jody and stephen scharf hiked to a favorite spot along the palisades cliffs to take in the view. a short while later, jody fell over the edge and questions about what really happened that night began to mount. here's chris jansing. >> it was the worst night of his life and now stephen scharf in the early morning hours of september 21st, 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 i cried. i cried like a baby and 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, 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 a cliff of 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 go

>> jody scharf. >> reporter: the recordkeeper of a dating service testified that jody's name was on an. 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 rankled 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. >> reporter: he painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. >> i never hit jody. it made me sick to my stomach. >> reporter: 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 -- you know, fairly -- decent, you know -- fairly decent guy. >> reporter: 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. >> before you found out that your dad was a rested did you lie? >> yes. >> did you lie more than once? >> yes. >> reporter: why would jonathan turn on his father and li

>> jody scharf. >> reporter: the record keeper of the dating service testified that jody's name was onation. 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 rankled 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. >> reporter: he had painted his father as a brute and possibly a killer. >> i never hit jody. it made me sick to my stomach. >> reporter: 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, you know, a fairly decent parent. >> reporter: 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. >> before you found out that your dad was arrested, did you lie? >> yes. >> and did you lie more than once? >> yes. >> reporter: why would jonathan turn on his father and lie? the