Paulina Chmielecka talks to NBC's Today show about her ex-fiancee Ryan Jenkins on Thursday in New York. (NBC)

Ryan Jenkins, the Calgary businessman who apparently hanged himself while on the run after being charged in the brutal killing of his wife, was "charming" and "a sweetheart," a former fiancée said Thursday.

"There were no signs of violence, or at some point that person [Jenkins] would commit a murder," model and television host Paulina Chmielecka told NBC's Today show in New York.

A former reality TV contestant, Jenkins was found Sunday, hanged in a motel room in Hope, B.C. He was accused of killing swimsuit model Jasmine Fiore, whose mutilated body was found in a Los Angeles dumpster on Aug. 15.

Chmielecka's two-and-a-half-year engagement to Jenkins came to an end because Jenkins wanted "an open relationship," she said. "He was definitely a ladies man."

When they met in Las Vegas, Chmielecka recalled that Jenkins "swept me off my feet."

They remained friends following their breakup and in March, when Chmielecka heard Jenkins had married Fiore, she sent him a text message congratulating him.

"He seemed very happy," she said, adding that she never met Fiore. "Everything that has happened is horrible."

Chmielecka said she was "pretty much in shock" when she heard that Jenkins, whom she said was "a good person," was implicated in Fiore's murder.

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

Fiore's mother Lisa Lepore told Today that Jenkins and her daughter had a rocky relationship that included physical violence.

"I was very supportive that she didn't need him," she said.

Lepore maintains the marriage was annulled in May, though there is no record of it.

Fiore's dismembered body was found in a suitcase in a dumpster in Buena Park, about 32 kilometres southeast of Los Angeles.

Her teeth had been pulled out and her fingers cut off, apparently to impede her identification. Investigators used the serial numbers on her breast implants to identify her.

Jenkins was a contestant on the VH1 reality show Megan Wants a Millionaire.