Page 4 - Jodi Sharp News Today

>> into the tree canopy which carried her through the abyss and into that distant tree. >> this is what i think happened to explain those injuries of the chest and/or the head. >> there was another bubble to burst in the prosecutions case, the motive for murder. stephen wasnt a greedy killer his attorney said. his client never made a claim on that insurance policy. it was oath after the money was turned over to the state years later, he said, that stephen even bothered to collect. >> would it th...

Away from us to the north. a person falls off the cliff, usually theyre going to go south or right down. they should have been right down where i got off the ropes. >> someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. it had to do with stevens behavior while the search was underway. officer walter siri was surprised steven was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jodi. >> did he give any indication, i dont want to leave, my wife could still b...

Cliffs. jodi had a blood alcohol level of .12. that was over the legal limit. >> it would be equivalent to approximately 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, cyril wecht. wecht had a totally different take on how jodi died. >> i would call this an accidental death. >> in wechts version, which he demonstrated with of all things a teddy bear. jodi fel...

Why isnt she calling back to me? thats when an officer walked into the room and broke the news to steven. jodi was gone. i dont even remember who came in and told me. >> what was your reaction? >> denial. how could this happen. >> that question would haunt him and many others. and it would take years for the answers to finally come. coming up -- >> he was rubbing his eyes to make it look like he was crying. >> you thought he was faking tears? >> absolutely. >> curious behavior puts a husband u...

Building. >> and that didnt happen in the case of jodi sharp. >> her body landed 50 feet out from the top of the cliff. >> she had to have been propelled from that point. >> jodi had to have been thrown or pushed to her death. and likely from another spot entirely on those cliffs. he wasnt the only expert who saw it that way. >> the head and chest injuries are not consistent with someone who tumbles down the cliff face. >> dr. mary ann clayton first ruled the circumstances of jodis death could n...

Somethings wrong here. >> 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 was nothing to indicate that jodis fall was anything but an accident. a few months later, the ruling was in. the burgen county medical examiner concluded the manner of jodis death could not be determined. an accident was as likely as anything else. case closed. or was it. co...

>> not an interrogation, he wasnt in custody, i dont know. >> the defense attorney argued the police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. >> my client never said this wasnt an accident. >> as for that hammer police thought was a weapon. >> the hammer was examined by the forensic experts. there was nothing found on that hammer. >> and the defense attorney pressed the medical examiner on her flip-flop. undetermined manner of death in 93, now it was a homicide? >> reall...

On a very cold case. >> hes reviewed the evidence and determined this could not have been an accidental fall. >> in december of 2008, detectives paid one more visit to steven sharp. >> they wouldnt tell me what it was for. i had no idea what this was about much it didnt make sense. >> 16 years after that fatal night on the cliff. police were back. and steven sharp was in for a shock. >> after all these years, he thought it was done? >> not until they reached behind and handed me this thing. this...

Everywhere, she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of her body. >> why would steven have killed his wife. the biggest reason was that steven did not want a divorce. he didnt want a custody fight. and he didnt want to split assets with jodi. there was yet another motive for steven, so the prosecutor. a potential payout. >> usaa life insurance policy. >> a $500,000 policy taken out months before her death. payable to a primary beneficiary. >> can you tell us the policy owner? >...

What happened on the cliffs edge. 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, even they couldnt guess it would take almost 20 years what happened to a woman out on an evening hike without her husband. heres chris jansen. >> every couple has it, a shared song, a favorite movie, or maybe a special place. for him and his wife jodi, this was it. two rocks forming a lovers chair on the ed...