David Hartley Update: Wife of American Tourist Missing in Falcon Lake Moves Home

SAN ANTONIO (CBS/AP) The wife of David Hartley, the American tourist who is presumed to have been shot to death by Mexican pirates on a lake on the U.S.-Mexican border, moved back to Colorado on Wednesday, but said she isn't giving up hope.

PICTURES: Tiffany and David Hartley

"I felt like God was telling me it's OK to go back," Tiffany Hartley told The Associated Press in a phone interview, shortly after she and her family left McAllen, Texas.

Hartley said it was difficult leaving South Texas without her husband, who she told authorities was shot Sept. 30 by gunmen who ambushed the couple on the Mexico side of Falcon Lake, where pirates have robbed several Americans this year.

Hartley said the couple were riding Jet Skis back from sightseeing in Mexico when the pirates approached in speedboats. After her husband was shot, she said she tried circling back to get him but raced back to American soil after hearing bullets whizzing by her.

Hartley, 29, said she is "frustrated" that David's body has not been found after three weeks but understands that another country is handling the search.

"I have to be patient," Hartley said. "And I believe that's what I'm doing. Me going to Colorado doesn't mean I'm throwing my hands up. I just felt like it's time to go."

A U.S. consulate official said last week that David Hartley may have been a victim of mistaken identity. It came after a report by Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based public policy research group that analyzes the Mexican drug war, suggested the couple might have been mistaken for drug runners.

Although neither David Hartley or his Jet Ski have been found, officials have said they believe Hartley's story.

"I'll be on the next plane when David is found and we bring him home," Hartley said. "That's not something we're giving up just because we're moving back. This isn't the end."

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE FALCON LAKE SHOOTING ON CRIMESIDER