Cindy Hinsch was good friends with Bernadette Vander Meer for 13 years before her death at Angels Landing in Zion National Park.
For almost two decades, Hinsch did not suspect David Vander Meer, whom she also knew, could have killed his wife while hiking at the famous landmark in Utah in 2006.
Last month, however, everything changed. She learned David Vander Meer was arrested on murder and insurance fraud charges. Hinsch would also learn that he had taken out extra insurance on his wife weeks before she died, that he was hiding an affair, and that he had been accused of inappropriate behavior with children.
These details and David Vander Meer’s apparent suicide in jail led Hinsch to conclude he was likely responsible for killing one of the most special people she has ever known.
“He killed himself, and I have had compassion on that,” Hinsch said. “I was thinking he doesn’t want to look us in the eyes again.
“I can’t imagine living with that for 20 years,” Hinsch continued. “You can’t escape what goes on in your quiet time, before you go to bed, without that coming back to your mind. For him to kill himself, it is almost like he needed relief himself.”
Hinsch spoke out about her friendships with Bernadette and David Vander Meer because she wants Bernadette Vander Meer to be remembered for who she was: a beautiful spirit, a committed Christian, a loving wife, daughter, and a victim.
“She had long hair way down to her hips and she was just a real angelic being,” Hinsch recalled. “I felt God had really shone his light on her. You don’t really trust people, but you could trust her. That’s how I felt.”
Shared interests in faith and music
Cindy Hinsch first met Bernadette Vander Meer in 1993 when Hinsch attended a church service at Meadows Christian Fellowship on Rainbow Boulevard. Hinsch was a 34-year-old musician playing in a rock band. Bernadette Vander Meer was just 15 and completely immersed in Christian music and her faith.
Hinsch saw that Bernadette Vander Meer was a talented singer with a beautiful voice.
“She would sing on the platform, sing the worship songs along with the other singers, and she would do her own special music,” Hinsch said. “I got to know her because I was first being introduced to Christian artists’ music.”
Bernadette Vander Meer met her future husband around this time. Hinsch said she had no misgivings about David Vander Meer and liked him. He had proposed on the edge of a cliff in California.
David Vander Meer was a youth pastor. He played guitar alongside Bernadette Vander Meer in church and at other get-togethers.
Bernadette Vander Meer’s death
In 1997, Hinsch hosted an Easter party at her house where Bernadette and David Vander Meer, along with other church members, gathered to play and sing Christian songs. Hinsch posted the photos and videos of the gathering on her Facebook page shortly after David Vander Meer was arrested.
The Vander Meers appeared happy, smiling.
”He was so eager to play the guitar with Bernadette,” Hinsch said. “I really believe he was looking forward to her being a famous Christian singer and that is how their lives would go.”
Hinsch eventually moved from Las Vegas to Nashville, Tennessee.
She was devastated in 2006 when she received news that Bernadette Vander Meer had died after a fall at Angels Landing while hiking with her husband. Hinsch returned to Las Vegas to attend a memorial service at Cornerstone Church, where a recording of Bernadette Vander Meer singing “Amazing Grace” was played. On a table sat her Bible and photos of her, one showing David Vander Meer proposing.
Hinsch took photos of the display and kept them to remember her friend. Hinsch said she felt sorrow and compassion for David Vander Meer at the time.
Speaking with David Vander Meer
About a month after the service, Hinsch reached out to David Vander Meer to make sure he was doing OK. Hinsch asked him to send her a copy of the recording of “Amazing Grace.” Vander Meer obliged and also sent Hinsch multiple photos and recordings of Bernadette singing the songs “Dream On” and “Respect.”
“I asked him to tell me exactly what happened,” Hinsch recalled. “Tell me what you went through. He said, ‘Well, the sun was coming up. She was standing for the pose. I went into my backpack to get the camera, and all I heard was (a barely audible gasp) and she was gone.’”
Hinsch said she was not suspicious of David at the time. Authorities now say his description of the fall did not line up with the sunrise that morning.
“As a matter of fact, he did tell me that they investigated him and they had to go through that,” Hinsch said. “There were no witnesses so the investigators took him right back up the path again and had him explain everything to them. Not once did it cross my mind. I felt so bad for him that he’d lost the most beautiful person in the world.”
As years passed, Hinsch remained friends with David Vander Meer on Facebook.
“He was hard to get in touch with,” Hinsch said. “I just would comment on his Facebook page. I did notice he married another girl, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘She’s no Bernadette.’”
Making sense of the senseless
Hinsch learned in late June that David Vander Meer had been arrested in his wife’s death. Hinsch was stunned. Even more stunning were the details alleged by authorities in Utah.
“It was hard to believe,” she said. “I was like, really, they are saying that?”
Hinsch said facts that came to light after David Vander Meer’s arrest and his apparent suicide has left her to ponder how it could be possible.
“I can’t look at David as being evil,” Hinsch said. “I look at it as the devil taking a young man and leading him down a path that was going to kill him, someone else, and it is all very destructive,” adding it appears David Vander Meer apparently “got carried away sexually and carried away with greed for money.”
She processes what happened in Biblical terms, noting that the Bible tells of King David and Bathsheba having an affair that leads to a pregnancy, a cover-up and a murder of Bathsheba’s husband — an innocent just like Bernadette, Hinsch said.
“That’s how I look at life,” Hinsch said. “There’s nothing new under the sun here. This is what happened to David Vander Meer.”
Hinsch said she hopes everyone will remember Bernadette Vander Meer for the beautiful person she was.
“I want to mostly emphasize that this girl was put on this Earth to change so many lives and impact them,” Hinsch said. “That is why I mourned her for so long.”
If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
