Missing Pilot Who "Faked Death" Is in Custody

[Goldeneye]

Police catch pilot, say he used plane crash to fake death
Investor faced business, personal troubles.

By Allen G. Breed, Jay Reeves
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, January 14, 2009

— With his personal and financial worlds crumbling around him, investment adviser Marcus Schrenker opted for a bailout.

In a feat reminiscent of a James Bond movie, it appears the 38-year-old businessman and amateur daredevil pilot tried to fake his death in a plane crash, parachuting to the ground and speeding away on a motorcycle he had stashed in the pine barrens of central Alabama.

Schrenker — who officials say was running not only from the law but from divorce, a state investigation of his businesses and investors who accuse him of stealing potentially millions in savings they entrusted to him — was arrested Tuesday night in Florida. It appears he slit one of his wrists, officials say.

U.S. Marshals spokesman Michael Richards said Schrenker was apprehended about 10 p.m. in a tent at a campground in the town of Quincy, which is northwest of Tallahassee. Richards said one of Schrenker's wrists was cut, but said he is alive and in custody.

On Sunday — two days after burying his beloved stepfather and suffering a half-million-dollar loss in federal court on the same day — Schrenker was flying his single-engine Piper Malibu to Florida from his home in Indiana when 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 his radio went silent.

Military jets trying to intercept the plane found the door open and the cockpit dark. The pilots followed the plane until it crashed in a Florida Panhandle bayou surrounded by houses. There was no sign of Schrenker's body.

More than 220 miles to the north, at a convenience store in Childersburg, Ala., police picked up a man using Schrenker's Indiana driver's license and carrying a pair of what appeared to be pilot's goggles. The man told the officers he'd been in a canoe accident.

After officers gave him a lift to a nearby motel, Schrenker reportedly made his way to a storage unit he'd rented the day before his flight. He climbed on a red motorcycle with full saddlebags, and drove off into the countryside.

"He jumped out an airplane and left it to crash who knows where. He's shown a total disregard for human life. I think he'd do anything to get away," Harpersville Police Chief David Latimer said Tuesday.

Through his Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management, Schrenker was responsible for providing advice and managing portfolios worth millions.

He collected luxury automobiles, lived in a 10,000-square-foot house and owned two airplanes.

In May 2000, he wowed onlookers by flying a special airplane at 270 mph, 10 feet above the water and under two bridges in Nassau, Bahamas.

"This stunt should not be attempted by any pilot that wishes to stay alive," the caption on a self-made video of the flight posted on YouTube read.

But authorities in Indiana have been investigating Schrenker's businesses on allegations that he sold annuities and charged exorbitant fees his clients weren't aware they would face.

State Insurance Commissioner Jim Atterholt said Schrenker would close the investors out of one annuity and move them to another while charging them especially high "surrender charges" — in one case costing a retired couple $135,000 of their original $900,000 investment.

"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 accuses Schrenker of pocketing at least $135,000 of his parents' retirement fund.

Schrenker's life recently began to spin out of control. On Dec. 31, officers searched his home, seizing the Schrenkers' passports, $6,036 in cash, the title to a Lexus and deposit slips for bank accounts in wife Michelle Schrenker's name, as well as six computers and nine large plastic tubs filled with various documents.

Just a day before, Michelle Schrenker had filed for divorce.

Marcus Schrenker's mother said she is just happy to know that he is alive.

"Sometimes we just all have too many problems," Marcia Galoozis said at her home outside Gary, Ind. "And I don't know what all his problems are, but sometimes we just don't think straight."

Hours after Schrenker vanished, neighbor Tom Britt received an e-mail he said he believes is from Schrenker.

Despite the fact that no blood was found, Schrenker suggests in the note that the crash was an accident and blamed oxygen deprivation.

"Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out," the e-mail reads.

Britt said that the e-mail had read like a suicide note.

"I embarrassed my family for the last time," Britt quoted Schrenker as saying. "By the time you read this I'll be gone."

[Goldeneye]

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Authorities arrested down-and-out Indiana businessman Marcus Schrenker, 38, at a Florida campground Tuesday night after they say Schrenker faked a plane crash by issuing a phony distress call, then parachuted to safety and fled on a motorcycle he stored before his flight.

Here is a timeline of events in the Schrenker plane mystery:

January 2008: The Indiana Department of Insurance files a complaint against Schrenker on behalf of seven investors claiming he cost them more than $250,000 because he never told them they would face high fees to switch annuities. Investors said he cozied up to their families — then betrayed them.

December 30, 2008: March Schrenker's wife Michelle files for divorce.

December 31, 2008: Schrenker's Indiana state financial adviser's license expires. Officers search Schrenker's home for computers, notes, photos and other documents related to his wealth management companies, looking for possible securities violations.

January 9, 2009: A federal judge in Maryland issues a $533,500 judgment against Schrenker's 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.

January 10, 2009: Schrenker stores a red Yamaha motorcycle in a unit in Harpersville, Ala., telling the owner he'd be back on Monday to pick it up.

January 11, 2009: Schrenker takes off in his single-engine Piper Malibu from Anderson, Ind., bound for Destin, Fla. He is flying near Huntsville, Ala., when he issues what apparently turns out to be a fake distress call. He reports severe turbulence, saying one of his windshields has imploded and he is bleeding profusely. Schrenker parachutes to safety and leaves the plane to fly on autopilot. It crashes more than 200 miles away in a swamp near a residential area in the Florida Panhandle. Military jets try to intercept the small plane, and see the door ajar and the cockpit dark. The wreckage, found scattered near Milton, Fla., shows no signs of blood or a blown-out windshield.

January 12, 2009: A man carrying Schrenker's license tells police in Childersburg, Ala. — about 225 miles from where the plane crashed — that he'd been in a canoe accident with friends. He is wet from the knees down. The officers, unaware of the plane crash, take him to a hotel in Harpersville, Ala. He is gone by the time they return. They learn he paid for his room in cash before putting on a black cap and running into the woods next to the hotel. Also that day, the Indiana Securities Division obtains a temporary restraining order freezing Marcus and Michelle Schrenker's personal assets and the assets of Schrenker's three companies. That night, Schrenker writes an e-mail to his friend and neighbor Tom Britt, characterizing the situation as a misunderstanding, apologizing to his family for the trouble he's caused and telling Britt that by the time he reads the note, Schrenker will be gone. Britt turns the e-mail over to authorities.

January 13, 2009: U.S. Marshals intensify their hunt for Schrenker. The manager of the storage unit where Schrenker stashed his bike comes forward and says the motorcycle is gone. An Indiana judge orders Schrenker's arrest, and financial fraud charges are against him. Later that night, authorities arrest Schrenker at a Florida campground, where he is holed up in a tent with a slit wrist and bleeding profusely.

[CaptainLewis]

This reminding me of that canoe man, who faked his death.