Page 29 - Eric Bechler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> 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 reenactment at sea to try to understand how pegye could have fallen off the boat. and they couldn't do it. >> they said it just -- 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 duplicat...

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. >> reporter: pegye's family wasn't alone. detective sean murphy had also noticed the new woman in eric bechler's life. >> she was just ostentatious. i mean, she was just a hot number, as they say. and she was cohabitating with him right after this horrible boating accident with his wife. >> reporter: so murphy arranged to b...

Now. >> reporter: and so pegye bechler was simply gone. maybe even within sight of the same beach that had spawned her marriage. eric seemed devastated fearing his wife and business partner was dead,but eric's mother, linda, saw things quite differently. >> i was sure that they would find her, that it would all turn out well. >> reporter: not just because pegye was a strong swimmer. everyone knew that. linda knew more. a secret about her daughter-in-law. >> reporter: and you thought, what? pegye faked her death? or disappeared deliberately? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: coming up: pegye's secret. wh...

>> eric's told me on several occasions that he was sick and tired of his wife. he would tell me that he just couldn't take it anymore. he was tired of it. >> reporter: about seven months before pegye vanished, kobi says he and eric had a conversation that kobi describes as haunting him ever since. >> eric asked me about what he thought -- what i thought of the idea of him killing his wife. and i was pretty shocked and i didn't know what to say. he told me subsequently that he was thinking of taking her out to the ocean and dumping her into a barrel. >> he said that when he saw that there was a...

Difference? >> doesn't matter what i did before or after i met him whachlt i did to myself has nothing to do with what he did. >> after seven days, guilty. >> you are thrilled the man who did it is behind bars, but nobody wins in this situation, nobody. the children now have no mother or father. >> the jury did not believe eric killed peggy for the money. he was found not guilty for murder of financial gain and the sentencing, eric addressed the judge, once again, denying he killed peggy. >> the accident was a horrible tragedy that has befallen both of our families. as much as they are hurting...