Page 28 - Eric Bechler News Today

>> he said his marriage was 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, eri...

Extra. with a new live-in girlfriend, eric bechler seemed to be recovering quickly from losing his wife pegye and that didnt sit well with quite a few people. certainly not the police or pegyes family. but erics best friend, what exactly did he know and how far would he go to get proof? >> reporter: to detective sean murphy it sounded more than suspicious. eric bechler taking up with a gorgeous redhead just three months after his wife was lost at sea. but murphy didnt have much more than a gnawi...

Prosecutors believed eric bechler was trying to be successful at both. detectives had put him in jail. but then two weeks after erics arrest came this headline in the local paper. witness in murder case doubts suspects guilt. tina, who had worn a wire and helped police nail eric now said maybe he didnt kill her. >> i knew that the kids had lost their mom and now they were probably going to lose their dad for a very long time, and so i felt guilty. >> guilty that she had helped jail man she once ...

Know, what i did with myself has nothing to do with what he did. >> 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 this -- there is no winner. >> 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 faced the judge, once again denying he killed pegye....

>> i kept thinking that she was, but how could she, you know, that length of time. >> reporter: unless, of course, what appeared to be an accident was not. the coast guard conducted a re-enactment at sea to try to understand how pegye could have fallen off the boat and they couldnt do it. >> they said it doesnt appear to be feasible to them given the sea conditions. >> reporter: thats when the coast guard called the orange county sheriffs office. detective sean murphy was put on the case. >> the...

Soon, tina found herself slipping into the darker side of show biz. 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. >> reporter: tina, who was broke and near rock bottom, was desperate. >> i got down on my knees literally begging and i said ill do whatever you want, lord, ...

She was always happy, always smiling. >> reporter: and she says pegye was driven to establish herself as a successful physical therapist. she had almost everything she wanted. >> she did want to find a guy. >> reporter: the clock was ticking a little bit? >> it was. >> reporter: then one day on the beach, you found somebody for her. >> we did. so one afternoon on a weekend, pegye called me and said what are you doing? i said well, im going to go down and watch dave play some volleyball on the be...

Welcome back. im tamron hall. in the hours after the boating accident that left pegye bechler missing, her friends and family had high hopes that she would be found alive. they all knew something about pegye that made it impossible to think she could be lost at sea. here again is josh mankiewicz with "troubled waters." >> reporter: its said theres nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline. this was supposed to be something like that. a romantic outing. a...

Were listening in. even so, he stuck to his story that pegyes death was a terrible accident. >> i was there. i know what happened. i tried so hard to understand that people can think anything else. >> you never said hey, look, man, i dont know what the [ bleep ] you guys are talking about. im innocent. you never said anything about anything. >> i have so. do i have to say it every week? >> reporter: kobe tried again. >> i protected you. i basically made you look like a saint in the interview i h...

Or something. >> reporter: but the deal was not sealed. not with anyone. the case was still open and detectives had been keeping an eye on eric and tina all along. they knew the relationship was growing volatile. >> we were excited about it in a morbid kind of way because we knew it would go sideways. >> 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...