Fleeing reality TV star found dead

AP

JASMINE FIORE: The former model's body was found stuffed inside a suitcase and placed in a skip. Her ex-husband, who is wanted for questioning, is believed to have fled to Canada

TMZ/ AP

HAPPY COUPLE: Ryan Alexander Jenkins and Jasmine Fiore's wedding in Las Vegas. Jenkins, a reality TV contestant, was charged with killing his wife, a former swimsuit model.

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The millionaire reality TV star accused of murdering a former swimsuit model and stuffing her naked, mutilated body in a suitcase, has been found dead in a motel in British Columbia.

It appears the reality TV star "took his own life," RCMP Sgt Duncan Pound, spokesman for the RCMP's federal border integrity programme said.

"At this present time the investigation into the circumstances of his death is continuing, but preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life. Any further details will not be released at this time as this investigation remains in its infancy."

Jenkins' body was found in The Thunderbird Motel on a secluded road on the outskirts of Hope British Columbia, at the entrance to the province's mountainous interior. His body was found in a room at the out-of-the-way motel.

The Thunderbird was surrounded by police with a coroner's van, said Mark Lojeski who works at the nearby Lucky Strike Motel.

Jenkins, 32, disappeared last week but his boat was found Wednesday at a marina not far from the US-Canada border south of Vancouver.

Jenkins had apparently hanged himself, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office in California, which is contact with Canadian police. Crime scene investigators identified Jenkins through fingerprints, she said.

Just three hours earlier, Mounties met with the media to confirm that the reality TV star was hiding out in western Canada and had urged him to give himself up.

The 32-year-old real estate developer and investor from Calgary is suspected of strangling Jasmine Fiore and then reporting her missing the evening of August 15 before fleeing.

Fiore's naked, mutilated body was found in a suitcase inside a rubbish bin in Buena Park, about 32km southeast of Los Angeles.

Authorities believe Jenkins fled via car, boat and on foot to enter Canada.

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, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

Jenkins and Fiore met in Las Vegas in March and they married a few weeks later. The couple separated shortly afterward, but had reportedly recently 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 was recently a contestant on VH1 reality show Megan Wants a Millionaire, in which wealthy young men tried to win over a materialistic blonde. The network canceled the show on Friday.

He 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.

- AP