avid hiker. This is so yes, so far, so good, no problem, but then tragedy strikes. Yes. so here is his story initially to the police because obviously they needed to talk to him. So he's telling them, yes, we went on a sunrise hike We were wearing headlamps. No one was around. I went to go set up the camera to take a pick. He said that his wife Bernadette was standing near the edge. He went to go move the backpacks out of the shot and when he turned around She was gone. He told authorities that he heard her screaming as she fell That might be the only true part of his statement, according to P. But that sounds horrific. So you take this into account, Robes, It's dark out there. They' the only two out there. there are no witnesses. This guy's a trusted member of the community. is he not? This is a youth pastor. Correct. Qionion his story. So that was his story. He was sticking to it and it seemed like that story worked for about twenty years. Yes. And so yes. And investigators did say they did know that they were suspicious at the time they had no other reason They thought to go any further, so they ruled her death an accident case closed. Okay, until last year, where the investigation was relaunched. Why was the investigation relaunched Because a senior pastor at the very church where Vandermer, I say, worked in the past tenens, and we'll get into that called investigators. He called police and he said, I believe the death of Bernadette was not an accident and that David pushed her That Police Loo into the case once again. So it's weird how it came about. It took almost twenty years fifteen, sixteen seventeen, I'm trying to do the numbers, but they got a tip in twenty twenty That right and then or twenty twenty two twenty twenty in twenty five. Correct. Don't know if those two folks who called in these tips were in any way connected or anything like that very well have been independent. Now why after so much time did they decide they wanted to call what new information they had. I don't know, but robes, the police were done with it. They weren't looking, they weren't asking and their phonees starts ringing. It's so true. And so it's interesting. the official investigation was, as you pointed out, launched last year because of that senior pastor. But yes, in twenty twenty two, they also got a tip from one of David Vandermer's ex wives But before she was his ex wife, she was a youth group member of his And this is where things giving get even a little Uglier in this whole case roes. The backstory on him is not just role was potentially a murderer, potentially a guy who killed his own wife This is a youth pastor who is now being accused and suggests he was up to bunch of criminal activity before this. Yes, that he was grooming members of his own youth group, so young women. And so one of these Now older women told police that yes, before When she was sixteen, she was having a sexual relationship with him while he was married to Bernadette. And it just so happens that she decided to break off their relationship the night before the fatal hike coincidence, I'm sure his defense attorney will say. Yes. So we will get into that backstory because it is a doozy and it is pretty remarkable. She is claiming that he told her When she broke it off, the only way they could be together is if Bernadette was not alive and that his wife did suspect him of cheating on her. So just when police hear that, so now you've got a motive, right? Okay. You've got a woman saying that underage, she was having a sexual relationship with him. She broke it off with him. The next day his wife dies in a fatal hiking accident and cla She claims that he told her that the only way they could be together was if his wife died. Well, guess what? They resume their sexual relationship his wife died and eventually got married. So more to come on that, but here's another caveat that also incredibly puzling me the police just looked over this. but Vandermir increased his wife's life insurance from one hundred and fifty thousand to six hundred thousand shortly before her death We watch a lot of crime stories and a lot of crime specials This is The biggest red flag there is. This is stupid. What I'm saying is You piece it together. I guess you I guess. we know you still have to have evidence, you still have to build a case, but every single thing here is something you've heard before. He went through this is the exact Rose, this might be the most classic spouse killing of a spouse story ever. It's How classic can you get He's having an affair with a younger person. He gets life insurance. The mistress says it's over. We can't do this. and the wife is dead on a hike and he collects insurance money. Robes, this is just at some point. Okay, yes, this could be the one This could be the one roobes that all this stuff can be explained Otherwise This is kind of a done deal kind of a thing. Okay, we've seen this story before. So yes. so I guess I'm just curious why it took twenty years, whyy it took two different people to call in when this would not, I wouldn't imagine have taken a lot of detective work to put together Okay, but it makes perfect sense to put it together We're sitting here putting it together. They have to in some Eidentiary way put it together. I don't know what can they prove now? They just have maybe there were say he confessed to me. There has robes. There is not like Some evidence just appeared short of a witness statement. What could there be? We found what? in his home. We found some pictures that suggest this. We No, they've done all that before. Maybe it is. Maybe these are folks who say he confessed Short of that roades, they're going to have a hard time proving this case. I guess you make a good point. This is all circumstantial. It seems obvious. Y. And yet you still have to prove it. And how can you prove and this again, there's so many similar cases. This reminds me of the situation with Mango with the father's son Bun is on a hike with his father. Yes, he had motive His father was changing his will. His father was going to basically give all of his billions of dollars away to charity and not to his three children and so his eldest son, his Uh, in his the the the guy who stood to gain the most or perhaps lose the most if his father in fact changed the will, his father slips onn a hiking track during a hike, prove it There's no one prove otherwise, there's no witnesses to say anything different. We got the case in In Hawaii, the doctor out there The reason he got convicted is because she survived. You're so He tried to beat her and And she had she was bloodied and fought back and survived and now he got convicted. Res. hadad she gone over? Who knows? Who would have thought some physician, some doctor, someone with an MD behind his name could possibly do that to his wife, right? Well we're saying we've seen this story so many times before in Rodose, there's circumstantial evidence. You can convict on that for a reason becausecause this story is a reallyally big Duh if you're on the jury. This is a cir yes, it's circumstantial, but yes enough circumstances can make you convinince beyond a reasonable doubt that the guy did what they're suggesting he did. R, this is This is mad. It's the life insurance The hike? Yes, let's let's go in the dark on the most dangerous hike. that we can find. Yes, agree. And speaking of, when we come back, we're gonna tell you a little bit about this hike. We're also gonna tell you about what Bernadette's own father has had to say about this. and the senior pastor, why did David Vandermeer get fired as a youth pastor and what made his senior pastor call police Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about a former youth pastor out of Las Vegas charged with his wife's murder twenty years after the fact. police say yes, Bernadette Vandermer did not slip and fall on a wedding anniversary hike at Angels Landing. No they believe that David Vandermere, her own husband, pushed her off the cliff. so A, he could collect a ton of life insurance money and B he could be with his young lover who had been a member of his youth group. all I hear in my head right now is People' Bryson singing until as old as time. It's t story, right? Got insurance, kill my wife so I could be with the mistress. Yeah,s It really is sadly so, so stereotypical. But yeah, this hike that he chose, this is, I said, one of the most deadly dangerous hikes in the United States. eighteen people have died since records began. And look, just two months ago, someone slipped and fell. This happens sadly a lot. This is almost a fifteen hundred foot rock formation, straight up, chains, narrows, steep, even on a perfectly bright brilliant day and holding on to the chains. peopleople still slip and fall. But it happens the context for the numbers here you said since the records have been out, but did I not see that in the past fifty years, forty five, fifty years I say only five That's a lot This isn't an incredibly frequent thing that takes place. that people are just falling off this clar woall. No. It just so happened the day that I hiked so many years ago. someone had fallen to their death the day before. So this look, it's rare, but it happens. this it happens. This is a climb ike at your own risk type of a hike. This is a hike you go to to be thrilling. Your heart will be pounding. This is a frightening hike. So I'm just saying to take it at night or to do it when it's dark is likeike an insane thing. I'm a pretty risky person in the sense that I like to push myself, I wouldn't do that hike at night. So it's pretty remarkable. but her own father he spoke to reporters once the arrest of his former son in law was made known. And he said he long suspected her death was not an accident. He said, I did a lot of hiking with her. She was a mountain goat for her to fall off a cliff? No And look, I've stood at that cliff. I've taken a picture It seems highly unlikely that you would just fall off the cliff. Like it wasn't like she fell while she was hiking. She was standing Why would she fall off the cliff G I know Aidents happen. they can happen, they do happen. and Rosie doesn't happen that frequently and it's a chance that she could have been one of those unfortunate accidents. The part that makes it more unlikely is that she just happened to be a rare case of somebody falling. And this rare case just happens to also be the case that her husband that was with her when she fell took out five hundred thousandars life insurance the year before and happens to be having a years long affair with someone. That makes it a little lessree it's likely that's a lot of stuff R. Aree to come together. And then the brazenness of David Vandermer, if again, he is in fact guilty of this, he resumes his relationship with this young woman immmediately after his wife's death They marry In two thousand eight, so I guess, you know, within a year and a half or so. I wonder how that went. They divorced in twenty fourteen And he was married two other times. so he at least divorced his other wives and didn't