tina was moved by eric s story. he said to me that his wife died in a tragic boat accident. and that they were never able to find her. she couldn t help noticing how great he was with his kids. he would sit on the floor and play with em. and i actually thought he was a great dad. and she was eager to help, taking care of the kids while eric went, as usual, to the beach to play volleyball. i thought they lost their mom, they need someone to step in and and not be their mom, but do things their mom would do for them. but when they took the kids to visit pegye s parents there was a lot of animosity towards me. and i understood why. all they saw was this hot young woman who d been brought in to replace their missing daughter. right. right. and exactly three months to the day. i can t even imagine what they were thinking. pegye s family wasn t alone. detective sean murphy had also noticed the new woman in eric bechler s life. she was just a hot number, as they sa
Home in the water. growing up, it was the only time she didn t have to wear that back brace. and she became a very accomplished swimmer. she wouldn t panic. she would swim because she loved the water. the next morning june and glen marshall were on the first flight out to california. pegye had been missing almost 24 hours. of course, that ocean is just bigger, bigger, bigger than you think about if you re in new mexico. pegye s friend glenda tried to stay optimistic. absolutely thought they d find her. maybe alive. uh-huh. i did because she was a fabulous swimmer. glenda went to the bechler house to see eric. how did he look? hysterical, a little bit. you know, he d been crying and, you know, his face is red and, you know, all of those things. he looked upset, as you should
Her about a career in physical therapy. she volunteered and loved it. and she made up her mind right then that she wanted to be a physical therapist and she wanted to move to california and be a beautiful blonde. and so she did. so pegye left the small town of dexter for sunny california. and settled in newport beach. that s where she met glenda, who was also from new mexico and they immediately hit it off. pegye was probably one of the most gregarious people that i ve ever met she was happy and she was always smiling. and, says glenda, pegye was driven to establish herself as a successful physical therapist. she had almost everything she wanted. she did wanna find a guy. and the clock was tickin a little bit. it was. and then one day on the beach, you found somebody for her. we did. so one afternoon on on a weekend, pegye called me
About pegye, at least according to linda bechler, eric s mother. linda says pegye told her something in confidence just before she disappeared. she stopped me on the stairway as i was leaving. and said, i have to talk to you. she said, i m afraid i m going to jail. according to court documents, about a year before pegye disappeared, the couple sold their physical therapy business to another company, but they stayed on as employees. then, just four months before pegye vanished, the bechlers were fired. amid allegations they had overbilled medicare for more than a million dollars. so when linda heard pegye had vanished i started thinking about how disturbed she was about going to jail. and she wondered if pegye had somehow staged her own disappearance. pegye s friend glenda said no way. was peggy bechler capable of committing white collar crime? medicare over-billing?
And said, what are you doin ? and i said, well, i m gonna go down and watch dave play some volleyball on the beach. dave was glenda s husband. i asked pegye if she wanted to come down with me and she said absolutely. she immediately spotted eric and said, who s that? eric bechler, then in his early 20s, was a walking commercial for the california beach life. i m going to guess when she notices a guy playing beach volleyball, he s good looking and in great shape. indeed he was. and he was available. he was also eight years younger. was that a problem for either one of them? it was not a problem for either one of them. pegye, you know, she when she sets her sight on something, she s going to make it happen. and it developed really quickly, really, really, quickly. within a year they were married. within four years they had three beautiful kids. pegye and eric went into business together.