Page 41 - Eric Bechler News Today

>> 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...

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. >> that would not have been good. >> reporter: in the car, with eric now behind the wh...

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 begging and i said ill do whate...

Detectives had put him in jail. but then two weeks after erics arrest came this head line 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 she kids had lost their mom and now going to probably lose their dad for a very long time. so i felt guilty. >> guilty that she had helped jail man she once thought shed marry. >> he called me from the jail and told me he had tried to hang himsel...

Some lucky tourists aboard an eight-passenger boat called "the green machine" were marveling at a school of dolphins playing in the water when they came across the unexpected. >> weve got a loose boat out here about five miles out of newport beach. >> reporter: the captain radioed the coast guard that a small speedboat was circling out of control n the water nearby was a man holding on to a body board. >> the husband apparently fell off the boat and the wife apparently fell off the boat. >> repo...

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 wife. >> reporter: so murphy arranged to bump into tina. >> sai...

Compromised, not just by her waffling by erics guilt and her own checkered past but the one 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 ...

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. 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 eric had been arrested? >> well, i just trembled all over. i cou...

I said yes. 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. 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...

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 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 h...