Officials: No suspects in reported Falcon Lake shooting

October 11, 2010 12:30 AM
By Martha L. Hernández and Dave Hendricks/The Monitor


ZAPATA — Ten days after the death of an American tourist on Falcon Lake, Mexican officials said Sunday they still have no suspects, and no body.

Despite reports from Mexican and American media that a Tamaulipas official had identified two brothers connected to the tourist’s death, Mexican authorities categorically denied on Sunday that they had any suspects.

Both men reportedly belong to a gang operating from a town near the lake’s southern end, according to the Associated Press. The news broke Saturday, when Spanish-language newspaper El Universal reported that Tamaulipas State Police unit chief Juan Carlos Ballesteros had identified them.

The American tourist, David Hartley, and his wife visited the lake on Sept. 30. After leaving the ruins of Old Guerrero, a partially sunken town in Mexican territory, three boats began tailing the couple, according to an account given by Hartley’s wife, Tiffany Young-Hartley. She told investigators the boaters shot her husband, killing him, and that she fled for her life.

But Mexican authorities said they haven’t identified any suspects.

"As a matter of fact, us, the Attorney General (in Tamaulipas) nor the personnel working in this investigation have named suspects," said Ruben Dario Rios Lopez, a spokesperson for the ProcuradurÃ*a General de Justicia de Tamaulipas, known by its acronym PGJ-Tamaulipas. "We (the PGJ in Tamaulipas) did not release that information, we do not know where it came from, or how it came out, and why those names appeared in the publication."

"Officially, there is nothing," said Rios Lopez, who works directly with the attorney general in Tamaulipas, Jaime Rodriguez Inurrigarro.

An agent reached Sunday night at the Ministerial in Miguel Aleman confirmed that there is a group leader named Juan Carlos Ballesteros. The agent referred requests for comment to the office in Reynosa, which was closed Sunday night. The offices in Reynosa and in Miguel Aleman are both under the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s jurisdiction.

Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he hasn’t received official word that the men are considered suspects, and hadn’t heard their names before.

Despite searches by Mexican and U.S. officials, Hartley’s body hasn’t been recovered. Doubts about Hartley’s story emerged during the search, mainly speculation from people not directly involved with the case. Gonzalez, the sheriff, said he considers Young-Hartley’s account of her husband’s disappearance credible.

Border Patrol agents and Texas Park and Wildlife officials continued their search for Hartley’s body Sunday. On the Mexican side of the river, government officials had been attacked on Friday and Oct. 1 while attempting to search for Hartley’s body, Gonzalez said.

Mexican Army Lt. Héctor Gerardo López Arellanes confirmed the attack happened Friday in Ciudad Mier, while a convoy of rescuers was on its way from Miguel Aleman to Falcon Lake to continue with the search. Three drug cartel members died and no soldiers were injured.


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