Body Of American Still Not Found

Hillary Clinton

The Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said that the United States is “doing everything that we know how to do” to find the body of the reported missing American in a lake straddling the U.S.-Mexican border. Clinton spoke on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and she said that she is “sickened” by the case that involves the American David Hartley.

“I hope that we can [find him],” Clinton said. “I mean the beheaded body of the brave Mexican investigator that just showed up shows what we’re dealing with.”Clinton said that the United States is “supporting local law enforcement, supporting the authorities on the border, doing everything that we know to do to try to assist in helping to find the body and helping to find the perpetrators.” The comments made by Clinton came a day after the U.S. and the Mexican authorities vowed that the search for Hartley will continue despite any grisly slaying of the government from Mexico lead investigator in the case.

“We continue the search on this side of the border,” said Zapata County, Texas, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. to the CNN. “We’re also sending a message that we’re here.” Hartley is reported to have been shot during a boating trip on September 30. Apparently, he was shot by gunmen that the investigators believe to be linked to a Mexican drug gang.

The search for the body has resumed after this week was killed the state police official Rolando Armando Flores Villegas. The officials said that Flores Villegas’ severed head was delivered to the Mexican military Tuesday in a suitcase. Tiffany Hartley, the missing man’s wife, spoke to the authorities and said that her husband was shot to death during a sightseeing trip. The two husbands were taking the trip on Falcon Lake, a reservoir on the Rio Grande. Gonzalez said the gunmen were probably pirates that were linked to one of the Mexican drug cartels. Also, Hartley said that she believes that the attackers could still have her husband’s body.

During this time, there was a report issued by a Texas-based think tank that suggested Thursday that David Hartley’s death could just be a case of mistaken identity in the ongoing war between two Mexican drug cartels. The Stratfor report cites anonymous sources regarding the case. The report noted that David Hartley worked for an oil and gas company. The company had operations in Reynosa, Mexico, and apparently the couple lived there for two years and had only moved to McAllen, Texas, in the past few months. It looks the truck the two drove to the Falcon Lake on September 30 still had a license plate from Mexico’s Tamaulipas state.

The couple drove their watercraft to the Old Guerrero area of the lake. The report said that the Guerrero area is a “known battleground in the ongoing war in the Los Zetas and Gulf cartels.” Also, the sources told Stratfor that both cartels have been known to conduct surveillance and counter-surveillance operations on personal watercraft. Due to this, Zetas scouts may have identified them as possible Gulf spies. That could have happened because of their license plate and their method and direction of travel on Falcon Lake. Stratfor said those then they were apparently confronted by the “Zetas enforcers.”

The same sources told Stratfor that the attack was unauthorized by the senior Los Zetas members. Apparently, “a damage control campaign is currently under way … to identify and eliminate those who engaged the Hartleys without proper authorization.” The report said that the protocol involves prompt disposition of a body, if there is one, to ensure that no evidence can be brought against the group.