Fugitive murder suspect found dead
Reality TV contestant was wanted in ex-wife’s slaying
VANCOUVER, B.C. – A reality show contestant wanted for murder in the gruesome death and mutilation of his ex-wife 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 said 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, 32, disappeared last week. His boat was found Wednesday at a marina not far from the U.S.-Canada border south of Vancouver.
Jenkins was found at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope and had apparently hanged himself, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in California, which is in contact with Canadian police. Crime scene investigators identified Jenkins through fingerprints, she said.
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.
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.