Page 7 - Eric Bechler News Today

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 conversation with kobe, that got you from suspicion to knowing? >> yeah, it moved it all the way over. we knew we had a homicide. >> reporter: but knowing it and proving it were two very different things. you didnt get to process that

>> yes. >> reporter: like countless young women before her, tina new had drop-dead looks and hollywood dreams. she had done some bikini modeling and had a small part on the tv show "baywatch nights." 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 t...

>> 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 close to what was alleged by eric bechler that his wife was tossed off by a rogue wave. >> reporter: if pegyes disappearance was no accident, murphys job was find out what did happen. detectives started by re-interviewing eric and asking him about his relati...

June. >> 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 ...

Bechler was trying to be successful at both. 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...

Local news shows a devastated eric. it was now day two of the search for pegye. still nothing. the next day, the coast guard interviewed eric. eric bechler could barely speak. >> what did you take with you? >> 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...

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 truth. he goes we had this huge party so everybody could see how happy we were together. >> reporter: all their frien...

Then you go to sleep next to a man that you believe is a killer? >> no, actually then we had sex. i felt like i had to do it because i think that made him feel like i was going to be quiet and that he was, i dont know, sealing the deal with me or something. >> reporter: but the deal was not sealed. not with anyone. the case was still open and detectives had been keeping an eye on eric and tina all along. they knew the relationship was growing volatile. >> we were excited about it in a morbid kin...

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: detectives convinced kobe to wear a wire and to meet eric at a restaurant in orang...

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 didnt care what anybody thought. >> then there was the conversation she had recorded at el torrida, erics own words. the jury heard all of them. >> and offering erics own explanation. >> i argued the reason was the shut her up, calm her down. >> and eric had never said he had done it. the only person who had said that was the only person with a drug conviction on her rec...