Condition of Dead Model Jasmine Fiore's Car Suggests Bloody Fight
Police: Car belonging to model found in suitcase was covered with blood.
Aug. 27, 2009— -- The interior of a white Mercedes-Benz that belonged to the brutally murdered ex-model Jasmine Fiore was found covered with blood, police said.
"There was a significant portion of blood, that it would appear a violent struggle did occur in the vehicle," Buena Park, Calif., police Sgt. Roger Powell told the media today.
The blood was found on Fiore's passenger seat, backseat and rear windshield, Powell said, and there was evidence of attempts to wipe it away.
"The blood loss appears to be more significant in the backseat area, so it would appear that the injuries that we had originally seen Miss Fiore sustain are consistent with the blood loss that would have been in that vehicle," Powell said.
"There was some hair evidence taken from inside the vehicle on the floor," he added. "So there, obviously, some hair pulling did take place. That's still being processed. We don't know whether that's from the victim or the suspect."
In addition, the car found Wednesday in West Hollywood, Calif., had mud, weeds and twigs on the undercarriage, suggesting it went off road, police said.
The body of Fiore, 28, was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Buena Park, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, Aug. 15. Fiore had her fingertips cut off and her teeth pulled out, apparently to make it difficult to identify her.
Fiore subsequently was identified by the serial number on her breast implants.
Reality TV star Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, Fiore's husband and the prime suspect in her murder, was found hanged in a Canadian motel room Sunday following a massive manhunt.
The manager of the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, who said he found the body, said Jenkins hung himself from a coat rack.
Local police answered a call regarding a dead body found at the Thunderbird Hotel in the town, which is east of Vancouver, and after seeing the person, they called in investigators involved in the manhunt for Jenkins.
Jenkins, 32, was a Canadian citizen who police believe fled to his home country as he fell under suspicion for Fiore's murder.