Posted on 08/23/2009 11:49:19 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Cops in Canada Saturday stepped up their search for a reality star accused of brutally strangling his swimsuit model ex-wife, then removing her fingers and teeth and stuffing her mutilated body into a suitcase.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police scoured the areas around Vancouver and British Columbia Saturday evening for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a VH1 reality contestant who fled to the country late last week as cops pursued him in the murder of blonde beauty Jasmine Fiore.
"We're leaving no stone unturned, but we have to play our cards close to our chest right now," Sgt. Duncan Pound told the Associated Press about the investigation.
Fiore, 28, was identified using the serial number from her breast implants because detectives couldn't use fingerprints or dental records, spokeswoman Farrah Emami said on Friday.
The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information on Jenkins, who starred on VH1's "Megan Meets a Millionaire" as he competed for the heart of another blonde woman.
Jenkins, a real estate developer and investor originally from Canada, said on the VH1 show that he had between $1 million and $2.5 million in assets to his name. He also has family in Vancouver, including his mother, Nada Jenkins, who owns a condo in a ritzy area neighborhood. He met Fiore in Las Vegas in March and married the model several weeks later. Their relationship took a turn for the worst in June, when Jenkins was charged with battery after allegedly getting violent with Fiore.
Jenkins was also sentenced to 15 months probation in January 2007 for another assault charge in Canada.
His former fiancee Paulina Chmielecka told the AP Jenkins was a "great guy" who never could've committed the gruesome murder of Fiore.
"I would never say, 'Well, he could have murdered someone.' There's no way," Chmielecka said.
Fiore's nude body was found in the suitcase in an Orange County trash bin last week. Cops said she was strangled, and her fingers and teeth had been removed. Details of the gruesome killing emerged as cops staged an international manhunt for Jenkins, 32, who reportedly had a "blow-out fight" with Fiore the last night she was seen alive, ABC News reported.
"He was getting really angry, and it totally set the tone for the rest of the evening," an insider who was with the couple at the Hilton Hotel in San Diego early Friday morning told ABC.
Jenkins became overcome with jealously when Fiore spent most of her time in the bathroom on the phone and claimed she was talking to her mother.
"He kept screaming, 'Who were you taking to?'" the source said. "At about 1:30, they went up to their room to continue fighting."
Jenkins checked out of the L'Auberge Del Mar, about a half-mile from the Hilton, the following morning withoute Fiore, police said. He reported her missing the same day the suitcase was found.
His black SUV and empty boat trailer attached was found in Washington state, and authorities said a man matching Jenkins' description was seen boarding a boat bound for a remote area where people can walk across the Canadian border on Thursday.
A man arrested by Toronto cops Friday night was proven not to be Ryan Jenkins after police fingerprinted the man -- and Jenkins is still believed to be in Canada. Peel Regional Police Staff Sgt. Keith Brodie told the Vancouver Province that a man believed to be Jenkins was taken into custody after an Air Canada flight from Vancouver landed in Toronto with Jenkins reportedly onboard.
"We have now confirmed this man's identity and it is not Ryan Jenkins," Brodie told the Associated Press.
The suspect was arrested in dramatic fashion as cops stormed onto the Air Canada plane armed with an 8x10 photograph of a man, then asked a passenger if he was in the man in the picture.
"He actually smiled, and said, 'Yes, that's who I am,'" a witness on the plane identified only as Susan told Canada's Global News. "They put him in handcuffs and walked him out."
According to Orange County court documents, prosecutors are recommending that Jenkins be held in lieu of $10 million bail when he is arrested.
Fiore had recently moved to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, where she worked as a bikini model and had made appearances in ads for Howard Stern.
On "Megan Wants a Millionaire," Jenkins and other men competed for the affections of a woman looking to become a "trophy wife" for a well-to-do suitor. His profile on the show's website lists him as a Calgary investment banker who claims to mold "player girls" into "princesses."
VH1 is no longer airing the show in light of the investigation.
The network is also weighing whether or not it'll air "I Love Money 3," which included Jenkins as a contestant. The show features ex-VH1 reality alumni competing for buckets of cash and was likely to air sometime in 2010.
"Megan Wants a Millionaire" star, Megan Hauserman, told TMZ.com that Jenkins and Fiore met earlier this year in a Las Vegas strip club where Fiore was a dancer, and they were married two days later.
"Mr. Jenkins is considered dangerous, possibly armed, and has the financial means to hide anywhere in the world," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Friday.
Anyone with information about the case was urged to call the Marshals Service at 800-336-0102.
Jeez...
She’s got a real butter face.
I heard he was all wee weed up because he had spent over $15,000 on braces and manicures for her.
LOL
She was horribly murdered, is that relevant?
Huh?
I was thinking that exact same thing while flicking thru the channels last night.
There’s the problem, the cops are playing cards!!!!!??????????????
...reportedly had a “blow-out fight” with Fiore the last night she was seen alive...
Understatement of the decade.
What kind of cheap crime novel did this sentence come from? This is cliche madness.
KFI is reporting his body has been found. He apparently committed suicide.
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