Words May Haunt Alleged Wife-Killer

A Newport Beach man accused of killing his wife and dumping her body in the Pacific Ocean made suggestive statements about her disappearance in a secretly recorded conversation but did not directly confess, according to transcripts reviewed this week.

The 90-minute conversation is expected to be the focal point of next month’s trial of Eric C. Bechler, who authorities charge with bludgeoning his wife three years ago in a scheme to inherit more than $2 million.

There were no arrests in the disappearance of Pegye Bechler for more than two years, until her husband’s new girlfriend wore a body wire in October 1999 and secretly recorded him discussing her death. Her body has never been found.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Bechler one day after the meeting, but have refused to release the full contents of the secretly recorded conversation. In a transcript of the tape, reviewed this week by The Times, girlfriend Tina New repeatedly asked Bechler about the murder--and he often provided cryptic answers.

“You hit her over the head and she didn’t feel it--I hope she didn’t,” New said, according to the transcript. “That part, how could you physically do that? Was it about money?”

“Partly, yeah,” Bechler replied.

Later, New expressed concern that Bechler might one day hurt her. He tried to reassure her by saying: “All I know is that I would never, ever do anything to harm anybody ever again.”

When New asked him why he killed his wife, Bechler answered: “Partly for money, partly it’s about the kids. . . . That’s how I justified it in my mind. I felt like I was backed in a corner. Like she was gonna steal the kids away and I’d never see them again.”

Prosecutors said the tape proves that Bechler “admitted” killing his wife. Bechler’s defense attorney declined to comment on the tape other than to say he will argue that the jury should not hear it.

The attorney said the prosecution has one critical hole in its case: There’s no proof Pegye Bechler was murdered because her body has never been found.

“There’s no evidence that she was killed by her husband--or by anyone. There’s no evidence that it wasn’t an accident,” attorney John Barnett said.

Eric Bechler, now 33, has maintained for 2 1/2 years that his wife was the victim of a tragic accident about four miles off the Newport Beach coast. He said he was tailing the couple’s rented motor boat on a bodyboard July 6, 1997, when a wave knocked him off the board. When he surfaced, his wife was gone and the boat was spinning in circles, Bechler said.

Coast Guard rescue crews spent 15 hours searching for Pegye Bechler by air and by sea, but found no trace of the missing woman.

New began dating Bechler about three months after his wife’s disappearance. In 1999, she told detectives that Bechler confessed to her, saying he hit his wife over the head with a dumbbell, tied weights to her body and threw her body overboard, according to police.

Bechler’s relationship with New was troubled. He’d been convicted of assaulting her and was in a court-ordered anger management program at the time she came forward.

New agreed to work with detectives, wearing the hidden wire in a meeting with Bechler at an El Torito restaurant in Newport Beach. As the two dined on burritos and Cadillac margaritas, a sheriff’s detective remained nearby, recording their conversation.

In several instances, Bechler told New that he wanted to leave the state to avoid authorities. He also spoke about obtaining a false identity and his fear of going to jail. Asked why he didn’t just get a divorce instead of resorting to murder, Bechler replied, “I think I was stressed, the pressure with the kids,” according to the transcript.

At a court hearing Wednesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd disclosed that she believes Bechler had another motive besides the children and the wealth. The state was investigating Bechler and his wife for insurance fraud, the prosecutor said. By killing her, Bechler was able to thwart the investigation, Lloyd said.

“It’s one motive among many,” Lloyd told Judge Frank F. Fasel.

Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin Dec. 4, after Fasel rules on several pretrial motions, including the admissibility of the recorded conversation.

Fasel has already rejected a defense claim that the case should not go forward for a lack of evidence that Pegye Bechler was indeed murdered. It’s an argument Barnett is still likely to make to the jury.

No traces of blood were found in the boat, which goes against New’s assertion on the tapes that Bechler bludgeoned his wife to death in the boat. Without proof that Pegye Bechler was murdered, the jury cannot consider his statements at the restaurant, Barnett asserted.

Prosecutors, in court documents, have noted that the victim’s superior swimming skills are proof that she did not die accidentally. They also note that boating experts do not believe she could have been thrown from the boat.

The case, however, rests in large part on the tape-recorded dinner meeting. New predicted her key role that night at the restaurant.

“I’m holding the whole thing in my hand. I know everything,” she said.

“Nobody knows it,” Bechler said, according to the transcript. “You don’t have to tell anybody.”