Reality show contestant found dead
HOPE, British Columbia — For Ryan Jenkins, life ended in a suicide in a remote Canadian motel room, and police who had sought the reality show contestant in the killing of his ex-wife hunted Monday for someone new: the mysterious woman who accompanied him to his lodgings.
Jenkins 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 California into his native Canada.
The dramatic end came at an isolated motel at the edge of British Columbia's mountainous interior, on the outskirts of Hope, a town known for its giant wooden carvings made with chainsaws and as the site of the first bloody Rambo movie.
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 Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 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 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.
On Monday, Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore, said that she had a mixed reaction to news of Jenkins' death."It brings some closure to what's been going on," said Lepore, who lives in Maui, Hawaii. "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."She added: "We still have a long process of closure."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 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 again."I didn't see her leave, but apparently the tenant in No. 1 (next to Jenkins' room) said she only stuck around for about 20 minutes," he said.Adam Curt, 19, a motel employee and Walker's nephew, said Jenkins "looked stressed out," adding: "He wouldn't look anybody in the eye."Walker said he didn't recognize the man although Jenkins' face had been all over the news."In no way shape or form did he look like the man on TV," he said. "He looked spent."The motel manager said when the couple didn't check out, he unlocked the room and found Jenkins dead.
