U.S. Suspect in Briton's Murder Extradited to Philippines

An American man has been extradited to the Philippines to stand trial for the murder of a retired British policeman, the Filipino justice department said Tuesday.

Timothy Noah Kaufman is accused of murdering Joseph Balmer and his Filipina girlfriend, said Daniel Daganzo, head of the international operations division of the department's National Bureau of Investigation.

Agents from the bureau flew Kaufman to Manila on Sunday, Daganzo told reporters, a month after the U.S. justice department approved the Philippine government's request that he stand trial in the Philippines.

Balmer, 54, and his 26-year-old girlfriend were found shot to death in the home of a friend of the Briton on the northern city of Angeles in September 2011, police records show.

Witnesses named Kaufman as among three suspects, Daganzo said.

Philippine authorities arrested a second suspect, a Filipino, in March last year while a second American suspect remains unaccounted for, Daganzo said.

The motive for the attack was not known.