there was a lot of animosity towards me. i understood why. all they saw was this hot young woman who had been brought in to replace their missing daughter. right. exactly three months to the day. i can t even imagine what they were thinking. pegye s family wasn t alone. detective sean murphy had also noticed the new woman in eric bechler s life. she was just a hot number as they say. and she was cohabitating with him right after this horrible boating accident with his wife. so murphy arranged to bump into tina. i said, hey, if you have any information about this boating accident involving eric, your boyfriend, just give us a call. and i gave her my card, with my number on it. nothing came of it. tina didn t call. but someone else did. coming up, the best friend has second thoughts and goes under cover. proi tected you. i basically made you look like a saint.
you know? what i did with myself has nothing to do with what he did. after seven days, the verdict. guilty of first degree murder. you re thrilled that the man who did it is behind bars, but nobody wins in this situation. nobody. the children now have no mother and no father. but the jury did not believe eric killed peggy for the money. he was found not guilty of murder for financial gain. at his sentencing, eric bechler addressed the judge, once again denying that he killed peggy. the accident was a horrible tragedy that has befallen both of our families. and as much as the marshals are hurting, my family is also hurting because i did not commit this crime. the judge sentenced him the to life without the possibility of parole. eric s mother, linda, thinks the verdict was wrong. is it possible you don t know your son as well as you think you do.
murphy s job was to find out what did happen. detectives started by 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 anyone s word for anything. we look into it. and that s what we did. reporter: they met with the improbably-named kobi laker, eric s best friend. and kobi backed up eric. they had a terrific marriage. and there was no problems whatsoever. reporter: but if the marriage seemed solid, there were questions about pegye, at least according to linda bechler, eric s mother. linda says pegye told her something in confidence just before she disappeared. she stopped me on the stairway as i was leaving. and said, i have to talk to you. she said, i m afraid i m going to jail. reporter: according to court documents, about a year before pegye disappeared, the couple sold their physical therapy business to another company
a mysterious accident at sea. he went under, and when he came up, he said he no longer saw his wife. he was just hysterical. they were never able to find her. it was a heart-wrenching story. so why then were so many people so suspicious? no one knows exactly what happened on that boat. an accident? a disappearance? you thought, what? she faked her death? or maybe a murder? there s no way. absolutely no way. i felt like the police were just trying to frame an innocent man. now, she would be the one to unravel it all. i thought, i could do this. in a dangerous undercover operation. tell them everything. what? my heartbeat was going so fast. i said, you need to tell me the truth. i m lester holt and this is welcome to dateline.
myself. i mean, no way. reporter: police planted microphones in her car, in her 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 it again. i have two stories in my head, i don t want to screw up at all. okay, there s nothing. there s no story to tell, you weren t there, it was an accident. let s go have some margaritas. reporter: once inside the restaurant, tina tried to get eric to repeat the details of pegye s death. eric wouldn t go there. you don t need to worry about details, details are not important. reporter: so tina tried to