would want, to confuse and distract your enemy. americans have spent a lot of time looking for the fire in the russia trump investigation because everyone knows where there's smoke, there's fire. in this case, there may be fire, there may not. but smoke is dangerous enough on its own and right now, we're choking on it. maybe that was the plan all along. thanks for joining us tonight, we'll see you next week live from beijing. ♪ >> we were in love. >> they were so happy at first, sharing a lover's perch high atop a cliff. but romance turned to danger. she fell from the edge. >> i would call this an accidental death. >> but was it? >> she said that if anything happens to me, you'll know who did it. >> a mystery of nearly 20 years heads into court and the husband is on the precipice.

>> did you kill your wife jody? >> i did not hurt jody. >> what happened on the cliff's edge? hello and welcome to "dateline extra", i'm craig melvin. when police got word that someone had fallen off a cliff, they weren't surprised. the place was known to be dangerous but even they couldn't guess it would take almost 20 years to find out what really happened to a woman out on an evening hike with her husband. here's chris jansing. >> every couple has it. a shared song, a favorite movie or maybe a special place. steven sharp says for him and his wife jody, this was it, two rocks forming a lover's chair on the edge of a cliff. >> that was our spot. we would bring a hibatchi and

couple of lawn chairs and cooler and bring her work from graduate school. >> they had been escaping to this magical place for years, ever since they were newlyweds in a starter apartment in new jersey. up here, the air was fresh and the views seemed limitless. >> it sort of framed by trees, that you could look down to the right and see the view of george washington bridge. >> what they couldn't see from here, of course, was the future. had they caught even a glimpse of what was to come, surely they would have abandoned this place forever. steven and jody met in the late '70s in georgia. he was in the army, a book worm who loved the civil war. she taught history. theirs was a meeting first of minds, then hearts. >> how would you sort of describe those early years? were they loving, were they

exciting? >> yes, they were -- we were in love. we were ecstatic. >> from there, marriage, a house, a son johnson in 1983. >> how would you describe jody as a mom? >> she was really devoted. >> life was good. and even as the years went by, even with the demands of work and family, steven says he and jody still made time for each other. like that last summer sunday in september of 1992, steven says it was supposed to be a date night. >> it wasn't -- no idea that that would be the most critical day in our life, in our marriage. >> it was a day like any other day? >> yes. >> here was the plan. husband and wife would drive into manhattan and go to a comedy club, a light hearted night on the town but they made a detour here to the pal sades, to their spot. >> steven remembers pulling up to the scenic lookout, sitting

in the car with jody, sharing a wine cooler. >> there were other people sitting in cars and we walked up earn looked over the spot where the binoculars were and walked up to the sort of open view. >> he says they then turned and took a narrow well worn path to those rocks. they sat there as the night fell around them. he with his back against the rock holding her as she sat directly in front of him. >> at some point, something goes terribly wrong. >> yes. >> he says he stood up intending to go back to the car to get wine and a blanket. for whatever reason jody stood up too, the edge of the rock was at her feet. >> what was your last glimpse of your wife? >> just standing up and you know, and stumbling forward. >> jody had gone off the cliff. >> i didn't know how bad things were but i was stunned.

i -- >> what did you do? >> i got down on my stomach and stuck my head over and i just yelled, jody, jody, talk to me. i just yelled down there. >> but no response. he grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist who came here the palisades interstate parkway police station, lieutenant walter siri was on duty. >> until he came through the door it was a quiet night and then all hell broke loose. >> the frantic man was telling him a woman when fallen from the lookout above and her husband was waiting for help. the police called in an experienced climber. >> i was there as a rescue mission. i thought she was alive. >> he began to lower himself off the side of the cliff where the woman's husband said she had fallen. about 10 feet down he caught sight of a ledge. >> the minute i got to the ledge, i observed the purse, two

credit cards. >> on a ledge ten feet down. >> right. >> it was what he didn't see that confused him. there was no sign that the woman's body had also hit that ledge or any part of the cliffs. >> nothing, no blood, no hair, no clothing, no fibers, no skin. >> by that point, officer walter siri arrived at the lookout. since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, he was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police headquart s headquarters. on the way, steven recounted the awful moment when his wife disappeared. >> we were walking and she said for me to go back to the car and get the blanket and she slipped and i didn't see her anymore. >> as they arrived at the station, rescuer chaufy made it to the base of the cliff, more than 100 feet below the top. he expected to find a wounded woman there but he didn't. >> i'm saying she's not here, i'm -- the first point i said

maybe this is a hoax. maybe she never went off the cliff. >> he and another rescuer began to walk along the base pointing their flashlights north. finally about 30 feet away the beams landed on something white. it was jody, lying motionless nxg next to a tree. >> there was a lot of blood on the tree, draining down the tree, that's where severe impact took. >> jody sharp had not survived the fall. to him it was clear she slammed into that tree. as they began to move the body, he noticed something else. >> she had an odor of an alcoholic beverage that emanated from her body. >> when you smelled that, did you think maybe she had had too much to drink and fell? >> that entered my mind, yes. >> at that moment, steven sharp was sitting in a room at the police station waiting for someone to tell him what had happened to his wife.

>> do you remember what's going through your mind at that point? >> how badly is she hurt? where is she? why isn't she calling back to me. >> that's when an officer walked into the room and broke the news to steven. jody was gone. >> i don't even remember who came in and told me. >> what was your reaction? >> denial. it was -- how could this -- how could this happen? >> that question would haunt him and many others and it would take years for the answers to finally come. >> coming up -- >> he was rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. >> you thought he was faking tears. >> absolutely. >> curious behavior puts a husband under the microscope when "over the edge" continues. it's here, but it's going by fast. the opportunity of the year is back: the mercedes-benz summer event. get to your dealer today for incredible once-a-season offers,

and start firing up those grilles. lease the e300 for $569 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. for the never-before-seen two sided clean, just add water. one side deeply exfoliates the other gently smooths and a flexible body cleanser inside lathers for a close, complete clean. just hang your duo to dry after each use, for day-after-day of touchably soft skin.

find your duo in the bodywash aisle. available in olay, old spice and ivory. he's happy.t's with him? your family's finally eating vegetables thanks to our birds eye voila skillet meals. and they only take 15 minutes to make. ahh! birds eye voila so veggie good

that's why at comcast we're continuing to make4/7. our services more reliable than ever. like technology that can update itself. an advanced fiber-network infrustructure. new, more reliable equipment for your home. and a new culture built around customer service. it all adds up to our most reliable network ever. one that keeps you connected to what matters most.

it started as a romantic date for a new jersey couple but ended in tragedy. jody and steven sharp hiked to a spot to take in the view but a short while later joedy fell ovr the edge and questions began to mount. >> it was the worst night of his life and now steven sharp, in the early morning hours of september 21st, 1992, had to tell his 10-year-old son jonathan his mother was dead. >> come on, jonathan, we need to take a walk and told him and he immediately burst into tears and i cried. i cried like a baby. i wasn't ashamed. >> he remembers his distraught son's reaction but little else from those dark hours. >> were you sleeping? were you eating? >> drinking. >> you were drinking? >> i lost my wife and my son lost his mom.

>> there was plenty of sympathy among family and friends to be sure, for the man newly widowed with the small child to raise on his own. his wife had died in a freak accident off a cliff of all places. how could that happen? that's exactly what police who were therejody's death wanted to know too. >> right away i got a feeling there was something definitely wrong. >> it nagged at rescuer michael, why was jody's purse on a ledge feet below where her husband had said he sh fallen. >> where is she, she should be here? part of her should be here. she should be here or the pocketbook should be down with her and it wasn't fitting. >> another thought dawned on him. if jody had tumbled, why hadn't she hit the side of the cliffs? there was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. and the location of jody's body

seemed off to choffey, way off. >> she was 30 to 40 feet to the north. a person falls off the cliff, usually they go south or go right down. should have been right down where i got off the ropes, that's where she should have been. >> someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. it had to do with steven's behavior while the search was under way, walter seary was surprised he was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. >> did he give any indication, i don't want to leave, my wife could still be alive down there? >> not at all. >> he couldn't believe how willingly steven sharp got in his patrol car. >> i tell you if it was my wife or girlfriend, they would have had to pry me from the scene if i was at the top of the cliffs. >> he willingly got into your patrol car? >> without a word said. >> stranger still was how calm the husband seemed.

when he heard the officer describe how the wife had fallen, he made a mental note. >> no emotion in it. like he was reading a script. >> did it occur maybe he's in shock? >> no, i've seen people who have lost loved ones and never seen anybody act that way. >> it was a particular moment later inside the station house that really caught the officer's attention. >> he asked if he could get a drink from the water fountain and looking over his shoulder and splashing water in his face and rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. >> you thought he was faking tears? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> a death scene where the pieces didn't connect. a husband who appeared nonchalant. from a cop's point of view, things were adding up and not in steven's favor. >> not just one thing, it was like the totality of the circumstances. everything -- every little

thingwise clicking in my mind. i'm saying to myself, this isn't right. something is wrong here. >> gut instinct is one thing, but evidence is quite another. people handle terrible events in different ways. the police are paid to be suspicious. maybe their view of steven was too jaundiced. there was really nothing to indicate that jody's fall was anything but an accident. a few months later, the ruling was in, the medical examiner concluded the manner of jody sharp's death could not be determined. an accident was as likely as anything else. case closed. or was it? >> coming up -- >> so you didn't think this was a horrible accident? >> no. >> the suspicions grow. was there a weapon at this romantic ron day view? >> you have your wine and cheese and crackers, red flags are going up, they reach the top of

the pole at that point. when "over the edge" continues. 89s sw

booking a flight doesn't have to be expensive. just go to priceline. it's the best place to book a flight a few days before my trip and still save up to 40%. just tap and go. and while i'm gone i can even check on my baby with this doggie cam. oh jack, you're such a good boy. no, jack, what are you doing? bad dog! and if you need to get back home, like right now, priceline has you covered.

. police began to question steven sharp's behave why are after his wife fell from the edge of a cliff. to them he didn't seem like a grieving husband but did their suspiciouses amount to anything more than a hunch? here's chris jansing. >> jody's death on the cliffs had been a horrible accident. her husband said so. and the medical examiner wasn't arguing with him. but detectives have a kind of

sixth sense about cases and it was telling james lynine yam something sinister happened. >> you didn't think it was a horrible accident? >> no. >> something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jody's death. >> he did not react like somebody who just lost his wife should have reacted. >> so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from jody's friends that this was a couple not in love but in crisis. the subject wasn't wine and roses on those cliffs, it was divorce. >> she was going to go through with it, yes, absolutely. >> jody's long time friend marian hillfreddy told detectives that jody had been determined to take her son jonathan and leave her husband.

she was convinced steven had been cheating on her. >> she couldn't prove anything but women called the house and smimsz they would call and hang up on her. >> in fact, he learned jody served her husband divorce papers on september 8th, 1992, less than two weeks later, she was dead. >> at the base of the palisades. the timing made him even more eager to talk to the widower sharp. >> there was a sit down with mr. sharp. he's consented to talk, right? >> yes. >> two days after his wife's death, steven sharp was freely answering detective's questions. yes, he told them, he and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during their tempestuous marriage and it was true, there were other women. >> he told us they had an open marriage, seeing different people. he actually said he had been with like 50 to 60 women. >> she was okay with it

according to him. >> according to him, yes. >> he told detectives he and jody became unhappy with the free love lifestyle so they came to this spot to recommittee to each other, to kiss and make up. >> the spot where they went, not a spot where you would go to reconcile with anybody. >> detectives weren't buying the story for another reason. they had found something suspicious inside sharp's car, a bag filled with items you would expect for a romantic picnic and one you would not. a hammer. >> you have wine and cheese and crackers and opener and claw hammer. i mean, red flags are going up. they reached the top of the pole at that point. >> did you think that might be a murder weapon? >> i thought that might plan a, he didn't use it so went to plan b. >> which he believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff. so detectives asked steven sharp

the obvious, what was a hammer doing in that picnic bag? >> he told us he fixed a drawer in his kitchen with the hammer and he just forgot to put it back in the garage. put it in the bag with the picnic items and it was just convenient, a convenient excuse for having the hammer. >> detectives asked if they could check out the drawer and the rest of steven's house that night. he agreed. but as it turned out, something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. >> and i said, look, mr. sharp, i'm your local police department. >> ted was a local officer told to keep an eye on steven sharp that night as detectives combed through his house, the officer says he began talking to steven about what had happened to jody when steven interrupted him. >> he finally looks at me and goes, you don't believe me. >> then the officer says, sharp said something that almost knocked him off his feet. >> i said i believe an accident

occurred. and i said was it an accident and he put his head down and he said no. >> aaron bir believed that was a stuing confession and ran to tell the otherdetectives, including lynan b they jt spent hours grilling the man. >> we weren't getting that feeling. >> the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate steven sharp but they didn't. >> we took it as far as we could go. there -- the cause of death was listed as undetermined so officially it wasn't a homicide. >> in time the detectives moved to other cases and steven sharp moved on too. 14 years after his wife's death, he remarried. tina sharp says he's been a loving, ideal husband. >> it was like we were two puzzle pieces made for each other, where we just -- each of us complimented and completed the other person. >> even in the happy new life,

he says, he's never forgotten about jody. >> but he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking of her too after all of these years, bergen county had a new prosecutor and he was eager to revisit old case fileds, among them an unexplained death here on the cliffs of the palisades so many years ago, the death of jody sharp. >> there was this renewed push since 2002 to look into the cold cases. >> marcos covered the trial for the record newspaper in new jersey. on one hand, he says, it didn't seem the prosecutor had any reason to pursue the cold case. >> in terms of hard evidence, it had absolutely nothing new. >> the prosecutor did have someone new, a famous name to join the investigation into joetddy jody sharp's death. dr. michael baden, a world renowned forensic pathologist that investigated the deaths of john f. kennedy and john

belluchi and testified at the trial of o.j. simpson. he was about to turn up the heat on a very cold case. >> michael baden has reviewed the evidence and determined this could not have been an accidental fall. >> in december of 2008, detectives paid one more visits to steven sharp. >> wouldn't tell me what it was for. i had no idea what this was about. i mean, it didn't make sense. >> 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff, police were back. and steven sharp was in for a shock. >> after all of these years, you thought it was done. >> not until they reached behind and hand me this thing, this arrest warrant. >> coming up -- the case heads into court with a surprise from the stand. >> hear from my mother. >> steven and jody sharp's only son has some dark secrets to share. >> did you see that abuse? >> i did. >> when "over the edge" continues.

a complete multi-vitamin with 100% daily value of more than 15 key nutrients. one a day 50+. new deep hydrating eye gel with hyaluronic acid born to outperform the #1... prestige eye cream for better hydration. and your best look yet. olay eyes collection. ageless. when you're clocking out. sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. there. i can also help with this. does your bed do that? oh. i don't actually talk. though i'm smart enough to.

i'm the new sleep number 360 smart bed. let's meet at a sleep number store. when heartburn hits fight back fast with new tums chewy bites. fast relief in every bite. crunchy outside. chewy inside. tum tum tum tum new tums chewy bites.

the kremlin reacting to a new sanctions package passed by congress against russia. vladimir putin announcing in a tv interview he will expel 755 u.s. diplomats from his country in response. at least nine people were injured when a van plowed into a crowd in los angeles. no word from authorities on whether that incident was intentional. the driver remained at the scene as victims were transported to a local hospital. for now, we take you back to dateline extra. >>. >> welcome back. years after jody sharp fell to her death, a new prosecutor reopened the case and brought in a famous forensic pathologist to reexamine the evidence. what would he uncover? here again is chris jansing.

>> what stuck in his mind -- >> every murder trial time is an invisible but crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years. >> sometimes it hurts a case, memories fade and evidence is lost, witnesses die. but time can also put evidence in a new light. such was the case in the trial of steven sharp, accused of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. >> there is no statute of limitations on murder. >> the prosecutor promised the evidence would tell a story as simple as it was brutal. a husband determined to avoid a costly divorce, lured his wife to the edge of a cliff and forced her off it. >> if he has lied, he is guilty. >> the state marshalled familiar facts to tell its story start being with the crime scene where the prosecutor said the cliffs

show no sign of an accidental tumble. >> no debris, no clothing, no blood, no hair, no tissue. >> then there was the husband himself, cool and collected in the back of a police car. >> i didn't see any emotion from him at all, sir. >> who later confessed, prosecutor said to killing his wife. >> and then i said, it was an accident and he said no. >> but those facts were not where the case ended. the prosecutor argued they simply set the stage for the real case, a story told by the victim's friends, family and most importantly, by a star witness. >> my opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. >> dr. michael baden told jurors the crime scene spoke of a murder, not an accident. >> if a person falls

accidentally, the individual will be within a couple of feet within the base of the building. >> and that didn't happen in the case of jody sharp. her body landed 50 feet out from the top of the cliff and 30 feet to the north. >> she had to have been propelled from that point. >> jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said and likely, from another spot entirely on those cliffs. he wasn't the only expert who saw it that way. >> the head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. >> dr. mary yan clayton was the medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of her death could not be determined. now on second look, she said, the victim's wounds or lack of them told her something different, something vital. if jody had tumbled innocently down the palisades, she would

have had broken bones ever where. she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of mrs. sharp's body. >> why would steven have killed his wife? the biggest reason the prosecutor argued was that steven did not want to divorce. he didn't want to a custody fight and didn't want to split assets with jody. and there was yet another motive for steven said the prosecutor, a potential payout. >> usaa life insurance company -- >> an insurance representative testified about a $500,000 policy taken out against jody sharp months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? steven f sharp. >> jody sharp was simply worth more dead than alive. her friend testified joedly

feared she might do something violent if she pushed for the divorce, even so she was determined to get away from her husband. >> she was going to have divorce papers served on steven and she was very afraid of it. >> yet was steven violent enough to kill his wife an unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against steven sharf. >> his own son took the stand against him, now a businessman, jonathan shar txsharf painted h father as ang angry man who terrorized miz mother. >> did you see that abuse? >> i did. >> he realized his father had likely killed his mother only after that arrest in 2008. this videotaped interview shows him recalling the dark past for the first time to police. >> she got coffee thrown at her.

>> now in court he had even more to tell about his childhood. like the afternoon he sat cowering in the back seat of a car watching his mother suffer. >> my mom was driving and my dad just hitting her with the bottom of his fist and i was just like begging him to stop doing it. >> he also remembered the last day of his mother's life. she was 10. and said his mother told his father, that she didn't want to go out with him alone. >> she said if i wanted to go out with you, i wouldn't be divorcing you. >> where was the proof that steven had planned to kill jody that night? well, there was the hammer in the picnic bag. but there was also testimony from this woman -- one of steven's old girlfriends. >> mentioned to my girlfriend, that it was perfect relationship. >> terry had been dating steven months before jody's death.

>> did he tell you whether or not he was married? >> actually, he said he was not married. >> and remembered something strange steven said to her on the beach over that labor day weekend. >> he was under a lot of stress and stress would be resolved by the end of september. >> two weeks later, jody scharf was dead and terry sees that cryptic statement in a dreadful light, oh, no, the end of september, and then the light bul bulb went off immediately. in perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecution's case, he told the jury when she heard her friend was gone, she immediately remembered something jody said just weeks earlier. >> she said that during this conversation i have with him, if anything happens to me, you'll know who did it. she said you'll know it was him. >> the prosecutor's position was

clear, a husband with a motive, the perfect setting. the vi renolent intent to kill wife or was there another way of looking at the couple perched high on cliffs on a summer night? steven's new wife says the prosecution has it all wrong. >> my husband is not capable. that is not the man he is. my husband is sweet and kind and loving and considerate. >> the prosecutor -- >> the defense was ready to show how steven scharf far from villain was the real victim in this story. >> coming up -- >> they destroyed the crime scene area. >> new questions about the evidence and was there another reason why a son might implicate his dad. >> who's the money go to? >> it goes to me. >> when "over the edge" continues. building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation.

today we're bringing you america's number one shave at lower prices every day. putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. as one of those workers, i'm proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. gillette - the best a man can get.

this is cand right now, lobster. we're serving up more delicious crab than ever. classic favorites like crab lover's dream. and new dishes like southern king crab and dueling crab legs with dus delicioness and sweet snow crab. it's all happening at crabfest. and crabfest is only happening at red lobster. now this is seafood.

welcome back. we continue now with "over the edge." once again, chris jansing. >> steven scharf is not guilty. >> 18 years after the death of his first wife, more than a decade after the investigation first stalled, steven scharf was being called a killer but his defense attorney argued there was no new evidence in this case, no new eyewitnesses, only new opinions. >> i'm talking about the same old facts and circumstances. >> he said the state was hoping to win a murder conviction by painting his client as a terrible husband, that it

couldn't prove he was a killer in 1992 and it couldn't prove it today. >> my client, steven scharf has been wrongfully charged with her death. >> one reason the prosecutor couldn't prove murder had to do with sloppily police work the defense attorney said, suggesting it had been like keystone cops on the palisades that fateful night. >> never photographed the body before you moved it, did you? >> no, sir. >> why didn't they take photographs? >> they destroy the crime scene area. >> they didn't even bother to question potential eyewitnesses he said, instead they cleared visitors from the lookout. >> there might have been someone who saw something or heard something. >> there might have been, there's a possibility that might have happened. >> if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later, the defense said, why didn't they videotape their interview

with them? that way jurors could have judged steven scharf's supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. >> why didn't you? >> he wasn't in custody, i don't know. >> the defense attorney also argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. >> my client never said this wasn't an accident. >> as for that hammer, police thought was a weapon? >> the hammer was examined by the forensic experts, there was nothing found on that hammer. >> the defense attorney pressed the medical examiner on her flip-flop, undetermined manner of death in '93, now it was a homicide? really? >> are you trying to say that you're learning from your mistakes on this case? >> you may call them mistakes, sir, i did the best i could in 1992, documenting what i had observed with mrs. scharf.

>> the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one cricalay though. she determined that jody had been drunk the night she fell off the cliffs. jody had a blood alcohol level of .12. that was over the legal limit. >> would be equivalent to approximately four average sized drinks, wine or beer, something like that. >> a drunken slip and fall argued the defense. to back that up, the lawyer had his own heavy hitter, famed forensic pathologist wekt, posted a resume of star studded investigations too, as high profile as the prosecution's dr. baden. only wekt had a fototally different take on how she died. >> i would call this a accidental death. >> in wekt's version, when he demonstrated with a teddy bear, she fell off the cliff on to

jagged rocks just below causing her wounds and her body cat putted. >> out goes the body and hurdles into the air. >> into the tree canopy which carried her threw the abyss and into the distant tree. >> this is what i think happened to explain those injuries on the chest and of the head. >> but there was another bubble to burst in the prosecution's karks t case, the motive. steven scharf wasn't a greedy killer, his client never made a claim on the insurance policy. it was only after the money was turned over to the state, years later is he said that steven scharf even bothered to collect. >> would it throw fuel on the fire not to do it, i know i look guilty, i am guilty better not make the claim. >> you're damned eed if you do don't. >> the other motive, divorce was

flimsy as well. jody and steven had been talking break-up for years. those divorce papers just the latest legal salvo in an ongoing marital spat. >> the prosecutor paints a picture of someone who frankly is furious about this divorce. >> no one person ever indicated that my client was furious over this divorce. they had talked about divorce for years, maybe she was, you know, saying one thing and not following through. >> though it is true steven scharf did not want a divorce, he wanted to give the marriage another chance. as for the former girlfriend, terry xoe field, she recounted his mysterious statement just before jody's death. >> get me to the end of september and everything will be okay. the stress will be -- a lot of the stress will be gone. >> the defense attorney says that was steven's clumsy way of trying to dump his girlfriends.

and speaking of which, he added, those other women did not bother jody at all. she was seeing other people herself. >> the person on the bottom half in both of those is who? >> jody scharf. the record keeper of a dating service testified that jody's name was on aan application and even checked off interests she would like to share with a mate. the attorney offered that as proof of steven and jody's open marriage. but what really had torn at the heart of steven scharf was the testimony of his son jonathan. >> do you remember her showing me her bruises. >> he painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. >> i never hit jody. it made me sick to my stomach. >> the young man wasn't to be believed, said the lawyer, for one thing, when police

interviewed jonathan back in 2008, the young man described his dad as a good guy. >> i think he was a fairly decent parent. >> it was only after detectives told him his dad had just his d arrested that the son turned on his father. >> she got coffee thrown at her by him. >> before you found out that your dad was arrested, did you lie? >> yes. >> and did you lie more than once? >> yes. >> why would jonathan turn on his father and lie? the defense lawyer said it was jonathan, not his dad who was motivated by greed. if stephen scharf was convicted, his son would get all that insurance money. >> who does the money go to? >> it goes to me. >> in the end, the lawyer called stephen scharf's son a spoiled brat. >> that sounds like some spoiled

kid. >> who was not a credible witness. in closing, he insisted this wasn't a murder case, just a sad story about a woman who tumbled drunkenly to her death. >> this case is an accident, nothing more, nothing less. >> soon it would be in the hands of a jury. >> coming up -- >> it was the light bulb. you couldn't help but think that's interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> stephen, did you kill your wife jody? >> the verdict when "over the edge" continues. you get used to food odors in your car. you think it...

you get used to food o bell di passengers new febreze car with odorclear technology cleans away odors... ...for up to 30 days

smells nice... breathe happy, with new febreze. hey you've gotta see this. cno.n. alright, see you down there. mmm, fine. okay, what do we got? okay, watch this. do the thing we talked about. what do we say? it's going to be great. watch. remember what we were just saying? go irish! see that? yes! i'm gonna just go back to doing what i was doing.

find your awesome with the xfinity x1 voice remote. the jury is about to decide the fate of stephen scharf. here is chris jansing with the conclusion of our story. >> 18 years after a night that ended in his wife's death off a cliff, stephen scharf stood accused of murder by the state of new jersey. and through it all, one thing he wants you to know is this. he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jody, never. >> stephen, did you kill your wife jody? >> i did not hurt jody. i did not.

>> did you throw her off the palisades? >> no, i did not. i did not. i didn't hurt jody. i didn't push her. i didn't cause her to get hurt. i didn't kill my wife. >> we talked to stephen scharf at the bergen county jail, where he was held for more than two years after his arrest in 2008. he and his wife tina say they've paid a high price for something he didn't do. >> when we visit, it's through a piece of plate glass. our daughter is 2 1/2 and has still never been held by her father because we don't have contact visits. >> it's not just a tragedy for jody, it's a tragedy for john. it's a tragedy for my wife. it's a tragedy for my daughter. and for myself. >> still, he decided not to take the stand in his own defense, but told "dateline" that what he first said years ago about his wife's death was the truth. >> i wish it didn't happen. i wish we had gone to the comedy club.

but i didn't -- i'm innocent. >> but had the jury gotten that same message? when they walked into that deliberating room for the first time, some jurors in fact planned to vote not guilty. >> there wasn't enough evidence for me. that's what it was. >> others were thinking guilty. >> it was several things. it was no one thing that made up my mind. >> the jurors went back and forth over the evidence, and here is what they came to believe. that jody was likely drunk and that her husband knew it. and if that was the case, why would he let her get so close to the edge of a cliff? >> as the husband, knowing that your wife was drinking, would you bring her there? >> the jurors deliberated three days before deciding whether stephen scharf should be found guilty or not guilty of a single count of murder. >> on the charge of murder of

jody ann scharf, your verdict is? >> guilty. >> guilty. later, jurors said what united them was the testimony of jody's friend, telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. >> that possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me, it's my husband. >> and it was another woman in stephen's life who also swayed the jury. terry scofield recountdowning what stephen said to her weeks before jody's death, that his stress would soon be over. >> that was something that pushed me towards what we decided in the end. >> it was the light bulb. >> to them, it wasn't jody who slipped but her husband with that menacing statement. they believed it wasn't just a fall from the cliffs, it was a cold-blooded execution. stephen scharf was sentenced to life in prison. he says the jurors condemned him not on the facts, but for his

and jody's tumultuous open marriage. >> so you think this was a moral judgment on the part of jurors? >> yes. and i suppose some people would say, well, he was punished for his moral weakness. but this is a murder trial. >> but for rescuer michael, it's a fitting end to a story that has haunted him since that night on the palisades. >> this has never left me. it's been years. i went back there myself without people knowing it several times because it bothered me. something was wrong. >> for close friends like marianne, the verdict does not remove the sting of the loss. >> i'm angry that he took the life of a beautiful person. that's what bothers me the most. that he would do that and think that he was going get away with it. he wanted the insurance money. he wanted his son. he'd have the house. he'd have whatever he wanted, and she would be out of the way. now i think that was sad.

>> and that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. due to mature subject matter viewer discretion is advised. a night at the beach with his brother's truck sends a repeat offender back to jail. >> i fell asleep in the truck, and the tide came in. and took the truck out into the ocean. brand-new truck that he just paid off.