LAS VEGAS - OCTOBER 6: Model Jasmine Fiore arrives at the Tangerine Lounge & Nightclub at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino during the club's two-year anniversary party and the grand opening of the Social House restaurant October 6, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The body of Jasmine Fiore, 28, a former swimsuit model, was found strangled and stuffed in a suitcase in a trash bin on August 15, 2009 in Orange County, California, police said August 18. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Original Filename: 89870656.jpg
A reality TV star being hunted for the slaying and mutilation of his bikini-model ex-wife hanged himself in a Canadian motel room, cops said Sunday night.
Ryan Alexander Jenkins was found dead from an apparent suicide in his suburban Vancouver motel room, ending a manhunt that began with the discovery last week of Jasmine Fiore‘s body in a Southern California Dumpster.
“I have a lot of mixed feelings about it,” Fiore’s mother, Lisa (Spirit) Lepore, told the Daily News. “I’m sure at some point I’ll be able to talk about this, but right now I need to be in touch with the police.”
Jenkins, a contestant on the canceled VH1 reality show “Megan Wants a Millionaire,” was found dead by workers at a budget motel in Hope, British Columbia, said Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The 32-year-old fugitive, a native of Canada, had been hiding out in room 2 at the Thunderbird Motel since Friday.
Motel employee Adam Curt, 19, said he discovered the body, clad in jeans and a blue shirt, hanging from the clothes rack in a closet.
“We opened the door and there he was hanging by a belt,” Curt told The Globe and Mail newspaper. “It was pretty horrifying.”
Jenkins was last spotted on Wednesday, when he led a Coast Guard patrol in a high-speed boat chase across the Canadian border, about 125 miles from where he ended his life in the $80-a-night motel room.
Buena Park, Calif., cops charged Jenkins in Fiore’s murder on Thursday, revealing he’d chopped off her fingers and pulled out her teeth to conceal her identity.
Fiore was eventually identified by the serial numbers on her breast implants, officials said.
“Unfortunately, this case has an end that nobody would wish for,” said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County, Calif., district attorney.
Jenkins and Fiore were married in a quickie Vegas wedding in March. Lapore said her daughter realized the marriage was a big mistake and got an annulment in May.
Lepore said the couple’s love turned sour because of Jenkins’ jealous rages.
Friends said Jenkins hit the roof when he caught Fiore texting an ex-beau hours before she disappeared.
Fiore was last seen alive Aug. 13, checking into a San Diego hotel with Jenkins. An autopsy revealed Fiore was strangled.
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