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Monica Beresford-Redman traveled to the romantic resort town of Cancun, Mexico, to try to repair her troubled union to her TV-producer husband Bruce— a marriage that had produced two young children and accusations of his being unfaithful.
She was found dead in a sewer near the couple’s Cancun hotel room, and husband Bruce Beresford-Redman is the lone suspect in her death. And what makes the situation even more excruciating for her sister Jeane is that Jeane had warned Monica not to make the trip.
Speaking with TODAY’s Ann Curry, Jeane Burgos said she told her sister that “it wasn’t the right time” for her to travel in hopes of patching things up with her husband.
“He wasn’t ready for that, he wasn’t ready to give to my sister what she needed,” said Burgos from Santa Monica, Calif., accompanied by another sister, Carla, and their mother, Ely. “They were having serious problems, and she was trying to save her marriage because her family was the most important thing for her.
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“But I told her he wasn’t committed, and it wasn’t the time for her to do that; she needed to take care of herself and let him take care of himself because he needed help.”
Troubled trip
Police in Mexico have questioned Beresford-Redman, a former producer for the CBS hit reality competition “Survivor” and the MTV series “Pimp My Ride,” but say they have not been in contact with him for a week. Police are poring over forensic evidence and the timeline surrounding Monica’s death with the possibility that Beresford-Redman, who is not allowed to leave Mexico, will be arrested for murder.
Video: TV producer still a suspect in wife’s death A security guard at the luxury Moon Palace Resort in Cancun reported seeing the couple arguing on the night of April 5, and hotel records show their room’s swipe key was used nearly a dozen times between midnight and 6 a.m. April 6. Beresford-Redman reported his wife missing that day, and two days later, on April 8, she was found dead of apparent strangulation in a hotel sewer on what would have been her 42nd birthday.
Friends and family of Bruce Beresford-Redman, 38, have rallied around him. His parents issued a statement saying their son “loved Monica, and would never have harmed her.” And former “Survivor” contestant and pal Daniel Lue told NBC “the fact that this happened a week ago, and they still haven’t arrested him or charged him with a crime, I think it really tells you something.”
But Monica’s grieving family has given indications they believe Monica died at her husband’s hand. Her sister Carla told the New York Daily News, “I wonder if the whole trip was premeditated.”
Plea for justice
Her mother, Ely Burgos, told Curry on TODAY she wants justice for her daughter.
While the family craves justice, they are also deeply mourning the loss of a woman they say was outgoing, friendly and faithful. A native of Rio de Janeiro, Monica emigrated to the U.S. to make a life for herself, and owned the Brazilian restaurant Zabumba in Venice Beach, Calif.
Video: Ex-'Survivor' producer suspect in wife's killing “She was the strongest and smartest and fun — the life of the party,” her sister Carla Burgos, who described her sister as her best friend, told Curry. “She was always happy; everybody liked her. She was just a wonderful person.
“It was not fair the way that she died, and we need justice for this.”
Mother Ely Burgos told the New York Daily News of the tattered marriage her daughter had with Beresford-Redman.
“He was having an affair,” she alleged. “[My daughter] kicked him out of the house and told him they could go their own ways. He went to live with his parents, but afterward moved back in, crying and insisting that he loved her.”
Police have not yet scheduled a second interview with Bruce Beresford-Redman, and say he has not been seen in Cancun for a week.
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