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(AP Photo/Buena Park Police Department)
The international manhunt for reality TV "star" Ryan Alexander Jenkins has ended with the discovery of his lifeless body at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, Canada.
Kevin Walker, the manager of the Thunderbird, said that he and his nephew found Jenkins hanging from a coat rack with his belt around his neck. An unidentified young woman had checked him in to the motel.
According to Walker, Jenkins and the mystery woman arrived Thursday in a Chrysler PT Cruiser with tinted windows and Alberta plates. Alberta was Jenkins' home province. The fugitive stayed in the car while the mystery woman checked in, paying cash for three nights. Police are now seeking the woman for questioning.
Walker described the accessory-after-the-fact as blonde, in her early 20s and "naturally pretty, one of those wholesome little ladies," he said. "He stayed in the car far, far away from the front of the office. I didn't think nothing of it because it's just a couple checking in."
Adam Curt, Walker's nephew, said Jenkins "looked stressed out...He wouldn't look anybody in the eye. In no way shape or form did he look like the man on TV," he said. "He looked spent."
Jenkins was accused of killing his ex-wife, Jasmine Fiore, a swimsuit model whose dismembered body was discovered stuffed into a suitcase in an Orange County trash bin. Fiore's body was so thoroughly mutilated, with her teeth had pulled out and her fingers severed, that it had to be identified by the serial numbers on her breast implants. Jenkins fled the U.S. to his native Canada before snuffing himself at the Thundebird.
Acoording to Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police border integrity unit, on Sunday night, motel staff alerted the local authorities about finding a dead guest. the local cops then contacted investigators who were hunting for Jenkins.
The motel is located on the outskirts of Hope, where First Blood, the first of Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies was filmed. To quote Richard Crenna's character in that film, "It's over, Johnny. It's over."
Fiore was a part-time model, working mainly in Vegas and L.A., and an aspiring actress. She had a small role in a 2008 sci-fi/horror flick, "The Abandoned," but the real horror was yet to come.
Fiore's mother, Lisa Lepore, told NBC's "Today Show," that the death of Jenkins "brings some closure to what's been going on. 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...We still have a long process of closure."
The discovery of the alleged woman-slayer put a period on his bizarre odyssey, which saw him go from millionaire to reality TV contestant to murderer to suicide victim in a period of a few short months.
The Tunderbird's manager said he found Jenkins bloated corpse after he unlocked the room when the couple had not checked out. "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, a nearby resident, said people who bunk down at the T-Bird tend to be "kind of seedy — lots of drugs addicts and people down on their luck."
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