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If you watched Woman of the Hour, you need to hear about this other reality TV murderer.

Content warning: This article mentions domestic violence, murder and suicide. 

If you've watched Anna Kendrick's Netflix film Woman of the Hour, which relays the true story of serial murderer Rodney Alcala who appeared on the TV show The Dating Game in the '70s, then you need to hear about this story.

In the case of Ryan Jenkins, he appeared on a TV show Megan Wants a Millionaire in 2009. While it was on air, he was charged with murdering his wife.

In August 2009, 911 operators received a call about a possible human body inside of a suitcase in California.

It was believed to be a woman, but her fingers had been chopped off and her teeth removed, making it hard for them to ID the victim.

Days later, she was identified as Jasmine Fiore.

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Fiore was a budding model.

In 2000, the 18-year-old auditioned to be a Playboy centrefold, however, didn't get it, and was instead offered a job as a "Girls of Playboy Golf" hostess.

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Six years later, she was promoted to Playboy event coordinator, where she would organise parties in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

On March 16, 2009, Fiore, 28, met Ryan Jenkins, 32, a Canadian real estate developer and reality TV star.

Jenkins had just been eliminated from the American dating show Megan Wants a Millionaire, which starred Playboy model Megan Hauserman, who was looking for a wealthy husband.

During filming, Jenkins and Hauserman had begun a private relationship off-camera, with both planning on being together at the finale.


Ryan Jenkins and Megan Hauserman. Image: VH1.

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But after producers urged Hauserman to eliminate Jenkins as he "wasn't likeable" in interviews, she called him to explain and he said he had already moved on and married someone else.

Fiore and Jenkins tied the knot at Vegas' Little White Chapel on March 18, 2009, less than 48 hours after meeting. He asked her to marry him after learning their birthdays were just days apart in February.

"He thought it was a sign that she was the one and he had to marry her," Hauserman told The New York Post. "Ryan thought that if he couldn’t be married to me, he’d find another Playboy model to get married to."

"When [Jenkins] eventually lost the show, he very quickly found himself another blonde in Vegas and married her. I think that was him trying to win the show in the end," Mark Cronin, founder of the production company that created Megan Wants a Millionaire, added.


Image: TMZ.

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But Fiore and Jenkins' honeymoon love bubble only lasted so long.

A month after they got married, Jenkins saw Fiore talking to someone when they were at an event. He got jealous and hit her so hard she fell into the pool.

Police arrested him on a domestic violence charge and he spent the night in jail.

By June, the couple were verging on divorce and living separately. Jenkins reconnected with Hauserman and sought her advice on their relationship.

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"Ryan told me that Jasmine was ruining his life. But he’s also obsessed with her not leaving him because he wants to win. He can’t accept any rejection," Hauserman told Entertainment Weekly.

Following their discussion, Jenkins returned to reality TV, appearing on the American competition series, I Love Money, in Mexico, which recruits ex-reality TV stars to compete in physical and mental challenges to win $250,000 USD.

Jenkins was set on winning the prize money to get Fiore back, and he did.


Jasmine Fiore and Jenkins. Image: MySpace.

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In an attempt to make things work, the model agreed to attend a poker tournament with her husband in San Diego on August 13, 2009, and stay overnight.

Things turned sour within hours.

Later in the evening, Jenkins learned that his wife had been secretly texting her ex-boyfriend, Robert Hasman, about leaving her marriage.

"Send a plane for me. Come get me. I’m coming back to Vegas to be with you. I’m done with Ryan Jenkins," she said to him, investigative journalist Mark Ebner recalled in the Playboy Murders documentary.

At 4.30am, hotel cameras caught a frantic Jenkins returning to his hotel room.

Per investigators, he then left the ground floor room through the balcony doors, dragging a badly beaten, but still alive Fiore inside.

When she tried to call the police, he strangled her.

The following morning, Jenkins reported his wife missing to the police. They launched an investigation, and on the same day, found a body.

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On August 15, a corpse was found inside a suitcase inside a bin in Buena Park, California.

Police were unable to identify the body as it had a broken nose, missing fingers and teeth, and was badly beaten.

There was one identifying factor though — her breast implants, which were removed during the autopsy and contained serial numbers.

A day after filing a missing person's report about his wife, Jenkins fled the country, crossed the border on a boat and arrived in Canada.

He checked into a hotel and ended his own life.

Jenkins left behind a one-page suicide note on his laptop titled "Will and Testament".

"About half of the letter described how much he loved her, and in the same breath, he would talk about how frustrated she made him and that he felt very jealous about some of her relationships and that frustrated him immensely," Sergant Bill Kohanek told ABC News at the time.

Not only did the American network VH1 cancel Megan Wants a Millionaire before the season was over, but they also announced the third season of I Love Money, on which Jenkins was a contestant and grand prize winner, would not air.

Feature image: Netflix/VH1.

This article was originally published on January 24, 2023 and has since been updated with new information.

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