From a Border Murder, to Murder Mystery, to Cartel Murder

I’ve written about this story twice before. One expressing my outrage that our government just accepted what happened, taking no action and one where the veracity of Tiffany Hartley was brought into question. This is the story of murder on Falcon Lake on the Mexican border, where Mexican pirates murdered Tiffany Hartley’s husband David.

There were some inconsistencies in Ms Hartley’s story, but the story has come back around. The decapitated head of the Mexican official investigating the event, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, a state police commandant, was delivered to the military. The Mexican government said Villegas’ murder had nothing to do with the murder of David Hartley and the attempted murder of Tiffany Hartley.

Two suspects in the murder, Juan Pedro and Jose Manuel Saldivar Farias, have been apprehended.

Mexican cartel violence, at least partially supported by the Mexican government, and a weak, ineffective US government, all contributed to the murderous event. Mexican violence on the border is up, and US government cowardice is up.   

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. 

The Border, A Lake, A Murder

The Hartley's

There’s a little lake in south Texas. An idyllic place for water recreation, and most noted for its fishing. The US\Mexican border runs right through it; not in a straight line, but all curvy with the shoreline.

It’s also become a place of murder and theft by Mexican pirates.

Tiffany Hartley and her husband David Michael Hartley were out jet skiing this past weekend on Falcon Lake, and he was shot in the back of the head by the pirates. They chased her while shooting to kill her, but she escaped.

Her husband’s body is still out there, and the search teams can only search on the US side of the lake. The Mexican government, of course, isn’t assisting in the search.  They’ve been asked to by Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez. Could you imagine the uproar if some American thugs had murdered some Mexican tourists on that lake?

This year there have been five reported attacks before this. Heard of them? Our Federal Government just doesn’t care about US citizens on the border. Too busy suing Arizona for trying to enforce the law, and making excuses for their abysmal record of border (non) enforcement.  More interested in getting amnesty for undocumented Democrats coming across the border illegally.  

On the Mexican side of the lake are the ruins of an old church in Old Guerrero. Tourists have been going there for years. Now they are getting robbed.  What have US officials done? Well, you stupid citizens, don’t go there, is their response.  It's like the area in southern Arizona where the Feds have put up billboards to stay out of the area because it's dangerous, and it's dangerous because Mexican drug cartels control it. I think some our law enforcement people should go to that side of the lake, make a raid, and kill the bad guys. The Mexican government won’t help enforce the border any more than the  Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations have.  Can you imagine if we had a tourist spot on the US side that Mexicans visited, and some American bad guys murdered them?

Mexico should be told by our State Department that they have 48 hours to get rid of the pirates, pay reparations to the US, find David Harley’s body, or we will invade that side of the lake and put US troops there.  The lake is by agreement dual use, and supposed to be open to all. Now we have Mexican pirates coming out onto the lake and killing US citizens.

Our government sits on its sorry collective cowardly ass.