Josh Hartman 27 & Ana Martin 31, Oceanside,CA, msg 5-8-08(boat found, empty)

[starling]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354886,00.html
Their fishing boat that was missing at sea this week..it washed up on the beach near Rosarito, Mexico Friday...no one was on board .
Hartman had called his brother Thurs saying he caught a lot of fish and was heading back...last heard from.

:rose: :rose:

[Heidi J.]

:rose: I hope they are found.. soon.

[starling]

video has photos of the couple
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/16215817/detail.html?rss=dgo&psp=news

[starling]

More~
http://www.cbs8.com/stories/story.127650.html
The boat would of had to drift past Homeland Security & Coast Guard...past dozens of recreation & commercial boats.
It was found 15 miles south of the Border.

[starling]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080510-2129-bn10search.html
Photo at link
Hartman has fished commercially off his boat for past two years..he is a good boater with plenty of experience...Boat was eqip for emergencies with VHF radio & GP system...Hartman is known to fish with autopilot (which may explain how it got to Mexico per this article)... Boat showed no evidence of foul play.. life raft appeared to still be on board

:( hoping for a miracle

[Heidi J.]

Intersting story, maybe pirates? I have read they have gotten bad lately. Seems weird that they wouldn't take the boat..:shrug: Maybe an accident, like that movie, "Deep Water", I believe it was called. All the people on board went swimming, and forgot to put the ladder down. They had no way to get back aboard.

I hope they are found okay.. :rose:

[AnalytiChem]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20080514-9999-1m14hartman.html

UNION-TRIBUNE

May 14, 2008

Yesterday was Josh Hartman's 28th birthday.
Instead of celebrating, his family remained in seclusion at their Oceanside home, trying to understand how he and his fiancee disappeared from his fishing boat last week.

Hartman and Ana Martin, 30, have been missing since Thursday. The boat ran aground in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, the next day.

“It's all very strange. When the boat washed up, it still had the keys in the ignition,” Abraham Villalobos Camacho, spokesman for the Mexican navy in Ensenada, said yesterday.

The navy has had possession of the boat since it was found and will continue its investigation for about a week, Villalobos said. The case is considered a missing persons investigation, not a criminal one, he said.

Hartman and Martin disappeared when ocean swells were 1 to 2 feet and the water temperature was 63 degrees. The family believes they may somehow have fallen overboard. The U.S. Coast Guard calculated that survival time in the water was up to nine hours.

Villalobos said there were no signs of a struggle or violence on the boat.

Hartman, a commercial fisherman, left Oceanside early Thursday with Martin on board the 32-foot Pelican, owned by Hartman and his father and brother, both named Paul. At 3:30 p.m. Hartman called his brother to say they would be docking in an hour at Oceanside Harbor, where the family rents a slip.

The family launched an extensive search when the couple didn't return by nightfall. The next evening, the boat washed ashore in Rosarito Beach.

Villalobos said the boat had 198 pounds of fish aboard, Hartman's passport and Martin's Mexican voting card. She is from Guadalajara.

The couple planned to marry Aug. 16 in Guajome Regional Park in Oceanside, sister-in-law Sandra Hartman said.
“Everybody has theories, but nobody knows” what happened, she said.

The family said Josh Hartman often fished with the boat on autopilot. One theory is that he fell overboard and Martin jumped in to save him without thinking to turn off the engine, Sandra Hartman said. With the engine running, the boat could have continued into Mexican waters before running out of gas and washing ashore.

“There are 5,000 ways to fall off a boat,” Sandra Hartman said a fisherman friend told her. “The trick is to stay on.”



I personally feel that an experienced fisherman would not have fallen out of his boat. I'm guessing that they saw something that they shouldn't have (read - drug smuggling ops). There is a big drug fueled war going in in Mexico right now and hundreds of people are being murdered. So what's an extra couple in a boat?

[AnalytiChem]

There was no obvious sign of foul play onboard the boat, where authorities recovered both Hartman and Martin's cellular phones, his wallet and her purse. The key was in the ignition and there appeared to be some fuel left in the tank. Investigators later determined that 18 gallons of diesel had been purchased by Hartman earlier that day.

There were also a pair of .22-caliber rifles stored on the boat...


Doesn't sound like pirates.

[Heidi J.]

Originally posted by AnalytiChem
There was no obvious sign of foul play onboard the boat, where authorities recovered both Hartman and Martin's cellular phones, his wallet and her purse. The key was in the ignition and there appeared to be some fuel left in the tank. Investigators later determined that 18 gallons of diesel had been purchased by Hartman earlier that day.

There were also a pair of .22-caliber rifles stored on the boat...


Doesn't sound like pirates. [/*]

No it doesn't. I guess maybe the movie theory I mentioned earlier.:shrug:

[AnalytiChem]

Originally posted by Heidi J.


No it doesn't. I guess maybe the movie theory I mentioned earlier.:shrug: [/*]

Josh was an experienced fisherman well acquainted with boats and the hazards of the ocean. I still think their was some fould play involved. Again I think maybe they saw something that they shouldn't have.

[Heidi J.]

Originally posted by AnalytiChem


Josh was an experienced fisherman well acquainted with boats and the hazards of the ocean. I still think their was some fould play involved. Again I think maybe they saw something that they shouldn't have. [/*]

You could be right, but I think if that was the case, there would have maybe been a sign of a struggle. Accidents do happen, even to the most expierenced. I guess we will have to wait and see.

[AnalytiChem]

Originally posted by Heidi J.


You could be right, but I think if that was the case, there would have maybe been a sign of a struggle. Accidents do happen, even to the most expierenced. I guess we will have to wait and see. [/*]

Considering the huge volume of murders and gunfire occuring in this area recently as a result of smuggling and drug wars, I'm leaning towards the theory that they wandered across and saw something that they shouldn't have. Hundreds of people have been killed in Mexico and border areas recently as a result of ongoing drug and smuggling operations.

If they came across some type of smuggling operation or the like and then a heavily armed vessel pulled along side and politely asked them (with guns drawn) to disembark, I could see it resulting in this kind of dissappearance.

[AnalytiChem]

Of course the other scenario is much less sinister. Josh was fishing with the boat on autopilot when he accidently fell off (big stretch in my mind), then Ana jumped in after him not cutting power to the boat (another mistake I think is unlikely) and having it continue on autopilot to Mexico.

Another problem I have is that in their last radio transmission they said thay were on their way home back to Oceanside, not heading for Mexico. So if the boat was on autopilot as claimed, then it should have headed towards the US not Mexico.

[SpecialK]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/19/baja.killings/index.html

I'm wondering if any of these victims could be Josh or Ana. It doesn't sound likely as it appears only one is an American but the proximity of the bodies to where their boat was found is interesting.

[AnalytiChem]

Originally posted by SpecialK
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/05/19/baja.killings/index.html

I'm wondering if any of these victims could be Josh or Ana. It doesn't sound likely as it appears only one is an American but the proximity of the bodies to where their boat was found is interesting. [/*]

It's not them. The three males were African American. I agree that the proximity is interesting. There is an awful lot of killing going on in that area.

I still have the strong hunch that Josh and Ana saw something that they weren't supposed to.