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AFP
Published
Aug 26, 2009
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Suspect in model killing found dead in Canada

By
AFP
Published
Aug 26, 2009


Jasmine Fiore - Photo : Ethan Miller/AFP
VANCOUVER, Canada — A reality TV contestant suspected of killing his swimsuit-model ex-wife in the United States was found dead of an apparent suicide in a Canadian hotel room, police said.

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, was charged in the United States with murder last Thursday after days of being considered a "person of interest" in the gruesome killing of 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore of Los Angeles.

The model's mutilated body was found inside a suitcase in a dumpster more than a week ago.

Her fingers and teeth had been removed, and authorities had to identify her with the serial number on her breast implants.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Federal Border Integrity Program said Sunday in a statement it "is now able to confirm that a deceased person that was found in a motel in Hope, British Columbia is, in fact, Ryan Jenkins."

"Preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life," the RCMP added.

Jenkins, a Canadian who recently vied with 16 other contestants on the VH1 television show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," was the subject of an international manhunt, according to Tom Monson, police chief in Buena Park, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Police believe he may have crossed the Canadian border from a remote area in northwestern Washington state, abandoning his black 2003 BMW SUV and an empty boat trailer at a boat launch in Blaine, Washington, and traveling over water to Point Roberts, then on foot into Canada.

Authorities believed he had fled to Canada to escape the death penalty.

Media reports said Jenkins had been found dead this afternoon by motel staff, who alerted local authorities.

The RCMP said it is continuing to liaise with US authorities.

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