Husband of missing woman charged with murder

Greg Risling

NEWPORT BEACH -- Nearly 2 1/2 years ago, an emotionally devastated Eric

Bechler stood at the base of a cliff, looked out onto the vast ocean and

mourned his wife’s mysterious disappearance during a boating trip.

On Tuesday, the 32-year-old Newport Coast resident was behind bars,

accused of murdering her for financial gain.

“I’m stunned and surprised,” said family friend Gordon Glasgow. “They

seemed like a perfect couple -- always in love. I find [the arrest] hard

to believe. It blows me away.”

Despite the new development, there remains more questions than answers

about the disappearance and presumed death of Pegye Bechler, a

38-year-old mother of three and accomplished triathlete who vanished on

July 6, 1997.

That day, the couple celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary with a

boating trip. Bechler has maintained that he couldn’t find his wife after

he was swallowed by a large wave while knee-boarding behind the 19-foot

rented vessel four miles off the Newport Beach coast. Bechler assumed the

same set of waves had knocked his wife overboard.

The U.S. Coast Guard spent days combing the ocean for her body and a Navy

submarine searched the sea floor weeks later, but no evidence of the

woman’s remains has ever been recovered.

At Bechler’s scheduled arraignment Tuesday, prosecutors declined to

release any information about the case, prompting further speculation

about the potentially tawdry details.

The arraignment was postponed until Dec. 3.

“There has been a very good and solid review of this case since January,

said county Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. “There has been an accumulation

of evidence that is going to become more clear as we go on.”

Eric Bechler’s mother attended the court hearing in Santa Ana, but

declined to comment under the glare of television news cameras.

Pegye Bechler’s parents, who live in Dexter, N.M., said they weren’t told

about the specifics of the two-year investigation conducted by the Orange

County Sheriff’s Department.

“We knew it was an ongoing investigation, but we didn’t know much else,”

said her father, Glenn Marshall. “We called them quite often, but they

told us early on they couldn’t divulge any details.”

Eric Bechler was arrested Friday at about 11:15 p.m. at a Del Taco

fast-food restaurant in Seal Beach. Authorities said he did not resist.

“He wasn’t expecting us,” said Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo.

While there are many unexplained details involving Pegye Bechler’s

disappearance, a series of events over the last year show a different

side of the man who pledged his innocence.

Marshall said Bechler was actively seeking the proper paperwork needed

for the payout of his wife’s insurance policy, taken out several years

ago. He said Bechler petitioned a court for a death certificate, which is

required by an insurance company in order for a widower to collect. The

death certificate was never issued.

Insurance companies normally pay off a policy within 30 days of the

death. However, if there is an ongoing investigation, the companies can

delay payment up to seven years.

Additionally, Pegye Bechler had sold her physical therapy business for

$1.5 million shortly before she disappeared, Marshall said.

In April, Bechler was arrested at his plush Newport Coast townhome on

suspicion of striking his then live-in girlfriend in front of her two

children.

According to court documents, Bechler met the woman three months after

his wife had vanished. The girlfriend moved into his home two days later.

The relationship was reportedly tumultuous at times, culminating with a

fight on April 24. The two verbally sparred with each other at a Newport

Beach restaurant and then at a shoe store before heading back to the

townhome, court documents said.

There, the woman claimed Bechler screamed at her and pushed her onto a

mattress. She said the suspect was following her around the house,

ripping out phone cords so she couldn’t call police. When authorities

arrived, the girlfriend had a five-inch scratch stretching from her

collarbone to her armpit, court documents said.

Bechler pleaded guilty to one count of spousal abuse inAugust and was

given three years’ probation. He also was ordered not to contact the

woman and her two children, who are 9 and 7 years old.

Bechler has three children of his own, ages 6, 4 and 3. The two oldest

children kids live with Pegye Bechler’s parents in New Mexico. The

youngest child lives with Pegye’s sister, Barbara.

Marshall said the children haven’t been told about their father’s arrest.

“We talked a lot about how to tell them,” he said. “It’s a difficult

situation. What would you do?”

The Bechlers were happily married and living a good life in Southern

California, by all indications. Pegye Bechler had moved from New Mexico

to California. The two met, were married in a German castle and began

raising a family.

What puzzled authorities, family friends and neighbors was how an

athletic woman, who trained constantly for triathlons, was somehow unable

to swim in calm waters.

Bechler figured his wife may have struck her head on the side of the

boat. He told authorities that after the wave took him underneath, he saw

the boat circling in the water.

Now, he sits in Orange County Jail, without bail, charged with his wife’s

purported death.

“It’s very frustrating to have a case you feel so strongly about and not

file,” Rackauckas said. “We are excited at this point to file this case.

We believe we have our man.”