Page 37 - Eric Bechler News Today

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 beach. >> reporter: dave was glendas husband. >> i asked pegye if she wa...

>> we had a couple bags. we wanted to see if we could see catalina. it was so hazy. i told pegye it was too hazy. >> reporter: eric told the coast guard he tried to body board on the way out and said there was a pretty good swell in the ocean. >> was it as high as the side of the boat? >> big enough to notice. >> reporter: eric said they stopped out here on the water to enjoy some margueritas pegye had made and later in the day they decided to try the body board again, this time on their way bac...

Troubled her. she hit play and it just got worse. the news report did not match the story eric had told her about pegyes disappearance. >> he told me there was three to four foot waves, it was really choppy out there. >> reporter: on the report the day pegye went missing, there were only two foot waves and the weather was described as ideal. >> he lied. he lied all this time to me. he was just really quiet. >> reporter: hes sitting right next to you. how does eric look at that point? >> flushed ...

Exactly did he know and how far would he go to get proof? here again is josh mankiewicz with "troubled waters." >> 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 gnawing in his gut until his phone rang. >> we got a call from kobes lawyer, said he wanted to arrange an interview again with kobe. >> reporter: kobe laker, erics best friend and v...

>> eric asked me about what he 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: pegyes friend 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. i...

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. >> they werent able to duplicate even c...

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 had with the detectives. >> reporter: a dead end. but detectives were now convinced that eric killed his wife. >> even though it didnt lead to anything, that conv...

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, ...

The house and were both laying on the bed staring straight up 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 tru...