By Calvin Palmer
The Indiana businessman who tried to fake his death in a plane crash was taken into custody last night by U.S. Marshals from Tallahassee, Florida.
Officers found 38-year-old Marcus Schrenker at a campground in Quincy, Florida, where he had apparently tried to take his own life.
U.S. Marshals spokesman Michael Richards said Schrenker was in a tent with a slashed wrist when they arrived.
“He had cut one of his wrists, but he is still alive,” Richards said.
The missing pilot was tracked down after investigators developed leads that he might be in Florida and forwarded to U.S. Marshals officers there, Richards said.
On Sunday, Schrenker took off from Anderson Indiana in a single-engine Piper Malibu en route to Destin, Florida. Over Alabama he radioed from 2,000 feet that he was in trouble. He told the tower the windshield had imploded, and that his face was plastered with blood.
Then the radio fell silent.
Military jets tried to intercept the plane and found the door open, the cockpit dark. The pilots followed until the aircraft crashed in a Florida Panhandle bayou surrounded by homes.
Schrenker had parachuted from the plane and turned up in Childersburg, Alabama. Police picked him up and he told them he had had a canoeing accident.
He spent the night at a hotel and then fled to a storage unit seven miles away where he had hidden a motorcycle and that was the last that was seen of him. Police began to believe that he was no longer in the United States.
But he was tracked down after investigators developed leads that he might be in Florida and the information was forwarded to U.S. Marshals officers there, Richards said.
Earlier yesterday, authorities in Indiana charged Schrenker with financial fraud. Prosecutors say he acted as a financial adviser and made business transactions after his state license expired on Dec. 31.
Schrenker had lived a high-flying life as an investment manager but it appeared to be spiraling downward. He lost a half-million-dollar judgment against one of his companies and his wife filed for divorce. His businesses — Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management — came under investigation for possible securities violations.
On Friday, two days before the crash, a federal judge in Maryland issued a $533,500 judgment against Heritage Wealth Management Inc., and in favor of OM Financial Life Insurance Co. The OM lawsuit contended Heritage Wealth Management should return more than $230,000 in commissions because of problems with insurance or annuity plans it sold.
Angry investors also accuse him of stealing potentially millions in savings they entrusted to him.
“We’ve learned over time that he’s a pathological liar — you don’t believe a single word that comes out of his mouth,” said Charles Kinney, a 49-year-old airline pilot from Atlanta who alleges Schrenker pocketed at least $135,000 of his parents’ retirement fund.
[Based on reports by Associated Press and newsday.com.]
6 Comments
January 14, 2009 at 3:09 am
Sounds like his plan fell through. If your gonna disappear, you don’t leave a trail.
January 14, 2009 at 7:30 am
LOOOOOOOSER!
January 14, 2009 at 9:22 am
Not a criminal mastermind, this guy….
January 14, 2009 at 11:26 am
This man should be given a life sentence alone for letting his plane go on autopilot, not knowing whether it would kill people if it crashed or do other harm…he simply did not give a shit what instrument of harm his plane would inflict on others, not caring where it would go down. What an incompetent and neglectful individual, yet he knows how to scam everybodies’ money out of them. Hell, they should execute him, but will probably end up writing books about this prick and his episode with keystone cops chasing him, that he will make more money on that alone, than any of his scams! Only in this ignorant country can this happen! Nobody serves the sentence that they get, which is in most all cases too light of a sentence!
January 14, 2009 at 11:59 am
Better yet, let the cowardly actor cut his arm off, instead of just scratching his wrists so that church-going US idiots will feel sorry for him, which they WILL DO, just as many of them feel sorry for the incompetent president that we have had for eight years now, however they all voted for him not once but TWICE to repeat the mistakes of his first four years. This Schrenker is an actor and yet another step above his other crappy schemes, thinking that cutting his wrists will make those that will ultimately sentence him feel sorry…this guy does not want to die, he is ONLY acting spilling a few drops of blood…believe me…he should cut his arm off and let taxpayers not have to pay for a courtroom trial if he is serious about correcting his scamming of others out of money. This is simply not the time to be scamming people out of money…if this guy wants to be a true martyr and kill himself…then let his finish the job on his own dime!
January 15, 2009 at 12:08 am
I’m having a hard time believing this “girlfriend” story. Where is she? Floriday. More specific, please. Who is she? Have the authorities questioned her at all about any knowledge she may have? Have they looked through HER house for clues? This supposed affair was going on since last summer, so you’d think this woman might be privy to a couple of things. And the wife files for divorce ONE WEEK before hubby takes off? Fishy to say the least. And I guess I won’t believe any of it until, or unless this woman comes forward or is identified.