The Clark County coroner’s office on Monday released the cause of death for David Vander Meer, a former Las Vegas school counselor accused of killing his wife two decades ago at Zion National Park.

Officials said in a statement that Vander Meer died by hanging, and his manner of death was determined to be suicide.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said previously that Vander Meer, 49, had “strangulated himself in a unique and novel way” at the Clark County Detention Center on June 24. Vander Meer was found face down and unresponsive in his cell while in solitary confinement, just about 30 minutes after he’d been observed alone, sitting upright and awake in his cell.

He had left a suicide note and will, authorities said. In the note, Vander Meer proclaimed his innocence in the death of his wife.

“I didn’t kill her,” Vander Meer wrote. “I never thought it would lead to an arrest. The additional allegations I have heard about are largely false, but not entirely.”

He added: “They paint a picture that can’t be escaped. They spell conviction.”

Vander Meer was accused of intentionally pushing his wife, Bernadette Vander Meer, 28, off a cliff at Angels Landing in the Utah national park when the Las Vegas couple went hiking there in 2006. Authorities said the former youth pastor was motivated by an affair he was having with an underage girl in a youth group he led. She was 16 when they began having sex, according to an affidavit.

He was arrested outside a Summerlin yoga studio June 22. David Vander Meer was a yoga instructor and also a former counselor at Somerset Academy Lone Mountain.

His suicide note consisted of three pages, including a page-long letter with about half of its contents redacted, another letter that appeared to be addressed to “(redacted) and family,” which was mostly redacted, and a third page that was completely redacted.

As in the first letter, David Vander Meer said in the second that most of the allegations in his arrest affidavit were untrue. He wrote that he believed they were accusations he could not overcome.

“I don’t deserve the financial sacrifices of (redacted) to try to fight this,” David Vander Meer wrote at the end of the letter. “I love you all.”

At the time of his death, David Vander Meer was looking at the prospect of defending himself against a comprehensive Washington County, Utah, law enforcement investigation into his first wife’s demise. An affidavit detailing evidence in the case claims David Vander Meer, “acting with clear intent, committed the crime of murder, by intentionally pushing his wife, Bernadette Vander Meer, off the top of Angels Landing and to her death.”

According to the affidavit, Bernadette Vander Meer suspected her husband was being unfaithful, and the two had talked of divorce. David Vander Meer’s lover, whom he had been grooming since she was a 14-year-old girl in his church youth group, had broken off the affair the day before he and his wife left for their trip and two days before the fatal fall, according to the affidavit.

David Vander Meer would collect $567,000 in life insurance from his wife’s death. He had been married and divorced three times since the death, including to the woman who had been his underage lover, according to Clark County court records.

Authorities in Utah considered Bernadette Vander Meer’s death suspicious at the time. In April 2022, authorities reopened the case after they received a tip from a former youth group member that David Vander Meer had been using his position to groom children, the affidavit stated.

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.