Two Canadian women who fear Mexican authorities consider them as suspects in the murders of an Ontario couple proclaimed their innocence Tuesday, saying the accusations are "ridiculous."

In a press conference held in Thunder Bay, Ont. on Tuesday night, Kimberley Kim and Cheryl Everall say they left their Mexican hotel last week with no idea that two other guests had been brutally slain.

"It's ridiculous, I don't even know how to express it in words," Kim said.

"Emotionally, you don't know what you're going to go through from minute to minute. One minute you're crying, the next minute -- it's terrifying and you get very upset. It's devastating. Everyday we wake up, you open your eyes thinking it's a dream and it's not."

Domenico Ianiero, 59, and his wife, Annunziata, 55, lived in Woodbridge, a community just northwest of Toronto and almost 1,000 kilometres southeast of Thunder Bay as the crow flies.

They were in Mexico for their daughter's wedding. The couple were found murdered on Feb. 20 at the luxury Barcelo Maya Beach Resort near Playa del Carmen.

Everall and Kim described hearing crying and breaking glass down the hall from their room the night the Ianieros were killed, but say they didn't pay much attention.

Early in the investigation, Mexican police said the prime suspects in their investigation are two Canadian women who registered at the hotel with the names "King and Everald," names that sound similar to those of the Thunder Bay women.

Mexican police have also said the principal evidence in the murders is a trail of blood from the crime scene to the suspects' door.

The women said that if traces of blood were indeed found in their room, it's possible they unknowingly tracked it in from the hallway.

"We'd just like to express our deepest sympathy (to the Ianiero family)," Everall said.

"This has been traumatic for us and we can't imagine what that family is going through. This is awful; our thoughts and prayers are certainly with them."

One family member, who asked not to be named, told CTV News they're distraught and that they're "crying and helping each other and still can't believe it."

On the killers, she said: "We're just hoping it's nobody Canadian. Of course we don't believe it's these women."

Mexican officials have suggested that they will issue arrest warrants for the suspects once their investigation is complete.

A formal request for extradition would prompt a hearing before a Canadian judge to determine "whether there's any real evidence upon which anybody could be found guilty," Everall and Kim's lawyer Lee Baig said, adding that he's seen no such evidence.

Earlier on Tuesday, Baig told Canada AM that he had "considerable problems" with the strength of the case.

"I'm used to what I consider to be proper police investigations and this one does not seem to fall into that category ... particularly as the crime scene itself was not kept secure," he said.

Baig said the women were not questioned during their stay in Mexico and had so far not been contacted by Mexican authorities.

"We've talked to lots of people who were at the hotel and nobody was questioned -- either there or at the airport or when they got back to Thunder Bay," Baig added.

Thunder Bay probe

At the request of Mexican authorities, Thunder Bay police will spend the next few weeks talking to some 50 passengers on the same flight that Everall and Kim took home.

Thunder Bay police confirmed Tuesday that their force has launched a local investigation into murders.

"What we're doing is gathering information," Chris Adams, spokesman for the Thunder Bay police, told CTV Toronto.

"What we are trying to do here is apply the very high standards of Canadian policing that people have come to expect from us."

Ontario's chief coroner said Tuesday that the examination of the Ianieros' bodies will likely take two days.

"A forensic examination of the bodies will begin today," Dr. Barry McLellan said in a statement.

"Some of the forensic tools available in such circumstances include x-ray, forensic autopsy, the gathering of trace evidence and toxicology."

The Ontario Coroner's office received the bodies at 6.30 p.m. ET Monday, following their arrival at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

CTV's Austin Delaney told CTV Toronto that the victim's bodies had already been embalmed, sparking fears that important forensic evidence had already been washed away.

Strange twists

The investigation in Mexico has taken a number of strange twists in the past week, with Mexican authorities releasing various pieces of conflicting information about the suspects, who they continue to insist are three Canadian women no longer in Mexico.

Authorities originally characterized the killings as the work of a professional -- fueling speculation about a possible link to organized crime.

However, the state's attorney for the state of Quintana Roo later recanted that theory, saying he didn't think that was the case.

A number of critics have speculated that Mexican authorities rushed the investigation to avoid giving the popular tourism destination a bad reputation.

One Nova Scotia man who stayed at the resort when the couple was slain says it certainly seemed that way.

He told CTV Atlantic he saw landscapers working on the grass in front of the Ianieros' room.

"I thought that was kind of odd, because if there was any trace of evidence there, it certainly would be gone by then," he said.

Mexican lawyer Jorge Zaba Latta told CTV News that "the reality of Mexico, and for the state of Quintana Roo, is that the corruption is all around."

But authorities in Mexico say the media is to blame for the all the confusion.

"It's true sensationalism sells, but that's as far as that goes," Felipe Duran, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office, told reporters.

"We don't, and shouldn't, provide information on unconfirmed situations," he said. "We understand that people are bothered, but we are just following the leads in the investigation."

Meanwhile, federal opposition parties called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to get involved and reason with the Mexican authorities.

"Where is Stephen Harper? What is he waiting for?" demanded Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis on Tuesday.

"He (needs to) get on the phone to (Mexican President Vicente) Fox and say 'what the hell is going on?' These are Canadian people," Karygiannis told CTV Newsnet.

Meanwhile, interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham told reporters that it was clear from press accounts "that the Mexican process of investigation has been very different from the standards we would expect in this country."

After the forensic examination, the victim's bodies will be released to Fratelli Vescio Funeral Homes in Woodbridge.

With a report from CTV's Kathy Tomlinson, CTV Atlantic's Tracy Prysiazniuk, CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney