Peace, Love and Murder

Did a Peace-Loving Hippie Brutally Murder His Wife?

(CBS)  This story was originally broadcast on Jan. 17, 2009. It was updated on Aug. 14.

Bob Eckhart and Toni Soren, two self-proclaimed hippies, fell in love and were married only 48 hours after meeting. Twenty-seven years later, their union was torn apart when Bob came home from work to find Toni bludgeoned and stabbed to death, with seven wounds to her neck.

Bob's peaceful personality made him an unlikely suspect in his wife’s death and the case went cold-until 2006, when a determined detective reopened the case in the hope that new DNA technology could help uncover her killer.

Could this affable man who said his marriage was "like living in nirvana" so brutally kill his wife?

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Bob and Toni began their whirlwind courtship when she was just 23. He was 28.

"An incredibly beautiful girl knocked on my door, and her name was Toni and we talked for must have been six or seven hours," Bob recalls. "We could connect completely with no walls, no shields. Everything was just magic."

It was the uninhibited early 1970s. Within 48 hours of meeting, the two young lovers eloped. They had a hippie wedding.

"I was always amazed I was married to her," Bob tells "48 Hours Mystery" correspondent Harold Dow. "She was my lover, my wife, my sister, my mother - everything rolled into one.”

Bob and Toni were so entwined, they even created their own lyrical last name - Heartsong -- by fusing their two given names.

"We took the heart out of Eckhart and the song out of Soren and we made Heartsong," Bob explains. "We had blended together and become one person."

Toni had lost both her parents as a teenager and was raised as a young adult by her older brother, Barry Soren.

"I did everything I could for her," Soren says. "And our relationship was tight enough that she wasn’t spun out about the terrible events -- the terrible way her life started."

With Bob, Toni seemed to have found a path to her own happy family.

Her cousin, Mel Sorkowitz, admired Bob’s ambition. "Bob impressed me as being a very hardworking guy," he says.

Another cousin, Deb Schepp, liked Bob’s calm personality. "The image that I got was that he was a very peaceful person, very spiritual," she says. "I know he and Toni practiced meditation, and it seemed like the ideal life for her."

Bob and Toni eventually settled in Jupiter, Fla., where they did everything together. They were strict vegetarians and wrote a tofu cookbook. They were also both artistic.

"We used to have a little company that we beaded necklaces for stores and we produced thousands and thousands and thousands of beaded necklaces," Bob explains.

The couple also used their artistic talents to start a company that built stone waterfalls for homes and businesses. And they became dedicated parents to two sons, Jake and Eli.

Schepp describes Toni as a happy mother who loved her boys.

"I think she was my best friend," says Eli. "She helped me out in whatever troubles I had." Adds Jake, "I loved my mom. My parents loved each other."

Through 27 years of a generally happy marriage, Bob and Toni did have some rocky periods.

"Were there ever any times where you or Toni were unfaithful in your marriage?" Dow asks.

"I’ve never had sex with another woman during my marriage," Bob replies. "There were times where I was sorely tempted, there’s no question about that. I think she had sex with another man once or twice."

Bob says Toni’s affair happened in the early 1980s. They got through that period, but the tough times occasionally returned.

Toni kept a journal that chronicled her frustrations. The following is an excerpt written in the early 1990s:

"He doesn’t seem to really show me any love. Not in ways that are important to me. Like calling ... I’m constantly angry and frustrated. I hate it. He hates it. I feel so trapped. Not enough money to leave. Not enough care to work it out by both of us."

Bob says the couple had their share of tough patches, but worked on their marriage.

"[We] tried to find out what I was not doing that made sense. What I was not communicating, what I was not connecting -- that’s' what I meant. She was very upfront. She’d tell me, 'I don’t like this' and I’d say, 'OK. What can I do about it?'"

Even her cousins acknowledge Toni was not the easiest person to live with.

"Toni had a tough side. She inherited that from her mother. She could come across as being aggressive," explains Mel Sorkowitz.

But by all accounts, there were never any physical confrontations. Toni’s brother says she would have said something to him if she ever felt threatened by Bob.

"No doubt," Soren says. "No, she would've used me to come in and protect her."

[true_or_not]

He is innocent. Ya it takes 10 minites to go to the store and another 10 to get home. That's 20 minites. But you have to take into consideration that it takes approx another 20 to shop and another 5 or so to check out. Add that up...45 mins. He may have had enough time to drive home and back to work but really? I believe their was an ex-lover that was crazy in love and approched her in her home and she had the knife out already or snuck it out while he was talking to her. No match for the foot prints. That's the big one for me to set him free.

[hifi44]

The guy who interviewed him, a black guy I forgot his name (this is not meant as a racist comment) is a moron who should be fired. After the husband says how much he loved her and starts crying he asks him "Do You Miss Her" and other dumb questions!

[sdymond]

To kaffirboetie.....go home...I am not saying that the system is perfect....but I think you are just insiting ignorance. The U.S. system of American Police is the best in the WORLD, bar none!!! Your ignorance abounds......

[rsmik]

Not enough evidence to go to trial and not enough evidence to convict.

[PadreAlberto]

Saw the show last night and think he did it..Reminds me of the OJ Case. Police investigators didn't do a great job. Also, most mates grieve for their spouses and don't go around remaryying a year or so later. Also, one of the guys said he wasn't too keen on sharing his property, etc from a divorce settlement. Maybe the wife was cheating on him and he found out and went on a rampage and bruttaly killed her. This brutal slaying shows the killer was beyond angry. Mrs. had a history of cheating on him in the past.

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money]

I said 'hash BROWNIES' b*tch!

[sunflowerseed73]

If someone had been beaten as badly as they say Toni was, they would most definately have bruised knuckles and hands - they say he had no visiable bruises. He's innocent, they botched it and need to try again. Not to speak ill of the dead, but I imagine she had a lover and tried to break it off with him. She looked like a darling woman, it's very sad, very sad.

[rlawson709]

Wait a minute wasn't OJ living in Florida at the time?

[peachysquirt]

Explain the hairs on her body that didn''t match his. Cause it was several not just 1 or a few. Unless one of the detectives or crime scene people was doing some major shedding when they was looking at her body, someone else had to have been there when she was murdered.

[sassalin]

roscoezzz,

Not unsolved. A case is closed because the person responsible has been found. It does not require a person to be brought to justice to close a case.

He did commit the crime but there was not enough evidence in the case to prove it. With the advancements in forensics everyone thinks that there is always going to be evidence to prove how and who committed a crime and that is not always the case.

When you have multiple donors of blood or cells (like on her hand) it can become almost impossible to separate the two DNA profiles and that fingerprint could have been there for years from a previous owner or delivery man.

[peachysquirt]

I don''t believe that theory is even possible given the other evidence that someone else was in that home.

[roscoezzz]

Why do the police investigators always screw up their jobs? Why? -- Now the case is closed because the investigators just didn''t do their jobs. This woman''s brutal murder will be unsolved because of the police!

[mbenoit268]

My error, I read the air date as Jan 18th and it was the 17th

[mbenoit268]

What I want to know is why CBS shows that this episode would be aired tonight yet there is a football game on. Didn''t CBS know that this would be the case since it is showing on TV Guide website until after 10PM CST?

[carolcape]

I too have to comment again on why anyone would think this man is guilty. For heavens sake, how could he leave work,go home and commit a bloody murder, clean up all his clothing, keep his mannerisms and get back to work without anyone knowing he left. Also, where was evidence of his vehicle being home at any time during that time. No evidence. Unidentified footprints, hairs unidentified, fingerprint on door. This prosecutor had no other suspects and went for the juglar. I in no way would ever find this man guilty. I used to work in the courtroom system as a court reporter and took jury murder trials. I just know that this man would not be convicted on the trumped up case that this prosecutor had against him. I did not hear any evidence either of anyone seeing any change of clothing on him that day or nobody was asked that question. Also the murder weapon, which they think was a knife from the drawer in the kitchen was never found. Of course, she could have been using the knife at the time the intruder came to her home. Someone intruded on her and killed her, it happens, people kill for absolutely no reason whatsoever and I think that this is that kind of crime.

[newreaderid]

I forget to say that I felt it was an injustice to the defendant to have the juror make the comment about most of them thinking he was guilty. That is outrageous and so inappropriate. I think that might prompt me to sue for slander since it was said on television.

[newreaderid]

I did not think they proved their case of guilt. Some of these detectives are relentless if they think someone did it, so I''m a bit wary when evidence is found way after the fact. But, I know that there are cases that they are relentless and right.
As far as blood under fingernails it is a nasty place fingernails; that is why there are nail brushes and a 30-second scrub time. I would not be surprised that there was his DNA under his wife''s fingernail even weeks later depending on her hygiene habits.

[peachysquirt]

Common sense says that someone else was in that home that day she died. You have hairs that do not match his all over her body, there are bloody footprints in the house that do not match his & a fingerprint on the front door that does not belong to him. Now the fingerprint could have been there for some time. The others tells me there was someone else there.

As to him going out of his way to establish an alibi. I don''t think that is what he was doing. I also don''t see it being so suspicous for him to be going to a car dealership.

[jabailo]

It looked like he was being framed by a prosecutor who decided to "roll the dice". Lucky for him it came up 6-6.

Still, if she was killed by someone else, he didn''t see to mind that much as if he would have done it eventually. One thought: did he pay someone else to kill her? I mean, on that day he really seemed to go out of his way to establish an alibi...the part about visiting a Mazda dealership. Why? And wouldn''t there have been a witness there, record of prospective buyer.

[mswolfestock]

The cops failed to do their jobs. They are responsible for setting this guy free. Every person who commits a crime prays for incompetence like this. Incompetence and stupidity are the reason that lots of guilty people are walking around free.