Page 39 - Eric Bechler News Today

I just gave came up. >> all of a sudden, it just jerked out of my hands. >> reporter: and so pegye bechler was simply gone. maybe even within sight of the >> reporter: and so pegye bechler was simply gone. maybe even within sight of the same beach that had spawned her marriage. eric seemed devastated, fearing his wife and business partner was dead. but erics mother linda saw things quite differently. >> i was sure that they would find her, that it would all turn out well. >> reporter: not just b...

Successful at both. two weeks after erics arrest came with this headline. maybe he did not kill. >> i knew that the kids had lost their mom and theyre going to lose their dad for a long time so i felt guilty. >> guilty that she helped him she once thought she would married. >> he called me and telling me he would hang himself. >> that was enough to make you think twice. >> i didnt want him to die? >> you felt guilty. >> yes, i did. >> she always believed he was guilty and in the winter of

They knew the relationship was growing volatile. >> we were excited about it in a morbid kind of way because we knew it was going to 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 m...

>> he says we cant find pegye. and i said what do you mean, you cant find her? where is she? what are you trying to tell me? >> reporter: eric told june that pegye was driving the boat, towing him on a body board, when all of a sudden a wave wiped him out. when he came up from under the water, he said, he could no longer see pegye inside the boat. >> we thought they should be finding her because we really just thought she would swim out of it. >> reporter: you see, pegye was quite at home in the...

>> at this point you didnt think she was alive anymore? >> 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 o...

Thats the only way youre going to get him. >> reporter: why would you turn in a guy who had basically taken you from a terrible life and given you a great life? >> because i couldnt live with myself. i mean, no way. >> reporter: 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 sto...

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

2000, eric bechler, went on trial. also, by one detail of the story tina says eric told her, something defense attorney john barnette says, hes critical. you expect if beckis head is caved in by 35 pounds dumbbells, there would be blood. >> quite a lot of it. >> everywhere. >> on the stand, tina tried to defend herself. >> i am 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 k...

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? 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...

Changed his story, he and tina went to a club and took the drug ecstasy. >> we get home, we walk inside 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. >>...