Those Cliffs News Today

>> 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, youll 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 wor...

The police called in michael, 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 womans husband said she had fallen. about ten feet down, he caught sight of allege. >> the minute i got to that ledge, there was a pars. i think there was two credit cards. >> on alleged ten feet down? >> right. >> but it was what he didnt see that confused him. there was no sign that the womans body had also hit that ...

But detectives have a kind of sixth sense about these cases and his was telling him, something sinister had just happened. >> you dont think this was overall accident? >> no. >> there wasnt 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 jodys 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 evidenc...

Call today. had been a horrible accident. her husband said so. and the medical examiner was not arguing with him.

About jody. but he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking over to after all these years. bergen countys prosecutor was eager to visit old case files. among them an unexplained death here in the cliffs of the palisades so many years ago. the death of jody charles. >> it was this renewed push since 2002 to look into cold cases. >> this man covered the trial for the record newspaper in new jersey. on one hand he says, it didnt seem like the prosecutor had any reason to pu...

Later, the jurors said that 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. >> and it was another woman in stephens life who also swayed the jury. >> terry school field were counting what stephen said to her weeks before jodys death. that his stress would soon be over. >> that was something that push me towards what we decided in the end. >> it was a lightb...

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 -- >> the defense was ready to show how stephen scharf, far from flynn was the real victim in this story. >> coming up. >> they destroyed the crime scene area. >> new questions about the evidence and was there another reason why is sun might implicate his dad? >> who does the money go to? >> it goes to me...

Friend, telling them that jody was terrified of her husband. >> that possibly she was telling everyone if something happens to me its my husband. >> and it was another woman in stephens life who also swayed the jury. terry scofield 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 decided in the end. >> it was the light bulb. >> to them it wasnt jody who slipped but her husband, with that menacin...

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. >> 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. >> the state marshalled some familiar facts to tell its story, starting with the crime scene, where the p...

And the location of jodys body seemed off to chiofi, way off. >> she was like 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north. a person falls off the cliff, usually theyre going to go south or theyre going to go right down. she should have been right down where i got off the ropes. thats where she should have been. >> someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. it had to do with stephens behavior while the search was under way. officer walter sirry was surprised stephen ...