Page 47 - Inside Mexico News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

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 the tactical intelligence i've seen surrounding the case. >> the most likely scenario is, david and tiffany hartley had wandered into a drug war and were mistaken as the enemy. >> reporter: zapata county sheriff siggy gonzalez believes the hartleys not only wandered into a war but had arrived on t...

>> this is the last place they came to at the old guerrero church. they too many pictures on the steps and then set out down this clan to head back and it was about five minutes into their voyage when they were approached by the boats. in an instant, the man who told us this lake was safe was again speeding away from mexico 70 miles an hour. the same path the hartleys were on when tiffany says the attack began. >> there's a boat on our left and two on our right. on kind of towards the land, we're kind of in the middle of the lake. and then that's when he motioned that -- we needed to go. >> re...

>> the shot that killed david hartley was an unlucky shot. >> reporter: the sheriff now believes the killers were instructed to kill tiffany hartley, too. what happens next, he says, is a scenario he has put together from three witnesses on the mexican side of the lake. one source in mexico and at least one witness who told cnn that he saw a high speed chase on the u.s. side. a boat chasing a girl on a jet ski. it is clear that one of sheriff gonzalez' sources was involved in the attack itself. >> so they were given the instructions to go ahead and shoot and kill her also. but she was able to ...

>> the jet ski -- >> the jet ski was destroyed. my understanding, the jet ski was taken apart. that parts that would float were burned and buried afterwards. and the parts that would not float were just thrown into the lake and of course, they sunk. this is coming in from mexico. >> reporter: the sheriff believes hartley's story but may never be able to prove it. david hartley's mother can barely control her emotion. >> what happened to david and tiffany was an act of terror. plain and simple. it was a senseless violence, but it was an act of terror. and that is not going to end at the border....

We were -- that's where we truly grew as a couple and had adventures. >> reporter: when the hartley's first arrive here this peaceful town was a perfect place for the young couple to live, but slowly it became more and more violent. there is a war in reynosa. two drug cartels battling for turf. the zetas, a rogue band of former military are trying to push out the gulf cartel which has smuggled drugs across the rio grande for decades. killings of constant. tiffany and david hartley learned firsthand. mexican police were not to be trusted. for instance, he was coming home from the bank after cas...