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. 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. 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
guy, driving nice cars, beautiful children. until that summer day in 1997 when the unimaginable happened. male. kind of. distraught said that his wife fell overboard. it was a boating accident, said eric, and the coast guard agreed. something they see all too often. but soon, secrets emerged that would make some people wonder what, really happened to her? where was pegye, and what had gone wrong on the boat? coming, up it would be a sea of questions to come. you thought, would, pegye faked her death? when dateline continues. when dateline continues in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.
murder for profit is played only by adults. and it s for keeps. 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 headline in the local paper. witness in murder case doubts suspect s guilt. tina new, who d worn a wire and helped police nail eric, now said maybe he didn t kill pegye. i knew that the kids had lost their mom, and now they re gonna probably lose their dad for a very long time. and so i felt guilty. guilty that she d helped jail a man she once thought she d marry. and i remember he called me from the jail and he told me that he had tried to hang himself with his sheets. it was eric s frantic behavior from from the lockup, that was enough to make you think twice. i didn t want him to die. you felt guilty. i felt guilty. and you tried to roll the whole thing back.
might happen to them. i believe that, but not pegye. glenda did tell the detectives that pegye and eric were having some issues, like how pegye was busy with work and kids while eric seemed occupied on the volleyball court. she just confided in me that they were having some financial troubles because, you know, they had a pretty high lifestyle to keep up with. glenda said eric and pegye seemed determined to work everything out. but now pegye was gone, eric was a single dad with three kids under the age of four. and a new player was about to enter the story. you were drawn to eric right away? yes. like countless young women before her, tina new had drop-dead looks and hollywood dreams. she d done some bikini modeling and had a small part on the tv
to jail. according to court documents, about a year before pegye disappeared, the couple sold their physical therapy business to another company, but they stayed on as employees. then, just four months before pegye vanished, the bechlers were fired. amid allegations they had overbilled medicare for more than a million dollars. so when linda heard pegye had vanished i started thinking about how disturbed she was about going to jail. and she wondered if pegye had somehow staged her own disappearance. pegye s friend glenda said no way. was peggy bechler capable of committing white collar crime? medicare over-billing? in my opinion, no. but if you re wrong about that uh-huh. then maybe the idea that she faked her death to escape possible prosecution for that, maybe that s a little bit more plausible. but white collar crime and faking your death and leaving your children and your family are two really separate issues. glenda said pegye adored her children and woul