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Stephen scharf at the bergen county jail where he was held for more than two years after his arrest in 2008. he and his wife tina say they have paid a high price for something he didn't do. >> our daughter is two and a half and has never been held by her father because we don't have contact visits. >> it's not just a tragedy for jody. it's a tragedy for john. it's a tragedy for my wife. for my daughter. and for myself. >> reporter: still, he decided not to take the stand in his own defense. but told "dateline" that what he first said years ago about his wife's death was the truth. >> i wish it...

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. >> reporter: 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. >> reporter: the state marshalled familiar facts to tell its story, starting with the crime scene where the prosecutor said the cliffs showed no sign of an accidenta...

By the end of september. >> reporter: 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. then the lightbulb went off immediately. >> reporter: it also went off for marion. in perhaps the most chilling testimony of the prosecution's case she told the jury when she heard her friend was gone she immediately remembered something jody said just weeks earlier. >> she said that during this conversation that i had with him, if anything happens to me, you'll know who did it. she said, you'll know it was him. >> ...

>> 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 sit-down with mr. scharf. he's consented to talk, right? >> yes. >> reporter: two days after his wife's death, stephen 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. it was true. there were other women. >> he said there was an open marriage...

>> i didn't see any emotion from him at all, sir. >> reporter: who later confessed, the prosecutor said, to killing his wife. >> then i said, it was an accident? he said, no. >> reporter: but those facts were not where the case ended. the prosecutor argued that they set the stage for the real case -- a story told by the victim's friends, family and most importantly, by a star witness. >> my opinion is that the manner of death is homicide. >> reporter: dr. michael bodden, the forensic pathologist, told jurors the crime scene speak of a murder, not an accident. >> if a person falls accidentally,...