Laura Rizzo
·4 min read
In August 2009, Playboy model Jasmine Fiore’s body was found stuffed into a suitcase in a dumpster in Buena Park, California. The disturbing death is being re-examined on Investigation Discovery’s Playboy Murders, premiering on Monday, January 23. Keep reading for details about what happened.
Who Killed Jasmine Fiore? Inside Her Death
The 28-year-old was suspected to be murdered by Ryan Jenkins, her husband of five months. Jenkins was charged with Fiore’s murder, although he died by suicide before going to trial.
Fiore’s body was mutilated when authorities found it in a garbage bin on August 15, 2009. All of her teeth and fingertips were missing, presumably, in an effort to impede efforts to identify her. In addition, her nose was broken and she was badly beaten. Authorities were only able to identify her corpse by using the serial number on her breast implants.
When her body was discovered Jenkins, who was 32 at the time, fled to his native country of Canada. He had been charged with Fiore’s killing, but he was found dead in a hotel room in Hope, Canada, on August 23, 2009. The former reality star hung himself and left 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," Sgt. Bill Kohanek told CBS News at the time.
Who Is Ryan Jenkins?
Jenkins appeared as a contestant on VH1’s Megan Wants a Millionaire, which starred Playboy model Megan Hauserman, who was looking for a wealthy husband. Hauserman has since said that Jenkins was almost her final pick.
"I actually really liked Ryan and I wanted to pick him as the winner," she recalled to Entertainment Weekly. "I got his phone number and called him when we weren't filming. We would talk on the phone at nighttime. We were having a phone relationship outside of filming, which nobody knew about. I basically told him, 'I'm going to pick you.'"
However, when she told producers her plan, they urged her to reconsider because Jenkins “wasn’t likable in his interviews,” explaining that viewers wouldn’t want him to win. She ended up eliminating him during the finale.
The pair reconnected shortly after filming wrapped, and Jenkins surprised Hauserman with the news that he married Fiore in Las Vegas.
How Did Jasmine Fiore and Ryan Jenkins Meet?
Jenkins and Fiore impulsively married at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Vegas just days after meeting at a casino.
"He called me and said, 'I have to tell you something. I was so upset when I left the show, I went to Vegas and I met a girl. She's my soulmate, and we got married,'" Hauserman said about her conversation with Jenkins shortly after their show finished filming.
Mark Cronin, founder of the production company that created Megan Wants a Millionaire, told the outlet that Jenkins was “desperate” to have a “trophy wife,” adding, “When he 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."
That wasn’t Jenkins’ last foray in reality television. He competed as a contestant on I Love Money 3. Cronin said Jenkins was trying to win the $250,000 grand prize for his new bride, but his calls back home proved that he was convinced Fiore was cheating on him.
"He kept telling her on the phone, 'I'm going to win this, and you and I are going to have the life I've always promised,'" Cronin recalled. "Then he would ask her, 'Where were you last night?' Because he's in Mexico shooting the show, and she lives in Las Vegas. He was very jealous and very suspicious of her. We were actually making a story of it on the show. We were like, 'Look at this guy, he's obsessed with this [model] he married.’ It was funny, until it wasn't funny at all."
Death by Famepremieres on ID Monday, January 23, at 9 p.m. ET, followed byThe Playboy Murdersat 10 p.m. ET. Both series will stream the same day on Discovery+.
