Prosecution paints picture of Bechler

Deepa Bharath

SANTA ANA -- Eric Bechler just pretended to be traumatized and

distraught when he told authorities his wife, Pegye, disappeared at sea

during a boating trip off the coast of Newport Beach in July 1997,

prosecutors in his murder trial said Monday.

Bechler is accused of murdering his 38-year-old wife by hitting her on

the head and dumping her body in the Pacific Ocean during an excursion to

celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.

Prosecutors allege he committed the murder to get his hands on his

wife’s $2.5-million life insurance policy. Bechler, 33, has denied all

charges and maintains that a wave knocked her off the speedboat she was

driving while towing him on a bodyboard.

The prosecution on Monday questioned Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor

Patrol Deputy Dawn Arthur, who responded to the distress call sent out by

radio by the boat that spotted Bechler in the water. Bechler was found on

the bodyboard yelling, “My wife, my wife,” with his rented boat circling

at a distance.

Arthur said Bechler looked distraught and struggled to answer her

questions after she asked him to come on to her boat.

“He sat down. . . . He was shivering,” she recalled. “I gave him a

blanket.”

Arthur said Bechler asked her a few times if there were other boats

looking for his wife. When she assured him they were, he became calmer,

she said. At one point, he went to sleep for about 10 minutes and then

remained quiet until they reached the shore.

Arthur also said she and her partner discussed on the boat that the

media might be present in or around the harbor patrol office. When they

docked and helped Bechler off the boat, he started heaving his shoulders

and sobbing again until he entered the office, she said.

“Did you see any tears?” asked Deputy Dist. Atty. Debora Lloyd. “Was

he blowing his nose? Did he ask for any Kleenex?”

“No,” Arthur replied.

Earlier, Pegye’s brother Larry Marshall testified about helping the

Bechlers buy several life insurance policies taken under each of their

names.

However, Marshall said, Eric Bechler’s policies were not renewed after

Pegye’s disappearance, but her three policies, worth $2.5 million, were

renewed and never lapsed.

The hearing is expected to continue today.