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 today 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 the United States into his native Canada.
Police in California have still not located the crime scene and said today they believe the victim’s missing white Mercedes-Benz could be the key.
Jenkins’ dramatic end came at an isolated motel at the edge of British Columbia’s mountainous interior, on the outskirts of Hope, a town with limited claims to fame as the place where the first Rambo movie was filmed and where residents make giant wooden carvings with chainsaws.
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.
Buena Park police Sgt. William Kohanek said today that Fiore’s missing car, a white 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL S550, is part of a “big unsolved puzzle” as they try to determine where she was killed.
Fiore’s mother, Lisa Lepore, said today 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.”
Lepore spoke on NBC’s “Today” show.
Jenkins’ mother Nada said that she just can’t believe her son killed his ex-wife and that she’s sure the evidence will eventually prove his innocence.
“He was good, he’s kind and we need to clear his name,” she said, weeping, during a brief phone interview.
But when asked how that could be done she replied: “I don’t know. I’m sure the evidence will prove it eventually. I’m praying for that.”
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 — 140 Canadian dollars ($130) — 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 or the car 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.
“I cracked the door and there he was, hanging there in front of me, feet touching” the floor, Walker said. “He definitely wanted to die. I smelt death.”
Michelle Beck, who lives near the motel, said people who stay there are “kind of seedy — lots of drugs addicts and people down on their luck.”
Police carried out bags of Jenkins’ belongings, including his laptop computer, Walker said.
Hope is about 100 miles from Point Roberts, Wash., the last place Jenkins was reported to have been seen before he crossed by boat into Canada.
Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that an autopsy was planned.
He declined to comment on the woman who assisted Jenkins but said the investigation was by no means over.
“We’re trying to determine as best we can how it is that he came to be in that motel,” Pound said.
He also declined comment on what evidence they seized from the motel room.
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