On July 6, 1997, 38-year-old Pegye Jann Bechler disappeared while boating with her husband, Eric Bechler, off the coast of Newport Beach, California. The couple had rented a speedboat to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary and Pegye's 38th birthday. Eric Bechler claimed that a rogue wave knocked him off a bodyboard he was riding while Pegye was driving the boat. When he surfaced, he said the boat was circling, and his wife was gone. A search by the Coast Guard ensued, but Pegye's body was never found.
Initial accounts from Eric Bechler described the incident as a tragic accident. He told investigators that they had picnicked and even had sex on the boat before the incident occurred at the mouth of the harbor. However, suspicions arose due to Pegye being a strong swimmer and a triathlete, making a simple drowning seem unlikely to her family. In the months following her disappearance, Eric Bechler's behavior raised further questions. He made unsuccessful attempts to collect on a life insurance policy worth over $2 million.
The investigation into Pegye Bechler's disappearance gained significant momentum when Eric Bechler's new girlfriend, Tina New, went to the police with incriminating information. Bechler had confessed to New that he had murdered his wife. He admitted to striking Pegye with a dumbbell, tying her body up, placing it in plastic bags with weights, and throwing her overboard. New agreed to wear a wire for detectives and secretly recorded further conversations with Bechler, which helped solidify the case against him. More than two years after Pegye's disappearance, in November 1999, Eric Bechler was arrested and charged with her murder.
In late 2000, Eric Bechler went on trial. The prosecution argued that he killed his wife for financial gain, pointing to the life insurance policy and the recent sale of Pegye's successful physical therapy business for approximately $1.5 million. Despite the lack of a body or a murder weapon, the jury was presented with the secretly recorded confessions and testimony from Tina New. The defense argued that Pegye's death was an accident and attacked the credibility of New. After seven days of deliberation, the jury found Eric Bechler guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury, however, did not find the special circumstance of murder for financial gain to be true.
Last Seen: Jul 07, 1997
