Grim Reality: Jasmine Fiore and Ryan Jenkins
Murder And A Manhunt
Once Fiore's body was identified, Ryan Jenkins immediately became a "person of interest" in the case. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation. But to find out what exactly had happened to Fiore, police not only had to find Jenkins; they also had to find Fiore's white Mercedes Benz, where the assault and murder presumably took place. Traces of blood were found on the L'Auberge hotel's patio, which suggests that Jenkins may have brought a dead or dying Fiore in through the back way, where there is no surveillance camera.
Hours later, Jenkins was fleeing north. Shortly after leaving Buena Park, he was recorded on video returning to his Los Angeles home, where he shipped his and Fiore's wedding rings to Las Vegas to be cleaned. During this time, Jenkins placed over thirty calls and text messages to undisclosed recipients. While on the run, Jenkins was considered able to hide nearly anywhere in the world because of his, and his parents', wealth. His father, Dan Jenkins, a successful architect, was living at a resort he had developed in Honduras, and it was believed for a time that Ryan would head there. Instead, driving his black BMW X5, he picked up his speedboat in Las Vegas and towed it to Blaine, Wash., where he abandoned his car and launched the boat for the Canadian border. Jenkins' suitcase, part of the same set as the one in which Fiore's body had been found, was later discovered in a Washington storage unit. On August 20, while border patrol agents in the air, water and on the ground were hunting for him, Ryan managed to cross to Point Roberts, a small exclave of Washington on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, where he left his boat and continued on foot into Canada. That evening, a blonde woman driving a silver PT Cruiser with Alberta license plates, later identified as belonging to his father, dropped Jenkins off at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia. Described by the motel manager as being in her early 20s and "very pretty," the woman paid for three nights in cash before leaving Jenkins at the motel. The woman, who was later questioned by police but has not been publicly identified, is believed by some to have been Ryan's half-sister Alena Jenkins. When Ryan, whom residents at the motel saw occasionally wandering around the premises looking thin and ragged, did not check out on August 23 after his three paid-for nights, the hotel manager entered his room. There, he saw Ryan hanging from the coat rack, his feet touching the ground. No suicide note was found. Jenkins' laptop was taken into police custody; but its contents were not made public.