Page 40 - Eric Bechler News Today

I dont trust you. im afraid of you now. >> all im asking -- you dont have to -- nobody knows anything but you. you dont have to tell anybody anything. >> reporter: eric pulled over and got out, and tina hopped in the drivers seat. >> meet me at my house. thats where im going to be. >> reporter: just like that, tina new drove away from her old life. in the end, you got enough. >> absolutely, yeah. >> reporter: eric was arrested and charged with pegyes murder. what was it like to get the call that...

>> 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, erics mother. linda says pegye told her something in confidence just...

Death was erics doing. >> he had 3.5 million reasons to kill her. that was what he stood to gain when he got away with it. >> circumstantial evidence was come ppel compelling. investigators believed that eric used the missing weight to kill peggy and sink her body. a luminol test conducted on the boat indicated there might have been a lot of boat but it was cleaned up. >> and of course, there was tina herself, her past and criminal record and drug use, she rang true to you. >> yes, absolutely. >...

Welcome back. to "dateline extra" im tamron hall. tina new was granted a new lease on life when she met eric bechler. so when he opened the door to telling her the truth about his wifes disappearance, she had a decision to make. walk through that door and the good life she had come to know could be gone forever. heres josh mankiewicz again with "troubled waters." >> reporter: tina new thought she had found happiness with eric bechler until he changed his story about what happened the day his wif...

I know what happened. its so hard for me to understand, you know, that there could be any other -- people could think anything else. >> you never said hey, look, man, i dont know what the [ bleep ] you guys are talking about. but 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. >> i am. >> reporter: a dead end. but...

It is time for the pharmaceutical industry to stop the entire nation is looking at california. lets go forward together. thank you all very much. . welcome back to "dateline" extra, i am tamron hall, when eric bechler confess toed to hi girlfriend that he tossed his wife in the ocean. >> tinas determination waivered, wouwaiver, would she take the stand. here is joshs conclusion, troubled waters. >> beach volleyball is as beach game played by grown ups. >> eric bechler was trying to be

In his face and he said to me how did you get that? i said i dont know. >> reporter: his reaction 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 reall...

Behind her and he goes i hit her so hard she didnt feel a thing. im like what do you mean, you hit her so hard. he said i hit her over the head with a weight. >> reporter: she said he told her there was blood everywhere. then tina says eric bechler told her how he got rid of his wife. >> he just did a knot that he kn knows and did her wrists and ankles so she was bent in half. he said he took two trash bags he had, put her body in it and then he put the weights and tied it down to the rope and t...

>> reporter: about seven months before pegye vanished, kobe says he and eric had a conversation that kobe describes as haunting him ever since. >> 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 subsequently 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 a...

To see them again. >> reporter: eric reassured tina. >> all i know i would never, ever do anything to harm anybody ever again. >> she was good. she was really good. >> reporter: but the drama wasnt over. tina left the restaurant with eric, still wired up. >> this is where it gets really scary. were walking out to the car and he says to me let me drive. >> reporter: that was not part of the plan. >> we lose sight of them. >> reporter: in a movie this is where you hear the sound of a gunshot. >> h...