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Friday, February 25, 2011

Falcon Lake Murder: David Hartley, a missionary, and an ICE agent

I'm going to be taking a break for a little bit on the Falcon Lake Murder case, and only because I'm waiting for new information to arrive, which is hopefully soon.

For the mean, you can  check out my new blogs, Borderline Madness Diary, and coming soon, Borderline Madness Poetry.

However, before I put the Falcon Lake Murder case on standby, allow me to share some final thoughts for the week.

I think that the worse case scenario for me is that everything I've been posting about the David Hartley murder case turns out to be so wrong.

It's not that I would hate to be proven wrong.  To the contrary, I hope to be proven wrong.

What it is is that I would hate to think that Tiffany Hartley has been telling the truth this whole time (which I clearly state again that I very much doubt) and that people like me have been giving her a hard time during what is probably the worst time time in her life.  I would hate to think that instead of giving her support, that I instead gave her more grief.

Having said that, one thing that has been bothering me for the past week is the underlying injustice for us all.

For us, those who seek true justice, it is the lack of enforcing the laws in serious situations like the David Hartley murder.  It was a biased investigation that, asides from giving preferential treatment to women, it also gave preferential treatment to white victims, and preferential treatment to anti-immigrant hysteria.

For those who are victims, assuming they have been telling the truth, the unfairness comes in minimizing what is priority to what is not.

What do I mean?

Well, if you haven't heard about it, a few weeks ago in January 2011, a missionary couple was attacked by the drug cartels.  The husband was able to escape, but the wife was not.  She was shot in the head as their truck was bombarded with bullets.  Unlike the David Hartley murder case, they had the truck, which was riddled with bullet holes, as proof of the dangers that they had escaped, and unfortunately took the life of a good Samaritan.  This case did not gain too much attention because the surviving spouse did not parade himself in front of the media like Tiffany Hartley did after David's supposed murder.

In that case, many people kept bringing up the expensive truck the missionaries were driving.  In their head, they could not understand why this couple, knowing the dangers of Mexico, why would they drive a truck like that in Mexico?

Well, having been all along the Mexico border, in Matamoros, Nuevo Progresso, Diaz Ordaz, Reynosa, Camargo, Miguel Aleman, Ciudad Nuevo Guerrero, Nuevo Laredo, and as far in as Monterrey, Nuevo Leon and Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosi, in all these places, it is not uncommon to see people driving fancy vehicles.

Naturally, one should still take precautions, but I fail to see in cases like these why they would be targeted for the truck they drove.  This is one case where I truly believe it was a case of mistaken identity, but the one case where everyone seems to be going just the opposite of what I think.  But it is because of the fact that I know that they are not the only ones driving nice looking trucks, and if you've been to these border towns and have seen the missionary truck, you'd realize that the missionaries' truck was blah compared to what other people are driving in these Mexican border towns.

Do I suspect foul play in the missionary shooting?  No I don't.  The only foul play is that they, in my opinion, were mistaken for rivals, especially because, according to the way the story goes, they didn't stop for the road block and instead sped off away from it, in my opinion, giving the impression that they were hiding something when in reality they were just speeding off in fear.

If that sounds like the David and Tiffany scenario, then you are right, but the only difference is that the missionaries had a truck riddled with bullet holes to prove they were being shot at, not to mention the wife who later died in the hospital as a result of being shot in the head.  In Tiffany's case, there were no bullet holes anywhere, not even a nick, and this was after being chased by 3 boats full of "pirates", David's body nor his jet ski were ever found, and her story changed as often as the wind changes direction, among other things.

The one thing that both Tiffany and the missionary do have in common though, is that the people who killed their spouses were never caught.  In Tiffany's case, one investigator was supposedly beheaded for providing information that could have lead to the suspects, and that is still being debated by many of us as to whether things really happened the way they are telling us it did.

On the other hand, in February 2011, two ICE agents were shot in Mexico while on duty.  One was wounded in the leg and the other died as a result of multiple gun shots to the chest.

The following is STRATFOR's report on the attack of the ICE agents:



In my humble opinion, STRATFOR is full of shit.  Honestly.

For one, if the cartels were after the vehicle, why didn't they take it?

Two, I find it mighty fishy that one of the ICE agents survived with only two shots to the leg while the other was shot multiple times in the chest.

Three, I find it mighty fishy that the cartel would not hide the evidence of their crime.  Many people go missing in Mexico and no one ever finds out what happened to them.  Why in the world would they leave themselves up for grabs like that?  It isn't that I am trying to glorify the cartels.  I am not.  I find them disgusting, but, the patterns of how they operate do not match with this case nor with the Hartley's case.

Three, the people in Mexico do not see Americans as a threat! WTF?!

Does STRATFOR really call themselves "intelligence professionals"?  Well, they are surely lacking in the "intelligence" part, because this case smells all over, just like David Hartley's supposed "murder".

And to me, that's upsetting, because cases like these, I'm sure, are going to become more common.

People have found an easy way to commit murder and blame the violence in Mexico!

However, to be fair, what is very astounding is the fact that even before the month was over, they had already arrest not one, but 500 suspects nationwide!!!  This only days after ICE practically states they are going to get revenge for their fallen hero by finding the shooters.


Boy, that was quick!

What about the missionary and Tiffany Hartley and other Americans who have been murdered in Mexico as a result of the drug wars?


Why was the government not quick to respond to their case in capturing the shooters, or as efficient?

According to Fox News, Deputy special agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, "This is personal...We lost an agent, we lost a good agent. And we have to respond."
Federal, state and local authorities across the country are sending an unequivocal message to Mexican drug cartel members in the U.S. and Latin America: If you kill a U.S. agent, there will be repercussions.
Dang!  No, really...DAAANG!!!

In other words, if you are not a U.S. agent, then you are not important.

So I take it, Tiffany Hartley and the missionaries, Nancy and Sam Davis, and countless others who have lost a loved one as a result to the drug wars in Mexico- none of them will ever find justice because they are not special.  They are not U.S. agents.  They are just American civilians and the life of American civilians are not important.

Boo!  Big fucking BOO!

Excuse my language, but, it is shit like this that makes me feel sorry for people like Tiffany Hartley, though I may not agree with her version of the story or the stance that she has decided to take about the border, or how her story is negatively affecting the communities on the border.
But I urge her to keep demanding justice for David, just in case I am wrong about David Hartley's supposed "murder", and for the sake of those who are not "special U.S. agents"...

...most importantly for them.


Friday, February 18, 2011

Falcon Lake Murder: A message from the cartels

The other day when I released the post about the Subway's interview, someone mailed me a link to the Narco blog with the message, "It says here who killed David Hartley."  The link was the following:

http://www.blogdelnarco.com/2011/02/cartel-del-golfo-y-carteles-unidos.html

For those of you who do not understand Spanish, there is a translate button on the  top left corner, but mainly what this link takes you to is a blogger who supposedly received an anonymous email from the Cartel del Golfo (CDG) and United Cartels (UC) on February 16, 2011.  In the email, the CDG and UC give a list of murders and a series of other bloody events.  On that list was no other than the murder of David Hartley.

The text translated by me reads as follow:

Juan Pedro and Jose-Manuel Zaldivar Farías, also known as "El 27" and "El 31", killed the American tourist David Hartley at Falcon Dam and the head of the PME (ministerial state police) group in Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, Juan Carlos Ballesteros who was beheaded and his head was sent in a briefcase to the premises of the Mexican army. 

 Naturally, even after reading this, I didn't believe it because it sounded to me like they were just regurgitating everything the American media had said.  Secondly, they provide no proof to link these suspects to the beheading other than fingerpointing, not to mention other points I brought up in a previous blog.  (Read my thoughts on this here and here.)

I still had to wonder if maybe I was being hard headed about this?  After all, El Blog del Narco does have a reputation for being able to communicate with the cartel and provide information that is not available to others, but it just seemed too childish a email to come from some big drug cartels.

However, had it not been for my friend Javiera, I would have never noticed one very big clue that only adds more to this mystery, and that big clue is: 

According to a number of news reports, the media, Sheriff Sigi, and Tiffany, it wasn't Juan Carlos Ballesteros who was beheaded, but Rolando Armando Flores Villegas!


So who's lying?!!! The CDG or everyone else?

Here's the problem:  Personally, I don't believe this is a real letter from the CDG, and if it is, they are just coming up with events to blame on the Zeta's.  They are, after all, feuding, and what a better way than to get people fired up by putting the blame on their enemy?

However, we don't even really know who it was that was beheaded!

The Mexican news is famous for showing us the gruesome details of a beheading like this, and if not them, surely there's a picture floating around the internet to prove this beheading, not that I want to see it for any other reason other than I want proof!

Secondly, what if they are giving the facts?  What if it was Juan Carlos Ballesteros who was beheaded and not Rolando Armando Flores Villegas? Why would no one speak up about it if that were the case? Not to mention that there is more reason to believe that Juan Carlos Ballesteros would be the one to have been decapitated and not Mr. Villegas, because it was Mr. Ballesteros and Sheriff Sigi who released that information to El Universal, and not the other way around!

To be honest, this only furthers my suspicions that Sheriff Sigi works for the CDG.  He was the first one to place the blame on the "Zetitas", and now the CDG is following in his footsteps by insisting that the beheading was a result of people investigating the David Hartley case, and this is only assuming that this email was really sent by someone who knows more about the background on David Hartley's disappearance.

Stay tuned...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Falcon Lake Murder: Subways

Since law enforcement apparently is not doing anything about the Falcon Lake murder case, we were left to do our own independent investigation.

Some of the the doubts we had were regarding the police stop and the claim that the border patrol saw Tiffany and David eating at Subways.

While we have to wait for the video of the police stop, a good friend of mine, Javiera, whom I converse daily with about this case, took some of her time to investigate what she could about it. 

Both Tiffany and Sheriff Sig claim that Tiffany was seen by border patrol with David eating at a Subway's, later confirmed by a reporter from The Monitor that that Subway's happened to be in Zapata. 

Interestingly enough, Javiera called the Zapata County Subway to see if anyone had actually seen David and Tiffany together that day, and they didn't even know who Tiffany and David were! 

They thought she was talking about Harley Davidson motorcycles!

They'd never heard of the Falcon Lake murder!

Naturally, I needed to call Zapata Subway and confirm this for myself. 

To make a long story, Javiera was right, but at the same time, they were able to direct me to someone who was there on September 30th, 2010.

I was not able to get in touch with this person immediately, but some time between 2/14/11 and 2/17/11, I finally made contact.

This person, who does not want to reveal their identity for safety reasons, claims that Sheriff Sigi never came to them with any questions.

No one had ever done an interview with any of the employees or the owner and that no investigation was done at that Subway restaurant!

The witness was, however, able to confirm that they did see David and Tiffany Hartley eat there.  The witness claims to have seen them come in between 12:30 noon and 1:30 pm ("somewhere around there").

According to witness, the "couple" ordered their meal to go.

Witness was not able to give any more information other than they had used a credit card "or a debit card" and that the couple had acted regular when they order "their sandwiches".

I did find the following statement from the witness very interesting:

Witness states, "I did see the couple eat there, and then I went back to see if it was the same girl that came out, because I was not able to see the guy, right, anymore.  He, he disappeared.  But the girl that came out in the news was the same girl that was there having lunch at the Subway."

So I called the witness back for further explanation of that statement.

What witness meant was that they went back out of curiosity to look at their security video to see if the girl was the same as the one on the news.  I asked if it was possible to get access to that security video.

Unfortunately, they only keep them for two months and since no one asked for them and they didn't think the couple eating at Subways was important, they didn't save the video.

If Sheriff Sigi had been doing his job, they would have acquired that video from the security cameras as evidence. 

As it is, the witness could not confirm what the Hartley's were driving in or how they arrived to the store.  All the witness knows is that Tiffany came to the store, possibly with someone considering the witness continually used the word "they", "them", "their" but then later says she could not see the guy because he "disappeared".

I asked the witness what they meant by "disappeared". Did they mean the guy moved out of the scope of the camera or was Tiffany alone? I asked if Tiffany was alone because there were times when the witness would single out Tiffany as if Tiffany went in by herself.

The witness responded with, "No, she was definitely with somebody but I do not know if, if it was the same guy that was shot in the lake because, because I did not see a picture of him, right, to compare, but the girl, the girl was the same as on tv."

I asked if there were any border patrol eating there at the time. Witness claims that they did not recall them being there but that they were "definitely not in line placing an order" with the Hartley's.

When asked how they wanted to be addressed in this blog, the witness said to just put down "*****" because "all that matters is that they ate there."

Thank you very much for your help, witness, but that is not all that matters.

Other things that matter are fact that the so called Sheriff of Zapata County did not actually call Subways or interview its employees to confirm if David and Tiffany had been there? Fortunately for him, that much seems to be true, but it was very important that he had done this investigation early on, because, as you can see, the Subway's witness has given useful information. 

Did they notice Tiffany and David arguing? No. 
Were anyone of them visibly upset? No. 
Did they look happy together? They looked like any regular couple. 
Were they conversing? They did not stay long enough to notice. 
Did you overhear them talking about anything out of the ordinary, or anything at all? No.

All of those very useful questions, but none were asked except by irrelevant me!  Why?!!!

Not to mention, why does Sheriff Sigi publicize this as a fact if it was never confirmed? The witness cannot confirm if that was really David because no one ever showed up to take her statements and show her a picture of David!


Even more interesting is the Denver Post's claim that "in his most extensive


What border patrol and how could they have seen them eating there if they ordered to go according to my witness?!  Not to mention that my witness does not recall any border patrol agents eating there, so how can we be certain of how the border patrol "witnesses" came to the conclusion that who ever was with Tiffany was David Hartley?


Stay tuned for more revelations about this case as we pick up gear and do our own hard core investigation, sort of like it should have been done by law enforcement to begin with, but using only those resources available and limited to us.


On a final note, I want to give a big thank you to Javiera for her help, ideas, and most importantly for dedicating her time and using her experience as an investigator to help me in investigating this case. 

I truly appreciate your help and thank you for taking this case to heart like I did. Gracias!


Until next time...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Falcon Lake Murder: David Hartley's Ring & Friends

The silence in the Falcon Lake Murder case is maddening!

It is almost as if the world has forgot what has happened here on the border, and those that have to carry the weight of a supposed crime having been committed are those that actually live here.

We are the ones that are paying the ultimate price through loss of revenue to our businesses that depend on tourism!

We are not going to forget!

We will continue to demand justice until justice is served!!

For the life of me, I cannot understand how someone like Tiffany Hartley and Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez can get by with what they have done in claiming a crime was committed without any deep investigation.  Their only proof to David's murder being a life vest with a microscopic drop of blood, an unreliable eyewitness that contradicts Tiffany's story, and a DPS stop BEFORE the incident occurred, none of those actually proving if David was murdered and, if he was murdered, it doesn't prove who murdered him either.

So how can they get away with it?

Now, Tiffany Hartley comes up with another change to her story.

According to an interview given by Robin Craig of "Today's Widow" , Tiffany now claims to have looked back and repeatedly yelled, "Honey! Honey!", later also adding that she was screaming, "I need you! You can't leave me! I don't know what to do!".

That's not the story she was telling people at first.

On the other hand, there are plenty of things that are odd with this case.

One of those oddities being her The Monitor interview.

When interviewer, Martha Hernandez asks Tiffany why she has David's ring, she claims at 14:33:
"we didn't wear rings and stuff when we went jet-skiing or anything for fear that we might lose it.  But, um, so, yeah, I was thankful that he had it home so I could have it".
While it could be possible that this one time happened to be one of those times, I still think it's important to note that she is lying because there is a picture of David jet-skiing where he is wearing his ring.


Other oddities that are also of interest, and that have never been mentioned in the media or by Tiffany, except on her facebook wall, is her past history with the cartels.

Something that is also strange is David Hartley's increasing and decreasing friends on his Facebook page.  Unfortunately, I was not able to take screen shots of his facebook page when he had 218 friends, but I was able to take it when he had 215 on January 12, 2011:



At 210 friends on February 7, 2011:





And a screenshot on February 14, 2011 at  209 friends:


In the process, some friends have been added and deleted and one is left to wonder who is controlling David Hartley's facebook page?


Is it David Hartley?  Could it be possible that he's still alive?

Or is it Tiffany?  And if it is Tiffany, what kind of sick mind would delete her "deceased" husbands friends from his list and why?

***sigh***

I wonder how long this mystery will continue?

It makes me wonder if there is anything that can be done to start it?

If this case is a huge cover up, then who do we turn to?  Who do we complain to?

Who will help us?

In the mean time, those that are truly suffering are the businesses that operate on the border.  They depend on the tourism that, sadly, is being scared away thanks to people like Sheriff Sigi and Tiffany.

If by chance, Tiffany happens to be innocent, which I doubt, and this whole case did happen the way it was said to have happened, then I would apologize and just accept it for what it is.

Unfortunately, neither Sheriff Sigi or Tiffany are helping out much.  They continue to demonize the border and we are left with nothing else to do but investigate on our own and try to solve this puzzle ourselves.

We are left to seek the justice that law enforcement should be providing for us!

We are left with having to protect our border from the same corruption that Sheriff Sigi and Tiffany claim only happens in Mexico - corruption of the law, deceit, murder, and criminals, like Tiffany might be, getting away with a crime.

They contradict their claims that it is the drug cartels and undocumented immigrants bringing that corruption over here, when in fact, they are the ones guilty of mocking the law with their ever changing stories, insufficient evidence, and lack of investigations.

In short, if your biggest fear is this country turning into another Mexico, then thank Sheriff Sigi and Tiffany for following the Mexican trend of corruption.

Because of that, and much more, we will not give up doing our own independent investigation and defending our borders from corrupt politicians, corrupt law enforcement, and lying political pawns on this side.

Stay tuned for more important revelations to this case to be posted in the following days.

Stop Demonizing Our Borders

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