00:00Angel's Landing. It is one of the most breathtaking and dangerous hiking trails in America.
00:06On August 22, 2006, a young couple climbed this 5,700-foot summit in Utah to celebrate their 10th wedding
00:14anniversary.
00:15He was a beloved youth pastor. She was an aspiring singer.
00:20To their community, they were the picture-perfect couple.
00:23But only one of them would make it off the mountain alive.
00:26As the sun rose over the red rock cliffs, David van der Meer claimed he reached into his backpack.
00:32When he turned around, his wife, Bernadette, was gone.
00:36She had plunged 1,200 feet to the valley floor.
00:40David told friends there was no scream, just a single gasp.
00:44Incredibly, the community took comfort in his story.
00:48One friend even suggested Bernadette didn't scream because she was too generous to distress her husband as she fell.
00:54For two decades, her death was ruled a tragic accident.
00:59But behind the grief-stricken pastor's facade lay a dark, hidden reality of control, greed, and betrayal.
01:06Behind closed doors, Bernadette was the breadwinner, working on the Las Vegas Strip, yet David strictly controlled every dime she
01:15made.
01:15But financial strain wasn't their biggest secret.
01:18Bernadette had just discovered that her husband was having an affair with a teenager from his church youth group.
01:24When she threatened him with divorce, David didn't beg for forgiveness.
01:29Instead, he worried about his reputation, asking, what will people think?
01:34Days later, he took her to Angel's Landing.
01:38Investigators would later discover that just before the trip, David quietly increased his wife's life insurance.
01:44Months after her death, he collected a $567,000 payout, using the money to buy his young mistress a house
01:53and a car.
01:54For 20 years, David moved on, eventually becoming a yoga instructor.
01:59But Bernadette's mother never stopped fighting, convinced her daughter was murdered.
02:04Finally, in June 2026, the past caught up with him.
02:08An anonymous tip led police to David's former mistress.
02:12She dropped a bombshell.
02:14Before the fateful hiking trip, David told her their affair could only continue if his wife was not alive.
02:21On June 22, 2026, David van der Meer was finally arrested and charged with murder.
02:28But the story took one last, shocking turn.
02:31Just days later, while awaiting extradition in his jail cell, David took his own life.
02:36He escaped a courtroom, but to Bernadette's family, his final act cemented his guilt.
02:43Her mother remarked,
02:45I think he knew his goose was cooked.
02:47He took a beautiful wife and robbed her of her life.
02:5020 years later, the truth was finally unmasked on the mountain,
02:54and Bernadette's memory was freed from a lie.
02:5920 years later, the truth was finally unmasked on the mountain,
03:01retreat.
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