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Interviewed jonathan back in 2008, the young man described his dad as a good guy. >> i think he was a, you know, fairly decent, you know, fairly decent guy. >> it was only after detectives told him his dad had just been arrested that the son turned on his father. >> she got coffee thrown at her by him. >> before you found out that your dad was arrested, did you lie? >> yes. >> did you lie more than once? >> yes. why would jonathan turn on his father and lie? if scharf was convicted, he would get all the money.

Now, on second look, she said, the victim's wounds, or lack of them, told her something different. something vital. if jody had tumbled innocently down the palisades, she would have had broken bones everywhere. she did not. >> there were no visible injuries on the back of mrs. scharf's body. >> why would stephen have killed his wife? the biggest reason, the prosecutors argued, was that stephen did not want a divorce. he didn't want a custody fight and he didn't want to split assets with jody. and there was yet another motive for stephen said the prosecutor. a potential payout. >> usaa life ins...

Sometimes they would call and hang up on her. >> in fact, linum learned jody had served her husband divorce papers on september 8, 1992. less than two weeks later, she was dead. at the base of the palisades. the timing made him even more eager to talk to the widower scharf. >> there was a sit-down with mr. scharf. he has consented to talk, right? >> yes. >> two days after his wife's death, stephen scharf was freely answering detectives' questions. 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 o...

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 wasn't 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 jody's death could not be determined. now, on second look, she said, the victim's wounds, or lack of them, told her something differe...

>> why didn't you? >> not an interrogation. he wasn't in custody. i don't know. >> the defense attorney also argued that police misinterpreted what his client said in his home just hours later. >> my client never said this wasn't 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. now it was a homicide? really? >> are you trying to say that you are learning from your mistakes...