Page 14 - Eric Bechler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 enough to notice. >> reporter: eric said they stopped out here on the water to

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 hadn't 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. he's calmly talking to me and he says i'm 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 friends were there, witnesses to the happy marriage. then a couple of days later, she says, eric told ...

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 don't 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 kind of way because we knew it would go sideways. >> reporter: because when relationships go sideways ...

And i was pretty much shocked. i didn't 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 eric's 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 didn't know what to do. >> reporter: detectives convinced kobe to wear a wire and to meet eric at a restaurant in orange county. eric had no idea that police were listening in. even so, he stuck to his story that peg...

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 didn't care what anybody thought. >> then there was the conversation she had recorded at el torrida, eric's own words. the jury heard all of them. >> and offering eric's 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 record. >> without that statement they have a lot of what ifs, but they don't have anything that mak...