Page 38 - Eric Bechler News Today

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...

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. >> on the stand, tina tried to defend herself. >> im a horrible witness when it comes to looking at me on paper? do you think anybody would believe you? >> no. i knew that i told exactly what he had said to me. and i knew that i was doing the right thing. i honestly didn...

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 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 ...

Clean. crime scene did find blood, just one drop, under one of the cushions. 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 ...

Beautiful girl, good-looking guy, drive nice cars, beautiful children. >> 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: ma...

Beginning? >> yes. we went out that night, actually. he asked me out that night. i moved in the next day. really fast. >> reporter: you dont wait, do you? >> no. not then. >> reporter: 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." >> reporter: tina was moved by erics story. >> he said to me that his wife died ...

Explanation. >> the reason he says it is to shut her up and calm her down. >> eric never said on tape that he hit meggy. the only person that heard he said that was tina. >> without that statement, they had a lot of circumstantial evidence and a lot of what ifs, they dont have anything that makes it a homicide. the defense offers another theory of peggy. she could be easily disstratrac and in combination of alcohol that she rarely drinks but she did on that day could contribute to a lack of care...

Welcome back to "dateline extra." 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. ...

Eric bechler could barely speak. >> what did you take with you? >> we had a couple bags. and a cooler. we wanted to see if we could see catalina. it was so hazy. i told pegye it was too hazy. we shouldnt go too far out. >> 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? probably. it was, you know, >> big enough to notice. >> reporter: eric said they stopped out here on the wa...

But that turned out to be the peak of her career. 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 b...