MURDER ON FALCON LAKE

Falcon Lake straddles the border between the United States and Mexico, near McAllen, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The lake is sixty miles in length, and has been a fishing and boating mecca since it was created in 1953 by damming up a portion of the Rio Grande River.

American citizens David and Tiffany Hartley were on a ski boat vacation there. The couple crossed over the mid-lake border to see the half-submerged Old Guerrero Church on the Mexican side of the lake. They were sightseeing, but shouldn’t have done it. It was stupid. But who hasn’t done foolhardy things?

Mexican pirates – probably part of the vicious Los Zetas drug gang – raced up to their jet ski and shot American David Hartley in the head. They almost shot Tiffany, but she escaped, under a fusillade of gunfire.

Widow Tiffany Hartley wanted her husband’s body retrieved for a proper burial. A reasonable and proper request. But the Mexican government has refused to search for David Hartley’s body, and refused to allow authorities in Texas on the U.S. government to do so.

So what did we do? Nothing. Nada.

What would previous Americans – like Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Truman, or Reagan have done? Or Texas Governor Sam Houston? Don’t know. I can only guess.

But I can tell you this. If I were President of the United States of America, I would have sent the US Coast Guard - aided by the Texas Rangers - in force onto Falcon Lake and looked for American David Hartley’s body. And the Mexican government be damned (what would they have done about it, anyway?).