Fugitive reality TV contestant Ryan Jenkins found hanged in Canadian motel

Police said Ryan Jenkins removed the teeth and fingers of Jasmine Fiore

The Reality TV contestant, Ryan Jenkins, on the run and wanted in connection with the murder of his Playboy model ex-wife, Jasmine Fiore, has been found dead in Canada.

It is thought Jenkins hanged himself. His body was discovered in a motel room in the Canadian province of British Columbia, police say.

It was unclear how long Jenkins' body had been in the motel.

Police said Ryan Jenkins removed the teeth and fingers of Fiore, 28, whose body was found hacked to pieces, crammed into a suitcase and dumped in a rubbish bin on a suburban street in Los Angeles.

The former swimsuit model and Jenkins, a contestant on reality TV show Megan Wants A Millionaire, were briefly married after a "quickie" Las Vegas wedding this year. Jenkins vanished after the body was found on Saturday at Buena Park.

The web of intrigue surrounding the case was heightened by reports of the bizarre circumstances under which the couple first met, earlier this year.

Jenkins, an investment banker from Calgary, ran into Fiore, 28, at a strip club in Las Vegas, where he was drowning his sorrows after being voted off the VH1 programme Megan Wants a Millionaire. They were reportedly married 48 hours later.

The TV show, currently in the middle of its run, had seen him as one of 17 finalists hoping to woo Megan Hauserman, a pneumatic blonde from Florida. Each of the eligible males was required to possess a personal fortune in excess of one million.

In a personal profile on the VH1 website, which was recently removed, Jenkins boasted of being worth $2.5 million and said, “He has left many amazing women in his life primarily because he wanted more women.” He claimed to enjoy “moulding girls into princesses.”

Since going on the run, Jenkins used his publicist to communicate with the police through the tabloid website TMZ. “Ryan is currently speaking to his attorney and will fully cooperate with the police in this matter,” claimed the publicist yesterday. “He is planning on meeting them in the near future."

Court records from Clark County, Nevada, showed that Jenkins was charged in June with battery constituting domestic violence for allegedly hitting Fiore in the arm.

Jenkins was facing a December non-jury trial in the matter. His lawyer, Neal Tomlinson, declined to comment.

Court records also show Jenkins was sentenced to 15 months' probation in January 2007 in Calgary for assault.