As her career took off, Fiore distanced herself from her modelling persona. She “could play the part” of a vacuous swimsuit or lingerie model, but “it was just a job,” says Huber. “It wasn’t who she was.” Moving to Las Vegas, she became a Playboy representative and did TV commercials for a hotel and a late-night chat line. By the time she met Jenkins at a Hawaiian Tropic Party in March, she had changed her last name again. She was planning to get into real estate, and decided on the more professional-sounding “Kinkade.”
Fiore kept most people in the dark about her relationship with Jenkins. As always, however, she confided in Gwen. Shortly after she reported she’d “fallen in love,” says Gwen, Fiore’s grandmother passed away; Jenkins accompanied her to South Carolina for the funeral. Upon her return, Gwen, unaware that she and Jenkins had wed, asked about the romance. “She told me, ‘He was too controlling. We broke up. It’s over.’ ”
“It popped up on Facebook! ‘I just got married,’ ” a friend of Jenkins says of how he learned of the marriage. “I was like, ‘Whoa!’ But I guess if you’re living in Vegas and you’re a cool cat and like to have fun you’re going to meet some girl and maybe do the Britney Spears marriage thing. And there’s nothing wrong with that.” Still, early indications suggested all was not well. Parrottino recalls from conversations with Jenkins that he was “infatuated” with his new wife but stressed by her demands. “She made it relatively clear that money was important to her,” he says. “I think that for Ryan that was somewhat stressful. I don’t think Ryan had the means for supporting that kind of lifestyle.” Still, Jenkins brought Fiore to Canada at least twice, showing her Banff, parading her before friends at Cowboys, even taking her camping.
Travelling back and forth between Calgary, L.A. and Vegas—he filmed a second reality TV series, I Love Money 3, during this period—he fell below the radar in his hometown. When he reappeared in early June, it was without Fiore. Alone, he hit the bars. “He’s back in Canada but he’s supposed to be married, yet he’s kind of out on the bar scene again,” Tutty recalls. “He didn’t seem happy about it.”
Soon, however, he was again spending time with Fiore—not all of it peaceful: her ongoing contact with other men continued to irk him. Authorities in Nevada charged him with a misdemeanour count of “battery constituting domestic violence” after he allegedly hit Fiore in the arm (his trial was slated for December). The Edmonton Journal this week quoted Dan Jenkins defending his son, who he said merely pushed Fiore into a pool during a fight. “He turns around and his wife’s kissing another guy and he grabs her hand and starts walking away, and they’re arguing and he just pushes her in the pool,” he said.
Unlike her relationship with Jenkins, Fiore was open about her long romance with Hasman, the investment broker. Former lovers, they remained in touch. In July, they reportedly vacationed together in Mexico, and in the days leading up to Fiore’s death they exchanged texts and emails. Hasman later told the media: “She wanted to come and see me.” The last message he received: “I’m coming.” Fiore was last seen alive in Jenkins’s company, at an Aug. 13 San Diego poker game. Later, apparently after her death, Hasman received another text from Fiore’s cellphone. “Suck it,” the message read.
On Saturday, Aug. 15—the day police recovered her body from the Buena Park, Calif., dump—Jenkins reported her missing, then disappeared. He headed for Washington, took to the sea in a boat he’d tastefully christened Night Rideher. Last Wednesday, after eluding police on the waters south of Point Roberts, Wash., he apparently walked across a particularly porous section of the Canada-U.S. border. The next day, a “very pretty” blond in her early 20s deposited him at the Thunderbird Motel, in Hope, B.C., paying cash for a three-night stay. The RCMP say they know who she was, but haven’t made the name public. Whoever the woman was, she ended up the boatman for Jenkins’s trip across the river Styx. On Sunday, motel staff found his body hanging from a coat rack, his feet touching the floor. “I can tell you he panicked, we were trying to bring him in,” his mother said. Reality television’s realest star had exited the frame; there is nothing more real than a motel in Hope, B.C.
With Tom Henheffer
