>> absolutely. i'm sorry that it ever happened. i'm sorry for mike. i'm sorry for my family and i'm sorry for his family. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm nattily morales. >> and this is dateline. they were so happy at first, sharing a lovers 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?

>> i did not kill jodi. >> what happened on the cliff's edge? >> hello, and welcome to dateline. when police got notice someone had fallen off a cliff they weren't surprised. but even they could not guess it would take almost 20 years to find out what really happened to a woman out on an evening hike with her husband. >> every couple has it, a shared song, a favorite movie or maybe a special place. steven sharp says for him and his wife jodi this was it, two

rocks on the edge of a cliff. >> that was our spot. we'd bring out a couple of blunt shares, a cooler. >> up here the air was fresh and the views seemed limitless. >> it sort of framed by trees that you can look down to the right and see the view of the 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, she taught history. there's was a meeting first of minds and then hearts. how would you sort of describe

those early years? were they loving, were they exciting? >> yes, we were in love. it was ecstatic. >> from there, a house, a son. how would you describe her 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 jodi still make 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 lighthearted night on the town. but they made a detour here to

the palisades, to their spot. steven remembers pulling up to the scenic lookout, sitting in the car with jodi, sharing a wine cooler. >> there were other people sitting in the spot, the spot where the binoculars and walked up into the this sort of open view. >> he says they then turned and took a well-worn path into the those rocks. they sat there he with the rock against her back holding her. at some point something goes terribly wrong. >> yes. >> he says he stood up to go back to the car to get wine and blanket. for whatever reason, jodi 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, stumbling forward.

>> jodi hagone off the cliff. >> i didn't know how bad things were but i was stunned. >> what did you do? >> i got down on my stomach, stuck my head over and i just yelled, jodi, jodi, talk to me. i just yelled down there. >> but no response. >> he grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorest who came here to the palisades police station. lieutenant walter siri was on duty. >> until he came to that door it was a quiet night and then all hell broke loose. >> a frantic man was telling them a woman had fallen from the look out above and that her husband was waiting for help. and then he called in michael, an experienced clime br. >> i was there for the rescue mission, that was when she was alive. >> about 10 feet down he caught

sight of a ledge. >> the minute i got to that ledge i grabbed a purse, i think it was two credit cards. >> on a ledge 10 feet down? >> right. >> but it was what he didn't see that confused him. there was no sign that woman's body had hit any part of the cliff. >> no hair, no blood, no skin. >> by that point, officer siri had arrived. 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 to get the blanket and she slipped and i didn't see her anymore. as siri and the man arrived at the station rescuer chaffi

arrived at the base of the tip. he expected to find a wounded woman there, but he didn't. >> i said maybe this was a hoax, maybe she never really wept 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 jodi lying motionless next to a tree. >> there was a lot of blood on that tree and the blood was draining down the tree. that was the severe impact. >> jodi sharp had not survived the fall. to chiofi it was clear she had slammed into that tree. as they began to move the body, he noticed something. >> there was an odor of an alcoholic beverage that emanated from her body. >> so when you smelled that did you think maybe she had had too much to drink and fell? >> at that moment, 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 was going through your mind at that point? >> how baddy is she hurt? where is she? >> and 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. >> and what was your reaction? >> 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 dateline continues. this flu season, protect yourself...

and your sister-in-law's... tennis partner's... chatty coworker's... youngest daughter's... entire judo class. one shot can make a world of difference. walgreens has specially trained pharmacists, that know which flu shot is right for you. protecting the world... over 60 million flu shots and counting. starts with protecting yours. walgreens trusted since 1901. you won't find relief here. congestion and pressure? go to the pharmacy counter for powerful claritin-d. while the leading allergy spray relieves 6 symptoms... claritin-d relieves 8, including sinus congestion and pressure.

claritin-d relieves more. a peaceful night sleep without only imagine... frequent heartburn waking him up. now that dream is a reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing.

i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe. and more affordable. thank you, dennis quaid. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. i'd tell you more, but i only have 30 seconds. so here's a dramatic shot of their tagline so you'll remember it. esurance. it's surprisingly painless. it was the worst night of his life and now steven sharp in the early morning hours of september 31, 1992 had to tell his 10-year-old son jonathan his mother was dead. >> i said, come on, jonathan, we need to take a walk and i told him. and he immediately burst into tears. and cried like a baby. i wasn't ashamed. >> he remembered his distraught

son's reaction but little else from those dark hours. were you sleeping? were you eating? >> drinking. i lost my wife and my s-- >> his wife had died in a freak accident, off a cliff in all places. how could that happen? and that's exactly what police who were there the night of jody's death wanted to know, too. >> right away i got a feeling there was something definitely wrong. >> it nagged at rescuer michael chioffi. why was jody's purse on a ledge just below where her purse had fallen? >> either she had be here or her pocket should be with her. >> 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 chioffi. way off. >> she was like 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north. a person falls off the cliff, usually they're going to go south or right down. should have been right down where i got off the ropes. that's where she should have been. >> someone else was scratching their head that night for different reasons. it had to do with steven's behavior while the search was under way. officer williams was surprised steven was willing to leave while rescuers were looking for jody. >> did he give any indication i don't want to leave, my wife could still be down there? >> no, not at all. >> if i tell you it was my wife, girlfriend, whoever would have had to pry me from that scene.

>> but he willingly got into a patrol car? >> without a word. >> stranger still was how calm steven seem. when the officer heard him describe how his wife had fallen, he made a mental note. >> there was no emotion at all. >> did it occur to you maybe he was in shock. >> no, i've seen people who lost loved ones and i've never seen them act that way. >> but it was a particular moment later that caught his attention. >> he asked if he could get a drink from the water fountain, he was looking over and splashing water on 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 nonchallant.

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. every little thing is clicking in my mind, and i'm saying to myself, you know, this isn't right, something is wrong here. >> gut instinct is one thing, evidence is another. maybe their view of steven was too jaundiced. there really was nothing to indicate that jody's fall was anything but an accident. a few months later the ruling was in. the burgen county 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? the suspicions grow. was there a weapon at this

romantic rendezvous? coming up -- >> red flags are going up at that point. this isn't just any moving day.

this is moving day with the best in-home wifi experience and millions of wifi hotspots to help you stay connected. and this is moving day with reliable service appointments in a two-hour window so you're up and running in no time. show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience

and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. jody's death on these 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.

it was telling james something sinter had just happened. so you didn't think was a horrible accident? >> no. >> there wasn't any smoking gun, really. just something dark he thought he could read between the lines notice police notes he reviewed the day after jody's degtd. >> he did not react to somebody that just lost his wife should have reacted. >> and so the detective moved his investigation from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from the friends 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 told detectives that jody had been determined to take her 10-year-old 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 sometimes they'd call and hang up on her. >> in fact, she learned jody had served her husband divorce papers in 1992. less than two weeks later she was dead at the base of the palisades. the timing made it even more eager to talk to the widower. >> there's a sit down with mr. sharp. he's consented to talk, right? >> yes. >> two days after his wife's death he was freely answering questions. yes, he told them, he and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during their tem pestuous marriage. and it was true, there were other women. >> he told us they had an open marriage, they were seeing different people. and he actually said he had been with 50 to 60 women.

>> and she was okay with it koorlg according to him. >> according to him, yeah. >> they came to this romantic yet treacherous spot to reconnect with each other, steven said, to kiss and make up. >> and the spot where they went is not a spot where you would go to reconcile with anybody. >> detectives weren't buying this story for another reason. they found something suspicious inside sharp's car. an item you could expect for a picnic and one you would not, a hammer. >> wine cheese, crackers, red flags are going up, they reached the top of the pole at that point. >> did you think that might be a murder weapon? >> yeah, i thought tat that might be plan a, and he didn't use it so he went to plan b. >> which he believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff. so he asked him the obvious,

what was that hammer doing in the picnic bag? >> he told us he fixed a adraer in his kitchen with the hammer and forgot to put it back in the garage. >> 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. >> he was 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 says you don't believe me. >> and then he says something that almost knocked him off his

feet. >> i said was it an accident, and he put his head down and he said no. >> he believed that was a stunning confession. he ran to tell other detectives including linum, but they'd just spent hours grilling the man. the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate steven sharp, but they didn't. >> we took it as far as the cause of death at that time was listed as undetermined, so officially it wasn't a homicide. >> in time detectives moved onto other cases. steven sharp moved on, too. 14 years after his wife's degtd he remarried. tina sharp says he's been a loving, ideal husband. >> it was like we were two puzzle pieces that were made for each other where each of us complemented and completed the other person. >> but even in this happy new

life, he says, he's never forgot about jody. but he might have been surprised to learn someone else was thinking of her too after all these years. burgen county had a new prosecutor and he was eager to revisit old case files. among them the one here at the cliff of the palisades so many years ago, the death of jody sharp. >> it was this renewed push since 2002 to look into the cold cases. >> he covered the trial for the 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. >> but the prosecutor did have someone new. a famous name to join the investigation into jody sharp's death, dr. michael baden, a world renowned forensic pathologists who investigated the deaths of john f. kennedy

and john bu loogsy and testified at the trial of o. j. simpson. he was about to turn up the heat on a very cold case. >> he's reviewed the evidence and has determined this could not have been an accidental fall. >> in december of 2008 detectives paid one more visit to steven sharp. >> they wouldn't tell me what it was for. i had no idea what this buwas about. it didn't make sense. >> 15 years after that fatal night on the cliff, police were back and steven sharp was in for a shock. after all these years you thought it was done. >> not until they reached behind me and handed me this arrest warrant. coming up -- the case heads into court with a surprise from the stand. steven and jody sharp's only son has some dark secrets to share. >> did you see that abuse? >> i did. enough of their nutrients? new one a day with nature's medley

is the only complete multivitamin with antioxidants from one total serving of fruits and veggies. new from one a day. you need to power your wellness. new emergen-c probiotics plus. purposeful probiotics to help boost your microbiome, plus vitamin c to support your natural immune defenses. new emergen-c probiotics plus. emerge and see.

the hours top stories. the national weather service reports that a tornado has touched down in silver lake, south carolina. this comes as remnants of hurricane florence continue to hammer the carolinas with heavy rain since making landfall on friday. at least 14 people are dead and more than 700,000 are without power. meanwhile a rescue team from november is coming to the aid of north carolina residents trapped by florence. rescuering more than 62 people and pets. now back to dateline. i'm craig melvin. years after jody scharf 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 janson. >> what stuck in his mind -- >> in every murder trial time is

an invisible but crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years. >> 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 stephen scharf, 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 martialed some familiar facts to tell its story, starting 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.

>> and then there was the husband himself. cool and collected in the back of a police car. >> i didn't see any emotion from him. >> who later confessed, the 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 that 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, the famous forensic pathologist, told jurors the crime scene spoke of a murder, not an accident. >> if a person falls accidently, the individual will be, you know, within a couple of feet of the base of the building. >> and that didn't happen in the

case of jody scharf. her body landed 50 feet out from the top of a 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. marryanne clayton was the burgen county medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of jody's death could not be determined. now on second look, she says, the victims wounds our lack of them told her something different, something vital. if jody had tumbled innocently down the palisades she would have had broken bones everywhere.

she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of her body. >> but why would stephen kill his wife. the biggest reason the prosecutor argued is he didn't want a divorce, he didn't want a custody fight, and he didn't want to split assets with jody. and there was yet another motive for stephen said the prosecutor, a potential pay out. >> ussa life insurance company. >> an insurance representative testified about a $500,000 policy taken out against jody scharf months before her death, payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policyowner? >> stephen f. scharf. >> jody scharf was simply worth more dead than alive. her friend testified that jody feared stephen might do something violent if she pushed for that divorce. even so, she said, jody was determined to get away from her husband.

>> she was going to have divorce papers served on stephen, and she was very afraid of him. >> yet was stephen violent enough to kill his wife? an unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against stephen scharf. >> i hear from my mother. >> his own son took the stand against him. now a businessman, jonathan scharf painted his father as an angry violent man who terrorized his mother. >> did you see that abuse? >> i did. >> jonathan scharf said 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 by him. >> 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 was 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. he 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. >> but where was the proof that stephen 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 stephen's old girlfriends. >> i even mentioned to my girlfriend that it was a perfect relationship. >> terry scofield had been dating stephen months before jody scharf's death. >> did mr. scharf tell you whether or not he was married. >> actually, he said he was not

married. >> and remembered something strange stephen 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 the end of september. >> two weeks later jody scharf was dead. terry now sees that cryptic statement in a dreadful light. >> i was like oh, no, the end of september. and then the light bulb went off immediately. >> it also went off for her friend, in perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecution's case, she 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 that 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 the motive, the perfect setting, the

violent intent to kill his wife. or was there another way of looking at that couple perched high on those cliffs on a summer night? stephen'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 defense was ready to show how stephen 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 does the money go to? >> it goes to me. >> when "over the edge" continues.

with advil liqui-gels, what bad shoulder? what headache? advil is relief that's fast strength that lasts you'll ask... what pain? with advil liqui-gels

feeclaritin and relief fromwsy symptoms caused by over 200 allergens. like those from buddy. because stuffed animals are clearly no substitute for real ones. feel the clarity. and live claritin clear. everything was so fresh in the beginning... but that plug quickly faded. luckily there's new febreze plug. it cleans away odors and freshens for 1200 hours. breathe happy with new febreze plug. (keybdear freshpet, tank was overweight and had no energy. until freshpet... put the puppy back in my dog.

i never knew there was a to my constipation until my doctor recommended miralax. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax is different. it works with the water in your body unblocking your system naturally. miralax .

stephen scharf is not guilty. >> 18 years after the death of his first wife, more than a decade after the investigation first stalled stephen 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. >> bolinkus 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, stephen scharf, has been wrongfully charged with her death. >> 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 palisades that fatal night. >> you never photographed the body before you moved it, did you? >> no, sir. >> why didn't they take photographs? they destroyed the crime scene area. >> they didn't even bother to question potential eyewitnesses, he said. instead, they cleared visitors from the look out. >> there might have been someone who saw something or heard something. >> there might have been. there's a possibility that might have happened. >> and if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later, the defense said, why didn't they video their interview with him? that way jurors could have judged stephen scharf's

supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. why didn't you? >> not an interrogation. he wasn't in custody. i don't know. >> the defense attorney also argue that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. >> my client never said this wasn't an accident. >> and as for that hammer. >> the hammer was examined by forensic experts. there was nothing found on that hammer. >> 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, sir. i did the best i could in 1992 documenting what i had observed with ms. scharf. >> the medical examiner was helpful to the defense in one critical way, 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 limit. >> it 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 pathologist dr. cyril wekt. wekt posted a résume of star-studded profiles, too. as high profile as the prosecution's dr. baden. only wekt had a totally different take on how jody scharf died. >> i would call this an accidental death. >> in wekt's version which he demonstrated with all things a teddy bear, jody fell off a cliff onto jagged rocks below causing her mortal wounds.

her body then catapulted. >> and out goes the body and hurtles into the air. >> into the tree canopy that then carries her into the abyss and into that distant tree. >> this is what i think happened to explain the injuries on the chest and hips. >> and there was another bubble to burst in the prosecution's case, the motive for murder. stephen scharf wasn't a greedy killer, he said. his client never made a claim on that insurance policy. it was only after the money was turned over to the state years later, he said, that stephen scharf even bothered to collect. would it throw fuel on the fire not to do it. well, i know i look guilty because i am 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. jody and stephen 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 fureia 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 stephen scharf did not want a divorce, he says he wanted to give the marriage another chance. and as for that former girlfriend, terry scofield, she recounted stephen's mysterious statement just before jody's death. >> just give me until the end of september and everything will be okay, the stress will be -- a lot of it stress will be gone. >> the defense attorney says that was stephen'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 an application. she even checked off the interests she'd like to share with a mate. the attorney offered that as proof of stephen and jody's open marriage. but what really wrinkled the defense, what had torn at the heart of stephen scharf was the testimony of his son, jonathan. >> i remember her showing me her bruises. >> 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 jonathan back in 2008 the young man described his

dad as a good guy. >> i think he was a, you know, fairly decent guy. fairly decent parent. >> it was only after detectives told him his dad had just been arrested that the son turned on his father. >> she got coffee thrown at her by him. father. >> before you found out that your dad was arrested, did you lie >> yes, sir. >> did you lie more than once? >> yes, sir. >> 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 lawyer called steven sharp's son a spoiled brat. >> that's a 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 oh, that's interesting. >> the jurors speak. what would they decide? >> steven, did you kill your wife jodi? >> the verdict when "dateline". continues.

what's the #1 new skincare product in 2018? olay whips. absorbs faster than the $100, $200, and even $400 cream. feels amazing. i really really love this. i will 100% swap up my moisturizer. can i have it? olay whips. you want relief fast. only new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream has 4 active ingredients, to fight pain 4 different ways. get relief fast with new thermacare ultra pain relieving cream.

but let's be honest, nobody likes dealing with insurance. which is why esurance hired me, dennis quaid, as their spokesperson because apparently, i'm highly likable. see, they know it's confusing. i literally have no idea what i'm getting, dennis quaid. that's why they're making it simple, man in cafe. and more affordable. thank you, dennis quaid. you're welcome. that's a prop apple. i'd tell you more, but i only have 30 seconds. so here's a dramatic shot of their tagline so you'll remember it. esurance. it's surprisingly painless.

sthis wi-fi is fast.t. i know! i know! i know! i know! when did brian move back in? brian's back? he doesn't get my room. he's only going to be here for like a week. like a month, tops. oh boy. wi-fi fast enough for the whole family is simple, easy, awesome.

in many cultures, young men would stay with their families until their 40's. welcome back to "dateline". the jury is about to decide the fate of steven sharp. here's chris jansen with the conclusion to our story. 18 years after a night that ended in his wife's death off a cliff, steven sharp 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 jodi. never. >> steven, did you kill your wife, jodi >> i did not kill jodi. i did not. >> did you throw her off --

>> i did not. i did not. i didn't hurt jodi. i didn't push her. i didn't cause her to die. i didn't kill my wife. we talked to steven sharp where he was held for two years after 2008. he and his wife tina said they paid a high price for something he didn't know. >> our daughter is 2 1/2. we don't have contact visits. >> it's not just a tragedy for jodi, 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. 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 thing. no one thing that had made up my mind. >> the jurors went back and forth over the evidence. and here's what they came to believe. that jodi was likely drunk, and that her husband knew it. that 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, your

verdict is -- >> guilty. >> guilty. later, jurors said what united them was the testimony of jodi's friend, telling them that jodi was terrified of her husband. >> that possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me, it's my husband. >> it was another woman in steven's life who also swayed the jury. terry recalling what steven said to her weeks before jodi'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 jodi who slipped but her husband with that menacing statement. they believe 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 jodi's tumultuous open

marriage. >> you think this was a moral judgment -- >> yes. >> -- on the part of jurors. >> i suppose some people would say 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 on the palisades. >> this never has left me. i went back there myself without people knowing it several times because it bothered me. something is wrong. >> foreclose 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 get away with it. he wanted the insurance money. he wanted his son. he would have the house. he would have whatever he wanted and she would be out of the way. now, i think that was sad.

>> that's all for this edition of "dateline". i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. >> craig melvin. >> i'm natalie more or less. >> it's gut-wrenching. >> there's a body lying off the side of the road. >> this young woman shot three times. >> this was a murder. a young single mom, out with friends on game day. >> it was packed. but as night fell, fear grew. >> they're asking who would want to harm your sister? >> was it someone that was a stranger? was it someone that we knew? >> i just had this weird feeling that there was something she was hiding tucked away. in her kitchen a