Mexico Orders Arrest of Former Survivor Producer for Wife's Murder

Mexican authorities seeking to extradite Bruce Beresford-Redman to Cancun

Forget the tribe. The law has spoken.

A judge in Cancun, has issued a warrant for the arrest of ex-Survivor producer Bruce Beresford-Redman in connection to the April murder of his wife, Monica Beresford-Redman, while the couple was on holiday at a local resort with their two children.

The attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo has now begun extradition proceedings hoping to bring Beresford-Redman back from Southern California, where he's been for the past week after returning home (somehow sans passport) to be with 5-year-old Camilla and 4-year-old Alec.

Beresford-Redman's attorney, Richard Hirsch, issued a statement affirming his client's innocence and calling any suspicion toward the Emmy nominee a rush to judgment.

"We have been advised that Mexcican authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of Bruce Beresford-Redman," said the lawyer, claiming the move was "extremely disturbing since it appears that this case is being handled in a manner outside the normal procedures in Mexico."

Hirsch also released a statement from Beresford-Redman with the requisite denials.

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

Monica's relatives, however, tell E! News they're "relieved" and "elated" by the news and that justice is exactly what Monica will be getting. They also slammed Bruce's belated expression of remorse over as a little too late.

"It has been 56 days since Monica was brutally murdered. At no point during that time, did he or his family reach out to the Burgos family to express their sympathy or share in their grieving," the family's attorney, Alison Triessl, said in a statement. "Bruce never made any effort to locate Monica nor did he assist the Mexican authorities in their investigation. The only thing that Bruce Beresford-Redman has done since the day Monica went missing was request and pay for her immediate cremation.

"If in fact he is innocent then he should have no problem waiving extradition proceedings and returning to Mexico to defend himself. However, if he is guilty, then shame on him for exploiting his children, he should have considered them before committing this senseless and brutal act of domestic violence upon their mother."

Beresford-Redman reported Monica missing on April 6. Two days later, her body was discovered in a sewer near their resort, the Moon Palace Hotel.

Officials say her remains indicated she may have been strangled and severely beaten and suspicion immediately fell on her husband, with whom she was seen violently arguing the night before she disappeared.

Meanwhile, a California judge has scheduled a June trial date to decide to sort out custody of the couple's children. They had been staying with Bruce's parents before his return from Mexico, but Monica's sisters are seeking permanent guardianship, arguing in part that he isn't a fit father.