Page 16 - Eric Bechler News Today

>> there was a lot of animosity towards me. i understood why. >> all they saw was this hot young woman who had been brought in to replace their missing daughter. >> right. exactly three months to the day. i cant even imagine what they were thinking. >> pegyes family wasnt alone. detective sean murphy had also noticed the new woman in eric bechlers life. >> she was just a hot number as they say. and she was cohabitating with him right after this horrible boating accident with his wife. >> so murp...

>> police planted microphones in her car, in her purse, and on her body. and tina arranged a meeting. she told eric that after the domestic violence call, sheriffs homicide detectives came in to ask questions about eric. this dinner date, tina told eric, was to get their story straight in case the cops questioned her again. tina wired up, picked up eric from his home and drove to a restaurant called el torido. >> i was worried i wouldnt get him to confess again. >> i have two stories in my head....

The tv show "baywatch nights." but that turned out to be the peak of her career. soon tina found herself slipping into the darker side of showbiz. she started doing drugs, and lost custody of her two young children because of it. and fell for a succession of guys who did not treat her kindly. >> i had an ex-boyfriend put a gun to my head, play russian roulette between me and him. i was held over the balcony by my neck. >> tina who was broke and near rock bottom was desperate. >> i got down on my...

Talking. >> thats right. >> 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 grab my partner. we went out there in the middle of the night and we met up with tina. >> she told detective murphy and his partner gary jones what eric had said, a big break, yes,...

Eric bechler told her how he got rid of his wife. >> he did her wrists and her ankles together so she was completely bent in half. took the two trash bags he had. put her body in it and put the weights and tied it down to the rope and threw her in. >> two years after pegye vanished a stunning confession. >> then grow to sleep next to a man that you believe was a killer? >> no, actually then we have sex. and i felt like i had to do it because i think that made him feel like i was going to be quie...

>> i absolutely thought theyd find her. >> maybe alive? >> mm-hmm. i did. because shes a fabulous swimmer. >> glenda went to the bechler house to see eric. how did he look? >> hysterical. a little bit. he had been crying. his face is red. and, you know, all of those things. he looked upset. as he should be. one would expect. >> shes the best person. >> this video from local news shows a devastated eric. it was now day two of the search for pegye. still nothing. the next day the coast guard inter...

>> you never said, hey, look, man, i dont know what the [ bleep ] you guys are talking about, but im innocent. youve 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 look like a saint in the interview i had with the detectives. >> i am. >> a dead-end. but detectives were now convinced that eric killed his wife. even though it didnt lead to anything, that conversation with kobi, that got you from suspic...

>> then the recorded conversation. erics own words. >> nobody knows anything but you. >> barnett offered his own explanation. >> i argued the reason he said it was to shut her up, to calm her down. >> in any event, eric never said on tape that he hit beg peggy. the only person that heard that was tina, a drug user. >> they have a lot of circumstantial evidence. nothing makes it a homicide. >> the defense offered another theory about peggy. >> she was under a great deal of pressure and could be d...

All of a sudden as we were talking it came to me. oh my god, you hit her over the head. he goes, how did you know that? 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 barrelled 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. we had this huge party. so everybody could see how happy we were together. >> all their friends were there, witnesses to the h...

>> yes. we went out that night actually. he asked me out that night. i moved in the next day. really fast. >> you dont wait, do you. >> no. not then. >> eric lived in a giant house and drove a porsche. and he was a gentleman in her life after a long string of men who were not gentle. >> i had never been spoiled like that. i remember thinking i was like julia roberts in "pretty woman." >> tina was moved by erics story. >> he said to me that his wife died in a tragic boat accident, and that they w...