they were so happy at first, sharing a lovers perched high atop a cliff. but romance turned to danger, she fell from the edge. i would call this an accidental death. but whas 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, jody? i did not. what happened on the cliffs edge? hello and welcome to dateline. when police got word that someone had fallen off a cliff, they weren t surprised. the place was known to be dangerous. but even they could not 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. here s chris jansen. every couple has it. a shared song, a favorite movie, or maybe a special place. stephen scharf says that for his wife and him jody, this was it. two rocks forming a lover s chair on the edge of a cliff. that was our spot. we would br
atop a cliff. but romance turned to danger. she fell from the edge. i would call this an accidental death. but whas 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, jody? i did not. what happened on the cliffs edge? hello and welcome to dateline. when police got word that someone had fallen off a cliff, they weren t surprised. the place was known to be dangerous. but even they could not 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. here s chris jansen. every couple has it. a shared song, a favorite movie, or maybe a special place. stephen scharf says that for his wife and him jody, this was it. two rocks forming a lover s chair on the edge of a cliff. that was our spot. we would bring a couple of long chairs, a cooler, and she would bring her work
the subject was not wine and roses on those cliffs. it was divorce. she was going to go through with it. yes. absolutely. jody s lifelong friend marion, told detectives that jody had been determined to take her ten-year-old son jonathan and leave her husband. she was convinced stephen 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, detective lineman learned jody had served her husband divorced papers on september 8th, 1992. less than two weeks later, she was dead at the base of the palisades. the timing made him even more eager to talk to the widdower. there is a sit down with mr. scharf. he s consented to talk, right? yes. two days after his wife staff, stephen was freely answering detective questions. yes, he told them, he and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during
but detectives have a kind of sixth sense about these cases and his was telling him, something sinister had just happened. you don t think this was overall accident? no. there wasn t any smoking gun, really. just something dark he thought he could read between between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jody s death. he did not react like somebody who had 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 jody s friends, that this was a couple, not in love, but in crisis. the subject was not wine and roses on those cliffs. it was divorce. she was going to go through with it. yes. absolutely. jody s lifelong friend marion, told detectives that jody had been determined to take her ten-year-old son jonathan and leave her husband. she was convinced stephen had been cheating on her. she couldn t prove anything, but women called the house.