these years. bergen county had a new prosecutor, and he was eager to 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. it was this renewed push since 2002 to look into the cold cases. kibat marcos covered the trial for the record 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 scharf s death. dr. michael badden, a world renowned forensic 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 up the heat on a very cold case.
husband himself. cool and collected in the back of a police car. i didn t see any emotion from him at all, sir. 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 accidentally, 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
dr. michael baden has reviewed the evidence and has determined that this could not have been an accidental fall. in december of 2008 detectives paid one more visit to stephen scharf. they wouldn t tell me what it was for. i had no idea what this was about. i mean, it didn t make sense. 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff police were back and stephen scharf was in for a shock. after all these years you thought it was done. not until they reached behind and hand me this thing, this arrest warrant. coming up the case heads into court with a surprise from the stand. i m here for my mother. stephen and jody scharf s only son has some dark secrets to share. did you see that abuse? i did. when over the edge continues. ver the edge continues.
of .12. that was over the legal limit. 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 forensic pathologist dr. cyril wecht. wecht posted a resume of star-studded investigations too, as high-profile as the prosecution s dr. baden. only wecht had a totally different take on how jody scharf died. i would call this an accidental death. in wecht s version, which he demonstrated with of all things a teddy bear, jody fell off the cliff and on to jagged rocks just below, causing her mortal wounds. her body then catapulted. and out goes the body and it hurtles into the air. into the tree canopy, which then carried her through the abyss and into that distant
prosecutor, and he was eager to 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 cold cases. gilbert marcos covered the trial for the record 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 scharf s death, dr. michael badden, a world-renowned forensic 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 up the heat on a very cold case. dr. michael badden has reviewed the evidence and has determined that this could not