Page 23 - Eric Bechler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: it's no confession but it's not a denial, either. are you thinking to yourself at that's it, i got him? >> i thought it was good but i didn't think it was enough. >> reporter: remember, pegye had a life insurance policy worth more than $2 million. again, she tried to get him to give her a reason. >> what made you want to go -- >> she was going to steal the kids away and i was never going to see them again. >> reporter: eric reassured tina. >> all i know i would never, ever do anything to harm anybody ever again. >> she was good. she was really good. >> reporter: but the drama wasn...

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. >> she's the best person. >> reporter: this video from 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 b...

>> reporter: because when relationships go sideways sometimes people start talking. >> that's right. >> reporter: and that's what happened two weeks after eric's apparent confession. a neighbor called 911 after hearing yelling coming from tina's apartment. when police arrived, eric was gone but tina was angry and she still had the business card detective murphy had given her almost two years earlier. >> i grabbed my partner, we went out there in the middle of the night and we met up with tina. >> reporter: she told detective murphy and his partner, gary jones, what eric had said. a big break, ...

Thing back? >> yeah, i did. >> but she says she always felt he was guilty and in the winter of 2000, eric bechler went on trial. the star witness, tina, a witness was, to be fair, compromised, not just by her waffling by eric's guilt and her own checkered past but the one detail and story tina says eric told her something the defense attorney says is critical. >> you'd expect, if pegye's head was caved in by 35 pound dumb bells, there'd be blood. >> quite a lot of it. >> everywhere. and there wasn't. >> on the stand, tina tried to defend herself. >> i'm a horrible witness when it comes to look...

But not enough to determine whether it was human blood. it could have come from a fish. not enough evidence to arrest eric for murder or even prove that a murder occurred. pegye's close friend glenda didn't believe eric was a killer. >> there's no way that eric would have done that. there's just absolutely no way. it was unfathomable to me. >> reporter: tina new felt the same way. >> i felt like the police were just trying to frame an innocent man. i thought there's no way. the way he treats me, there's no way he could have hurt his wife. >> reporter: tina also noticed that eric kept photos of...