A reality TV star wanted for the brutal murder of his bikini model ex-wife in California has been found dead in a motel near Vancouver, Canadian police said on Sunday.

Ryan Jenkins, a Canadian who was the subject of a manhunt in the United States and Canada, apparently took his own life while hiding at the motel in Hope, British Columbia, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Local media said Jenkins hung himself, but Canadian police refused to confirm details of his death after finding his body in the motel room on Sunday.

Authorities in California had charged Jenkins, 32, with the murder of Jasmine Fiore, whose mutilated body was found in a suitcase stuffed into a trash bin just over a week ago in the town of Buena Park outside Los Angeles.

Police said Fiore's fingers and teeth had been removed to make it harder to identify her body, but investigators were able to determine who she was by using the serial number on her breast implants.

Jenkins appeared in the television show "Megan Wants A Millionaire" on VH1, which premiered after completing production in March. Airing of the program has been suspended because of Fiore's death.

Jenkins, who is from Calgary, Alberta, was among 17 men described as millionaires who competed for the affections of former Playboy model Megan Hauserman. When introduced on the show, he was said to have a net worth of $2.5 million.

Jenkins had wed Fiore, 28, in Las Vegas in March, but the marriage was annulled. She had recently moved to Los Angeles and worked as a model in advertising and for Playboy as a coordinator for their "Girls of Golf" events.

Jenkins's body was found just hours after Canadian police confirmed they believed he had entered the country, having used a boat he owned in Washington state to escape U.S. authorities on the Washington state border near Vancouver.

(Reuters August 24, 2009)