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.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.atgeist.com/