Jenkins, 32, was a fugitive suspect in the murder of his ex-wife and swimsuit-model Jasmine Fiore. The reality star was found dead of an apparent suicide at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office tells "The Insider."
A hotel employee found Jenkins hanged in the motel room and contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, according to the spokesperson. Canadian police will be investigating the death.
Jenkins was a contestant on VH1's reality show "Megan Wants a Millionaire."
Megan Wants a Millionaire and I Love Money 3 star Ryan Jenkins is dead, having committed suicide in a Canadian hotel room, according to police. He was charged with murdering his ex-wife and mutilating her body such that she was identified using the serial numbers on her breast implants.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesperson told the CP that “the RCMP federal border integrity program is able to confirm that a deceased person that was found in a motel in Hope, British Columbia, is in fact Ryan Jenkins. At this time the investigation into the circumstances of his death is continuing but preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life.” He “was found at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope and had apparently hanged himself,” the CP reports, citing the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
On VH1’s blog, a not-exactly-official statement post says, “Tragedy begets tragedy. Of course, our sympathy goes out to the friends and families of Jasmine Fiore and Ryan Jenkins, as it has for the past several days.”
Meanwhile, VH1 has officially cancelled Megan Wants a Millionaire, and will therefore probably never air any more of, but the network said Friday that it could actually air I Love Money 3, on which Jenkins appeared.
The New York Times reports that while “51 Minds would not confirm reports that Mr. Jenkins was the winning contestant,” it “did say that he visited its production office on Aug. 12 to pick up a check for $5,200, his honorarium for appearing on the show.” It’s unclear if that’s different than his potential prize money; the second season gave its winner $250,000.
The paper also reports that “VH1 has not decided on the future of the other show, ‘I Love Money 3,’ which was set to make its debut in January.” In a new statement released to the Times on Friday, VH1 backed away from its initial, completely disingenuous statement that shifted any responsibility to the show’s producers for casting someone with a sketchy past.
Before Jenkins was discovered dead, the network said it has “ultimate responsibility is what’s on our air, and in this case we immediately took the show off the schedule as well as off of our digital platforms.” It hedges a bit more saying, “Everyone has a role to play in the hundreds of hours of original programming that we develop each year. Something went wrong here, so we’re all looking at the process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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