'Survivor' Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman Took Out Life Insurance Policies on Wife
Bruce Beresford-Redman's attorney confirms two polices taken out on slain wife.
May 27, 2010— -- Former "Survivor" producer Bruce Beresford-Redman took out two life insurance policies on his wife a week before her body was found in a Cancun, Mexico, hotel sewer.
Sources told ABC News that one of those life insurance policies paid out $50,000 in case of accidental death while traveling. The other would pay $500,000. The policies were also taken out on the couple's children.
Experts said news of the insurance policies only builds the case against Bruce Beresford-Redman, who Mexican authorities have named as their sole person of interest in the death of Monica Beresford-Redman.
"It's going to poison the public perception of him, which is a real problem," California criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said. "If charges are filed, this doesn't help his case."
The policies were purchased in late March, one from Worldwide Insurance, the other from InsureMyTrip.com.
"It adds to evidence of motive. They already have quite a bit of that," criminal defense attorney Roy Black told "Good Morning America" today. " More importantly, it tends to show premeditation."
Richard Hirsch, Beresford-Redman's attorney, confirmed the existence of the policies but said the beneficiaries are the children, not his client.
It's just the latest question mark for Beresford-Redman, who left Mexico last weekend without the knowledge of investigators there and returned to his Los Angeles home.
Monica Beresford-Redman's body was found April 8, beaten and strangled, in the hotel sewer. No charges have been filed, but Mexican authorities said that could come any day.
The attorney general in Mexico is calling the crime "first-degree homicide" and said Mexican authorities are willing to work with international authorities to make sure it doesn't go unpunished.
But Black said building a case against Bruce Beresford-Redman may not be as easy as some seem to think.
"I don't necessarily think it's a slam-dunk case, because where's the exact evidence of the killing?" he said. "Where is the piece of evidence that he strangled her, that he did this crime? something to connect him directly to this killing."
Typical evidence, including the presence of DNA, will be harder to work with, because it would be common to find one spouse's DNA on the other, he said.
In Cancun, Monica Beresford-Redman's sister Jeanae Burgos said her sister didn't sound happy when they last talked, about 24 hours before she died.
"She always had a positive attitude. She never let herself down," Burgos said. "And, at that moment when I spoke to her, I really felt that her hopes were running out."
