FORMER Survivor producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was ordered today to return to Mexico to stand trial on charges he murdered his wife.

Monica Beresford-Redman was found dead in a septic tank at a resort in Cancun, Mexico, on April 8, 2010 – what would have been her 42nd birthday – two days after her husband reported her missing, KTLA-TV reported.

The couple, who were married for nine years, had been holidaying with their two young children.

Investigators said Mrs Beresford-Redman was strangled in a room at the Moon Palace Hotel on April 5, 2010 during a family holiday. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was asphyxia by suffocation.

Bruce Beresford-Redman was arrested on a fugitive warrant on November 16, 2010 at his Rancho Palos Verdes, California, home. He is charged in Mexico with aggravated homicide.

Before the extradition decision was handed down at a hearing in Los Angeles, his defence team told the Los Angeles Times there was a “rush to judgment” on the part of Mexican investigators and his legal team was seeking to have a judge consider the testimony of the couple’s six-year-old daughter.

“Mommy and Daddy did not yell at each other and never hit each other,” the daughter had said. “Mommy and Daddy never hit each other anywhere, any time,” the child continued.

“They have mostly circumstantial evidence based on some noises heard from the hotel and some scratches on him,” his attorney Vicki L. Podberesky told the newspaper, claiming the daughter’s testimony would show there was no probable cause to support his extradition.

But prosecutors said calling the child as a witness to the hearing was inappropriate and would turn the court procedure into a “mini-trial