Page 13 - Eric Bechler News Today

>> i will. >> now. i dont trust you. im afraid of you now. >> im just, all im asking, you dont have to, nobody knows anything but you. you dont have to tell anybody anything. >> reporter: eric pulled over and got out. and tina hopped in the driver seat. >> if you guys can still hear me, meet me at my house thats where im going to be. >> reporter: just like that, tina new drove away from her old life. >> in the end you got enough? >> oh, absolutely, yeah. >> you understand youre under arrest? >> ...

Jail cell -- >> uh-huh. >> --sometimes do pretty crazy things when they realize that might happen to them. >> i believe that, but not pegye. >> reporter: glenda did tell the detectives that pegye and eric were having some issues, like how pegye was busy with work and kids while eric seemed occupied on the volleyball court. >> she just confided in me that they were having some financial troubles because, you know, they had a pretty high lifestyle to keep up with. >> reporter: glenda said eric and...

Hard she didnt feel a thing." and im just like, "what do you mean you hit her so hard?" and he goes, "i hit her over the head with the weight." >> reporter: she said he told her there was blood everywhere. then, tina says eric bechler told her how he got rid of his wife. >> he did some knot that he knows, and he-- he did her wrists and her ankles together so she was completely bent in half. he said he took the two trash bags that he had and put her body in it, and then he said he put the weights...

Their way out and said there was a "pretty good swell" in the ocean. >> was it as high as the side of the boat? >> probably. >> it was, you know, big enough to notice. >> reporter: eric said they stopped out here on the water to enjoy some margaritas pegye had made. and then later in the day they decided to try the body board again, this time on their way back to the harbor. pegye was driving. eric was being pulled on the board. >> well, i mean theres a wave and all of a sudden it got real big, ...

Volleyball on the beach." >> reporter: dave was glendas husband. >> i asked pegye if she wanted to come down with me and she said absolutely. she immediately spotted eric and said, "whos that?" >> reporter: eric bechler, then in his early 20s, was a walking commercial for the california beach life. >> im going to guess when she notices a guy playing beach volleyball, hes good looking and in great shape. >> indeed he was. >> and handsome. >> very. he was all those things. >> reporter: and he was ...

Therapy business and eric, a computer whiz, managed the technical side of their venture which quickly became very profitable. >> her business was doin good. and she was happily married. >> reporter: and the happy couple was also happily spending a lot of money. on a german sports car, italian clothing and a spectacular bluffside home in newport beach. >> they were the little dream story. beautiful girl, good-looking guy, drive nice cars, beautiful children. >> reporter: until that summer day in ...

>> we were excited about in a morbid kind of way, because we knew it was going to go sideways. >> 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 9-1-1 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 grabb...

Were listening in. even so, he stuck to his story that pegyes death was a terrible accident. >> i was there i know what happened, and i -- its so hard for me to understand you know that there could be another -- people could think anything else. >> you never said, "hey look man, i dont know what the -- you guys are talking about, but im innocent." you never said anything about anything. >> i have so. do i have to say it every week? >> kobi tried again. >> i protected you. i basically made you lo...

Myself, has nothing to do with what he did. >> reporter: after seven days, the verdict. guilty of first degree murder. >> youre thrilled that the man who did it is behind bars, but nobody wins in this situation, nobody. the children now have no mother and no father. so there is no winner. >> reporter: but the jury did not believe eric killed pegye for the money. he was found not guilty of murder for financial gain. at his sentencing, eric bechler addressed the judge, once again denying he killed...

>> he said his marriage was good. there was no problems with it. >> you didnt take his word for it? >> no. in our game, we dont take anyones word for anything. we look into it. and thats what we did. >> reporter: they met with the improbably-named kobi laker, erics best friend. and kobi 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 m...