Texas Boater Shot Dead by Mexican Pirates

Thieves prowling border lake claim first US fatality

By Mary Papenfuss, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 4, 2010 1:20 AM CDT

Copied

Texas Boater Shot Dead by Mexican Pirates — Game wardens from Texas Parks and Wildlife patrol the US.-Mexico border on Falcon Lake this spring after warning boaters to watch out for Mexican pirates. (AP Photo/Christopher Sherman)

Police are hunting for the body of a boater on a Texas lake who was shot dead by Mexican pirates. Tiffany Hartley, 29, said her husband, David, was shot in the back of the head as the couple fled the pirates on their Jet Skis on Lake Falcon, which straddles the border with Mexico. The lake, which is part of the Rio Grande, has become a pirate hot spot. It's the fifth time boaters or fisherman have been accosted by pirates this year, though Hartley's is the first death reported, according to ABC News.

"The thing I dreaded on Falcon Lake has happened," said the local sheriff. "The lake is not secure, the border is not secure. We cannot go to Mexico, we cannot recover that body, we cannot conduct an investigation. We have to tell the family we can't do anything about it." Click here for more on the ordeal, as revealed by Tiffany.
(More Tiffany Hartley stories.)

Report an error