Beheading: Mexican Army Receives Severed Head, Identified as Police Investigator Working on Falcon Lake’s Mexican Pirate Shooting of American David Hartley (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 13, 2010
Gruesome development in Mexico… a lead police investigator who was working on the Mexican pirate / Falcon Lake case of assumed murdered American tourist David Hartley has himself been murdered.
Rolando Flores Villegas was beheaded and his head was sent to the Mexican military yesterday, in a suitcase.
It is believed by some to be the work of the Mexican drug cartel Zeta, sending a grisly message. However, Mexican authorities have said it is unrelated to the Falcon Lake case, that decapitations in Mexico are common, but are not saying much more than that.
It’s a troubling “coincidence.”
Mexican Investigator in Falcon Lake Case Beheaded (Tex-Mex Border) | October 12, 2010
From Houston Chronicle, Policeman possibly linked to Falcon Lake case beheaded
The severed head of a Mexican police commander investigating the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen David Michael Hartley on Falcon Lake was delivered Tuesday to Mexican military in a suitcase, authorities said.
The commander, identified as Rolando Flores Villegas, was one of the investigators that family members met during a meeting last week at an international bridge near Roma, said Cynthia Young, the mother of Hartley’s widow, Tiffany.
Officials said the head was delivered in the vicinity of Miguel Alemán, Mexico, across the border from Roma, Texas.
The area is known to be under control of the Zeta drug cartel, which fiercely protects the sparsely populated ranchland lining the border, as well as the Mexican side of the vast Falcon Lake reservoir.
Young said the family felt the cartels were trying to scare search teams away.
“I just think they’re trying to send a statement that they don’t want us there,” she said. “We haven’t really processed what it means.
“We really want to express our condolences and our sympathy to his family,” she said. “It’s just sad that this is an everyday occurrence.”
Hartley has been missing since Sept. 30, when he and his wife took their personal watercraft into Mexican waters to photograph a partially submerged town.
State Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, who has followed the case, was the first to report the grisly development via Twitter early Tuesday afternoon.
The account was later confirmed by authorities on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, including Ruben Rios, a spokesman for the Tamaulipas state prosecutor’s office, and the sheriffs of both Zapata and Webb counties in Texas.
[...]
Gonzalez said Tuesday that 15 boats are continuing to scour the lake on the U.S. side. He said he did not anticipate “a surge of violence against” U.S. law enforcement, noting that his officers are “always cautious.”
[...]
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who said he had been briefed on the incident, said there’s no timetable to when the search for Hartley’s body will be stopped.
“It’s a moving investigation right now,” Cuellar said. “We’re continuing the search. At one time, there were two helicopters and 60 people out there. … We still haven’t found a Jet Ski, or a body. … I’ve talked to Mexican ambassadors, and they say they’re doing everything. It’s not an easy search.”
From KPHO Phoenix News, Report: Falcon Lake Investigator Beheaded:
U.S. and Mexican authorities said a Mexican state police commander investigating the reported shooting and disappearance of an American tourist on a border lake plagued by pirates has been killed.
Tamaulipas state prosecutor’s office spokesman Ruben Rios said Tuesday that Commander Rolando Flores, the head of state investigators in the border city of Ciudad Miguel Aleman, was killed.
Texas Rep. Aaron Pena told CNN reported Flores’ severed head was delivered Tuesday in a suitcase to the Mexican military.
Rios did not confirm how Flores was killed but said his slaying was unrelated to the investigation into the reported slaying of American David Hartley.
However, U.S. authorities say threats from drug gangs who control much of the area have hampered the search for Hartley’s body.
From Star-Telegram, Severed head of Falcon Lake investigator delivered to Mexican army, state rep says:
The severed head of a Mexican investigator involved in the investigation of a reported tourist shooting on Falcon Lake on the Texas-Mexico border has been delivered to the Mexican army, a state representative from Edinburg declared in a Twitter report.
Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, said via Twitter that he confirmed the decapitation with Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, whose office is heading the U.S. investigation into the Sept. 30 disappearance of David Michael Hartley, 30.
From Patterico’s Pontifications, Falcon Lake Murder Update: Cartel Sends Investigator’s Severed Head to Mexican Government:
This puts to rest the crazy theory that the wife did it:
The severed head of a Mexican police commander investigating the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen David Michael Hartley on Falcon Lake was delivered Tuesday to Mexican military in a suitcase, authorities said.
The commander, identified as Rolando Flores Villegas, was one of the investigators that family members met during a meeting last week at an international bridge near Roma, said Cynthia Young, the mother of Hartley’s widow, Tiffany.
So we have cartels executing an investigator into the murder of an American. Is Obama ready to get involved yet?
Map of Falcon Lake, Texas
From The Monitor, Mexican authorities confirm beheading of lead investigator in Hartley disappearance:
ZAPATA — The severed head of a Mexican investigator involved in the Falcon Reservoir case was delivered to the Mexican army today, according to Mexican authorities.
Ruben Dario Rios Lopez, spokesman for the Tamaulipas Attorney General’s Office, confirmed that Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, the state police commandant heading the Mexican investigation into the disappearance of David Michael Hartley, was killed today.
A representative of Mexico’s 8th Military Zone — which spans the entire state of Tamaulipas and is based in Reynosa — said Flores’ head was delivered to an army post in Miguel Aleman.
Hartley, 30, of McAllen, is widely believed dead after what his wife, Tiffany Young-Hartley, has described as an attack by cartel “pirates” on the Mexican side of the binational waterway.
She has said three boats of gunmen opened fire on them as the couple were riding personal watercraft, fatally shooting her husband in the head.
In a media blitz that has brought widespread attention to the case, Young-Hartley, 29, has appeared on all the major TV networks and cable news outlets over the past week, presenting a harrowing account of being forced to flee for her life to the U.S. shore of the lake after she tried in vain to get her husband’s limp body onto her SeaDoo watercraft.
Additional:
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Mexican Pirate Suspects Named, Wife Tiffany’s Story Corroborated, Search for Body of David Hartley in Falcon Lake Continues (video) and Falcon Lake Tragedy: American Shooting Victim David Hartley Still Not Found, Mexican Drug Cartel Pirates Terrorizing Texas Lake (video) and Mexican Pirates Attack Sightseeing Couple at Texas Falcon Lake — Husband Shot in Head, Feared to Have Been Killed (video) and Warnings Issued: Armed Mexican Drug Cartel Pirates in Texas Lake… Terrorizing & Robbing US Citizens Who Are Fishing & Boating in Falcon Lake (video)
Gateway Pundit: Severed Head of Official Investigating Murdered American Jet-Skier Delivered to Mexican Military – In a Suitcase and Mexican Pirates Shoot US Man on Jet Ski in the Back of the Head- Then Shoot At His Wife in US Waters
Mcnorman’s Weblog: Found On Lake and The Murder Of David Michael Hartley UPDATE: Surprise! Mexico Is NOT Cooperating and The Safest Border Evah!!!! Man Feared Dead After Pirates Open Fire in TX Boundary Waters
Republican Redefined: Mexico’s Falcon Lake Shooting Investigator Beheaded
Sister Toldjah: Falcon Lake killing: Ooops! Our bad!
CNN News: Mexican investigator in Falcon Lake case beheaded, officials say
Texas Tribune: Mexican Detective’s Severed Head Delivered in Suitcase
AOL News: Report: Mexican Officials ID 2 Suspects in Lake Attack
FOX News: Pirate Lake: Mexican Bandits Terrorizing American Boaters on the Border
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