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 but even they couldnt 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. Heres Chris Jansing. Every couple has it, a shared song, a Favorite Movie or maybe a special place. Steven sharp says for him and his wife jody, this was it. Two rocks forming a lovers chair on the edge of a cliff. That was our spot. We would bring a hibachi, a couple of lawn chair, a cooler. And shed bring her work from graduate school. Reporter theyd been escaping to this magical place for years, ever since they were newlyweds in a starter apartment in new jersey. Up here the air was fresh and the views seemed limits. It sort of framed by trees but you could look down to the right and see the view of the George Washington bridge. Reporter what they couldnt see from here, of course, was the future. Had they caught even a glimpse of what was to come, surely they would have abandoned this place forever. Steven and jody met in the late 70s in georgia. He was in the army, a bookworm who loved the civil war. She taught history. Theirs was a meeting first of minds, then hearts. How would you sort of describe those early years . Were they loveing . Were they exciteing . Yes, they were you another, we were in love. We were ecstatic. Reporter from there, marriage, a house, a son jonathan in 1983. And how would you describe jody as a mom . She was really devoted. Reporter life was good and even as the years went by, even with the demands of work and family, steven says he and jody still made time for each other. Like that last summer sunday in september of 1992. Steven says it was supposed to be a date night. It wasnt no idea that would be the most critical day in our life in our marriage. What was the day like . Any other day . Yes. Reporter here was the plan, husband and wife would drive into manhattan and go to a comedy club, a lighthearted night on the town. But they made a detour here to the palisades to their spot. Steven remembers pulling up to the scenic lookout sitting in the car with jody sharing a wine cooler. There were other people there sitting this their cars and walked up, looked over the spot where the binoculars were and walked up to this sort of open view. Reporter he says they then turned and took a well worn path to the rocks and sat there as the night fell around them. He with his back against the rock holding her as she sat directly in front of him. At some point something goes terribly wrong. Yes. Reporter he says he stood up intending to go back to the car to get wine and a blanket. For whatever reason jody stood up too. The edge. The rock was at her feet. What was your last glimpse of your wife . Just standing up and, you know, and stumbling forward. Reporter jody had gone off the cliff. I didnt know how bad things were but i was stunned. What did you do . I got down on my stomach. I stuck my head over the and i just yelled, jody, jodi yi, talk to me. I just yelled down there. Reporter but no response. He grabbed a flashlight and flagged down a motorist who came here to the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police station. Lieutenant walter serrie was on duty. Until he came through the door it was a very quiet night. Reporter the frantic man was telling them a woman had fallen from the lookout above and that her husband was waiting for help. The Police Called in Michael Cioffi, an experienced climber. I was there as a rescue mission. I thought she was alive. Reporter 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 a ledge. The minute i got to the ledge i observed the purse. I think it was two credit cards. On a ledge ten feet down. Right. Reporter but it was what he didnt see that confused him. There was no sign that the womans body had also hit that ledge or any part of the cliffs. Nothing. No blood, no hair, no clothing, no fibers, no skin. Reporter by that point officer walter serrie had arrived up at the lookout. Since there was nothing the husband could do to help in the rescue, serrie was told to get him out of the way and drove him back down to police headquarters. On the way, steven recounted the awful moment when his wife disappeared. We were walking and she said for me to go back to the car and get the blanket and she slipped and i didnt see her anymore. Reporter as they arrived at the station rescue cioffi made it to the base more than 100 feet below the top. He expected to find a wounded woman there, but he didnt. Im saying shes not here. Im at the first point i thought maybe this is a hoax. Maybe she never really went off the cliff. Reporter he and another rescuer began to walk along the base pointing flashlights north. Finally about 30 feet away the beams landed on something white. It was jody lying motionless next to a tree. There was a lot of blood on that tree and the blood was actually draining down the tree. Thats where severe impact took. Thats where she really, you know jody sharp had not survived the fall. To cioffi it was clear she had slammed into that tree. As they began to move the body, he noticed something else. She had an odor of an alcoholic beverage that emanated from her body. When you smelled that did you think well maybe she had had too much to drink and fell . That entered my mind, yes. Reporter at that moment, steven sharp was sitting in a room at the Police Station waiting for someone to tell him what had happened to his wife. Do you remember whats going through your mind at that point . How badly is she hurt . Where is she . Why isnt she calling back to me . Reporter thats when an officer walked into the room and broke the news to steven. Jody was gone. I dont even remember who came in and told me. And what was your reaction . Denial, it was, you know, how could this how could this happen . Reporter that question would haunt him and many others and it would take years for the answers to finally come. Coming up there was love in his eyes to make look like he was crying. You thought he was faking tears. Absolutely. Curious behavior puts a husband under the microscope. When over the edge continues. This car is literally my baby. Which is why i use armor all ultra shine wash wipes. They effectively remove dirt, dust and grime with no water. That car is in tip top shape we are both in tip top shape armor all, its easy to look good. You wouldnt accept from any one else. Why accept it from your allergy pills . Flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills dont. 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Reporter it was the worst night of his life and now steven sharp in the Early Morning hours of september 21st, 1992, had to tell his 10yearold son jonathan his mother was dead. I said, come on, jonathan. We need to take a walk and i told him and he immediately burst into tears and i cried. I cried like a baby and i wasnt ashamed. Reporter he remembers his distraught sons reaction but little else from those dark hours. Were you sleeping . Were you eating . Drinking. You were drinking . I lost my wife, my son lost hi mom. Reporter there was plenty of sympathy among family and friends to be sure for the man newly widowed with a small child to raise on his own. 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. Reporter it nagged at res e rescurescu rescuer Michael Cioffi. Why was her purse on a ledge . Where is she . She should be ear or the pocketbook should be down with her and it wasnt fitting. Reporter another thought dawned on him. If jody had tumbled, why hasnt she hit the side of the cliffs . There was no blood or hair anywhere on the rocks. And the location of jodys body seemed off to cioffi. Way off. She was like 30 to 40 feet away from us to the north. A person falls offer the cliff usually theyre going to go south or theyre going to go right down. Should have been right down where i got off the ropes. Reporter someone else was scratching his head about that night for different reasons. It had to do with stevens behavior while the search was under way. Officer walter serrie was surprised steven 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 be alive down there . No, not at all. Reporter serrie says he couldnt believe how willingly steven sharp got into his patrol car. If i tell you if it was my wife, girlfriend, they would have to pry me away. He willingly got into your patrol car. Without a word state. Reporter stranger still how calm the husband seemed. When the officer heard steven describe how his wife had fallen, he made a mental note. There was no emotion in it. I mean no emotion at all like he was reading a script. Did it occur to you, well, maybe hes in shock . No, ive seen people who lost loved ones and ive never seen anybody act that way. Reporter but it was a particular moment later inside the station house that really caught the officers attention. And he asked if he could get a direct from the water fountain, he was looking like over his shoulder and splashing his face and made it look like he was crying . You thought he was faking tears. Absolutely, absolutely. A death scene where the pieces didnt connect. A husband who appeared nonchalant. From a cops point of view, things were adding up and not in stevens favor. Not just one thing, it was like the totality of the circumstances. Everything every little thing was clicking in my mind, im saying to myself, this isnt right. Something is wrong here. Reporter 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 really was nothing to indicate that jodys fall was anything but an accident. A few months later the ruling was in. The Bergen County medical examiner concluded the manner of jody sharps death could not be determined. An accident was as likely as anything else. Case closed. Or was it . Coming up so you didnt think this was a horrible accident . No. The suspicions grow. Was there a weapon at this romantic rendezvous. You had your wine, cheese, crackers, claw hammer. Red flags going up reached the top of the pole. 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Get 0 apr financing on the 2018 Subaru Forester. Welcome back to dateline extra. Police began to question Steven Sharps behavior after his wife fell from the edge of a cliff. To them he just didnt seem like a grieving husband, but did their suspicions amount to anything more than a hunch . Here again is Chris Jansing. Jodys death on these cliffs had been a horrible accident. Her husband said so. And the medical examiner wasnt arguing with him. But detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. It was telling james lynam something sinter happened. So you didnt think this was a horrible accident. No. Reporter there wasnt any smoking gun really. Just something dark lynam thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jodys death. He did not react like somebody who just lost his wife should have reacted. Reporter and so the detective moved his investigation from the 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 wit, yes, absolutely. Jodys longtime friend told detectives that jody had been determined to take her 10yearold son jonathan and leave her husband. She was convinced steven had been cheating on her. She couldnt prove anything but women called the house and sometimes theyd call and hang up on her. Reporter in fact, lynam learned jody had served her husband divorce papers on september 8th, 1992. Less than two weeks later, she was dead at the base of the palisades. The timing made them even more eager to talk to the widower scharf. There was a sitdown with mr. Scharf. Hes consented to talk. Yes. Reporter two days after his wifes death Steven Scharf was answering detectives question, yes, he told them he and his wife were talking divorce as they had sometimes done during their tempestuous marriage and it was true there were other women. He said they had an open marriage and was with 50 or 60 women. She was okay with that. Yes. He said they had become unhappy with their free love lifestyle and came to this romantic if treacherous spot to recommit to each other, steven said, to kiss and make up. And the spot where they went is not a spot where you would go to reconcile with anybody. Detectives werent buying the story for another reason, they had found something suspicious inside scharfs car, a bag filled with items youd expect for a romantic picnic and one you would not, a hammer. You have your wine, cheese, crackers, opener, claw hammer. I mean, red flags are goldstone up. They reached the top of the pole at that point. Did you think it was a murder weapon. Yeah, i thought that might have been plan a and he didnt use it so he went to plan b. Reporter which lynam beli e believed was to push or throw jody off that cliff so detectives asked Steven Scharf the obvious, what was a hammer doing in that picnic bag . Well, he told us he fixed a drawer in his kitchen with the hammer and he just forgot to put it back in the garage. He put it in the bag with the pickny items. It was just convenient. It was a convenient excuse for having that hammer. Reporter detectives ask fundamental they could check out the drawer and the rest of stevens house that night. He agreed. But as it turned out, something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. And i said, look, mr. Scharf, im your local police department. Reporter ted aronberg was told to keep an eye on Steven Scharf that night as detectives combed through his house. The officer says he began talking to steven about what had happened to jody when steven interrupted him. He finally looks at me and he goes, you dont believe me. Reporter and then the officer says scharf said something that almost knocked him off his feet. I said, i believe an accident occurred and i said was it an accident and he put his head down and he said no. Reporter aronberg believed that was a stunning confession. He ran to tell the other detectives including lynam but they had just spent hours grilling the man. We werent getting that feeling that a reinterview at that point would have done anything. Reporter the detectives still believed they could find solid evidence to implicate Steven Scharf but they didnt. We took it as far as we could do. The cause of death was listed as undetermined. So officially it wasnt a homicide. Reporter in time, the detectives moved on to other cases, Steven Scharf moved on too. 14 years after his wifes death he remarried. Tina scharf says hes been a loving ideal husband. It was like we were two puzzle pieces that were made for each other where we just each of us complemented and completed the other person. Reporter but even in this happy new life he says, hes never forgotten about jody. But he might have been surprised to learn that someone else was thinking of her too after all these years, Bergen County hadny new prosecutor and he was eagle story 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 coal cases. Reporter kibrette marcus covered them. He said it didnt seem the prosecutor had any reason to