Page 18 - Eric Bechler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> i just thought he was really handsome. >> reporter: there was some serious chemistry from the beginning? >> yes. we went out that night, actually. he asked me out that night. i moved in the next day. really fast. >> reporter: you don't wait, do you? >> no. not then. >> reporter: eric lived in a giant house and drove a porsche, and he was a gentleman in her life after a long string of men who were not gentle. >> i had never been spoiled like that. i remember thinking i was like julia roberts in "pretty woman." >> reporter: tina was moved by eric's story. >> he said to me that his wife died i...

Prosecutors believed eric bechler was trying to be successful at both. detectives had put him in jail. but then two weeks after eric's arrest came this head line in the local paper. witness in murder case doubts suspect's guilt. tina, who had worn a wire and helped police nail eric now said maybe he didn't 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 she'd marry. >> he called me from the jail and told me he had tried to hang himself with his sheet. >> it w...

Purse and on her body. and tina arranged a meeting. she told eric that after the domestic violence call, sheriff's homicide detectives came in to ask questions about eric. this dinner date, tina told eric, was to get their stories straight in case the cops questioned her again. tina, wired up, picked up eric from his home and drove to a restaurant called el torito. were you worried about this? >> not really. i was more worried that i wasn't going to get him to confess again. i have two stories in my head. i don't want to screw up at all. >> there's no story to tell. you weren't there. it was a...

>> at this point you didn't think she was alive anymore? >> i kept thinking that she was, but how could she, you know, that length of time. >> reporter: unless, of course, what appeared to be an accident was not. the coast guard conducted a re-enactment at sea to try to understand how pegye could have fallen off the boat and they couldn't do it. >> they said it doesn't appear to be feasible to them given the sea conditions. >> reporter: that's when the coast guard called the orange county sheriff's office. detective sean murphy was put on the case. >> they weren't able to duplicate even close ...

>> 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 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 c...