Reality show contestant was wanted for murder in the gruesome death and mutilation of his ex-wife. She was found dead Sunday of an apparent suicide after hanging himself in a secluded Canadian motel, authorities said.
Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police border integrity unit says police responded to a call about a dead person in Hope, east of Vancouver, and then called investigators who were part of the massive manhunt for Jenkins.
The real estate developer and investor was wanted in California on first-degree murder charges after the mutilated body of his ex-wife Jasmine Fiore was found in a trash bin in Buena Park, about 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
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.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are "now able to confirm that a deceased person that was found in a motel in Hope, British Columbia is, in fact, Ryan Jenkins," Pound 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."
Pound said police don't yet know how long Jenkins was at the motel before his body was discovered. Jenkins was identified through fingerprints, he said.
Jenkins' body was found in The Thunderbird Motel on an isolated road on the outskirts of Hope, B.C. at the entrance to the western 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 Marc 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 U.S.-Canada border south of Vancouver.
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.
After the U.S. Justice Department issued an extradition request, Canada issued a nation-wide warrant for Jenkins' arrest. Canadian authorities initially launched a massive border search using helicopters, ground police and dogs.
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.
California authorities said police in Buena Park where Fiore was found would continue their investigation to make sure no one else was involved in the killing, but did not expect to find anything.
"We continue to believe that Mr. Jenkins was solely responsible," said Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
A cell phone message left with Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore of Maui, California, was not immediately returned.
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 Friday.
The former swimsuit model and Jenkins were briefly married after a quickie Las Vegas wedding this year, and had been fighting in recent months. Prosecutors said the two checked into a San Diego hotel Aug. 13, and Jenkins checked out the next morning. Fiore was not seen alive again.
Jenkis 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.
On the show, Jenkins was identified as an investment banker who had a couple million dollars.
A resume posted on the professional networking site LinkedIn.com says Jenkins graduated from Mount Royal College in Calgary in 1999, has a license to fly commercial airplanes and worked in investment sales and as president of a boutique development company focused on cutting-edge green technologies.
After taping for the VH1 series finished in early March, Jenkins met 28-year-old Fiore in Las Vegas casino and the two got married on March 18, said Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore.
But in May, "they had a big blowout," and fought because he was jealous of her ex-boyfriends, Lepore said. "She had the marriage annulled."
Jenkins, variously described as an architect, real estate developer and investment banker from Calgary, appeared in at least three episodes of the series "Megan Wants a Millionaire," about a woman seeking to land a wealthy bachelor by putting suitors through their paces, such as designing a marketing campaign for her pet Chihuahua.
Court records showed Jenkins was charged in June in Nevada with a misdemeanor count of "battery constituting domestic violence" for allegedly hitting Fiore in the arm and was set to be tried in December.
Prosecutors said the two checked into a San Diego hotel Aug. 13, and Jenkins checked out the next morning. Fiore was not seen alive again.
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