About
About Me
"I made it. He didn't. I have spent the last sixteen years living in the space those two sentences created."
Before
I grew up in a small town in northern Colorado. I was a 4-H girl, which meant cake decorating, dog obedience, shooting sports, and dance, and I liked to do things well or not at all. I found my faith at a church in Loveland when I was twelve or thirteen, got baptized, and decided that was the foundation I was going to build the rest of my life on. I did not know then that I was building it for anything in particular.
Then I met David Hartley. I loved him for twelve years.
The day everything changed
On September 30, 2010, David and I were riding jet skis on Falcon Lake, on the border between Texas and Mexico. We were a week away from moving home to Colorado. Gunmen believed to be members of the Zetas cartel opened fire without warning.
David was shot. I reached him, and I could not save him, and I had to leave him in the water in order to survive. I rode back to the American side alone.
His body was never recovered. Sixteen years later, the case is still open and still unsolved.
What you probably saw
Within four days I was sitting in front of every major network, telling the story over and over while the shock was still fresh. I testified about cartel violence at the border. I received threats for refusing to stop talking. And I was accused, publicly and repeatedly, of murdering my own husband.
I was composed on camera because I had decided to be, and because I was the only witness David had left.
Then I went home, closed the bedroom door, and fell apart where nobody could see it.
What you did not see
There were days, after I moved back to Colorado, when nobody was home. On those days I would go out into the field behind the house and cry until I had nothing left. I would scream at God, out loud, furious about what He had allowed to happen. And then, every single time, I would turn around and thank Him that I had survived.
I have been a person so deep in depression that I could not get out of bed. I have been a person who spoke scripture out loud at night just to get her brain quiet enough to sleep. There was a season when I did not exactly lose my faith. I paused it. I put my hand up and said, no thank you, I am good, I do not need You.
He was patient with me anyway.
After
In 2018 I married Tyler Owens. The following year our daughter Avalynn was born.
We also have a daughter named Averly, who was born sleeping. Avalynn tells people she has a sister in heaven, and she is right.
Today I live in northern Colorado, where I have spent the past four years building a real estate investment business. I speak to audiences about grief, survivor's guilt, faith, and what it takes to keep going. And I have written the book I have wanted to write for sixteen years, which I could never finish before because I did not believe it had an ending.
It turns out that was the point.
"If God has given you another day, He is not finished writing your story."