Laura and Richard Gudenkauf were devastated when their daughter died from a fall while hiking with her husband at Zion National Park in 2006.
The whole situation didn’t make sense to the Henderson couple. Their daughter, Bernadette Vander Meer, 28, was a bright young woman and an avid hiker. The idea she would even put herself in a situation where she could suffer a fatal fall at such heights seemed implausible.
“I did a lot of hiking with her,” Richard Gudenkauf said. “She was a mountain goat. For her to fall off a cliff? No.”
The couple said they became increasingly suspicious of Bernadette’s husband, David Vander Meer. The parents said they learned that he was allegedly having an affair with a younger woman and had increased the couple’s life insurance shortly before his wife’s death.
“She was getting ready to leave him,” Laura Gudenkauf said. “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.”
Over time, the couple’s suspicions evolved into a desire to see justice for their daughter. They hoped that one day police would arrest David Vander Meer in their daughter’s death, but the days, then the months, and then the years passed. The couple found themselves overwhelmed with grief, sadness and anger.
“I had many, many friends, and I became so bitter over this that three months later no one would have anything to do with me,” Richard Gudenkauf said.
“I thought it was going to kill me,” Laura Gudenkauf said.
The couple went nearly 20 years thinking the death of their daughter would go unresolved. They chose to turn to their faith to survive.
“We gave it to God,” Laura said, adding “we didn’t want it to ruin our lives.”
In the Fall of 2025, everything changed. They got a call from authorities in Utah.
A woman had come forward, authorities told the couple, with information implicating David Vander Meer. On Monday, David Vander Meer was arrested on suspicion of murder and insurance fraud in his wife’s death.
“I decided to hand it over to the Lord,” Richard Gudenkauf said. “That’s how I dealt with it. So when I heard the news? Thank you Jesus!”
This is a developing story. Please check back for details.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
