Ex-'Survivor' Producer Bruce Beresford-Redman Back Home With Children After Wife's Killing

May 25, 2010— -- Bruce Beresford-Redman, the former "Survivor" producer whose wife was slain during the couple's vacation in Cancun, Mexico, last month, was seen walking into his upscale California home in Rancho Palos Verdes Monday, days after Mexican authorities said he left the country without their knowledge.

An ABC News camera recorded Beresford-Redman driving into the garage of the home he once shared with his wife, Monica Beresford-Redman, for the first time since she died under mysterious circumstances.

When asked how he was holding up, Beresford-Redman replied, "I don't even know how to answer that question."

He was seen pitching a tent in the backyard while the couple's two young children watched.

His attorneys have said he left to avoid spending months, if not years, in jail while Mexican authorities build their case. He has yet to be charged with any crimes, but Mexican authorities have named him as a person of interest in his wife's death.

An attorney for Monica Beresford-Redman's sisters issued a statement saying, "the family is in shock."

"We plead that if he intends to run again that he not involve the children," the statement read.

Monica Beresford-Redman's sister, Jeane Burgos, now back in Los Angeles, told ABC News while she was in Cancun that "there is a part of me that was sorry I wasn't able to be there for her, to save her.

"But I want her to know," she said, "we are going to do everything, everything that it takes."

At a probate court hearing Monday for his wife's estate, Bruce Beresford-Redman's father, David, confirmed for the judge that his son was back in Los Angeles but said he didn't know precisely where.

"Legally speaking he's a free man and he doesn't have any obligation whatsoever to stay in Cancun," Jaime Cansino Leon, one of Beresford-Redman's criminal lawyers in Mexico City, told ABC News. "Bruce has not been accused of any crime. Therefore, he's innocent."

Monica Beresford-Redman's body was found April 8 in a sewer at the posh Cancun resort where she had been staying with her husband and their children.

Beresford-Redman's Los Angeles attorney, Richard Hirsch, told ABC News earlier that his client "has returned to Los Angeles County to be with his children and attend to family and personal matters."

Cansino Leon echoed Hirsch's remarks. "Right now his main concerns are his two children. And they have been all this time," he said. "When these tragic events happened he preferred to send them to the States to be with his parents. And right now he's determined to get the custody of them and his main concern right now are...his two little children."

Hollywood Producer's Return to U.S. Raises Eyebrows

In the eyes of the Mexican authorities and Monica's family, however, Beresford-Redman remains the prime suspect in the case.

Authorities said shortly after Monica Beresford-Redman's death that Bruce had been told not to leave Mexico pending the outcome of the investigation.

Mexican authorities also seized his passport in the days after his wife's body was found in a hotel sewer, but according to the Department of Homeland Security website, only U.S. citizens entering the United States by air must show a passport. Citizens entering by land and or sea can show several other types of documents, including an enhanced driver's license.

A source at Homeland Security added that a U.S. citizen traveling without any of those documents could still return to the country if they are able to prove through a secondary interview that they are a citizen.

Beresford-Redman did not turn up at a probate hearing for his wife's estate on Monday, though his father was acting as his power-of-attorney. The judge said that now that Beresford-Redman has returned to the United States, he will have to act on his own behalf or hire a lawyer to do so.

David wouldn't confirm whether he had seen or spoken to his son since his return.

The probate judge took up the matter of Monica's popular Latin restaurant, Zabumba, which she owned and ran in Los Angeles with her sisters. David Beresford-Redman argued that the restaurant, whose doors have been shuttered since Monica's death, should be closed down because it's a liability to her estate.

Meanwhile, Monica's sisters, Carla and Jeane, asked why David would try to close down a restaurant of which he and his son had no financial part.

The judge ruled that that if the insurance is current and the taxes are paid on the restaurant, the sisters should be in charge of it and allowed to keep it open for business.

The judge will continue the hearing on June 10 in Los Angeles, where it will be decided whether Monica's 2004 will is valid. There is also a will from 2008. Her family -- her maiden name was Burgos -- was asked to submit testimony from one of the witnesses that they actually saw Monica sign the will in 2004.

There is also a separate custody case to decide who will get ultimate custody of Bruce and Monica's children. The Burgos family is also fighting for custody. A source close to the family said at a closed-door hearing last week, Bruce asked to see the kids and was denied.

The attorney general in charge of the investigation in Mexico told ABC News that he found Beresford-Redman's return to Los Angeles "suspicious." He said the state received key DNA evidence Friday that could allow investigators to make an arrest in the case in a matter of days.

Former Los Angeles County prosecutor Robin Sax, who has no connection to the case, told "Good Morning America" Monday that she believed there was "ample probable cause" to charge Beresford-Redman, pointing to the couple's actions in the days before her death and the conflicting statements he gave to authorities, among other things.

"It is pretty atrocious that charges haven't been filed," she said.

But criminal defense attorney Roy Black, who is also not involved in the case, questioned what authorities might actually have on Beresford-Redman.

"What direct evidence is there that he committed the murder?" he asked. "There's still that missing link."

Beresford Redman Cast: E-mails Reveal a Troubled Marriage

Both Sax and Black agreed that Bruce Beresford-Redman's return to the United States will likely start a lengthy extradition battle should Mexican authorities charge him.

While Black said Beresford-Redman should have every opportunity to seek custody of his children, Sax said the mere naming of him as a person of interest could influence a judge to shift custody to another family member.

Mexican authorities said Monica Beresford-Redman had been strangled and hit in the head. Bruce Beresford-Redman had scratches on his arms and neck when questioned by police, and investigators have said his account of his wife's disappearance in the days before her body was discovered don't match statements by witnesses.

The couple had traveled to Mexico, reportedly to work on their crumbling marriage. But Monica Beresford-Redman's sisters say they now wonder if the entire trip was planned so she could be killed on foreign soil.

A series of e-mails that surfaced last month between the couple and Bruce Beresford-Redman's alleged mistress Joy Pierce could show evidence of a motive in her death, according to Monica Beresford-Redman's family.

The e-mails, obtained by RadarOnline, were found on Monica Beresford-Redman's home computer after her death this month. Her family brought them to Mexican authorities.

In the e-mails, all written last month, Bruce Beresford-Redman wrote of wanting to be a better husband and father, but said his wife had denied him access to their children and home.

"She has gone even further than I thought she would," he wrote. "She has denied me access to my children. ... She has shut me out of my home, she has liquidated all my money and ... she has alleged at my daughter's school that I am abusive and unfit."

There is also an e-mail from Monica Beresford-Redman to Pierce, titled "Tiger Bruce Attacks Again," in which she talked about recording him in the car and called him a "liar" and "my embarrassing husband."

"I just want to expose him, so he can feel stupid," she wrote to Pierce. "That will help me? Probably not, but he has to grow up one day."

ABC News' Neal Karlinsky and Sarah Netter contributed to this report.