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Smoking gun really. just something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jody's death. >> e he didn't react like somebody who had just lost his wife should have reacted. >> reporter: so the detective moved from the physical evidence to the less tangible clues. he quickly learned from jody's friends that this was a couple not in love, but in crisis. the subject wasn't wine and roses on those cliffs. it was divorce. >> she was going to go through with it, yes. absolutely. >> reporter: jody's long-time friend told detectives that jody had be...

It was just convenient. it was a convenient excuse for having the hammer. >> reporter: detectives asked if they could check out the drawer and the rest of stephen's house that night. he agreed. but something potentially far more telling was happening away from the action. >> i said, look, i'm your local police department. >> reporter: ted aaronburg was a local officer told to keep an eye on stephen that night as detectives combed through the house. the officer said he began talking to stephen about what happened to jody when stephen interrupted him. >> he finally looked at me and he goes, you ...

>> reporter: jody's death on these cliffs had been a horrible accident. her husband said so. and the medical examiner wasn't arguing with him. but detectives have a kind of sixth sense about cases. it was telling james linum something sinister had just happened. so you didn't think this was a horrible accident? >> no. >> reporter: there wasn't any smoking gun really. just something dark he thought he could read between the lines in the police notes he reviewed the day after jody's death. >> e he didn't react like somebody who had just lost his wife should have reacted. >> reporter: so the dete...

Talking to stephen about what happened to jody when stephen interrupted him. >> he finally looked at me and he goes, you don't believe me. >> reporter: then the officer says he said something that almost knocked him off his feet. >> i said, i believe an accident occurred. i said, was it an accident? he put his head down and he said, no. >> reporter: aaronburg believes that was a stunning confession. he ran to tell the other detectives, including linum but they had spent hours grilling the man. >> we weren't getting the feeling that a reinterview would have done anything. >> reporter: the detec...

>> she was going to go through with it, yes. absolutely. >> reporter: jody's 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 couldn't prove anything, but women called the house. sometimes they'd call and hang up on her. >> reporter: 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 more eager to talk to the widower scharf. there was a s...