Falcon Lake Shooting: David Michael Hartley Feared Dead(arrest)

[trimmonthelake]

Honey Bunny be swingin' some heavy artillery.

If I had to break off a relationship with her... I'd be sure to say:

It's not you... It's ALL MY FAULT... 

You got that right!   

[trimmonthelake]

Thank you Trimm.
I wish I felt this woman was telling the truth . . . but I don't.

I wish I felt that she was telling the truth too, but I don't either...

Me either..............

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/4822-search-for-victim-of-pirate-attack-on-mexico-texas-border
Search for Victim of Pirate Attack on Mexico-Texas Border  | Print |   E-mail 
Written by Warren Mass     
Friday, 08 October 2010 16:18 
An article in the New York Times for October 7 summarized the backdrop behind the apparent killing of an American jet skier, David Michael Hartley, on September 30, as he and his wife, Tiffany, were riding across Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexican border.

In the article, headlined “A Fishing Paradise Gains a Deadly Reputation,” the writer observed: For decades, Falcon Lake was known primarily as an anglers’ paradise, a tranquil reservoir straddling the border with Mexico, where a clever fisherman could catch enormous largemouth bass. These days, however, the lake is developing a reputation for something else: piracy.

As a prolonged conflict between drug dealers and the government has eroded civil order in Mexico, gangs of armed thugs in speedboats have begun robbing fishermen and tourists on the lake.

Last week, gunmen in three boats reportedly shot and killed an American as he and his wife toured the lake on Jet Skis.

The Times report quoted Mrs. Hartley’s father, Bob Young, who said that his daughter and her husband had traveled on their Jet Skis to the village of Guerrero on the Mexican side of the lake to take photographs of an old church there. Ironically, the couple had just moved to McAllen, Texas, after finishing a two-year job assignment in Reynosa, Mexico, and their primary reason for leaving was to escape the increasing violence south of the border. The couple planned to move back to their native state of Colorado soon and wanted to take a final excursion on the lake before leaving.

“[Michael told [Tiffany], ‘We might as well go and check out this old church and take the Jet Skis out one more time,’” Young said. “It was just a fluke. Wrong place, wrong time.”

Mrs. Hartley told reporters in interviews that after they visited the church and started back across the lake, armed men in three small boats raced toward them from shore. The couple tried to speed away, but the gunmen opened fire and Mr. Hartley was shot in the head.

She tried to haul her unconscious husband onto her own Jet Ski but was not strong enough. “I tried pulling him up, and you cannot imagine how awful it was not being able to help him,” she told ABC News.

Authorities and others fear that the Hartleys may have inadvertently entered an area of the lake, part of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, that is a battleground between two rival drug gangs, the Gulf Cartel and the Zeta.

Over a week later, neither Michael Hartley’s body nor his Jet Ski has been found. AP, citing Mexican authorities, reported that hundreds of people using speedboats, helicopters, and all-terrain vehicles haver been searching for Hartley, but that the search had temporarily been suspended because of threats of ambush from drug gangs.

The report quoted U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who told reporters about the ambush threat that put a hold on the search: "When darkness was falling [on October 6], they got word that there might be an ambush. People that are trying to do their job on the Mexican side are facing a risk, they're right inside the hornets' nest ... they had to suspend the search."

Cuellar said the search resumed midmorning on October 7.

Texas Governor Rick Perry expressed a less understanding opinion about the interruption in the search for Hartley’s body:

I don't think we're doing enough. When you call off the search the way they did ... and give as the reason because the drug cartels are in control of that part of the state, something's not right. We do not need to let our border continue to deteriorate from the standpoint of having drug cartels telling whether or not we can go in and bring the body of an American citizen who was killed. That is irresponsible.

Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he has sent word to the Zetas that he simply wants Hartley’s body returned and that the gang need not fear prosecution from his office:
We cannot arrest anybody for what happened in Mexico, we cannot prosecute on the state level anybody for what happened in Mexico. We just want a body. I did send word to the drug cartel, the Zeta cartel in Mexico, I sent word to them unofficially. I can't tell you how but I sent word to them."

Gonzalez said he has not received a response to his plea.

In an interview on the CBS program The Early Show, with co-anchor Harry Smith, Rep. Ted Poe, (R-Texas), said that he has made a request to the State Department to permit a U.S. search on the Mexican side.

The Mexican government said yes, then backed off and said, "No, we don't want the Americans over here." We need to use the American resources that we have, because that area of the lake is controlled by the Zetas, there is an island on that lake where the Zetas really operate, the drug cartels. If we mean business about trying to recover David Hartley's body we need American involvement and the Mexican government needs to be relentless to find it. They are intimidated now, they really won't go near the area where the Zetas operate.

Smith added, "We need to stop and pause a second because even the Mexican authorities themselves are clearly not in control. It's the drug cartel that is in control because … the Mexican authorities backed away when they were threatened."

Poe agreed, saying, "That area of Falcon Lake on the Mexican side, all the way to the American edge of the water is controlled by the Zeta cartels. They bring those drugs into the United States, usually at night by high-speed boats, and they operate — that is their operation — and the Mexican government hasn't been able to stop them, won't stop them, refuses to or cannot, whatever the situation is, and they control that area. The government, neither government, controls that area, the drug cartels. And we're being held really hostage by the drug cartels on that area of the lake."
The entire interview lends insight into not only the Falcon Lake violence spree, but the overall issue of securing the U.S.-Mexican border against the increasing threat of crime posed by the Mexican drug cartels. The Texas congressman also expressed similar sentiments in another interview with Fox News.

With the U.S.-Mexican border as porous as it is, the spread of violence over to the U.S. side is inevitable — unless our fedeal government fulfills its constitutional mandate to defend our states agains invasion, or allows the states to do the same, as Arizona has attempted.

[cookie]

Wow! and these are the folks that are possibly crossing into our country through our own borders....
don't even get me started on that!

Makes me wonder again why any American would go into those waters knowing the risk..which Tiffany said that they did know of...Would you ride a jet ski in crocodile or shark infested water? I think not..
Also, if they saw the boats approaching them and they were on their jet skis, they should have been able to outrun the boats...bullets were flying, by her own words...they didn't hit the jet skis at all? only hit David in his forehead? pretty bad shooters then... When David was lying in the water, Tiffany was off of her ski, the cartel reached her, pointed a gun at her but did not rob her or ask her for money which is what they are normally after right? just let her go?  still not buying it...jmo...

[Kermit]

In Texas it is custom to see guns mounted in the back truck window. So it's not really any big deal to see anyone shooting a gun/rifle etc. Very common in Texas.

[Kermit]

Warnings Issued: Armed Mexican Drug Cartel Pirates in Texas Lake… Terrorizing & Robbing US Citizens Who Are Fishing & Boating in Falcon Lake (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson onMay 28, 2010

On April 30, five U.S. men on two separate boats ventured into the area of Old Guerrero, a colonial town that’s now a ghost town, on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake, according to a press release from the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS).
Tom Bendele, owner of Falcon Lake Tackle, in Texas, said he knew the victims involved in the incident.

Bendele said while his friends were taking photos of an old church during a fishing trip on the Mexican side of the lake, four heavily tattooed gunmen in an old bass boat approached them.

“They boarded the boat at gunpoint,” Bendele recounted. “They were all wearing black and [my friends] told me one had Z’s tattooed around his neck — the others had Z’s tattooed on their wrists.”
http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/falcon-lake-tx-map.jpg




Law enforcement arrest along the border yields 400 rounds of 50 caliber and AK-47 machine gun ammunition. I am wrapping up a tour of Falcon Lake in Starr and Zapata County. My thanks to the men and women in local law enforcement who bravely protect and serve our community.

[carpe noctem]

In Texas it is custom to see guns mounted in the back truck window. So it's not really any big deal to see anyone shooting a gun/rifle etc. Very common in Texas.

Right. I don't see many AR-15's or AK-47's though, unless of course they are working for SWAT.

This was more my focus of the value in posting Tia's FB info:


Tia Young Im waiting for my brother in law to buy the AR 15 since he lives in Mexico I told him I would break it in for him til he comes back to a free country.
February 8 at 4:25pm

(Tia's brother-in-law: the late David Michael Hartley)

Ric Kucharyson What are you holding in your picture, looks like a Mouser action? Looks competitive...
February 8 at 4:45pm

Tia Young It's my brother in laws 228. (David's 228)
February 8 at 6:53pm

----

David is probably going to have guns. Tiffany is probably gonna have access to 'em.

If she is like her sister - she may be very comfortable with shooting them.

Some may be high powered - after seeing this stuff.

I don't care what they say in McAllen... you don't need an AR-15 to kill a deer.

Those are man killers.

[carpe noctem]

Tia and Tiffany

[carpe noctem]

Mexican officials have reportedly identified two men they say are suspects in a pirate attack nine days ago on a Texas couple Jet Skiing on a border lake in which the husband was killed.


Mexican officials have not released photographs of the two men, but identified them as Pedro Saldiva Farrias, 27, and his brother, Jose Manuel Saldiva Farrias, Juan Carlos Ballesteros, an investigator with the attorney general's office of the Mexican state of Tamaulpas told ABC affiliate KRGV-TV in McAllen, Texas.

Both were said to be suspected members of the Zeta drug cartel from Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, near the abandoned town where David and Tiffany Hartley were sightseeing before they were ambushed, according to Ballesteros.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/mexican-pirate-attack-suspects-identified/story?id=11842316

[klaasend]

IMO, they weren't there sightseeing, they were there buying an AR-15 or drugs and the deal went bad.

[cookie]

IMO, they weren't there sightseeing, they were there buying an AR-15 or drugs and the deal went bad.

agree...something more happened...no camera, no jet ski..dead husband...
also, it occurred to me that we always have a rope on our jet ski to tie up to docks when we stop somewhere...couldn't she have tied the rope around David's life jacket and at least drug him along with her until they got into American waters? she did not even know if he was dead when she left him...he may have drowned after she left him...Easy for me to say what she could have done since I was not there...however I don't picture myself leaving my husband especially when she said that the gang had pointed a gun at her but then drove off...she was in the clear at that point don't ya think? very disturbing case if you ask me...wonder if David's father suspects something? he has sat quietly the times that I have seen him during news ....Tiffany meanwhile has been on about every major program that will have her...cool, calm and collected...

[carpe noctem]

IMO, they weren't there sightseeing, they were there buying an AR-15 or drugs and the deal went bad.

That is some darn good thinking. I love your brain!

[trimmonthelake]

I agree with Klaas.

Carpe,your avi is cracking me up.   

[trimmonthelake]

http://seamusoriley.blogspot.com/2010/10/has-tiffany-hartley-lawyered-up.html
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Has Tiffany Hartley Lawyered Up?

[trimmonthelake]

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/national-news/2010/10/10/mexican-police-we-know-who-killed-american-jet-skiier.html
Mexican Police: We Know Who Killed American Jet Skiier
Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 11:56AM
(REYNOSA, Mexico) -- Police are looking for two suspected members of the Zeta drug cartel believed to be directly involved in the shooting death of an American man killed while jet skiing with his wife on a Texas-Mexico border lake.

Mexican authorities have identified the men as Juan Pedro Saldivar Farias, and his brother, Jose Manuel. The two are suspects in a string of murders, kidnappings, armed robberies and fires, according to officials.

David Hartley was shot in the back of the head, according to his wife, as the couple fled the Mexican side of the lake to U.S. waters on Sept. 30.

Tiffany Hartley says her husband fell off his watercraft after he was shot. She told investigators that she attempted to circle back, but that the gunmen were still firing, forcing her to abandon the rescue.

David Hartley’s body has not been recovered.

His mother made a public plea to U.S. and Mexican authorities last week, appearing on ABC News’ “Good Morning America.”
"[David] needs to come home and we're begging the Mexican government, the governor of Texas, President Obama," said Pam Hartley, who also appealed to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "To Hillary -- mother to mother -- help me bring my son home, please," she said, crying.

Falcon Lake, part of the Rio Grande situated directly on the Texas-Mexico border, has become a haven for pirates, and there have been at least five reported run-ins on the lake so far this year, though this is the first instance of a death.

[cookie]

this article is not correct from the others that we have read...He supposedly was shot in the forehead..
Supposedly she was at David's side in the water, the gang had a gun pointed at her and asked them not to shoot her and then they left...She tried to get David on the jet ski with no luck right?

according to above article:
David Hartley was shot in the back of the head, according to his wife, as the couple fled the Mexican side of the lake to U.S. waters on Sept. 30.

Tiffany Hartley says her husband fell off his watercraft after he was shot. She told investigators that she attempted to circle back, but that the gunmen were still firing, forcing her to abandon the rescue.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/09/earlyshow/saturday/main6942375.shtml
(videos)
Police: Video Supports Lake Pirate Story
Texas Police: Officer's Dash Camera Caught Hartley's Car Going to Falcon Lake, Supports Tiffany's Timeline, Story of Shooting
October 9, 2010

(CBS)   More evidence has been released today that supports the story of Tiffany Hartley, the wife of American David Hartley, who is presumed dead after an alleged attack on a lake that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border.

CBS News correspondent Don Teague reported police dash cam video shows the Hartleys pulled over shortly before they went to Falcon Lake in Texas, which supports her story and timeline.
Mexican authorities initially questioned Tiffany Hartley's story, but Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, who is investigating the shooting, says he has no doubt she's telling the truth.

Gonzalez said, "There's no reason for us to doubt what she's saying. Our investigation is really for us to get a body."

Teague added Mexico announced on Friday it's launched a formal investigation into the alleged shooting on Falcon Lake.

Authorities there are also ramping up the search for Hartley's body with boats, soldiers and a military helicopter.

Eduardo Arnal, of the Consul General of Mexico, told CBS News, "I can assure them that the Mexican government will do anything in its hands in order to find David and to find what happened in this case."

[MuffyBee]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/10/10/2010-10-10_two_suspects_named_in_case_of_david_hartley_missing_american_allegedly_attacked_.html
(video)
Two suspects named in case of David Hartley, missing American allegedly attacked by Mexican pirates
October 10, 2010

The search goes on for David Hartley, the missing American whose wife says was shot in the head by Mexican pirates ten days ago.

Mexican authorities launched a federal investigation into Hartley's disappearance last week, and announced Saturday they have named two suspects in the case: brothers Juan Pedro Saldivar-Farias and Jose Manuel Saldivar-Farias, according to Mexican newspaper El Universal.

The pair already stand accused of a long list of criminal activity in Mexico, according to the paper, including arson, theft, and involvement in prior murders.

It is not clear how they were identified as suspects, local television station KGBT reported.

Tiffany Hartley, 29, claims she and her husband were spending an afternoon on Jet Skis at the lake on the Texas-Mexico border on Thursday, Sept. 30, when pirates appeared and shot David in the head, causing him to fall into the water.

She says she tried to pull him out, but panicked and fled when the men continued to shoot at her.

Hartley's body has still not been found, causing some to question Tiffany's story.

"My question is, OK if he had a vest, why is the body not floating?" U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Tex) said Friday, according to The Associated Press. "We asked the Coast Guard, if he had a Jet Ski, would that Jet Ski be floating somewhere around? Our Mexican friends have said they've been searching around; they've even used a helicopter. If you have a general idea of where that is, why is the body not floating? Why is there not a Jet Ski?"

But Cuellar said the area where the Hartleys reported being attacked is a "hornet's nest" for the Zetas drug cartel, and that there is reason to believe Tiffany’s story is true.

"The bad guys could look at the Jet Ski as an asset that they could take," Cuellar said Friday, noting that Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez "does have an eyewitness, a person that did see her [Tiffany] coming in with a boat chasing her, so we have to rely on law enforcement officials."

Gonzalez told CBS News he has blood evidence from Tiffany Hartley's life vest that supports her version of events.

"Our information is indicating that the witness is reliable, the witness is truthful," he said, citing "other evidence" that also backs up Tiffany’s claim. "I'm not at liberty to discuss it at this time, but it does indicate that she had nothing to do with" her husband's disappearance.

Tamaulipas State Police say they have dispatched teams on land, in the water, and in the air, deploying a military aircraft in search of Hartley's body.

CBS also reported on Friday that police have video of the Hartleys being pulled over shortly before they went to the lake, which corroborates the timeline of Tiffany's story.

"There's no reason for us to doubt what she's saying," Gonzalez said. "Our investigation is really for us to get a body."

Hartley continues to defend herself, telling Fox News on Saturday, "I've spoken the truth...I’m telling everything I can."

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7240824.html
Brothers sought in reported border lake shooting
October 10, 2010

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Mexican authorities are searching for a pair of brothers as suspects in the reported border lake shooting of American David Hartley.

Hartley hasn't been found since the Sept. 30 attack on Falcon Lake on the Rio Grande.

Tamaulipas State Police unit chief Juan Carlos Ballesteros said investigators believe brothers Juan Pedro and Jose Manuel Zaldivar Farias may have killed Hartley as he snapped photos of a sunken church from a personal watercraft.

The officer said the pair are already sought for allegedly belonging to a gang of pirates operating on Falcon Lake, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border. Ballesteros also said they allegedly terrorized a Mexican town at the south end of the lake.

Ballesteros gave no details of the investigation.

[cookie]

no doubt they were there...just don't know who shot David..
she might be innocent as heck..I just find her very puzzling by her demeanor...but who knows, maybe things are as she says they are...time will tell...