Woman Sought in Reality TV Star's Death

Woman Sought in Reality TV Star's Death

(Aug. 25) -- Canadian authorities are searching for a woman in their investigation into the death of a reality TV contestant, who is suspected of killing his wife in Southern California.

Authorities have "identified the woman who is now a person of interest in this investigation, but she is not considered a risk to public safety," Sgt. Duncan Pound, spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Monday.

The woman helped rent a room for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, who was found dead at the budget Thunderbird Motel in the town of Hope in British Columbia on Sunday, hotel staff told CNN affiliate CTV on Sunday. Jenkins' body was discovered in the motel room, hanging by a belt from a coat rack in an apparent suicide.

Motel manager Kevin Walker told CTV that a woman, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 20 to 25 years old, dropped off Jenkins at the motel on Friday in a silver Chrysler PT Cruiser with Alberta tags.

"She just came for that one day and had checked in and rented the room," according to Allana Herrling, a motel employee. "I don't know if he paid her to rent the room or if he knew her or not, but she had rented the room and she had left right away."

Before Jenkins' body was found, Canadian authorities had said they had credible information that Jenkins was in Canada and urged him to turn himself in. He was thought to be armed and dangerous.

The nude body of Jenkins' wife, former swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore, was found August 15 in a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim, California. CNN has not confirmed reports that the marriage was annulled.

Fiore's teeth had been extracted and fingers removed in what police said was an apparent attempt to conceal her identity.

Law enforcement sources have told CNN that Fiore was identified through the serial numbers on her breast implants. A preliminary coroner's report indicated that she had been strangled.

Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive in San Diego at a poker game with Jenkins, the night before her body was found.

Jenkins reported Fiore missing last Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, authorities said.

Jenkins' apparent suicide brought a "sense of relief" to some of those who knew Fiore well.

"It helps us -- the family and extended family -- so that we can get on with our lives," Gwendolyn Beauregard, a friend of Fiore, said on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Monday night. "We don't have to go through a trial and all the pain that brings up as well. We have a sense of relief."

According to court records in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jenkins was charged in June with battery, for allegedly striking Fiore in the arm with his fist.

And in 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty in Calgary, Alberta, to assault in a separate case. He was sentenced to 15 months' probation, ordered to undergo counseling for domestic violence and sex addiction, and to stay away from the victim, according to court records.

Jenkins, who appeared on the VH1 show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," is from Calgary.

51 Minds, which produced "Megan Wants a Millionaire," said Thursday in a written statement that it didn't know about Jenkins' record when it cast him.

"I was completely shocked he would have been capable of doing this," Stuart Brazell, who cast Jenkins on the show, told Larry King on Monday night. "I could see he could be a loose cannon. But, no, did I think he was capable of murdering his wife? Absolutely not."
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