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OTTAWA: Canadian police said on Monday they have identified a woman who helped a reality TV contestant, accused of killing his swimsuit-model ex-wife, check into a motel days before he was found dead.
Investigators believe Ryan Alexander Jenkins and the woman knew each other, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Duncan Pound told a press conference.
But he would not comment on the identity of the woman who may have helped Jenkins evade police.
"Our interest is not to identify her at this time," Pound said. "The specifics regarding her movements and how they ended up at the hotel together, we are not going to discuss at this time."
"The only thing that we wanted to get out to the public right now is they need not be concerned about her. The RCMP is confident that she's not a risk to them and we will be following up with our investigation."
Canadian authorities are investigating Jenkins's apparent suicide and how he entered Canada, and would consider whether criminal charges against the unidentified woman are warranted, said Pound.
Jenkins, 32, was charged in the United States with murder last Thursday after days of being considered a "person of interest" in the gruesome killing of 28-year-old Jasmine Fiore of Los Angeles.
The model's mutilated body was found inside a suitcase in a dumpster more than a week ago.
Her fingers and teeth had been removed, and authorities had to identify her with the serial number on her breast implants.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Sunday Jenkins was found dead in a motel in Hope, British Columbia. "Preliminary evidence suggests that he took his own life," the RCMP said in a statement.
Media reports said Jenkins had been found dead Sunday afternoon by motel staff, who alerted local authorities. He was discovered hanging from a coat rack with a belt around his neck.
Jenkins, a Canadian who recently vied with 16 other contestants on the VH1 television show "Megan Wants a Millionaire," was the subject of an international manhunt, according to Tom Monson, police chief in Buena Park, a suburb of Los Angeles.
US police believe he may have crossed the Canadian border from a remote area in northwestern Washington state, abandoning his black 2003 BMW SUV and an empty boat trailer at a boat launch in Blaine, Washington, and traveling over water to Point Roberts, then on foot into Canada.
But RCMP Sergeant Duncan Pound said: "It's not clear to the investigators exactly how he came to cross the border."
Jenkins was reportedly checked in to the Thunderbird Motel on Thursday by a woman while he waited in a car with Alberta license plates. According to Public broadcaster CBC, the woman paid cash to stay for three nights.
Motel manager Kevin Walker identified her as one of Jenkins's former girlfriends from Calgary when shown a picture by CBC.
The broadcaster said he never saw the woman again, but another guest told CBC she left after 20 minutes. Police did not confirm these allegations.
The woman could be charged by Canadian authorities for helping Jenkins illegally enter Canada, and by US authorities with accessory after the fact in Fiore's murder.
- AFP/so
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