Ten days of shock and disbelief punctuated by grief.
For those who called Ryan Jenkins a friend, the Calgarian's suicide brings a horrifying tale to a devastating conclusion -- yet his best friend says it's a surreal script that doesn't fit its main character.
"He was the best friend I had, and he was an amazing friend for 20 years, and the Ryan that is being portrayed all over the papers is a Ryan I've never met in my life, at any point," said Tyler James.
James says he met Jenkins "in the sandbox," and the two remained close friends ever since, growing up together in Calgary.
"I loved him and my heart goes out to his dad and family, beyond belief," said James.
The Ryan he knew was a happy, thoughtful person, ready to help his friends -- James said there was no sign of the simmering rage some have attributed to murder suspect's demise.
"He always had a smile, he was never an angry guy -- he always brought life to any party and he was always there when I needed him," said James.
If Jenkins did brutally murder his model girlfriend, as police in California say, his friends in Calgary are at loss as to how he could have changed so much, in so short a time.
"It's obviously shocking and hard to believe any of this is true," said James.
Jenkins' reputation took a serious blow in the early days of the murder investigation, when a conviction for domestic abuse was made public.
In 2007, Jenkins pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-girlfriend. A Calgary court handed him a conditional discharge and 15 months probation, with orders to seek counselling for domestic violence and sex addiction.
While James said he's not certain exactly what happened between Jenkins and his then-girlfriend, he said it was never in Ryan's normal nature to hurt women.
"It was definitely out of character -- Ryan liked women, as you've probably heard and women really liked Ryan. He treated them well," he said.
"If he was this abusive person, they wouldn't have liked him. And he not only had girlfriends, he had friends who were women."
Jenkins reputation as a womanizer was cemented when he took a role on the Hollywood reality TV show Megan Wants a Millionaire.
In Jenkins' biography for the show, he described himself as a man who moulds "player girls" into "princesses," while claiming that he left many amazing women in his life primarily because he wanted more women.
If Jenkins' decision to go to Hollywood bemused his friends, says James, his sudden wedding to Jasmine Fiore astounded them.
Still, he seemed very happy.
"At the beginning it was all positive, 'I've met the girl of my dreams', and so forth, but the wedding was totally a shock," said James, who last saw Jenkins at a Calgary restaurant shortly after the March wedding.
A group of friends gathered at a Calgary Earls, including Jenkins' former fiance, Paulina Chmielecka.
Fiore wasn't in attendance, but James said his friend was in a very positive mood, gushing about his new bride.
Some friends, says James, privately wondered whether the relationship was an attraction based on love, or Fiore's love of Jenkins' wealth.
"Some were saying she just wanted him for the money and she wanted more money and this and that," said James.
Indeed, a few weeks later, Jenkins was texting his friends with different news.
"He didn't know then whether things were going that well -- I never met her, but she was volatile, you could say," said James.
The next anyone knew, Fiore was dead and Jenkins was on the run.
Police say someone helped Jenkins rent the Hope, B.C., hotel room where he hanged himself, but James said it wasn't any of his usual circle of friends.
He said they all kept expecting to hear from Jenkins as he hid from police, but no message ever came.
"None of his friends spoke to him -- I think he must have not had his phone because in this day and age you keep your numbers in your phone," said James.
All that's left now is a funeral and wondering how his best friend ended up hiding in a small-town motel, deciding to take his own life.
"I had sleepless nights thinking where and why, but I don't know what happened to him -- he was probably desperate. It's just so sad," said Tyler.
