were looked upon as potentially as threats. yes. as threats. and that s why they were given instructions to go ahead and shoot at them. reporter: the sheriff now tells cnn that eyewitnesses have come forward to him. witnesses he says who claim to know what happened here that day. they describe a military-style attack. three boats, several shooters, and hundreds of rounds being fired at two jet skiers. 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
it s like he didn t know what to do with me. do i shoot her? do i not? that s when they left to go meet the other boats. reporter: racing towards the u.s., she passed the boat slip where she and david launched from less than an hour earlier. the boat s in pursuit. she spotted a man here watering his lawn, yelling, asking if he spoke english. that man would help a distraught tiffany hartley place this 911 call. are you sure that your husband got shot? yes. he was hit in his head. okay. yeah. was he thrown off the jet ski? he s in the water or something? yeah. he was thrown off the jet ski and i couldn t pick him up to get him on mine. he was just too big. what is your name? tiffany hartley. reporter: when the story broke it was almost unbelievable. americans being fired on? a jet ski chase?
texas, county sheriff siggy gonzalez says he knows for a fact that david hartley will never be returned to the united states for burial. do you know how? yes. four different sources with different agencies have come forward and told us how they disposed of the body. reporter: those sources say the body of david hartley was placed in a barrel and burned. in colorado where she now lives, tiffany hartley refuses to believe her husband s body will never be returned. it s passed my mind, but i m not willing to accept it in my heart. i know my god and he s bigger than any one and any thing, and he wants justice just as much. reporter: the cold reality, however, seems very different. on her website, bring david home.com there were plenty of
she d be paying people off. reporter: the sheriff believes tiffany s story and his sources and witnesses confirm it. you don t believe the hartleys were involved in drugs? no. you don t believe there is an insurance scam going on? where s the body? reporter: you don t believe tiffany hartley herself may have executed her husband. i don t think so. reporter: and now even more evidence tiffany hartley is telling the truth. a surveillance photo taken that very afternoon, one hour after the attack. if you notice there on the front of the boat, you see bundles of marijuana there. reporter: it shows a small boat and a group of men, one in a green shirt, one shirt black, fitting the description given by tiffany hartley, and what gonzalez says is a bale of marijuana in the bow. it s information the mexican authorities have had since the very first day. reporter: sheriff, i ve got to ask you, is that possible that mexico is going to find, catch and adjudicate the killers in
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 here 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. it s over here already. reporter: and for tiffany herself, it is even more troubling. reporter: do you think your husband is a victim of, in a way, politics? i would say a victim of terrorism, of politics, and, um,