LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for the ex-husband of a former swimsuit model whose nude body was found over the weekend, Orange County police said Thursday.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Ryan Alexander Jenkins, wanted in the death of ex-wife Jasmine Fiore.
The body of Jasmine Fiore, 28, was found Saturday stuffed into a suitcase inside a Dumpster behind an apartment complex in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County. Her teeth had been extracted and her fingers removed.
Fiore lived in Los Angeles and was last seen alive Friday in San Diego at a poker game with her ex-husband, Ryan Alexander Jenkins, a reality TV contestant.
“We believe he has crossed into Canada,” U.S. Marshals Chief Inspector Thomas Hession told reporters. “He needs to understand that he is now officially wanted. We won’t stop looking for him.”
Prosecutors requested bail be set at $10 million.
Wednesday night, officers from the Blaine Police Department in northern Washington recovered a black 2003 BMW X5 SUV outfitted with a boat trailer and a boat belonging to Jenkins in Point Robert, just south of the Canadian border, said Buena Park, California, Chief of Police Tom Monson.
“It’s now our belief that he has now crossed the border on foot,” he said, adding that authorities were working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to find him.
Monson appealed to the public for help in locating a white 2007 Mercedes Benz CLS550 with paper license tags also linked to the suspect.
Hession cautioned anyone who might be considering helping the suspect flee that doing so would leave them open to charges of aiding and abetting a fugitive.
“Ryan Jenkins is an animal,” said Robert Hasman, a family friend who said Fiore had been his girlfriend for 2 1/2 years. 
Watch Hasman speak out ยป
“What he has done to Jasmine is unspeakable. It’s just not right.” He described her as “a beautiful person who was a very caring individual and a lot of the information that you are seeing in the news is not true.”
He would not specify to what he was referring.
Buena Park Police Lt. Steve Holliday said Fiore’s fingers and teeth had been removed. Asked whether that was done to keep her body from being identified, he said, “It can be inferred that way.”
“It appears to be a gruesome attempt to conceal her identity,” concurred Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in an interview with CNN’s “Larry King Live.” Jenkins is the sole suspect in the killing, authorities said. “There is no indication that anybody else might be involved,” he said.
Jenkins is believed to be armed, Rackauckas said. “There’s a handgun missing from his apartment, which is the last place he was before he fled,” he said.
Jenkins matched the description of a man seen driving a boat Wednesday in Blaine Marina off northwest Washington, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said.
Blaine, Washington, borders Canada.
Authorities searched the area and found Jenkins’ black SUV with an empty boat trailer at the Blaine Marina, police said.
Jenkins reported Fiore missing Saturday night to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, authorities said.
The body was identified as Fiore on Monday. While the cause of death has not been confirmed, a preliminary coroner’s report indicates she was strangled.
Jenkins, who appeared on VH1 shows “Megan Wants a Millionaire” and “I Love Money 3,” is from Calgary, Alberta.
Jenkins and Fiore reportedly had been married a few weeks before getting the union annulled.
In a statement, VH1 said it has postponed any airings of “Megan Wants a Millionaire” because of the “tragic situation.”
August 21, 2009
Posted by Andi |
Death, Gossip, Greed, Reality TV, Ryan Jenkins | Death, Reality TV |
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