Texas sheriff asks for return of body

ZAPATA, Texas, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Texas border Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he asked Mexican drug cartel operatives to return the body of a U.S. man killed in Mexico.

Gonzalez, speaking at a news conference Thursday, said, "We cannot arrest anybody for what happens in Mexico … we cannot prosecute … we just want a body," the San Antonio Express-News reported.

The sheriff said he had already asked the Zeta-controlled drug cartel to release the body of 30-year-old David Michael Hartley through channels he couldn't disclose.

Hartley was shot in the head and is presumed dead. He was shot while he and his wife, Tiffany, drove Jet Skis into the Mexican side of Falcon Lake reservoir.

Gonzalez told CBS News he has blood evidence from the life vest worn by Hartley's wife that supports her account of a pirate attack on the lake straddling the Texas-Mexico border.

Authorities on both sides of the border have been searching for his body.

Three U.S. congressmen and several other officials joined Gonzalez in the news conference.

The request came as Mexican authorities relaunched a search for Hartley's body. The search was previously scaled back after searchers heard reports they would be ambushed by drug gangs.

"They're worried about being ambushed," said U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. "This is not like you just go out there and nothing's going to happen to you, you go do your job... Mexicans are doing the search. They're doing it under the threat for their lives."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he was waiting for a requested phone call from Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Perry said he is "not satisfied" with what he's heard about the search for Hartley's body.

"We do not need to let our border continue to deteriorate from the standpoint of having drug cartels telling us whether or not we can go in and bring back the body of an American that's been killed; that is irresponsible," said Perry, in Houston for an endorsement by the Houston Police Officer's Union.

Cuellar, along with fellow Texas Democratic Reps. Solomon Ortiz and Ruben Hinojosa, also called for more Homeland Security forces along the U.S.-Mexico border and on the international Falcon Lake and Lake Amistad reservoirs.