David Hartley was reportedly shot and killed Sept 30 as he jet skied
with his wife near the Mexican side of Falcon Lake. His body is still missing. |
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Mexican Investigator of American's Killing Is Beheaded
Official had given the names of two suspects in case to a reporter
by James C. McKinley Jr.
New York Times
October 14, 2010
HOUSTON — An investigation into a reported shooting of an American on a border reservoir took a bizarre turn this week when the Mexican police chief overseeing the search was murdered and his head was left in a suitcase outside a military base, the Zapata County Sheriff's Office said.
Mexican officials said it remained unclear on Wednesday whether the killing of Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, commander of the Tamaulipas State police in Ciudad Miguel Alemán, was related to the search for David M. Hartley, a manager with an oil well services company who, his wife reported, was fatally shot on Sept. 30 while touring Falcon Lake on a Jet Ski. |
| Just before his death, Commander Flores had given the names of two suspects in Mr. Hartley's case to a reporter at KRGV-TV in Brownsville, Tex., lending credence to the theory that the police commander's killing was related to the inquiry.
But Rubén Darío Ríos, a spokesman for the Tamaulipas State prosecutor, said Commander Flores was involved in several inquiries that might have given someone a motive to kill him.
The chief was one of the senior police officials overseeing about 100 officers searching the lake for a trace of the missing man, Mr. Dario said. The search has proved fruitless so far, and hope has faded of finding Mr. Hartley, who was reportedly wearing a life vest when he was shot in the head, or his missing watercraft.
Commander Flores told the Brownsville television station that the Mexican police were searching for two brothers, Juan Pedro Zaldívar Farias and José Manuel Zaldívar Farías, who are reputed members of the Zeta organized crime group. Another police official in Miguel Alemán, Juan Carlos Ballesteros, had given the same information to the newspaper El Universal on Saturday.
Yet Mr. Darío denied Tuesday that state investigators were seeking anyone. “We have no suspects,” he said.
Family members of Mr. Hartley said they met last week with Commander Flores to discuss the search, and for them, his killing appeared to be a message. “I'm pretty sure they are trying to make a statement that you guys better back off or else,” said Bob Young, the missing man's father-in-law.
Mr. Hartley was shot by a group of armed men in fishing boats after he and his wife crossed the lake on Jet Skis to photograph a half-submerged church near the Mexican town of Guerrero Viejo, according to his wife, Tiffany Hartley. She fled after trying unsuccessfully to retrieve her husband's body.
The region has seen years of gangland war between the Gulf cartel, the Zetas and the Sinaloan cartel, all vying for control of lucrative border crossings, among them the lake itself, with the Mexican Army intervening regularly. As the drug violence has dragged into its fourth year, lawlessness has risen generally, and cartel hit men now regularly single out officials who cross them.
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