Hello and welcome to dateline extra. When police got word that someone had fallen off a cliff, they werent surprised. The place was known to be dangerous but even they couldnt guess that it would take almost 20 years to find out what really happened to a woman out on an evening hike with her husband. Heres 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 lovers chair on the edge of a cliff. That was our spot. We would bring a hibachi, a couple of lawn chair, a cooler. And shed bring her work from graduate school. Reporter theyd 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 limits. It sort of framed by trees but you could look down to the right and see the view of the George Washington bridge. Reporter what they couldnt 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 bookworm 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 loveing . Were they exciteing . Yes, they were you another, we were in love. We were ecstatic. Reporter from there, marriage, a house, a son jonathan in 1983. And how would you describe jody as a mom . She was really devoted. Reporter 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 wasnt no idea that would be the most critical day in our life in our marriage. What was the day like . Any other day . Yes. Reporter 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 jody sharing a wine cooler. There were other people there sitting this their cars and walked up, looked over the spot where the binoculars were and walked up to this sort of open view. Reporter he says they then turned and took a well worn path to the rocks and 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. Reporter 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. The rock was at her feet. What was your last glimpse of your wife . Just standing up and, you know, and stumbling forward. Reporter jody had gone off the cliff. I didnt know how bad things were but i was stunned. What did you do . I got down on my stomach. I stuck my head over the and i just yelled, jody, jodi yi, talk to me. I just yelled down there. Reporter but no response. He grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist who came here to the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police station. Lieutenant walter serrie was on duty. Until he came through the door it was a very quiet night. Reporter the frantic man was telling them a woman had fallen from the lookout above and that her husband was waiting for help. The Police Called in Michael Cioffi, an experienced climber. I was there as a rescue mission. I thought she was alive. Reporter he began to lower himself off the side of the cliff where the womans husband said she had fallen. About ten feet down. He caught sight of a ledge. The minute i got to the ledge i observed the purse. I think it was two credit cards. On a ledge ten feet down. Right. Reporter but it was what he didnt see that confused him. There was no sign that the womans body had also hit that ledge or any part of the cliffs. Nothing. No blood, no hair, no clothing, no fibers, no skin. Reporter by that point officer walter serrie had arrived up at the lookout. Since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, serrie was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police 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 didnt see her anymore. Reporter as they arrived at the station rescue cioffi made it to the base more than 100 feet below the top. He expected to find a wounded woman there, but he didnt. Im saying shes not here. Im at the first point i thought maybe this is a hoax. Maybe she never really went off the cliff. Reporter he and another rescuer began to walk along the base pointing flashlights north. Finally about 30 feet away the beams landed on something white. It was jody lying motionless next to a tree. There was a lot of blood on that tree and the blood was actually draining down the tree. Thats where severe impact took. Thats where she really, you know jody sharp had not survived the fall. To cioffi it was clear she had 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 well maybe she had had too much to drink and fell . That entered my mind, yes. Reporter 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 whats going through your mind at that point . How badly is she hurt . Where is she . Why isnt she calling back to me . Reporter thats when an officer walked into the room and broke the news to steven. Jody was gone. I dont even remember who came in and told me. And what was your reaction . Denial, it was, you know, how could this how could this happen . Reporter that question would haunt him and many others and it would take years for the answers to finally come. Coming up there was love in his eyes to make 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. This car is literally my baby. Which is why i use armor all ultra shine wash wipes. They effectively remove dirt, dust and grime with no water. That car is in tip top shape we are both in tip top shape armor all, its easy to look good. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. Flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. Most pills only block one. Flonase. And im the founder of ugmonk. Before shipstation it was crazy, like. Its great when you see a hundred orders come in, but then you realize ive got a hundred orders i have to ship out. Shipstation streamlined that whole process. The order data, the weights of the items, everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping label everythings pretty much done. Its so much easier so now were ready, bring on the orders. Shipstation. The number one choice of online sellers. Go to shipstation. Com tv and get two months free. Welcome back to dateline extra. It started out as a romantic date for a new jersey couple but ended in tragedy. Jody and steven sharp hiked to a favorite spot along the palisades cliff to take in the view. But a short while later, jody fell over the edge and questions about what really happened that night began to mount. Heres Chris Jansing. Reporter 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 10yearold 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 wasnt ashamed. Reporter he remembers his distraught sons 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 hi mom. Reporter 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 thats exactly what police who were there the night of jodys death wanted to know too. Right away i got a feeling that there was something definitely wrong. Reporter it nagged at res e rescurescu rescuer Michael Cioffi. Why was her purse on a ledge . Where is she . She should be ear or the pocketbook should be down with her and it wasnt fitting. Reporter another thought dawned on him. If jody had tumbled, why hasnt she hit the side of the cliffs . There was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. And the location of jodys body seemed off to cioffi. Way off. She was like 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north. A person falls offer the cliff usually theyre going to go south or theyre going to go right down. Should have been right down where i got off the ropes. 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 serrie was surprised steven was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. Did he give any indication, i dont want to leave, my wife could still be alive down there . No, not at all. Reporter serrie says he couldnt believe how willingly steven sharp got into his patrol car. If i tell you if it was my wife, girlfriend, they would have to pry me away. He willingly got into your patrol car. Without a word state. Reporter stranger still how calm the husband seemed. When the officer heard steven describe how his wife had fallen, he made a mental note. There was no emotion in it. I mean no emotion at all like he was reading a script. Did it occur to you, well, maybe hes in shock . No, ive seen people who lost loved ones and ive never seen anybody act that way. Reporter but it was a particular moment later inside the station house that really caught the officers attention. And he asked if he could get a direct from the water fountain, he was looking like over his shoulder and splashing his face and made it look like he was crying . You thought he was faking tears. Absolutely, absolutely. A death scene where the pieces didnt 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 was clicking in my mind, im saying to myself, this isnt right. Something is wrong here. Reporter 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 really was nothing to indicate that jodys fall was anything but an accident. A few months later the ruling was in. The Bergen County medical examiner concluded the manner of jody sharps death could not be determined. An accident was as likely as anything else. Case closed. Or was it . Coming up so you didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. The suspicions grow. Was there a weapon at this romantic rendezvous. You had your wine, cheese, crackers, claw hammer. Red flags going up reached the top of the pole. 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Get 0 apr financing on the 2018 Subaru Forester. Welcome back to dateline extra. Police began to question Steven Sharps behavior after his wife fell from the edge of a cliff. To them he just didnt seem like a grieving husband, but did their suspicions amount to anything more than a hunch . Here again is Chris Jansing. Jodys death on these cliffs had been a horrible accident. Her husband said so. And the medical examiner wasnt arguing with him. But detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. It was telling james lynam something sinter happened. So you didnt think this was a horrible accident. No. Reporter there wasnt any smoking gun really. Just something dark lynam thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. He did not 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 jodys friends that this was a couple not in love but in crisis. The subject wasnt wine and roses on those cliffs, it was divorce. She was going to go through wit, yes, absolutely. Jodys longtime friend told detectives that jody had been determined to take her 10yearold son jonathan and leave her husband. She was convinced steven had been cheating on her. She couldnt prove anything but women called the house and sometimes theyd call and hang up on her. Reporter in fact, lynam learned jody had 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 them even more eager to talk to the widower scharf. There was a sitdown with mr. Scharf. Hes consented to talk. Yes. Reporter two days after his wifes death Steven Scharf was answering detectives question, 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 said they had an open marriage and was with 50 or 60 women. She was okay with that. Yes. He said they had become unhappy with their free love lifestyle and came to this romantic if treacherous spot to recommit to 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 werent buying the story for another reason, they had found something suspicious inside scharfs car, a bag filled with items youd expect for a romantic picnic and one you would not, a hammer. You have your wine, cheese, crackers, opener, claw hammer. I mean, red flags are goldstone up. They reached the top of the pole at that point. Did you think it was a murder weapon. Yeah, i thought that might have been plan a and he didnt use it so he went to plan b. Reporter which lynam beli e believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff so detectives asked Steven Scharf the obvious, what was a hammer doing in that picnic bag . Well, he told us he fixed a drawer in his kitchen with the hammer and he just forgot to put it back in the garage. He put it in the bag with the pickny items. It was just convenient. It was a convenient excuse for having that hammer. Reporter detectives ask fundamental they could check out the drawer and the rest of stevens 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. Scharf, im your local police department. Reporter ted aronberg was told to keep an eye on Steven Scharf 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 he goes, you dont believe me. Reporter and then the officer says scharf 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. Reporter aronberg believed that was a stunning confession. He ran to tell the other detectives including lynam but they had just spent hours grilling the man. We werent getting that feeling that a reinterview at that point would have done anything. Reporter the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate Steven Scharf but they didnt. We took it as far as we could do. The cause of death was listed as undetermined. So officially it wasnt a homicide. Reporter in time, the detectives moved on to other cases, Steven Scharf moved on too. 14 years after his wifes death he remarried. Tina scharf says hes been a loving ideal husband. It was like we were two puzzle pieces that were made for each other where we just each of us complemented and completed the other person. Reporter but even in this happy new life he says, hes never forgotten about jody. But he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking of her too after all these years, Bergen County hadny new prosecutor and he was eagle story revisit old case files. Among them, an unexplained death here on the cliffs of the palisades so many years ago. The death of jody scharf. There was this renewed push since 2002 to look into the coal cases. Reporter kibrette marcus covered them. He said it didnt seem the prosecutor had any reason to pursue the cold case. In terms of hardest, it had absolutely nothing new. Reporter but the prosecutor did have someone new. A famous name to join the investigation into jody scharfs death, dr. Michael baden, a world renowned forensic pa pathologist who investigated the deaths of john f. Kennedy and john belushi and testified at the trial of o. J. Simpson. He was about to turn the heat on a very cold case. Dr. Michael baden has reviewed the evidence and has determined that this could not have been an accidental fall. Reporter in december of 2008, detectives paid one more visit to Steven Scharf. They wouldnt tell me what it was for. I had no idea what this was about. I mean it didnt make sense. Reporter 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff, police were back. And Steven Scharf was in for a shock. After all these years you thought it was done. Not until they reached behind and handed 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 scharfs only son has dark secrets to share. Did you see that abuse . I did. When over the edge continues. In an unreasonably narrow fast food drive thru lane. But what a powerful life lesson. And dont worry i have everything handled. 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President trump spoke with the leaders of france and United Kingdom to discuss their joint missile attack. It was in response to a suspected chemical attack by the Syrian Government on its own people and the Security Council rejected a russian resolution calling for the condemnation of what it called the aggression by the United States and its allies against syria. Now back to dateline. Welcome back to dateline extra. Years after jody scharf fell to her death a famous forensic pathologist was brought in. What could he uncover . Whats stuck in his mind reporter time is an invisible but crucial player for both sides. 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. 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 lied he is guilty. Reporter the state marshaled familiar facts to tell its 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 and then there was the husband himself, cool and collected in the back of a police car. I didnt see any emotion from him at all, sir. Reporter who later confessed the prosecutor said to killing his wife. And then i said, it was an accident . And he said, no. Reporter 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 victims friends, family and most importantly by a star witness. My opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. Reporter dr. Michael baden, the famous forensic pathologist told jurors the crime scene spoke of a murder, not an accident. If a person falls accide accidentally, the individual will be, you know, within a couple of feet of the base of the building. Reporter and that didnt happen in the case of jody scharf. Her body landed 50 feet out from the top of the cliff and 30 feet to the north. She had to have been prop propelled from that point. Reporter jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said and likely from another spot entirely on those cliffs. He wasnt the only expert who saw it that way. Of the head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone that tumbles down the cliff face. Reporter dr. Marian clayton was the Bergen County medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of jodys 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 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 mrs. Scharfs body. Reporter but why would stephen have killed his wife . The biggest reason the prosecutor argued was that stephen did not want a divorce. He didnt want a custody fight and he didnt want to split assets with jody. And there was yet another motive for stephen, said the prosecutor. A potential payout. Usaa Life Insurance company. Reporter an insurance representative testified about a 500,000 policy taken out against jody scharf months before her death. Payable to a primary beneficially. Can you tell us the policy owner. Stephen f. Scharf. Reporter 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, marian 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 it. Reporter yet was stephen violent enough to kill his wife . An unlikely but powerful witness was about to testify against Stephen Scharf. Im here for my mother. Reporter 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. Reporter 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. Reporter now in court, he had even more to tell about his childhood. Like the afternoon he sat cowering in the backseat of a car watching his mother suffer. My mom was driving and my dad just hitting her with the bottom of his fists and i was like begging him to stop doing it. He also remembered the last day of his mothers life. He was 10 and said his mother told his father that she didnt want to go out with him alone. She said, if i wanted to go out with you i wouldnt be divorcing you. Reporter 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 stephens old girlfriends. I even mentioned to my girlfriend that it was perfect relationship. Reporter terry had been dating stephen months before jody scharfs death. Did mr. Scharf tell you whether or not he was married . Actually he said he was not married. Reporter and she remembered something strange stephen said to her on the beach over the that labor day weekend. He was under a lot of stress and the stress would be resolved by the end of september. Reporter 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. Reporter it also went off for marian in perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecutions case, she told the jury when she heard her friend was gone she immediately remember something jody said just weeks earlier. She said that during this conversation that i have with him if anything happens to me, youll know who did it. She said youll know it was him. Reporter the prosecutors 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 those cliffs on a summer night . Stephens 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 Stephen Scharf far from villain was the real victim in this story. 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Com tv and never go to the post office again welcome back to dateline extra. We continue now with over the edge. Once again Chris Jansing. Stephen scharf is not guilty. Reporter 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. Talking about the same old facts and circumstances. Reporter he said the state was hoping to win a murder conviction by painting his client as a terrible husband, that it couldnt prove he was a killer in 1992 and it couldnt prove it today. My client Stephen Scharf has been wrongfully charged with her death. Reporter and one reason the prosecutor couldnt 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 didnt they take photographs . They destroyed the crime scene area. Reporter they didnt 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. Theres a possibility that might have happened. Reporter and if police were so suspicious of his client two nights later, the defense said, why didnt they videotape their interview with him . That way jurors could have judged Stephen Scharfs supposedly odd demeanor for themselves. Why didnt you . He wasnt in custody. I dont know. Reporter the defense attorney also argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. My client never said this wasnt an accident. Reporter as for that hammer police thought was a weapon the hammer was examined by the forensic experts. There was nothing found on that hammer. Reporter and the defense attorney pressed the medical examiner on her flipflop. Undetermined manner of death in 93, now it was a homicide. Really . Are y are you trying to say youre learning from your mistakes on this case . You may call them mistakes, sir. I did the best i could in 1992, documents what i had observed with mrs. Scharf. Reporter 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 0. 12. That was over the legal limit. Would be equivalent to approximately four average size drinks, wine or beer, Something Like that. Reporter a drunken slip and fall argued the defense, to back that up, the lawyer had his own heavy hitter, famed forensic pathologist dr. Cyril wecht. Wecht posted a resume of starstudded investigations too as highprofile as the prosecutions dr. Baden. Only wecht had a totally different take on how jody scharf died. I would call this an accidental death. Reporter in wechts version, which he demonstrated with of all things a teddy bear, jody fell off the cliff and onto jagged rocks just below causing her mortal wounds. Her body then catapulted. And out goes the body and it hurtles into the air. Reporter into the tree canopy which then carries her through the abyss and into that distant tree. This is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and of the head. Reporter but there was another bubble to burst in the prosecutions case. The motive for murder. Stephen scharf wasnt a greedy killer, his attorney 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. Youre damned if you do. Youre damned if you dont. The other motive divorce was flimsy as well. They had been talking breakup 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. Reporter 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 schofield, she recounted stephens mysterious statement just before jodys death. Just give me to the end of september and everything will be okay. The stress will be a lot of the stress will be gone. Reporter the defense Attorney Says that was stephens 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. Reporter the Record Keeper of the dating service testified that jodys name was on an application. She even checked off the interests shed like to share with a mate. The attorney offered that as proof of stephen and jodys 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 wasnt 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 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. Reporter in the end, the lawyer called Stephen Scharfs son a spoiled brat. That sounds like some spoiled kid. Reporter who was not a credible witness. In closing, he insisted that this wasnt 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. Reporter soon it would be in the hands of a jury. Coming up it was a lightbulb. You wouldnt help but think, thats interesting. The jurors speak. What would they decide . Stephen, did you kill your wife, jody . The verdict when over the edge continues. Lident is the fact that its very, very tough on bacteria, yet its very gentle on the denture itself. Polident consists of 4 powerful ingredients that Work Together to deep clean your denture in hard to reach places. That Work Together a lot of paints say ordinthey can do the job,ver. But just one can behr through it all. Behr premium plus, a top rated interior paint at a great price. Family friendly, disaster proof. Find it exclusively at the home depot. With advil liquigels, what bad shoulder . What headache . Advil is relief thats fast strength that lasts youll ask. What pain . With advil liquigels its these new freshfx car air fresheners from armor all. Each scent can create a different mood in my car. Like tranquil skies. Or arctic cool or island oasis. Aloha cena armor all, its easy to smell good. But their nutritional needs remain instinctual. Thats why theres purina one true instinct. Real meat 1. A different breed of natural nutrition. Purina one true instinct. Now, try new purina one true instinct treats. Oh very nice. Now im 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, im 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 cant 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 . Its not broken. The jury is about to decide the fate of Stephen Scharf. Heres Chris Jansing with the conclusion of our story. 18 years after a night that ended in his wifes 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 i did not. I did not. I didnt hurt jody. I didnt push her. I didnt cause her to get hurt. I didnt kill my wife. Reporter 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 theyve paid a high price for something he didnt do. Our daughter is 2 1 2 hen still never held by her father. Because we dont have contact visits. Its not just a tragedy for jody. Its a tragedy for john. Its a tragedy for my wife, its a tragedy for my daughter and for myself. Reporter still, he decided not to take the stand in his own defense. But told dateline that what he first said years ago about his wifes death was the truth. I wish it didnt happen. I wish we had gone to the comedy club. But i didnt im innocent. Reporter 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 wasnt enough evidence for me. Thats what it was. Reporter others were thinking guilty. It was several things. It was no one thing that had made up my mind. Reporter the jurors went back and forth over the evidence. And heres 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 . Reporter 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. Reporter guilty. Later jurors said what united them was the testimony of jodys friend telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. That possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me its my husband. Reporter and it was another woman in stephens life who also swayed the jury. Terry schofield recounting what stephen said to her weeks before jodys death, that his stress would soon be over. That was something that pushed me towards what we decide ted the the end. It was her husband who slipped with that statement. They believe it wasnt just a fall from the cliff, it was a coldblooded execution. Stephen scharf was sentenced to life in prison. He says the jurors condemned him not on the facts but for his and jodys tumultuous open marriage. So you think this was a moral judgment. Yes. On the part of jurors. And i suppose some people would say, well, he was punished for his morals weakness. But this was a murder trial. Reporter but for rescuer Michael Cioffi its a fitting end to a story thats haunted him since that night on the palisades. This has never left me. Its been years. I went back there myself without people knowing it several times because it bothered my. Something was wrong. Reporter for Close Friends like marian, the verdict does not remove the sting of the loss. Im ang go i that he took the life of a beautiful person. Thats 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 the his son, the house, war he wanted and shed be out of the way. I think that was sad. Thats all for this edition of dateline extra. Im craig melvin. Thanks for watching. My dad on the phone told us jenny was gone. A house in flames. The body of a woman inside. We have a body. I need a medic. But it wasnt the fire that killed her. She was dead before it started. Accidents will happen. This was no accident. Who wanted her dead . Her boyfriend said he knew. Theres people after us. What does that mean . Theyre trying to get us. But police knew better. Strangulation is a very personal killing. Thats a very angry killing