Caroline was married to Thorne, but still in love with Ridge at the time. Ridge sneaked into Carolines bedroom one night and they made love. Thorne, high on sleeping pills, saw them and was devastated. He drank himself drunk and got hold of the gun. He saw Ridge and pulled the trigger. Stephanie saw this from her window and ran outside. Ridge had been shot in the head. The police and ambulance came and Ridge was in a coma for a while. Lieutenant Burke was sure that it was more to it than a burglar shooting Ridge, as Stephanie had told him. So, in order to protect Thorne, Stephanie confessed to have shot Ridge by accident as she had thought he was a burglar. Lt. Burke didn’t believe her, but arrested her anyway. Stephanie was put in custody but was later released. Lt. Burke didn’t have any proof that Thorne was the real shooter and couldn´t therefore arrest him. He tried to convince Stephanie to come clean saying that Thorne was a ticking timebomb, ready to explode. But Stephanie didn´t do as he wanted. She refused to turn Thorne in. Ridge later recovered and wanted to know who shot him. Eric and Stephanie sat him down and told their son that his brother had done it. Things were tense between the brothers, but as lots of time passed they made up.