Ind. businessman found bleeding to death

CHATTAHOOCHEE, Fla. - An Indiana investment manager who allegedly staged a plane crash to evade personal and financial ruin was charged Wednesday with intentionally downing the plane and faking a distress call, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals said.

The charges came a day after investigators tracked Marcus Schrenker, 38, to a campground in north Florida. He had apparently tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists and muttered the word "die" when federal agents discovered him bleeding from a slashed wrist, investigators said.

Scott Wilson, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals in the Northern District of Florida, said it isn't immediately known when Schrenker will appear on the charges because he is recovering from his wounds in a hospital.

Schrenker’s disappearance perplexed authorities in three states as they scrambled to put together the pieces of what looked like an elaborate plan sketched out to escape financial doom. In the days before the crash, Schrenker’s home and business had been searched by authorities probing his financial management businesses, his wife filed for divorce, his stepfather died and a court in Maryland entered a half-million-dollar judgment against him.

Those troubles worsened Tuesday, when a judge in Indiana ordered Schrenker arrested on financial fraud charges after prosecutors said he had given financial advice to clients and made business deals even though his state license had expired on Dec. 31.

Among the accusations was that Schrenker sent text messages and e-mails about redeeming a client’s offshore accounts. The judge set bond at $4 million.

The mystery began Sunday night when Schrenker’s plane went down en route to Destin, Fla., from Anderson, Ind. Schrenker had reported that the windshield imploded and that he was bleeding profusely, officials said.

After he stopped responding to air traffic controllers, military jets tried to intercept the plane. They noticed the door was open and the cockpit was dark, following it until it crashed in a bayou surrounded by homes. Authorities said he apparently put the single-engine Piper Malibu on autopilot for more than 200 miles, bailed out over Alabama and left the plane to crash in Florida.

Investigators think Schrenker’s plan was to let the plane fly to the Gulf and crash in the water, slowing the investigation, Latimer said. But the plane ran out of fuel first.
Police in Childersburg, Ala., southeast of Birmingham, later said they picked up a man using Schrenker’s Indiana driver’s license and took him to a motel. The man was wet from the knees down and told the officers he’d been in a canoe
accident.

Yogi Patel, owner of the Harpersville Motel, said the man was given the key to room 114, and he didn’t act strangely at all. “He didn’t leave a mess. He didn’t leave anything. He didn’t even take a shower,” he said.

By the time police learned of the crash investigation and came back to the hotel, the man was gone. They learned he paid for his room in cash before putting on a black cap and running into the woods next to the hotel.