Page 5 - Those Cliffs News Today

Physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from jodys friends that this was a couple not in love but in crisis. the subject wasnt wine and roses on those cliffs. it was divorce. >> she was going to go through with it, yes. absolutely. >> jodys long-time friend told detectives that jody had been determined to take her 10-year-old son jonathan and leave her husband. she was convinced stephen had been cheating on her. >> she couldnt prove anything, but women called the house. ...

Is an invisible but crucial player for both sides. >> 16 years. >> sometimes it hurts a case. memories fade. evidence is lost. witnesses die. but time can also put evidence 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 ed...

Been drunk the night she fell off the cliffs. jody had a blood alcohol level 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 prosecutions dr. baden. only wecht had a totally different...

Usually theyre going to go south or theyre going to go right down. they 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 seary was surprised stephen was willing to leave the lookout as rescuers were still looking for jody. >> did he give any indication, "i dont want to leave. my wife could still ...

The top of the cliff. and 30 feet to the north. >> she had to have been propelled from that point. >> jody had to have been thrown or pushed to her death, he said, 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 that tumbles down the cliff face. >> dr. mary anne clayton was the bergen county medical examiner who first ruled the circumstances of jodys death could not be determine...

His wife had died in a freak accident, off a cliff, of all places. how could that happen? and thats exactly what police who were there the night of jodys death wanted to know too. >> right away i got a feeling that there was something definitely wrong. >> it nagged as rescuer michael chiofi. why was jodys purse on a ledge just feet below where her husband said she had fallen? >> where is she? she should be here. part of her should be here. >> thats the first thing that came to you. >> either she...

Strange stephen said to her on the beach over that labor day weekend. >> he was under a lot of stress, and the stress would be resolved by the end of september. >> two weeks later, jody scharf was dead. terry now sees that cryptic statement in a dreadful light. >> i was like, oh, no, the end of september. and then the light bulb went off immediately. >> it also went off for mary anne hilferdi. in perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecutions case, she told the jury that when she heard ...

Ledge or any part of the cliffs. >> nothing. no blood, no hair, no clothing, no fibers, no skin. >> by that point, officer walter seary had arrived at the lookout. since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, they took him to police headquarters. on the way stephen recalled the awful moment when his wife disappeared. >> we were walking. she said for me to go back in the car and get the blanket and she slipped and i didnt see her anymore. >> as seary and the man arrived at ...

Them that she was terrified of her husband. >> possibly she was telling everyone if something happened to me its my husband. >> it was another woman in stevens leif that swayed the jury. >> that was something that pushed me towards what we decided in the end. >> it was the light bulb. >> to them, it wasnt jodey who slipped, but her husband. they believe it wasnt just a fall from the cliffs, it was a cold-blooded execution. steven sharp was sentenced to life in prison. he says the jurors condemne...

>> why didnt you? >> not an interrogation. he wasnt in custody. i dont know. >> the defense attorney also argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. >> my client never said this wasnt an accident. >> and 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. n...