Survivor maker charged with wife's murder

LOS ANGELES - The producer of two of America's top reality television programmes is facing extradition to Mexico after prosecutors filed charges accusing him of murdering his wife during a holiday in the Gulf Coast resort of Cancun.

Bruce Beresford-Redman, who was behind the hit shows Pimp My Ride and Survivor, was at home in Palos Verdes, California, with his two children yesterday, as news crews outside reported a judge across the border had issued a warrant for his arrest.

In April, the body of his Brazilian-born wife, Monica, was found in a sewer near the Moon Palace resort where the couple were staying.

She had been strangled and cuts indicated she had suffered a blow to her temple.

Beresford-Redman was questioned by police, who were told by witnesses the couple had spent previous days arguing.

They discovered he had recently taken out two insurance policies covering his wife's life for US$550,000 ($812,000).

After reports emerged suggesting Beresford-Redman had had an affair, and that he had taken his wife on holiday to try to repair their marriage, authorities confiscated his passport and asked him to remain in Mexico while investigations continued.

The case is the subject of a growing PR skirmish.

"It has been 56 days since Monica was brutally murdered," read a statement issued by his wife's family.

"At no point during that time did he reach out to [our] family to express sympathy. The only thing that Bruce Beresford-Redman has done since the day Monica went missing was to request and pay for her immediate cremation."

Beresford-Redman has issued a statement protesting his innocence.

"I am devastated at her loss and I am incensed at the suggestion that I could have had anything to do with her death," it read.

"My children have had one parent taken from them by a senseless act of violence. I implore the Mexican authorities not to take their remaining parent by a miscarriage of justice."

- INDEPENDENT