POTOMAC, Md. — A Maryland woman is back home from her honeymoon, without her new husband.
She's trying to put her life back together after losing the man she just started a new life with.
For newlyweds Jeffanie and Stephen Kramer, it was the happiest time of their lives. "It was amazing. Every moment," Jeffanie Kramer told WJLA.
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The couple was married Sept. 8 in Falls Church. The next day, they headed to Hawaii for their honeymoon.
"You could see the valleys, you could see bits of the mountain. It was gorgeous," said Jeffanie.
But on Sept. 17, Stephen went for a hike and never returned. Jeffanie says Stephen, who was an experienced hiker, wanted to check out the terrain first by himself, hoping to chart out a trail that was safe for his new bride. "I got a text of him saying travel is slow, but I'm on my way back ... That was the last text I got from him."
His body was found four days later. Jeffanie says detectives told her it appeared Stephen somehow lost his footing and fell from a 150-foot cliff.
"We really don't know when your time is up. We don't know if its going to be 9 days after you're married or 20 years after you're married or 50 years."
It's a loss that Jeffanie is still processing as she sits in the home she was supposed to share with Stephen. Wedding gifts still sit unopened and her wedding ring still on her finger.
"I fell in love with him because of his faith," said Jeffanie. "There's more than this life, and he's already living it now."
She says that faith right now is a source of both comfort and strength.
Stephen's body was found Friday.
Officials in Hawaii will conduct an autopsy to determine a cause of death.