Four women who were friends with Bernadette Vander Meer said Thursday they were suspicious of her husband after she fell to her death during a hike with her spouse at Zion National Park in 2006.
Three of the women, Kristina Riccio, Kari Krute and Dollie Wong, worked as cocktail waitresses with Bernadette at New York-New York. A fourth, Kathy Page, was a longtime mentor and confidant of Vander Meer’s.
Each said the idea that their friend, an experienced and avid hiker, could slip and fall from the heights of Angels Landing in Zion while hiking with her husband, David Vander Meer, made little sense.
“The story I was told was they were going to take a picture, she was standing near the edge and he said, ‘Just hang on a second, let me get the camera ready,’ and she slipped backward,” Page said. “That doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t see her doing that.”
Wong felt the same way.
“I didn’t even know her husband, but immediately, I was like, ‘He did it,’” she said.
This week, David Vander Meer — who collected more than $567,000 in life insurance after his wife died — was arrested and accused of killing her. He was facing extradition to Utah when a judge announced at a Thursday hearing that he had died.
Devoted wife
Despite their suspicion of David Vander Meer, Bernadette Vander Meer’s friends said she was devoted to the marriage. Co-workers recalled her handing her earnings over to him and allowing him to make decisions for her.
All four retained fond memories of “Bernie,” as some friends called her. Twenty years after her death, they still speak of her good character, kindness and wonderful spirit.
“Someone special,” Page said. “She had that ‘it’ factor. Someone who stands out above everybody else.”
Bernadette Vander Meer was attending Meadows Christian Fellowship in Las Vegas in her early teens when she met Page, who was a member of the church and a youth leader. The two hit it off and bonded almost instantly.
“Talented,” Page said. “A singer. She danced. Just a beautiful spirit inside and out.”
Bernadette Vander Meer was committed to her faith, or as Page put it, “God First.” She also had big aspirations. She wanted to try out for American Idol. Then, she met David Vander Meer while appearing in a play.
The two married when Bernadette was 18. Page remembers questioning whether that was a wise decision.
“I asked her, ‘Why are you doing this when you are so young?’” Page recalled. “She said, ‘I am mature for my age.’”
‘Wasn’t a mean streak in her’
Bernadette Vander Meer was also a hard worker.
As a teen, her mother said, she briefly worked as a nanny in Washington, D.C., for the family of former U.S. Sen. John Ensign of Nevada.
For a time, she also portrayed the character Betty Boop while working at the MGM Grand theme park. A Las Vegas Review-Journal photo from 1997 shows Bernadette Vander Meer greeting a child who had won a poster contest at the hotel.
Riccio said Bernadette Vander Meer gave her books about God.
“She would tell me, ‘I pray for you every day,’ because I’m pretty much atheist,” Riccio said.
Riccio didn’t mind.
“I don’t think she was pushing it on me,” she said. “I really think she believed maybe if she prayed for me, I would be saved or something.”
Although she was a cocktail waitress, Riccio and other friends did not recall Bernadette drinking. She would order water or soda if they went out together.
Wong said Bernadette was outdoorsy and would talk about hiking. She was fun and vivacious. She spoke frequently about her husband.
At one point, their company gave employees free tickets to see Zumanity, a risqué show. Despite being religious, Bernadette went with Wong and they laughed through the performance.
“I just felt like she was so happy to be out, because I don’t think that she ever really went out,” Wong said.
Wong remembers that Bernadette said she would hand over her tips to her husband, who gave her an allowance. She trusted her husband, Wong said.
‘I think he’s having an affair’
Riccio never met her friend’s husband, but thought he seemed controlling. Still, she said Bernadette didn’t seem unhappy about her husband making decisions and taking her earnings.
Krute said Vander Meer was kind, pure and a little naive. She loved to sing.
“There wasn’t a mean streak in her,” Krute said.
She was also dedicated to her church and obedient to her husband.
“Bernadette would not spend $6 on a pair of pantyhose without asking David,” Krute said. “She handed every dollar over to that man.”
Page had a concerning lunch meeting with her close friend about a month before her death.
“At that lunch she said, ‘I think he’s having an affair,’” Page recalled. “She said it and I was like, ‘What, are you sure?’ She was like, ‘I see the signs. He keeps things to himself but I still catch things.’”
Page thought her friend was embarrassed by the situation. It was the last time the two saw each other.
“At the time, none of us knew that she was having issues with him,” Krute said. “She didn’t really share things like that at work with the girls.”
Krute remembers meeting David Vander Meer for the first time at his wife’s funeral. He was teary-eyed, she said. She didn’t shake his hand because even then, she believed he had pushed his wife.
She said she knew the couple had life insurance because Bernadette brought the paperwork in to work at one point, apparently confused, and asked coworkers about it.
She said she and other co-workers later recounted that incident to an insurance company representative who met with them.
“We just didn’t understand why she needed so much insurance,” Krute said. “It was just her and David and they both had an income.”
Reactions to his death were mixed from her former co-workers.
Wong said she thinks David Vander Meer deserves to be dead, but that the “easy death” he had was undeserved.
“At the end of the day, there’s no justice, none, but it’s better than … him not being caught,” she said.
Though Krute said, “Justice right there,” after hearing news in court of David Vander Meer’s death, she said later that she was disappointed.
“It’s justice that he’s dead, but he really should have been dragged through the mud,” she said. “He had a vacation for the last 20 years and three more wives.”
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Contact Noble Brigham nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
