Authorities: Video Evidence Supports Tiffany Hartley's Story

(Oct. 9) – More evidence has emerged to support the story of Tiffany Hartley, who says her husband was fatally shot by pirates on a lake on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, Texas authorities say.

Video evidence shows that the Hartleys pulled over on the way to Falcon Lake, which supports Tiffany's version of events, CBS reported.

"There's no reason for us to doubt what she's saying," Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said. "Our investigation is really for us to get a body."

Hartley says that her husband, David Hartley, was gunned down while they were riding Jet Skis on Falcon Lake.

Eric Gay, AP

Tiffany Hartley, far right, and family members take part in a news conference on Wednesday. New video evidence further corroborates her story that her husband was fatally shot by Mexican pirates.

Mexican authorities previously questioned her story. Some also asked why the Hartleys would go jet-skiing on a lake that is known to be used by criminals.

Mexican officials announced Friday they would launch a formal investigation into the alleged killing, with a military helicopter scouring the lake to search for David Hartley's body.

"The Mexican government will do anything in its hands in order to find David and to find what happened in this case," Eduardo Arnal of the Consul General of Mexico told CBS.

The sheriff's office says that blood taken from Tiffany Hartley's life jacket also corroborates her story.

Hartley, 29, told authorities that she and her husband of eight years were riding a pair of Jet Skis on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake on Sept. 30 when Mexican pirates shot at them.

According to Hartley, one of the bullets struck her husband in the back of the head and he fell into the water. She said she tried to pull her husband from the water, but more gunfire forced her to retreat.

When Mexican authorities questioned her story, she insisted that she was telling the truth, and even discussed taking a lie detector test to prove it.

More than 100 people demonstrated outside the Mexican Consulate in Denver, Colo., on Friday, chanting "Bring David home" and "Justice for Hartley."

Protesters told the Denver Post that Mexican authorities were afraid to perform a full search for fear of tangling with drug smuggling cartels.

"Mexican police are afraid to conduct searches because of threats to their safety," David Hartley's sister Nikki said.

More than 17,000 people have died in Mexico's drug wars in the last four years, as gangs such as Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel fight to smuggle drugs into the United States, according to The Associated Press.