From Border Event to Murder Mystery?

There was a murder by Mexican pirates on a border lake. The wife escaped and the husband was shot dead. I wrote about it here.

Now there are some other developments, in the form of some inconsistencies. The wife, Tiffany Hartley, has been on the television talk show circuit. Doing that, she has made some inconsistent statements about what happened.

I jumped all over this story because, living in the Southwest, the border issue with all the nastiness coming out of Mexico that is ignored if not supported by the US government, really ticks me off.   

In Tiffany Hartley’s original story, she said she and her husband were shot at, he went down and she tried to retrieve him, but had to flee when they continued to shoot at her. That was when she noted that her husband David was shot in the back of the head. That’s what she told the sheriff.

Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez:

 “…observed some boats coming at them at a pretty high rate of speed, noticed that some of the boats were armed so they immediately started, according to her, revving it up and gassing it up to the U.S, side of the border to prevent them getting hurt.

“She said she was seeing bullets hitting close to her in the water and realized that her husband had been hit behind the head.” She went back trying to find, trying to help him. She went in the water trying to load up her husband to her Jet Ski … trying to get his body and Jet Ski back to the U.S. side.

“She was being shot at so she finally had to let go of the body, climb back in her Jet Ski and head back over here to the United States…” 

On the Today Show’s Meredith Viera, the story changes:

"Viera: Yesterday, you told me, Tiffany, that ‘one of the boats came up to me’ — this is your quote — ‘and had a gun pointed at me, trying to decide what to do with me, and then they left.’ How close did these people come to you? Can you describe them to me?’

Hartley: Honestly, looking at the barrel of the gun is all I saw. I was pretty focused there. I couldn’t tell you what they look like. But they were within the length of my jet ski of me, which is about 10 feet.”

Viera: Why do you think, Tiffany, why do think that they would spare your life? If in fact they had killed your husband. Why would they want anyone around that could possibly ID them?

Hartley: I have no idea. All I can do is give God the glory. That’s all I can do. Is that he had touched them to leave me, and go and figure out with the other two boats what could happen, so I had that time to get away. [Without] God’s grace, I wouldn’t be alive."

On Fox News’ "On The Record" with Greta Van Susteren, the story changes again:

"Van Susteren: When you were doing that, when you were attempting to help your husband, where were those other boats?

Hartley: Two were in front of me, uh, quite a ways a way. And one actually came up to my boat — er, my jet ski. And they had pointed the gun at me and they were talking amongst each other and pointed it back at me. And then they decided to leave [crosstalk] and meet up with the other two boats.

Van Susteren: Did you say anything to them?

Hartley: Yeah, I told them please don’t shoot, don’t shoot."

They were behind her, they were in front of her, she talked to them, she didn’t talk to them, she fled them, and she went toward them. From the “Today Show”: “I had to turn him over because he was face down in the water. I turned him over and he was shot in the head." The wound was in the back, and then it was in the front of her husband?

Her story has too many contradictions. Is this turning from a border event to a true crime story? Did she murder her husband and use this as a cover story? I shudder to think.