Accused murderer Ryan Jenkins' aunt, Linda Jenkins, told CBC News that the public has the wrong idea about her nephew. (CBC)

Four days after accused murderer and former reality-TV contestant Ryan Jenkins was found dead in a rural B.C. motel room, his family and friends have taken on the task of trying to clear his name.

Jenkins, a 32-year-old real estate developer and investor from Calgary, became the focus of an international manhunt after he was charged with first-degree murder in California. The charge was laid Aug. 20 after the dismembered body of his ex-wife, Jasmine Fiore, was found in a suitcase in a Dumpster Aug. 15 in Buena Park, southeast of Los Angeles.

Jenkins had been competing in a reality-TV show prior to the discovery of Fiore's body, and police said he disappeared after reporting Fiore missing.

Jenkins was found hanged in his room at the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, B.C., on Aug. 23.

Authorities believe he fled to Canada illegally through Point Roberts, Wash., an isolated peninsula of U.S. territory south of Vancouver. Jenkins's family owns property in Point Roberts.

But one member of his family claims police have misled the public.

"He was not actually on the run," aunt Linda Jenkins told CBC News in Calgary Thursday.

"It's important that people know the whole time he was in contact with police," she said. "He gave them his licence number. He told him where he was going. They told him it was OK for him."

But police did not corroborate that information.

"No Canadian law enforcement agency had contact with Ryan Jenkins concerning this matter at all," said Cpl. Norm Massey of the RCMP Border Security Unit in Vancouver.

Ryan Jenkins and Jasmine Fiore are seen at their wedding in Las Vegas on March 18. (TMZ/Associated Press)

A police officer in Buena Park, Calif., told CBC News the day Jenkins reported his ex-wife missing he refused to go to the police station for an interview, explaining he had to return to Canada to deal with a visa problem. The officer said that once Jenkins became a suspect, any notion that police knew where he was is false.

A woman who had been engaged to Jenkins in the past also came to his defence Thursday.

Paulina Chmielecka flew from Calgary to New York to appear on U.S. network television.

"With the person I know, and the person his friends knew, it's just pretty much unbelievable," Chmielecka said of the accusations about her ex-fiancé.

When his aunt was asked why she thought Jenkins killed himself, Linda Jenkins said she believed he was terrified that he would never be able to clear his name.

Investigators have told CBC News they believe the woman who drove Jenkins to the B.C. motel days before he hanged himself was his half-sister, Vancouver resident Alena Jenkins.

The source said police have spoken to the 19-year-old woman, but have not laid any charges and do not consider her a risk to the public.