Schrenker Taken To Hospital Following Apparent Suicide
Attempt
ANN REALTIME REPORTING
01.14.09 0001 EST: They've got him. Authorities say they
have arrested Marcus Schrenker, 48 hours after the embattled
businessman allegedly jumped out of his Piper PA-46 Meridian in an
apparent effort to fake his own death.
WTHR-13 in Indianapolis, IN reports Schrenker was apprehended at
a KOA campground in Quincy, FL, about 20 miles north of
Tallahassee. Lt. Jim Porter with the Gadsden County Sheriff's
Office said Schrenker is alive, and in custody.
Porter told CNN the man was taken to Tallahassee Memorial
HealthCare with marks on his body consistent with a suicide
attempt.
The bizarre case of the missing pilot had gotten even more
interesting over the past 24 hours.
As ANN reported
Monday, the 38-year-old
pilot apparently bailed out of his plane Sunday night near
Birmingham, AL... after sending a false distress call to
controllers, saying he had been severely injured from a broken
windscreen. The plane was left to run out of fuel, eventually
crashing near Destin, FL.
Police in Childersburg, AL say Schrenker approached them that
night wearing damp clothes, claimed he'd been in a canoe accident.
With little apparent reason to doubt the man at his word, officers
gave Schrenker a ride to a motel in nearby Harpersburg.
By the time news surfaced of the Florida plane crash -- and that
Schrenker (below) was facing an Indiana state investigation of
three of his financial firms, the recent filing for divorce by his
wife, and a half-million-dollar penalty owed to an insurance firm
for allegedly collecting commissions to which he wasn't entitled --
he was long gone, disappearing into the woods.
CNN reported Tuesday a man claiming to be Schrenker's
friend heard from him at 7:18 pm Monday night. In a rambling
personal e-mail to Tom Britt, Schrenker claimed he did nothing
wrong -- but rather that he panicked in flight, blacked out, and
was disoriented when he landed.
Given that Schrenker had shown little reason to trust his word
so far, it's not at all surprising to learn authorities later
revealed they'd heard from the agent at a storage facility in
Harpersburg that Schrenker, under an assumed name, stashed a Yamaha
street bike with saddlebags in a unit at his facility ahead of the
stunt.
When police arrived at the storage unit Monday night, they found
the motorcycle gone, and a pile of damp clothes left behind.
"Why someone would jump out of a plane and leave it on autopilot
with his training and his background is beyond me," Britt told CNN.
"There's no reason for him to do it other than trying to stage
something."
Britt added the email also included a cryptic warning -- "By the
time you read this, I'll be gone."
ANN will update this story throughout Wednesday. Stay tuned.