Police hunt for woman who was with Jenkins

FOR Ryan Jenkins, life ended by suicide in a remote Canadian motel room.

Police, who had sought the reality show contestant in relation to the killing of his ex-wife, hunted yesterday 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 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 Canada.

The dramatic end came at an isolated motel at the edge of British Columbia’s mountainous interior, on the outskirts of Hope when motel staff found his body.

The manager of The Thunderbird Motel and his nephew said they found Jenkins hanging. They said a young woman had checked him in to the inn.

The 32-year-old real estate developer and investor was charged in California with first-degree murder last Thursday after the dismembered body of Jasmine Fiore was found in a bin in Buena Park, about 32km south-east of Los Angeles.

Fiore’s teeth had been pulled out and her fingers cut off, apparently to impede her identification.

Yesterday, 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.”

Kevin Walker, who manages the Thunderbird Motel, said Jenkins and the mystery woman arrived on Thursday. 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”.