Hunted reality show contestant found dead of apparent suicide at motel in Canada

Reality show contestant found dead in Canada motel

HOPE, British Columbia — Police said Monday they have identified and are investigating a woman who allegedly helped a former reality television show contestant hide from authorities in his native Canada after his ex-wife was found dead in the U.S.

Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not release the identity of the woman who checked Ryan Jenkins into a remote motel in British Columbia days before he was found dead there Sunday of an apparent suicide.

Pound said the two had a history together and that police were investigating whether she would face charges for helping Jenkins. She is not in police custody, he said.

Jenkins, a contestant on VH1’s “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” was accused of killing his ex-wife, a model whose body was so badly mutilated when found in a trash bin outside Los Angeles it had to be identified by her breast implants’ serial numbers. He evaded a massive international manhunt for days as he crossed from the United States into his native Canada.

Police in California have still not located the crime scene and said Monday they believe the victim’s missing white Mercedes-Benz could be the key.

Jenkins’ dramatic end came at an isolated motel at the edge of British Columbia’s mountainous interior, on the outskirts of Hope, a town with limited claims to fame as the place where the first Rambo movie was filmed and where residents make giant wooden carvings with chainsaws.

On Sunday evening, police responded to a call from motel staff about a dead person, and then called investigators who were part of the manhunt for Jenkins, said Pound, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s border integrity unit.

The manager of The Thunderbird Motel and his nephew said they found Jenkins hanging from the bar of a coat rack by a belt. They said a young woman had checked him in to the two-story inn surrounded by trees.

The 32-year-old real estate developer and investor was charged in California with first-degree murder Thursday after the dismembered body of Jasmine Fiore was found in a trash bin in Buena Park, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.

Fiore’s teeth had been pulled out and her fingers cut off, apparently to impede her identification. Investigators used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her, Orange County prosecutors said.

Buena Park police Sgt. William Kohanek said Monday that Fiore’s missing car, a white 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL S550, is part of a “big unsolved puzzle” as they try to determine where she was killed.

Jenkins was recently a contestant on the VH1 reality show “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” in which wealthy young men tried to win over a materialistic blonde. The network canceled the show Friday.

Fiore’s mother, Lisa Lepore, said Monday that she had a mixed reaction to news of Jenkins’ death.

“It brings some closure to what’s been going on,” Lepore, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, said on NBC’s “Today” show. “We don’t have to worry about looking for him anymore or being worried that he is a threat to any other women or men.”

Jenkins’ mother Nada, who lives in Vancouver, said in a brief telephone interview that she just can’t believe her son killed his ex-wife and that she’s sure the evidence will eventually prove his innocence.

“He was good, he’s kind and we need to clear his name,” she said, weeping.

Kevin Walker, who manages the Thunderbird Motel, said Jenkins and the mystery woman arrived Thursday in a Chrysler PT Cruiser with tinted windows and license plates from Alberta, Jenkins’ home province. He stayed in the car while the woman checked them in, he said.

She was blonde, in her early 20s and “naturally pretty, one of those wholesome little ladies,” he said.

Walker said the woman paid cash — 140 Canadian dollars ($130) — for three nights’ stay.

“He stayed in the car far, far away from the front of the office,” Walker said. “I didn’t think nothing of it because it’s just a couple checking in.”

Walker said he never saw the woman or the car again, and another tenant said the woman left after about 20 minutes after check-in.

Pound said Monday said they are investigating whether the woman could face charges of being an accessory after the fact to a border violation and evading police.

Michelle Beck, who lives near the motel, said people who stay there are “kind of seedy — lots of drugs addicts and people down on their luck.”

Police carried out bags of Jenkins’ belongings, including his laptop computer, Walker said.

Hope is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Point Roberts, Washington state, the last place Jenkins was reported to have been seen. His boat was found Wednesday at a marina not far from the U.S.-Canada border south of Vancouver.

Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that an autopsy was planned. He declined comment on what evidence they seized from the motel room.

Jenkins and Fiore met in Las Vegas in March and they married a few weeks later. The couple separated shortly afterward, but had reportedly reconciled.

Friends said Fiore was a model who worked mainly in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, doing gigs such as being bodypainted at parties. She also was an aspiring actress and had a bit part in a small 2008 horror science-fiction movie, “The Abandoned,” according to the Internet Movie Database.

Jenkins and Fiore met after taping for “Megan Wants a Millionaire” finished in early March, Lepore said. Court records show the date of marriage as March 18. But in May they fought because he was jealous of her ex-boyfriends, Lepore said.

Jenkins also was a participant in an as-yet-unaired competitive reality series, “I Love Money 3.” A VH1 spokesman said no decision has been made on whether or not to run the show.

Jenkins had been charged with allegedly hitting Fiore in the arm recently, court records showed.

In his hometown of Calgary, Jenkins was sentenced to 15 months probation in January 2007 on an unspecified assault charge.

Gillies reported from Toronto and Associated Press Writers Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Ron DePasquale in New York contributed to this report.