David Hartley Update: I Think He's Dead, Says Wife Tiffany Hartley

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Tiffany Hartley, the wife of missing American David Hartley who was reportedly shot near the U.S.-Mexican border last week, said to CBS News' "The Early Show" on Thursday that she doesn't believe her husband is alive.

PICTURES: Tiffany and David Hartley

"Unfortunately I don't think he is alive at this time, since we're almost a week since he's been gone," She told the morning show. "I do believe that possibly they do have him and they're hiding him. And if they would just give us back his body, then we can move on."

Tiffany said she and her husband's family are just trying to survive as they wait, hoping for news that his body has been found.

"It's not easy to kind of be in the spotlight right now, especially when we're trying to grieve for David and get him home and trying to plan all the services here and in Colorado," she said. "We're just in survival mode."

Mexican authorities have been highly scrutinized as days pass in the search for 30-year-old David Hartley who is believed to have been shot last week by Mexican pirates on Falcon Lake, located about 60 miles from Laredo.

Tiffany, of Milliken, Colorado, claimed she and her husband were riding personal watercrafts back from Mexico on Falcon Lake last week when gunmen in three speedboats approached them and opened fire.

Though it is unclear what exactly happened to Hartley, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he was apparently shot when the couple attempted to flee after they spotted the boaters. His wife was not hurt and reportedly tried circling back to pull her husband from the water, but she was forced to speed away to U.S. waters after the gunmen opened fire again.

Over the past few days, Mexican authorities in Tamaulipas State have questioned the accuracy of Tiffany's story.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF FALCON LAKE SHOOTING ON CRIMESIDER

ALSO ON CRIMESIDER