better, but i'm still not ready to be trusting everyone so easily. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline extra." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching.

she had shammed into that tree. as they began to move the body he noticed something else. >> she had td odor of an alcoholic beverage. >> 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 stiting in a roof at the police station. waiting for someone to tell him what happened to his wife. >> do you remember what's going through your mind at that point? >> how badly is sh e hurt?

where is she? >> that's when an officer walked into the room and broke the news. she was gone. >> i don't remember who came in and told me. >> wafs your reaction. >> denial. it was how could this this happen. >> that question would haunt him and many others. and it would take years for the answer to finally come. coming up. >> you thought he was taking tears? >> absolutely. >> curious behavior puts a husband under the micro scope. when over the edge continues.

when the holidays have you feeling like dessert duty judy... hi. hi! serve up some marie callender's dutch apple pie. made with fresh fuji apples in a made-from-scratch crust. making you the best guest ever. because the holidays call for marie callender's. i enjoy the fresher things in making you tlife.o. guest ever. fresh towels. fresh soaps. and of course, tripadvisor's freshest, lowest... ...prices. so if you're anything like me... ...you'll want to check tripadvisor. we now instantly compare prices... ...from over 200 booking sites... ...to find you the lowest price... ...on the hotel you want. go on, try something fresh. tripadvisor. the latest reviews. the lowest prices. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture.

super poligrip free. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. just a few dabs is clinically proven to seal out more food particles. try super poligrip free. ♪

wifiso if you can't live without it...t it. why aren't you using this guy? it makes your wifi awesomely fast. no... still nope. now we're talking! it gets you wifi here, here, and here. it even lets you take a time out. no! no! yes! yes, indeed. amazing speed, coverage and control. all with an xfi gateway. find your awesome, and change the way you wifi. welcome back to date line extra. it started out at a remantic date for a new jersey couple. it ended in tragedy. they hiked to favorite spot

along the cliffs. a short while over she fell over the edge. and questions about what happened that night began to mount. >> reporter: it was the worst night of his life. and now steven in the early morning hours of september 21st, 1992, had to tell his ten year-old son his mother was dead. >> i said come on, we need to take a walk. and i told him. immediately burst into tears. and i cried. i cried like a baby. >> reporter: he remembers his distraught sons reaction. but little else from the dark hours. >> were you sleeping? were you eating? >> drinking. >> drinking. >> i lost my wife. my son lost his mom. >> there was plenty of sympathy among family and friends to be sure. for the man newly widowed with a

small child to raise on his own. his wife had died in a freak accident. off cliff of all places. how could that happen? and that's exactly what police who were there the night of the death wanted to know too. >> right away i got a feeling that there was something wrong. >> reporter: it nagged at the rescuer. why was her purse on a ledge. feet below where her husband said she had fallen? >> where is she. she should be here. part of her should be here. and it wasn't fitting. >> reporter: another thought donned on him. if she tumbled. why hadn't she hit the side of the cliff. there was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. and the location of the body seemed off. way off. >> she was like 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north.

a person falls off a cliff they'll go south. or right down. they should have been right down where i got off the rope. where she should have been been. >> reporter: someone else was scratching his head about that night. for different reasons. it had to do with stevens behavior while the search was under way. officer walter was surprised he was willing to leave the lookout. as rescuers were still looking for her. >> did he give any indication i don't want to leave, my wife could be alive down there? >> not at all. >> reporter: he couldn't bloef believe how willingly he got into his patrol car. >> it it was my wife they would have had to pry me away from the cliff. >> he willingly got in. >> stranger still. how calm the husband seemed. when the officer heard the describe how his wife had fallen. he made a mental note.

>> there was no emotion. he was reading a script. >> maybe he was in shock? >> no. i have seen people who lost loved ones and i have never seen anyone act that way. >> reporter: it was a particular moment. later. inside the station house. that really caught the officers attention. >> he asked if he could get a drink from the water fountain. he was ooking 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 take faking tears? >> absolutely. >> reporter: a death take where the pieces didn't connect. a husband who appeared nonchalant. from a cops point of view. things were adding up. and not in stevens favor. >> not just one thing. it was like the totality of the circumstances. everything every little thing is clicking in my mind. this isn't right. something is wrong.

>> reporter: gut instijt is one thing. evidence is quite another. people handle terrible events in different ways. the police are paid to be suspicious. maybe their view was too jaundice. there was nothing to indicate that her fall was anything but an accident. a few months later, the ruling was in. the medical examiner concluded the manner of death could not be determined. accident was as likely as anything else. case closed. or was it? coming up. >> you didn't think it was a horrible accident? >> no. >> suspicions grow flt was there a weapon at the romantic rendezvous? >> wine, cheese and claw hammer. >> when over the edge continues.

to most people, i look like most people. but on the inside, i feel chronic, widespread pain. fibromyalgia may be invisible to others, but my pain is real. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior,

swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain, swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who've had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. with less pain, i can do more with my family. talk to your doctor today. see if lyrica can help.

welcome back to date line extra. police began to question steven's behavior after his wife fell from the edge of a cliff. to them accident he just didn't seem like grieving husband. did their suspicions amount to anything more than a hunch. >> reporter: her death on the cliff 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. tfts telling james something sinister had just happened.

>> so you didn't think this was a horrible accident? >> no. >> reporter: there wasn't any smoking gun really. just something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after the death. >> he didn't react like somebody who just lost his wife should have reacted. >> reporter: and so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from friends that this was a couple not in love but in crisis. the subject wasn't wine and roses on the cliffs. it was divorce. >> she was going to go through with it. absolutely. >> reporter: her long time friend told detectives that she had been determined to take her ten year-old son, and leave her husband. she was convinced steven had been cheating on her. >> she couldn't prove it. but women called the house.

and sometimes they call and hang up on her. >> reporter: in fact. she served her husband divorce papers on september 8. 1992. less than two weeks later she was dead. at the base of the cliff. the timing made him eager to talk to the widower. >> there was a hit down. he's consented to talk. >> yes. >> reporter: two days after his wife's death. steven was freely answering detectives questions. yes he told them. he and his wife were talking divorce. as they had sometimes done during their marriage. and it was true. there were other women. >> he told us they had an open marriage and seeing different people. he had been with like 60 women. >> she was okay with it according to him? >> yes. >> he told detectives they had become unhappy with the free love lifestyle.

so they came to the romantic if treacherous spot. to recommit to each other. to kiss and make up. >> the spot where they went is not a spot where you go to reconcile. with anybody. >> reporter: detectives weren't buying the story for another reason. they had found something suspicious inside the car. a bag filled with items you expect for a romantic picnic. and one you would not. a hammer. >> you have your wine, cheese, crackers. and claw hammer. red flags are going up. they reach the top of the pole. >> did you think it might be a murder weapon? >> i thought it was plan a. and he didn't use it. he went to plan b. >> reporter: which he believed was to push her throw her off the cliff. detectives asked the obvious. what was the hammer doing in the picnic bag? >> he said he fixed a drawer in the kitchen with the hammer.

and he just forgot to put it back in the garage. he put it in the bag with the picnic items. it was convenient. a convenient excuse. >> detectives asked if they could check out the drawer. and the rest of the house that night. he agreed. but as it turned out, something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. >> i said look, i'm your local police department. >> reporter: he was a local officer told to keep an eye on steven that night. as detectives combed through his house. the officer says he began talking to steven about what happened to joe di. when he interrupted. >> he looks at me and goes, you don't believe me. >> reporter: then the officer says he said something that almost knocked him off his feet. >> i said i believe in accident occurred. i said what was it an accident? he put his head down and said no. >> reporter: he believed that

was a stunning confession. he ran to tell the other detectives. including. but they had just spent hours grilling the man. >> we weren't getting that feeling. that a reinterview would have done anything. >> the detectives believe they could find solid evidence to implicate steven. they didn't. >> we took it as far as we could. the death was undetermined. officially it wasn't a homicide. >> reporter: in time the detectives moved onto other cases. steven move on too. 14 years after his wives death he remarried. he's been a loving, ideal husband. >> it was like two puzzle pieces made for each other. we just each of us complimented and completed the other person. >> reporter: efb in this happy new life. he's never forgotten about jodi. >> he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was

thinking of her too. after all these years. they had a new prosecutor. and he was eager to revisit old case files. among them, an unexplained death here on the cliffs. so many years ago. the death of jodi. >> there's this renewed push. since 2002. to look into the cold cases. >> reporter: he covered the trial for the record noup 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 nothing new. >> reporter: the prosecutor did have someone new. a famous name to join the investigation into the death. doctor michael bodien a world renown forensic pathologist who investigated john f. kennedy and testified at the trial of oj simpson. he was ant to turn up the heat on a cold case.

>> he has reviewed the evidence and determined this couldn't have been an accidental fall. >> in december of 2008. detectives paid one more visit to steven. >> they wouldn't tell me what it was for. i have no idea what it was about. it didn't make sense. >> reporter: 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff. police were back. and steven was in for a shock. >> after all 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. their only son has some dark secrets to share. >> did you see that? >> i did. when over the edge continues. now i'm turning into my dad. i text in full sentences.

i refer to every child as chief. this hat was free. what am i supposed to do, not wear it? next thing you know, i'm telling strangers defense wins championships. -well, it does. -right? why is the door open? are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood? at least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive.com. progressive can't save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. i mean, why would i replace this? it's not broken. what's going on? oh hey! i mean, why would i replace this? ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪

money managers are pretty much the same. all but while some push high commission investment products, fisher investments avoids them. some advisers have hidden and layered fees. fisher investments never does. and while some advisers are happy to earn commissions from you whether you do well or not, fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. we need to be ready for my name's scott strenfel and r i'm a meteorologist at pg&e.

we make sure that our crews as well as our customers are prepared to how weather may impact their energy. so every single day we're monitoring the weather, and when storm events arise our forecast get crews out ahead of the storm to minimize any outages. during storm season we want our customers to be ready and stay safe. learn how you can be prepared at pge.com/beprepared. together, we're building a better california.

hour top stories. california governor says we can see fire fighting at christmas. the fires that began monday destroyed nearly 800 homes and other buildings. 200,000 people have fled the fires. we're in the home stretch of tuesday's senate election in alabama. president trump recorded a row bow call for roy more on saturday. the president carried in 63% of the vote in alabama in the presidential election. now back to date line. welcome back to date line extra. years after she fell to her death, a new prosecutor reopened the case and brought in a famous forensic pathologist to re-examine the evidence. what would he uncover? what stuck in his mind. >> reporter: in every murder trial time is an invezable and crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years.

>> reporter: sometimes it hurts a case. memories fade. evidence is lost. witnesses die. but time can also put evidence in a new light. such was the case in the trial of steven. accuse of killing his wife nearly two decades ago. >> there is no statute of limitation on murder. >> reporter: 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 lie, he is guilty. >> reporter: the state marshalled familiar facts to tell the story. starting with the crime scene. where the prosecutor said the cliffs showed no sign of an accidental tumble. >> no debris. no clothing. no blood no hair. no tissue. >> reporter: then there was the

husband himself. cool and collected in the back of the police car. >> i didn't see any emotion from him. >> who later confessed the prosecutor said to killing his wife. >> then i said it was an accident? he said no. >> reporter: those facts were not where the case ended. the prosecutor argued that they simple hi set the stage for the real case. a story told by the victims friends, family and most importantly by a star witness. >> my opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. >> reporter: dr. michael the famous pathologist told jor jurors the crime scene spoke of murder. not an accident. >> if a person falls accidently. the individual will be within a couple feet of the base of the building. >> reporter: that didn't happen in the case. 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. >> reporter: she had to have been thrown or pushed to her death. he said. and likely from another spot entirely on the cliff. he wasn't the only expert who saw it that way. >> not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. >> reporter: she was the medical examiner. who first ruled the circumstances of the death could not be determined. now on second look she said, the victims wounds or lack of them told her something different. something vital. if she had tumbled innocently down the side. she would have had broken bones everywhere. she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of her

body. >> reporter: 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 custody fight. and he didn't want to split assets. and there was yet another motive for steven said the prosecutor. a potential pay out. >> u.s. life insurance company. >> reporter: insurance representative testified about a $500,000 policy. taken out against jodi months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> tell us the policy owner? >> steven. >> she was simply worth more dead than alive. her friend testified that she feared steven might do something violent. if she pushed for that divorce. even so, she was determined to get away from her husband. >> she was going to have the divorce papers served.

and she was very afraid of it. >> reporter: yet was steven violent enough to kill his wife? and unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against steven. >> i hear from my mother. >> his own son took the stand against him. now a businessman. he painted his father as an angry, violent man. who terrorized his mother. >> do you see that abuse? >> i did. >> reporter: he said he realized his father had likely killed his mother only after that arrest in 2008. this video taped interview shows him recalling the dark past for the first time to police. >> she got coffee thrown at her. >> reporter: now in court, he had even more to tell about his childhood. like the afternoon he sat kouring in the backseat of the car. watching his mother suffer.

>> my mom was driving and my dad just hitting her with a bottom of his fist. and i was like begging him to stop. >> reporter: he remembered the last day of his mothers life. he was ten. 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. >> reporter: wherefores the proof that steven had planned to kill her that night? well, there was the hammer in the bag. but there was also testimony from this woman. one of steven's old girlfriends. >> i mentioned to my girlfriend it was perfect relationship. >> reporter: she had been dating steven months before the death. >> did he tell you whether or not he was married? >> he said he was not married. >> reporter: she remembered something strange steven said to her on the beach.

over that labor day weekend. >> he was under a lot of stress and the stress would be resolved by september. >> two weeks later. his wife was dead. terry sees that cryptic statement. in a dreadful light. >> i was like oh no the end of september. and then the light bulk went off. >> reporter: it went off for mary. in the most chill lging testimony of the case. she told the jury when she heard her friend was gone, she immediately remembered something she 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. >> reporter: the prosecutor position was clear. a husband with a motive. the perfect setting. the violent intent to kill his wife. or was there another way of

looking at that couple perched high on the 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, kind, loving. considerate. >> the prosecutor -- >> reporter: the defense was ready to show how steven far from villain. was the real victim in the 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. (beep) bill has joined the call. hey bill, we're just- phone: hi guys, bill here. do we have julia on the line too?

'k, well we'll just- phone: hey sorry. i had you muted. well yea let's just- phone: so what i was thinking- ok well we'll- phone: yeah- let's just go ahead- phone: oh alright- the award-winning geico app. download it today. your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened.

don't start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. xeljanz xr can reduce the symptoms of ra, even without methotrexate. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. ask your rheumatologist about xeljanz xr. this ♪s electricity. this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here.

welcome back to at a time line extra. we continue now with over the edge. once again. >> steven is not guilty! >> reporter: 18 years after the death ov his first woif, more than a decade after the investigation first stalled. steven was being called a killer. but his defense attorney argued there was no new evidence in the case. in new eyewitnesss. only new opinions. >> we're talking about the same old facts. and circumstances. >> reporter: he said the state was hope lg 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 has been wrongfully

charged with her death. >> reporter: and one reason the prosecutor couldn't prove murder had to do with sloppy police work. the defense attorney said. suggesting it had been like keystone cops on the pal said that fatal night. >> you never photographed the body before you move it. did you? >> no, sir. >> why didn't they take photographs? they destroyed. crime scene area. >> reporter: they didn't even bother to question eyewitnesss. had 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. >> reporter: if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later the defense said, why didn't they video tape their interview with him? that way, jurors could have judged his supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. >> why didn't you? >> he wasn't in custody.

i don't know. >> reporter: the defense attorney argued police misinterpreted what his client said in his home. just hours later. >> my client never said this wasn't an accident. >> reporter: as for the hammer police thought was a weapon. >> it was examined by the forensic perkts. there was nothing found on that hammer. >> reporter: and 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. i did the best i could. documenting what i had observed. >> reporter: the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one critical way. she determined that she had been drunk the night she fell off the which i have. she had a blood alcohol level

of.12. that was over the >> a drunken slip and fall argued the defense. to back that up, the lawyer had his own. as high profile as the prosecution's. only he had a totally different take on how shoedy sharp died. >> i would call this an accidental death. in weks version which he demonstrated with of all things, a teddy bear, jody fell off a cliff and onto jagged rocks below causing her mortal wounds. her body then catapulted. >> and out goes the body and into the air.

>> into the tree canopy which then carried her into the abyss and into that accident tree. >> this is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and of the hip. >> but there was another bubble to burst in the prosecution's case, the motive for murder. steven sharp wasn't a greedy killer, his client said. it was only after the money was turned over to state years later, he said, that steven sharp even bothered to collect. would it throw fuel on the fire not to do it, wow, i know i look guilty because i can guilty, i better not make this claim? >> you're damned if you do. you're damned if you don't. >> the other alleged motive, divorce, was flimsy as well he said. those divorce papers just the

latest legal part in an ongoing legal spat. >> the prosecutor paints a picture of someone who is furious about this. >> 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 sharp did not want a divorce. he says he wanted to give the marriage another chance. and as for that former girlfriend, she recanted steven's statement just before the death. >> just give me until the end of september and 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 sharp. >> the record keeper of a dating service testified that jody's name was on an application. she even checked off the interest she'd like to share with a meat. the attorney offered that as proof of steven and jody's open marriage. but what really wrangalled the defense, what had torn at the heart of steveern sharp was the testimony of her son, jonathan. he had 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 him back in 2008, the young pman described his da

as a good guy. >> i think he was a fairly decent guy. >> it was only after detectives told him his dad had just been arrested that the son turned on his father. >> 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 steven sharp 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 steven sharp's son a spoiled brat. >> that sounds like some spoiled kid who was not a credible witness. in closing 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 a light bulb. you couldn't help but think, that's interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> steven, did you kill your wife, jody? >> the verdict when "over the edge" continues.

big news from advil, advil liqui-gels minis. our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. a small new size that's fast, cause it's liquid. woohoo! you'll ask, what pain? new advil liqui-gels minis. i love hanging out. with my friends. i have a great fit with my dentures. i love kiwis. i've always had that issue with the seeds getting under my denture. super poligrip free. it creates a seal of the dentures in my mouth. even well fitting dentures let in food particles just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. super poligrip free made even the kiwi an enjoyable experience try super poligrip free. ♪

when the holidays have you feeling like dessert duty judy... hi. hi! serve up some marie callender's dutch apple pie. made with fresh fuji apples in a made-from-scratch crust. making you the best guest ever. because the holidays call for marie callender's.

we that's why at xfinityic. making you the best guest ever. we've been working hard to simplify your experiences with us. now with instant text and email updates you'll always be up to date. you can easily add premium channels so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for. because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today.

the jury is about to decide the fate of steven sharp. here's cresten johanson with the conclusion of our story. >> 18 years with the night that ended with the death of his wife off a cliff, through it all one thing he wants you to know is this, he would never have laid a hand on his beloved jody, never. steven, did you kill your wife jody? >> i did not kill jody. i did not. >> did you throw her -- >> 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 steven at the burgen 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. >> our daughter is 2 1/2 and still hasn't been held by her father because we don't get contact visits. >> it's a tragedy for john, a tragedy for my wife, a tragedy for my daughter and for myself. >> still he decided not to take the stand in his own defense but told dateline what he first said years ago about his wife's death was the truth. >> i wish it didn't happen. i wish we'd gone to the comedy club. 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. there was no one thing. i had made up my mind. >> the jurors went back and forth over the evidence. and here's 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 steven sharp should be found guilty or not guilty of a single count of murder. >> on the charge of murder on jody anne sharp 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. >> possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me it was my husband. >> it was another woman in steven l steven's life that swayed the jury. recounting to her 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. steven sharp 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 was a murder trial. >> but for rescuer michael, it's a fitting end to a story that's haunted him since that night. >> this has never left me. i went back there myself without people knowing it several times because it bothered me. something was wrong. >> for close friends, 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 to 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'd be out of the way. now, i think that was sad.

>> that's all for this edition of dateline extra. i'm craig melvin. thanks for watching. detective luvera: he was born with a gift. he spoke to the animals. keith morrison: a dog trainer to the stars, he was born with a gift. he spoke to the animals. >> a dog trainer to the stars with a beautiful wife. >> he was totally crazy about her. >> but an ill wind would blow through paradise. >> the kennel dogs were very, very upset. there was a huge ruckus. >> they told me, we haven't seen mark. and i knew in my heart something terrible had happened. >> where had the dog trainer gone? a trail of sinister clues. >> there was three wet blood spots in the hallway.