‘I would have said he was guilty too’

Stefanie Frith

NEWPORT-MESA -- Steve Ott laughed when he spoke about Eric Bechler’s

murder conviction Thursday. And he kept laughing as he discussed with his

friends near the Balboa Fun Zone how Bechler got just what he deserved.

“They nailed him. This was a good call,” the 46-year-old Newport Beach

resident said. “It was shaky from the beginning. I mean, I hate to see it

happen, but it was just. It’s funny because most knew he had done it all

along.”

Residents of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa were surprised Thursday to

hear that Bechler, a Newport Beach resident and father of three, was

convicted of murdering his wife while boating with her off the coast of

Newport Beach in 1997.

Most said, however, that he got what he deserved and that they had

never believed his story that his wife had drowned after a wave washed

her overboard.

“He [Bechler] used to work next-door to me in Newport Beach, and I

remember all the girls in my office would talk about how good-looking he

was,” said April Vida, 32, of Costa Mesa, while shopping at Westcliff

Court in Costa Mesa. “It’s hard to imagine that such a good-looking

person could do something like this. That is surprising.”

What Patricia Dashner, a thirtysomething facialist at James Albert

Salon in Costa Mesa, finds frightening is that she lives in the same city

as Bechler.

“I kept up on the story because it was someone from my own city, my

own neighborhood,” Dashner said. “I had that gut feeling all along that

he had done it, though. The fact that he would benefit from all that life

insurance was part of it. They say the first person to go to in something

like this is the spouse.”

Pat Kelly, 49, of Newport Beach said he was surprised Bechler was

convicted because there was so little evidence in the case.

“They never even found the wife’s body, so how do they know?” Kelly

asked as he took a break from a bike ride near the Fun Zone. “But I

smelled a rat. His story was always shaky. He probably deserved it. The

strange thing is that things like this just don’t happen around here.”

Susan Smith, 35, who grew up in Orange County and now lives in

Wyoming, said Newport Beach has the image of being a safe community,

where murders such as this do not happen.

“This was really surprising that this happened here, it seems so

safe,” Smith said while sitting in a courtyard at Fashion Island in

Newport Beach. “I have been on vacation here with family, and we have

been looking in the paper every day for the verdict. I had a suspicion

that he had done it. It was just too much like a Monday night movie and

he was the good-looking star. If I had been on the jury, I would have

said he was guilty too.”

Sitting behind the counter at Balboa Boat Rentals, where Bechler

rented the boat for that final cruise, manager Charlie Villaloboz, 45, of

Newport Beach said Bechler’s story is outlandish but possible.

“It reminds me of a movie plot, but the story could be true, you don’t

really know,” Villaloboz said. “I do know that when it happened, there

were a lot of people around here asking questions, but so far, no one

around really knows about it, which is fine with me. But you know, I

think people are getting weirder and weirder. Weird things happen a lot

these days.”

Debbie Smith, 42, a receptionist at the same salon as Dashner, said it

is sad that Bechler’s three children have lost their mother and now their

father.

“It’s all just like a movie, and it probably will become one,” Smith

said, shaking her head in dismay. “It’s all so sad. If they make a movie

though, the money should go to the kids, because what else do they have

left? It’s never the one you expect. Never.”