MEXICO CITY – The wife of an American tourist reported shot to death by pirates on a border lake has given helpful new details about the incident to Mexican authorities, Mexico's government said Saturday.
The Attorney General's Office said Tiffany Hartley gave a second statement Friday at the Mexican consul in McAllen, Texas, on what happened to her husband Sept. 30 on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake.
"Mrs. Hartley provided valuable information that will allow federal investigations to continue," the statement said.
The agency did not give any specifics on her statement.
She has said that she and her husband, David Hartley, rode Jet Skis into Mexico's portion of the lake to take pictures of a historic church that was half submerged when the Rio Grande was dammed in 1946 to create Falcon Lake.
Mrs. Hartley said that pirates shot her husband in the neck and that she barely escaped when they shot at her when she tried to retrieve him.
Brian Quigley, spokesman for the U.S. consulate in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, said Thursday that David Hartley might have been the victim of a misunderstanding.
His comment was in response to a report by Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based public policy research group that analyzes the Mexican drug war, suggesting that the couple from may have been attacked because they were mistaken for drug runners.
Texas officials have warned boaters to stay away from the Mexican side of Falcon Lake since several fishermen were robbed earlier this year. Hartley's death was the first violent attack on the lake.
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