Strange Stories From The Year 2010: The Mysterious Killing of David Hartley...Still Unresolved...

By RICARDO KLEMENT
Staff Writer

FALCON LAKE, Texas - Who knows where David Hartley's body is, or was, or may be? Some say it was boiled inside an acid-filled, 55-gallon drum by members of a Mexican border drug cartel who offed him for reasons only they know. Others say he and his wife staged the killing for insurance purposes, and that his body has not been found because Hartley is alive and living elsewhere. Whatever.

It nonetheless remains the story that had no ending.

For RGVofTexas residents, his reported killing has been relegated there alongside tales of the notorious carnivore Chupacabra, the cultural fancy of La Llorona in Mexican lore and the still unsolved murder of McAllen's Irene Garza back in the early 1960s, a case that tries to grab at the idea that she was killed by a lascivious priest who dumped her body in the then-weedy 2nd Street canal.

Hartley's wild tale has been rife with weird and creative speculation since the day authorities announced the 30-year-old was killed by Mexican pirates Sept. 30 while he and his wife Tiffany were jet-skiing on Falcon Reservoir, which straddles the U.S.-Mexican border here. According to the cops, Tiffany and David spent most of their lives in Loveland, Colorado, but moved to the border in 2007 because Hartley worked for a company that drills oil and gas wells.

At the time of his alleged murder, the couple was moving back to northern Colorado. Before doing that, they decided to spend one last time on Falcon Reservoir, where David Hartley liked exploring a sunken city. Tiffany Hartley told suspicious sheriff's investigators that the couple was approached by armed thugs in three fishing boats who opened fire without provocation. Tiffany told officials she saw David fall off his WaveRunner, and when she returned for him, she found him with a severe head wound. She reportedly tried to pull him into her WaveRunner, but was chased away by a hail of gunfire. Some Texas and Mexican authorities have questioned Tiffany's account of the attack.

Speculation sailed far and wide, with some noting that Hartley had been living in the Mexican bordertown of Reynosa and drove a pickup with Mexican license plates. That led to a belief that he may have been involved in the illicit drug trade.

Of late, nothing has surfaced indicating the case is active. Texas law enforcement officials say they never did lead the investigation, because the alleged crime took place on the Mexican side of the lake. Mexico has not exactly busted its ass, however.

David Hartley is dead, and nothing will bring him back, is the common sentiment south of the border...

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