Page 30 - Eric Bechler News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

I could just see that pegye wasn't there. the boat kept going farther and farther away. and i couldn't see any other boats. i was screaming. i looked around. >> 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'm sure that they would find her. that it would all turn out well. >> not just because pegye was a strong swimmer, everyone knew that. linda knew more. a secret about her daughter-in-law. and you ...

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 -- i was in shock. 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 that 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 he was afraid and he didn't know what to do. >> detectives convinced kobi to wear a wire, and to meet...

Re-interviewing eric and asking him about his relationship with pegye. >> he said his marriage was good. there was no problems with it. >> you didn't take his word for it? >> no. in our game we don't take anybody's word for it. we look into it. and that's what we did. >> they met with the improbably named kobi laker, eric's best friend, and kobi backed upper eric. >> they had a terrific marriage, there was no problems whatsoever. >> but if the marriage seemed solid, there were questions about pegye. at least according to linda bechler, eric's mother. linda said pegye told her something in conf...

The news report did not match the story eric had told her about pegye's disappearance. >> he said there were three to four-foot waves, that it was really choppy out there. >> but on the report they said on the day pegye went missing, there were only two-foot waves, and the weather was described as ideal. >> he lied. he lied all this time to me. he was just really quiet. >> he's sitting right next to you. >> right next to me. >> how does eric look at that point? >> flushed and stressed. i yelled at him and said, why is this different than what you told me? and he just, like, got really quiet. >...

>> yeah, i did. >> but, she always believed he was guilty. in 2000, eric went on trial, the star witness, tina new. a witness who was compromised. not because of her waffling about his guilt and her checkered past, but the detail in the story eric told her. something john barnett said is critical. >> you expect if her head was caved in by 35 pound dumbbells, there would 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 looking at me on pab. >> did you think anybody would believe you? >> no....