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In the face and stole his money. reporter: david, she says, saw someone get shot on the street. did you sense it was getting more dangerous? you could. yeah. you could sense it. you d hear more about it. reporter: what did they look like? describe how you would pick out a cartel member. their trucks at that time had their name. the cdt or the z for the zetas. they had actually marked their vehicles with their name and who they were. reporter: david convinced his company to allow him at least to live on the american side of the border in mccallon. soon afterwards, the company told david he was being offered another transfer, back home to colorado. to his mom that was a blessing. they were going to be home that next week looking for a house to move into. i mean, we were excited about them coming home. ....
Lies in their inventory. that s what they re going to protect. and they re going to do whatever means necessary to protect their inventory. reporter: in the case of david hartley, that includes inflicting its own brand of investigation and its own brand of justice. fred burton has followed the case closely. it s my understanding that the individuals that were involved with the killing of mr. hartley were in essence picked up and killed by the zetas themselves. reporter: the killers were killed? correct. the killers were killed by the organization, because, remember, this is bad for business. reporter: if the killers are dead, tiffany hartley may never be able to prove what happened. she knows how many people still don t believe her story. and she and david were just sightseeing, that she tried to save him. that she outran boats with gunmen firing at her, in ....
reporter: in the case of david hartley, that includes the cartel inflicting its own investigation and its own brand of justice. security expert fred burton has followed the case closely. it s my understanding that the individuals that were involved with the killing of mr. hartley were in essence picked up and killed by the zetas themselves. reporter: the killers were killed? correct. the killers were killed by the organization, because, remember, this is bad for business. reporter: if the killers are dead, tiffany hartley may never be able to prove what happened. she knows how many people still don t believe her story. and she and david were just sightseeing, that she tried to save him. that she outran boats with gunmen firing at her, in interviews she remains unemotional. ....
reporter: david, she says, saw someone get shot on the street. did you sense it was getting more dangerous? you could. yeah. you could sense it. you d hear more about it. reporter: what did they look like? describe how you would pick out a cartel member? their trucks at that time had their name. a zdg or a z for the zetas. they had actually marked their vehicles with their name and who they were. reporter: david convinced his company to allow him at least to live on the american side of the border in mccallen. soon afterwards, the company told david he was being offered another transfer, back home to colorado. to his mom that was a blessing. they were going to be home that next week looking for a house to move into. i mean, we were excited about them coming home. ....
Answers from mexico, the hartleys have turned to intelligence sources north of the border who can try to explain why the couple was targeted. former intelligence official fred burton has been studying a turf war in mexico between two drug cartels. a former band of military guards called the zetas and the more traditional gulf coast cartel. what most people don t realize when you re looking at the border is that there are certain portions that are not controlled by the mexican government. and the area of falcon lake was directly controlled by the zetas, and this was a very strong smuggling corridor for them. reporter: so you believe this was mistaken identity? clearly, all evidence indicates that this was a case of mistaken identity based on ....