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Published 14:29 25 Jun 2026 GMT
A man has been charged with murder two decades after his wife's cliff death was initially ruled an accident.
David Vander Meer, 49, a former youth pastor from Las Vegas, has been arrested and charged with murder and insurance fraud following a renewed investigation into his wife Bernadette Vander Meer's death on August 22, 2006.
The couple, who were 28 and 29 years old at the time, had been hiking to Angel's Landing to mark their anniversary when the young woman fell from the cliff.
The case was originally ruled accidental due to a lack of evidence.
"At the time, due to a lack of evidence, and limited investigation, Bernadette Vander Meer’s fall was ruled an accident and the case was closed - although investigators felt the circumstances were suspicious," a probable cause affidavit filed in Fifth District Court in Washington County stated, per NBC News.
Bernadette's obituary described her as someone who loved family, friends, nature, music, and performing on stage.
She worked at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino and served as a worship leader at New Song Christian Church, where both her husband and brother-in-law were pastors.
The late woman's parents said they never accepted that her death was simply a tragic accident.
"I thought it was going to kill me," her mother, Laura Gudenkauf, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Her father, Richard Gudenkauf, said his daughter was an experienced hiker. "I did a lot of hiking with her. She was a mountain goat. For her to fall off a cliff? No," he said.
Laura also claimed Bernadette had been considering ending her marriage before her death.
"She told him if he didn't change, she was going to divorce him because he kept spending all this time with this other woman," she said.
According to court documents, Vander Meer told investigators the couple began hiking Angel's Landing at around 4:20AM on August 22, 2006.
He claimed he had positioned a camera to photograph Bernadette with the sunrise behind her and briefly turned away to move their backpacks before hearing her scream as she fell from the cliff.
Investigators later found out the couple had recently increased both of their life insurance policies from $150,000 each to $600,000 each, per Daily Mail.
Handwritten letters recovered from Bernadette reportedly showed unhappiness in her marriage, while witnesses claimed she was financially controlled by her husband and "gives all her money to David".
The investigation took a turn in April 2022 after police received information from a former member of Vander Meer's church youth group, identified in court documents as "SH".
Investigators revealed the woman alleged Vander Meer "had been using his position of special trust to groom kids" at the church.
The affidavit further states: "One of the kids in his ministry that he had groomed and actively been in a sexual relationship with at the time of Bernadette's death was SH."
SH claimed the relationship began when she was just 16 years old and continued until she was between 19 and 20.
She alleged Vander Meer bought her gifts, gave her extra attention, bought her a secret phone, and eventually took her virginity when he was 25 years old.
According to the affidavit, the pair allegedly had sex at the church after hours and in pay-by-the-hour hotels.
On one occasion, after Bernadette became suspicious and arrived at the church looking for her husband, Vander Meer allegedly instructed SH to tell his wife he was not there.
SH told detectives she ended the relationship on August 20, 2006, just one day before Vander Meer and Bernadette left for Zion National Park.
She also told investigators Vander Meer had once suggested the only way they could be together was if Bernadette were no longer alive.
When SH turned 18, the pastor allegedly encouraged her to move into an apartment with another girl from the church, paying the rent himself.
"David told SH this was so they had a place to be together and have sex," the affidavit states.
Investigators also noted that Vander Meer's account of the hike given to members of his youth group differed from the version he originally gave police on the day Bernadette died.
Per investigators, Vander Meer and SH resumed their relationship just two to three months after Bernadette's death, before marrying in 2008.
The affidavit states they later held a public wedding ceremony in 2010 and that the marriage allowed Vander Meer to access SH's health insurance.
That same year, Vander Meer was fired after allegedly hosting parties where underage church members drank alcohol and gambled.
The marriage ended after SH reportedly found hotel receipts and condoms, and after testing positive for a sexually transmitted disease. The couple divorced in 2014.
Following a life insurance payout of approximately $567,439 in 2007, investigators allege Vander Meer began living "lavishly," buying vehicles, funding trips for church youth members, and purchasing plane tickets.
The case gained further momentum in October 2025 when Vander Meer's former boss, senior pastor Barry Diamond, contacted authorities, saying he believed Bernadette's death had not been accidental.
Diamond told investigators that several former youth group members had described inappropriate relationships with Vander Meer.
Those interviews, according to prosecutors, exposed his alleged infidelity, unfaithfulness, and "deceptive nature".
Investigators also pointed to Vander Meer's "descriptive storytelling," which they said led some witnesses to believe he had pushed his wife from the cliff.
Vander Meer was eventually arrested by the US Marshals Service on June 22 and is being held at the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada ahead of a scheduled court appearance on June 25.
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Published 12:07 07 Nov 2021 GMT
A woman tragically fell 100ft to her death while posing for photos taken by her husband at the edge of a cliff, The Mirror reports.
Zoe Snoeks, a Belgian native from the town of Limburg, was on a trip in Luxembourg with Joeri Janssen, her husband of nine years, when she fell on the morning of November 2.
According to the paper, Zoe slipped off the edge of the clip near the village of Nadrin in the province of Luxembourg, landing in the Ourthe River.
She had asked Joeri to check on their dogs and although he turned his back for just a few seconds, in that time she lost her footing and fell to her death.
Per The Mirror, Joeri didn't even hear his wife scream or shout out as she fell.
He tried to call the emergency services but the network signal was poor where they were. And when he did manage to get through, they couldn't understand what he was saying despite the fact that he spoke in French.
So, Joeri decided to head to the nearby Le Belvedere Hotel to ask staff to help him contact the emergency services.
The public prosecutor's office in Luxembourg Province confirmed that Zoe fell from the cliff edgel into the Ourthe River.
Emergency services attended the scene and scuba divers were sent into the river, with a medical helicopter present on standby.
Her body was eventually found and authorities confirmed that she was dead.
Zoe and Joeri tied the knot back in 2012 after meeting at school. They drove to Luxembourg in a campervan, which they had been traveling across Europe in to take photos with their dogs, Joy, and Ivy.
Joeri said his wife was very enthusiastic about taking pictures and discovered she had taken a final selfie just moments before her fatal fall.
A post has reportedly been uploaded to Zoe's Facebook explaining that she has died and that her loved ones as well as her clients are welcome to attend her memorial.
Per The Daily Star, it read: "Dear family, friends, and clients. Sorry to leave you guys this way. You are all welcome to my memorial."
Published 16:27 01 Feb 2023 GMT
The wife of a California radiologist reportedly told paramedics that her husband drove their Tesla over a cliff in the state with the intention of killing her and the rest of their family.
On Monday, Dharmesh Patel, 42, was charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection with the January 2 crash that wounded his 41-year-old wife Neha Patel as well as their children, a seven-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy.
Following the horrific plunge down the 250-foot cliff, Neha is reported to have told paramedics that "he intentionally tried to kill us," San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told People.
"She made that statement when asked, 'What happened? What happened?'" Wagstaffe said. "'He intentionally tried to kill us.' … We have multiple people who heard her say that."
Neha, who is still in hospital, "didn't get into detail. She was then quickly rendered medical aid and that was the statements from her," he noted, adding that the mom hasn't been interviewed since then.
"She has an attorney and we're being advised that, through the attorney, that at this point while she's hospitalized, she does not seek to submit to an interview," he said.
Wagstaffe says one of the couple's injured children was rushed to hospital after the incident. Meanwhile, the other child sustained "bumps and bruises, but no injuries."
The ordeal took place on the Devil's Slide in San Mateo County, near Pacifica, along Highway 1, which runs the length of California's coastline. It is infamous for being a site where several tragedies have occurred over a number of decades.
Dharmesh, a radiologist from Pasadena, was detained by police following the crash, according to an arrest report by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) that People obtained.
The CHP revealed in a news release that it was informed about a vehicle being "over the side of the cliff on SR-1" around 10:50 AM local time on January 2.
Wagstaffe says that after the incident, officials spoke to "two separate drivers behind him who watched what occurred and were able to provide information about lack of brake lights."
Officials also found footage from the nearby Tom Lantos tunnels that "clearly shows his car coming out of the tunnel, going up the hill, making a right turn off the road into a dirt area at the top. And then a sharp right turn down and over the edge and down the cliff."
Wagstaffe said police are still trying to work out a potential motive.
"There were three people that we believe he was trying to kill," he said. "He also wanted to kill himself, obviously. And so, that was an effort to be a murder-suicide."
"Why would he do this? I'm now convinced that this was an intentional act by him," he added. "But then, why did he do this? Why did he want to kill the three people he, one would assume, loved the most in human life?"
Published 16:01 31 Jan 2023 GMT
A man accused of plunging a Tesla car off a cliff with his family inside has been jailed on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse.
As reported by CNN, a 41-year-old father named Dharmesh Patel, from California has been apprehended with three counts of attempted murder after he allegedly drove his vehicle with his wife and two children inside off Devil's Slide along the Pacific Coast highway.
The outlet shared that prosecutors accused Patel of intentionally steering his car off the cliff, sending his family plunging to a rocky beach below. Fortunately, all four family members survived the crash.
Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County District Attorney, revealed during a news conference that two of the three counts against the father - who is a radiologist - come with domestic violence and bodily injury enhancements, per the publication.
According to an arrest report by the California Highway Patrol obtained by People, Patel was arrested at Stanford Hospital earlier this month.
The outlet stated that the patrol disclosed that the radiologist and his family were discovered after police officers were notified of "a vehicle over the side of the cliff on SR-1" around 10:50 AM on January 2.
The filing added that Patel's 41-year-old wife sustained "major injuries" along with the couple's seven-year-old child, however, Wagstaffe remarked that the four-year-old "came out with just some bruises, and that does not qualify for significant bodily injury," per CNN.
In addition to this, Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief for Coastside Fire Protection District/Cal Fire, revealed that the Tesla seemed to have been "flipped several times" before landing on a beach on its wheels, per People.
The publication revealed that law enforcement saw "movement in the front seat" when they arrived at the unfortunate scene and said: "We knew we had at least one person that was alive," adding, "We were actually very shocked."
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the DA informed people that investigators are examining the car's Model Y to rule out the possibility of a mechanical issue in the vehicle.
"Did the brakes fail? Were the brakes working? Were there any other mechanical malfunctions that would have led to him not being able to stop the vehicle?", Wagstaffe said in the interview. "We're having the car looked at from top to bottom."
Patel appeared in San Mateo County court on January 30 and did not enter a plea. He is now expected to be at his next court appearance on February 9.
Superior court judge Jeffrey Finigan ordered the father to be held without bail. His attorney Joshua Bentley said he intends to bring a motion on bail at a later date.
Published 15:45 10 Feb 2023 GMT
The wife of an attorney who mysteriously died at a Mexican resort last month believes someone murdered her husband.
Elliot Blair, 33, died while on vacation with his wife as they celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary. The California-based public defender is believed to have sustained multiple skull fractures before he died in the Mexican town of Rosarito on January 14, The LA Times reports.
Blair's dead body was found at the Las Rocas Resort, where he and his wife Kim were staying.
Now, his wife Kim Williams - also a public defender - has spoken out about the tragedy, insisting that her husband was murdered.
Check out what she had to say here:"Someone did this to him," Williams told Good Morning America on Thursday. "I just know it's not an accident. I know he didn't fall. I just know that."
Authorities in Mexico say that the death was an "unfortunate accident" after he supposedly fell off a balcony at the resort. They also said he had a "considerable" amount of alcohol in his system, per ABC News.
But Williams' attorney Case Barnett argues that there was foul play.
"It's the physical evidence we've been able to obtain, the autopsy," Barnett told GMA. "The autopsy confirms that he, Elliot Blair, was murdered that night."
Williams recalled how she and her late husband drove back to the resort late on January 13 from a nearby restaurant when they were stopped by police, who accused the pair of rolling through a stop sign.
The officers allegedly asked the couple for money. Blair, who could speak Spanish, told the officers they didn't have the amount being asked of them. A different officer asked where they were staying, and Blair explained that they were staying at Las Rocas.
He also explained that he and his wife were both lawyers and showed the authorities his work badge. Once they'd paid the officers all the cash they had on them - $160 - they were let go.
"We were both rattled," Williams said. "But at the same time we both had this feeling of thank God they didn’t do anything more to us."
Later that night, they went dancing at the resort bar before retiring to their room at around 12AM.
Having fallen asleep, Williams was suddenly woken up by the security guard and hotel manager. They informed her that Blair was lying on the ground outside the hotel room.
The widow insists Blair wasn't overly intoxicated the night he died, having drunk just five or six alcoholic beverages over a period of six hours. She says he couldn't have simply fallen off the balcony.
"I want to do everything we can to figure out what happened in that 45-minute, hour time span," she said. "Because that's what Elliot deserves. And that's the hardest part for me, is not knowing."
"I don't want him to be forgotten," she said. "I want the world to know who my Elliot is. I want people to know he's not some drunk that stumbled off the front ledge of our hotel room."
"That's one of the only things keeping me going right now — is the idea of doing this for him, for honoring his name," she added.
Published 14:18 09 Apr 2025 GMT
A Hawaii doctor accused of trying to push his wife off a 1,200-foot cliff during a hike has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.
Gerhardt Konig, 46, entered his plea on Monday (April 7) from the Oahu Community Correctional Center, where he’s been held without bail since his March 28 indictment.
The alleged attack took place on March 24 during what was meant to be a birthday trip to Oahu, while the couple’s two young sons stayed home on Maui with a nanny and family.
According to PEOPLE, Konig’s wife, Arielle Konig, 36, told authorities the assault began after she declined to take a selfie near the cliff's edge, citing safety concerns.
In a petition for a temporary restraining order, she wrote: “When I got close to Gerhardt, Gerhardt grabbed me by my upper arms and started pushing me back towards the cliff edge.
"He was yelling something to the effect of, ‘Get back over there, l’m so f**king sick of you!’ and continued to push me. If I had fallen off the cliff, I would have likely died," per CNN.
The hike took place on what’s known as the “Pali Puka” trail, which is officially closed due to hazardous terrain, according to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Arielle said she became uneasy during the hike and told Konig she wanted to stop. He continued ahead before circling back to her. That’s when he allegedly pushed her and attempted to inject her with a syringe.
“I do not know what was in the syringe, but Gerhardt is an anesthesiologist and has access to several potentially lethal medications as part of his employment,” she said, adding that she bit his arm in an attempt to escape, The New York Post reported.
According to court documents, Konig allegedly shoved her into nearby bushes, grabbed a rock, and “struck her on the head approximately 10 times while also grabbing the back of her hair and smashing her face into the ground.”
Two hikers heard her screams. One of them, Amanda, told police she saw a man on top of a woman, hitting her in the head, and recalled hearing the victim scream, “He is trying to kill me. He is hitting me in the head with a rock.” The second hiker, Sarah, called 911.
Arielle managed to crawl away, screaming for help. The two women helped her down the trail as Konig fled in a different direction. Paramedics rushed Arielle to a hospital, where she was treated for serious head and facial injuries.
Later, she learned that her husband had allegedly FaceTimed his adult son from a previous relationship shortly after fleeing the scene.
“I just tried to kill Ari, but she got away,” Konig reportedly told his son, according to the restraining order. He also allegedly said he planned to jump off a cliff to take his own life.
A manhunt ensued, and the doctor was arrested more than seven hours later following a brief foot chase near Pali Highway.
The temporary restraining order also detailed months of escalating abuse, including accusations of infidelity, control, and what Arielle described as “extreme jealousy”.
She said the violence had previously included sexual abuse and assault. The petition asked for protection for herself, their children, and extended family.
“Dr. Konig’s not guilty plea this morning was not just a formality, but a substantive response to the allegation that he tried to kill his wife,” Konig’s attorney, Thomas Otake, said in a statement shared before the hearing.
“There are two sides to every story, and thus far only one side has been shared,” he added. “The other side to this story will be shared within the court process at the appropriate time.”
If convicted, Konig faces life in prison.
Konig works as an anesthesiologist at Maui Health, which runs hospitals and clinics across Maui County and is affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. In a statement to the media, Maui Health confirmed he has been suspended while the investigation is ongoing.
“This indictment reflects the serious nature of crime that is alleged in this case,” Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm said. “Domestic abuse cannot be tolerated. Our office is committed to ensuring that justice is served for the victim and that the defendant is held accountable.”
A verified GoFundMe launched by a friend has raised $4,699 to support Arielle and her children.
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