Reality show contestant Ryan Alexander charged with murder model

Police in the United States and Canada hunted Friday for a television reality show contestant charged with the murder of a model whose mutilated body was found inside a suitcase in a dumpster.

Photo: Reality show contestant Ryan Alexander charged with murder model

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, was charged with the murder Thursday after days of being a "person of interest" in the gruesome case of 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore's killing.

Jenkins, a Canadian who recently vied with 16 other contestants on the TV show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," is now "the subject of an international manhunt," said Tom Monson, police chief in Buena Park, a suburb of Los Angeles, reports AFP.

According to CNN, Gwendolyn Beauregard said Fiore was a close friend of her two sons, and she met the future model when Fiore was just 11. Despite the close ties -- "she called me mommy and she was my daughter" -- Beauregard was in the dark about Fiore's marriage to Ryan Jenkins. The marriage reportedly was annulled a few weeks after their Las Vegas, Nevada, wedding.

An arrest warrant fpr murder has been issued for Jenkins, a reality TV contestant. Authorities believe he's fled to Canada. Fiore's body was found Saturday, stuffed into a suitcase and left in a Dumpster in Buena Park, just outside Anaheim in Orange County, California.

A police lieutenant said Fiore's fingers and teeth had been removed, and prosecutors have asked that Jenkins be held on $10 million bail when he is found.

Authorities in Washington state said a man matching Jenkins' description was seen boarding a boat bound for a remote area where it is possible to walk into Canada.

Jenkins is originally from the prairie province of Alberta.

Fiore had recently moved to Los Angeles from Las Vegas. She had worked as a model in advertising and for Playboy as a coordinator for their "Girls of Golf" events.

On "Megan Wants a Millionaire," Jenkins was among 17 men described as millionaires, who all competed for the affections of former Playboy model Megan Hauserman.

When introduced on the show, Jenkins was said to have a net worth of $2.5 million, Reuters informs.