and we walked up, looked over the spot where the binoculars were and then walked over to this sort of open view. he says they then turned and took a narrow well-worn path to those rocks. they sat there as the night fell around them. he with his back against the rock holding her as she sat directly in front of him. at some point something goes terribly wrong. yes. he says he stood up, intending to go back to the car to get wine and the blanket. for whatever reason jody stood up too. the edge of the rock was at her feet. what was your last glimpse of your wife? just standing up and, you know, stumbling forward. jody had gone 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.
life was good, and even as the years went by, even with the demands of work and family, steven says he and jody still made time for each other. like that last summer sunday in september of 1992. steven says it was supposed to be a date night. it wasn t no idea that that would be the most critical day in our life, in our marriage. it was a day like any other day. yes. here was the plan. husband and wife would drive into manhattan and go to a comedy club, a 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 in their cars.
a person falls off the cliff, usually they re going to go south or they re going to go right down. she should have been right down where i grot off the ropes. that s where she should have been. someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. it had to do with stephen s behavior while the search was under way. officer walter sirry was surprised stephen was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. did he give any indication i don t want to leave, my wife could still be alive down there? no. none at all. sirry says he couldn t believe how willingly stephen scharf got into his patrol car. i tell you, if it was my wife, girlfriend, whoever, they would have had to pry me away from that scene if i was still at the top of the cliffs. but he willingly got into your patrol car. without a word said. stranger still was how calm the husband seemed. when the officer heard stephen describe how his wife had fallen, he made a men
[ready forngs ] christmas? no, it s way too early to be annoyed by christmas. you just need some holiday spirit! that s it! this feud just went mobile. with xfinity xfi you get the best wifi experience at home. and with xfinity mobile, you get the best wireless coverage for your phone. .you re about to find out! you don t even know where i live. hello! see the grinch in theaters by saying get grinch tickets into your xfinity x1 voice remote. a guy just dropped this off. he-he-he-he. welcome back to dateline extra. it started out as a romantic date for a new jersey couple, but it ended in tragedy. jody and stephen scharf hiked to
i zuk my hestuck my head over t i just yelled. jody. jody, talk to me. i just yelled down there. but no response. he grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist. he came here to the palisades interstate parkway police station. lieutenant walter sirry was on duty. until he came through that door it was a quiet, very quiet night. and all hell broke loose. 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 chiofi, an experienced climber. i was there as a rescue mission. i thought she was alive. he began to lower himself off the side of the cliff where the woman s husband said she had fallen. about ten feet down he caught sight of a ledge. the minute i got to that ledge i observed a purse. i think it was two credit cards. on a ledge ten feet down. right. but it was what he didn t see that confused him. there was no sign that the