‘Survivor’ Producer Faces|Charges in Mexico

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A U.S. attorney submitted a formal request this week to extradite to Mexico former reality television producer Bruce Beresford-Redman, who is accused of killing his wife at a Cancun resort.

According to the extradition document, Redman and his family arrived in Cancun, Quintana Roo, on March 31, 2010, to "celebrate his wife Monica Burgos' birthday" and to mend their marriage.

Mexican prosecutors say the "Survivor" producer, who also co-created "Pimp My Ride," was having an affair with a colleague, Joy Pierce, whom he had known for about 10 years.

Before she died, Monica Burgos caught Beresbord-Redman and Pierce in the act, court filings state. Burgos also found messages the couple had exchanged and kicked Beresbord-Redman out of their house after a fight about the affair.

Mexico's 438-page affidavit requesting extradition states that when Burgos was pregnant with Beresbord-Redman's child in 2004, she discovered that the producer had bought Pierce, then working as his assistant producer, a $5,000 gift. The Mexican ambassador summarized the request in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Monica Burgos was sad because Bruce Ainsley Beresford Redman had never given her anything, not even a ring, or a watch, or something of a value higher than USD$500.00," the filing states.

The affair allegedly continued until 2010, when Redman, seeking reconciliation with his wife, proposed a family trip to Mexico.

The family arrived at the Hotel Resort Moon Palace Nizuc on March 31. Beresford-Redman reported on April 6 that his wife had gone missing.

When he made the report, Beresford-Redman had scratch marks on his ear, neck, fingers and leg, and it "can be inferred these bodily injuries were caused during a fight," court documents state.

He claimed not to have not seen his wife since the morning of April 5, but other hotel guests reported that "screams, crying and arguments" from Beresford-Redman's room had kept their families awake all night.

When a hotel staff member called Beresford-Redman's room on the night of April 5 about the noise complaints, he said he had been arguing with his wife but would stop. Later he said the noises came from the children playing games.

Two days after Beresford-Redman reported his wife's disappearance, the hotel's maintenance supervisor found Burgos' body in the hotel's sewage area.

Mexican authorities say Burgos' body has fist-like wounds to the face. A wound on the right side of her head "was caused by direct contusion mechanism applied with force and direct and they are compatible with a hard and solid object of irregular edges, i.e. a metallic pipe, a baseball bat or a stick," Mexican prosecutors say.

Medical examiners determined that Burgos died from asphyxiation.

"It is possible to prove the intention of Bruce Ainsley Beresford Redman to kill his wife Monica Burgos, given that he knew his conduct was unlawful, because he had the time necessary to plan the way he was going to perpetrate the homicide, to premeditate the unlawfulness of his conduct, the necessary way and means to perpetrate it, and likewise be knew he was going to cause her death," the extradition document states.

The hotel had very high-level security, authorities say.

"The Resort Moon Palace Nizuc hotel made difficult for an outside person to go up to the rooms to commit a crime or to the sewage cistern to throw the corpse of Monica Burgos," the extradition document claims.

Mexican authorities says that once Redman "knew there was a criminal investigation commenced against him and he was one of the persons involved, without a passport and contravening the order of Mexican authorities, he stealthily left the country and took refuge in the territory of the United States of America."

The Mexican government sent an extradition request to the United States on Dec. 2, 2010.

U.S. Magistrate Susan Segal is expected to rule soon on whther to extradite Redman to Mexico. A formal extradition hearing has not yet been scheduled. Beresford-Redman faces up to 30 years in Mexican prison if convicted of aggravated or premeditated homicide.

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