Page 12 - Eric Bechler News Today

>> reporter: its no confession but its not a denial, either. are you thinking to yourself at thats it, i got him? >> i thought it was good but i didnt think it was enough. >> reporter: remember, pegye had a life insurance policy worth more than $2 million. again, she tried to get him to give her a reason. >> what made you want to go -- >> she was going to steal the kids away and i was never going to see them again. >> reporter: eric reassured tina. >> all i know i would never, ever do anything t...

Glenda tried to stay optimistic. >> i absolutely thought they would find her. >> reporter: maybe alive? >> i did. because she was a fabulous swimmer. >> reporter: glenda went to the bechler house to see eric. how did he look? >> hysterical. a little bit. he had been crying and his face was red and you know, all of those things. he looked upset. as he should be. one would expect. >> shes the best person. >> reporter: this video from local news shows a devastated eric. it was now day two of the se...

>> reporter: because when relationships go sideways sometimes people start talking. >> thats right. >> reporter: and thats what happened two weeks after erics apparent confession. a neighbor called 911 after hearing yelling coming from tinas apartment. when police arrived, eric was gone but tina was angry and she still had the business card detective murphy had given her almost two years earlier. >> i grabbed my partner, we went out there in the middle of the night and we met up with tina. >> re...

Thing back? >> yeah, i did. >> but she says she always felt he was guilty and in the winter of 2000, eric bechler went on trial. the star witness, tina, a witness was, to be fair, compromised, not just by her waffling by erics guilt and her own checkered past but the one detail and story tina says eric told her something the defense attorney says is critical. >> youd expect, if pegyes head was caved in by 35 pound dumb bells, thered be blood. >> quite a lot of it. >> everywhere. and there wasnt....

But not enough to determine whether it was human blood. it could have come from a fish. not enough evidence to arrest eric for murder or even prove that a murder occurred. pegyes close friend glenda didnt believe eric was a killer. >> theres no way that eric would have done that. theres just absolutely no way. it was unfathomable to me. >> reporter: tina new felt the same way. >> i felt like the police were just trying to frame an innocent man. i thought theres no way. the way he treats me, ther...

The kids to visit pegyes parents -- >> there was a lot of animosity towards me. i understood why. >> reporter: all they saw was this hot young woman who had been brought in to replace their missing daughter. >> right. right. exactly three months to the day. i cant even imagine what they were thinking. >> reporter: pegyes family wasnt alone. detective sean murphy had also noticed the new woman in eric bechlers life. >> she was ostentatious. she was just a hot number as they say. she was cohabitat...

At the ceiling together. all of a sudden as we were talking, it just came to me and i said to him, i said oh, my god, you hit her over the head. he goes how did you know that? >> reporter: the fact is, she hadnt known. call it intuition or the effects of the drug or a random guess. but it was an opening and tina barreled through. >> i said you need to tell me the truth. hes calmly talking to me and he says im going to tell you the truth. he goes we had this huge party so everybody could see how ...

Thought -- what i thought of the idea of him killing his wife. and i was pretty much shocked. i didnt know what to say. he told me that he was thinking of taking her out to the ocean and dumping her in a barrel. >> he said when he saw there was a boating accident and erics wife was missing, he knew right then and there, he saw it on tv, he knew that he had killed his wife. and he lied to us. he said because he panicked and was afraid and he didnt know what to do. >> reporter: detectives convince...

>> reporter: until that summer day in 1997 when the unimaginable happened. >> male, kind of distraught, said that his wife fell overboard. >> reporter: it was a boating accident, said eric, and the coast guard agreed. something they see all too often. but soon, secrets emerged that would make some people wonder. what really happened to pegye bechler? >> coming up -- >> i absolutely thought they would find her. >> reporter: maybe alive? >> i did. she was a fabulous swimmer.

Good, there was no problems with it. >> reporter: you didnt take his word for it? >> no. in our game we dont take anyones word for anything. we look into it. thats what we did. >> reporter: they met with the improbably named kobe laker. erics best friend. and kobe backed up eric. >> they had a terrific marriage and there was no problems whatsoever. >> reporter: but if the marriage seemed solid, there were questions about pegye. at least according to linda bechler, erics mother. linda says pegye ...