Posted on 10/18/2010 9:03:56 AM PDT by Reeses
The wife of a man allegedly killed by pirates on a lake that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border will return to FBI offices today to resume a marathon session of questions from Mexican authorities.
Tiffany Hartley, wife of David Hartley, who is missing after the jet ski incident Sept. 30 on Falcon Lake, endured eight hours of questioning by Mexican investigators Friday. She has said she refused a request to come to Mexico for further questioning, out of fear of a possible arrest.
"I just don't think that's a wise decision," Hartley told "Good Morning America." "I think they do believe my story, but I don't know what their plan is -- why they need me to go over there when I've signed every document they told me."
When asked if she feared arrest on the Mexican side of the border, Hartley said, "Possibly."
Hartley said that she hopes that by speaking with the investigators, without an attorney, she can convince them to continue their search for her missing husband. The search was called off last week after a lead investigator for the Mexican authorities was beheaded, allegedly by members of a drug cartel.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
“And what in the World would a group of outlaw males want a live young female for?”
Well, maybe they need someone who can COOK!/s;)
Agreed. Neighbor is a chopper pilot for homeland security and he has been shot at in this same general area. And they weren’t firing with their little .22 pistols. They are not afraid of retaliation because they know there will not be any.
Also, my bet is a drug deal gone bad. I am fairly confident she didn’t do it, but she is hiding something.
Stay tuned and see.
I saw on TV a video clip supposedly of the couple being stopped by a local police officer on their way to the lake. Has anyone else seen that clip? Or am I wrong?
(rest of the ABC story, nothing about any changing of stories)
David Hartley was last seen Sept. 30 when Tiffany said he was shot by Mexican pirates while the couple rode Jet Skis on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake. In a heartwrenching 911 call, a seemingly panicked Tiffany Hartley explained to the dispatcher that David was shot in the head and she was not strong enough to pull his body onto her Jet Ski. Neither David’s body nor his Jet Ski have been recovered.
Tiffany Hartley spent much of the weekend packing up her South Texas home for a move to Colorado.
Search to Continue After Gruesome Beheading
Though the search has not yet started, last week Mexican authorities said they would press their search for the body of an American tourist even after the lead investigator was decapitated.
“I can’t even explain how my heart is just broken for him and his family. There aren’t any words,” Tiffany Hartley said last week of recently deceased Rolando Flores. “He was just such a nice guy, and he really wanted to do what he could for us.”
The widow said last week she gets search updates from Mexican authorities almost daily.
Zapata County, Texas Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he felt for Flores’ family.
“They’re going to now be without a father, without a husband when in fact all they were trying to do was search for the body of Mr. Hartley,” Gonzalez said last week.
Flores’ severed head was delivered Oct. 12 in a suitcase to a military post near the border with Texas. His wife had said he was working late on the Hartley case the night before and never came home.
Although many believe Flores’ murder was the work of the drug cartels who control the waters where Hartley was killed, Mexican authorities have denied his death had anything to do with the murder investigation.
Zeta Cartel Suspected in Decapitation of Top Investigator
Earlier last week, Mexican authorities named two suspects in Hartley’s murder, two Zeta drug cartel members known as Pedro Saldiva Farrias, 27, and his brother, Jose Manuel Saldiva Farrias, whose age was not given.
Juan Carlos Ballesteros, an investigator with the state prosecutor’s office of the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, said 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.
Zeta is known for smuggling billions of dollars of cocaine and other drugs into the U.S. every year.
I believe this woman. I think this whole thing is placing blame on her because the incident is so politically incorrect.
I may be wrong, but I just have the feeling she is a victim too.
I haven’t really been following this is any detail, but have they ruled out ANY drug connection..seems to me that a jet ski could be a neat way to smuggle drugs intot he US..you have a few kilos of cocaine, waterproofed..tied to the jet ski, and weighted down, so it is below the waterline..if the are approached by US lawenforcement..cut the the line..mark the spot with a GPS ..and go back later on to try and recover it..
For all of those people questioning the wife, google or yahoo “Falcon Lake Pirates”. You will find a bunch of stories pre-dating this one. This is not new for this lake. Definite turf war involving the Zetas.
So you could be buried with her? The Mexican prosecutors will not be able/willing to protect you if the narcoterrorists want to kill you. Some in the police might even actively aid the narcos in killing you. Toss on top of that the chance the Mexican government will work to blame you for the crime to try to make the international problem go away. The least likely outcome is that they actually try to help you find the murderer.
Six Gunmen Die in Clash with Mexican Troops
Saturday, October 9, 2010/Borderland Beat Reporter
Six gunmen were killed in a clash with army troops in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico’s defense department said Friday.
One soldier was wounded in the engagement in the municipality of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero.
Helicopter-borne troops under the command of the 7th Military Zone were conducting “aerial reconnaissance” Thursday when they detected a vehicle hidden in the vegetation and stopped to investigate, the defense department said in a statement.
On landing to inspect the vehicle, the soldiers “were attacked with gunfire by suspected organized crime elements who sheltered in a structure,” the statement continued.
Besides killing six of the assailants, the troops seized seven assault rifles, a grenade-launcher, ammunition and an SUV.
Two powerful drug mobs, the Gulf cartel and Los Zetas, are battling each other for control of the illegal trade in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas.
You have no idea what they are able or willing to do. I truly doubt she would end up dead. The blame the Mexican government too? Really?
I would not have left my wife in the first place let alone stall on the investigations.
She even says she is getting daily updates on the searches in Mexico but somehow saying their Government would now just blame her?
I think a lot of this has gone overboard in fearing Mexico and Mexicans. People just look at this from the simple fact that there is no body, no jet ski, nobody else saw the shooting and the only witness didn’t actually see her chased just her riding away acting like she was being chased.
It’s too cloudy to be pointing fingers at anyone on either side of the boarder.
Dull, simple and direct crimes don't make it on TV. Prosecutors have to fight the "CSI bias" where jurors expect a complicated crime with many red herrings. My sister-in-law was on a jury where one juror was holding out for DNA evidence on a simple case of a couple punks stealing stereo equipment and being caught with it in their apartment.
That's what gets me...I can see shooting the guy to collect his insurance, but how would she manage the beheading?
Did she and the husband “See” a submarine?... or were in the vicinity of a submarine?.. The lake Could be an excellent place for submarine smuggling.. i.e. NO coast guard..
That's what gets me...I can see shooting the guy to collect his insurance, but how would she manage the beheading?
Why didn't HE try to stop them ??
It’s probably late to say - but she was one of my first suspects.
I always ask the same question about a low profile when it comes to stories about the cartels.
In this case,they cut the head off the head of the lead investigator which sort of throws the whole low profile out the window.
Yes,the Mexican police don’t believe its related but they have not put forth another reason. I would guess it is related and the Mexican police have to say its not otherwise there would be nobody working on the case.
Good Read about Tamaulipas,the state in which Nueva Ciudad Guerrero is located (graphic pics warning):
http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2010/04/all-tamaulipas-war-zone.html
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