Post by 76chevy on Jan 31, 2009 11:53:32 GMT -5
January 15, 2009
A Man With Everything, Including a Lot to Flee
By DIRK JOHNSON
McCORDSVILLE, Ind. — Marcus Schrenker favored Armani suits, drove a silver Lexus and flew his own Piper aircraft. With his wife, he hosted extravagant parties, complete with brilliant fireworks, at his home in this affluent Indianapolis suburb. As neighbors note, some a bit archly, he seemed to have it all.
But something about his flashy life did not add up.
“You know, he was always out in the yard,” said Jeffrey McDonald, a resort executive, who marveled at the leisure of someone so successful. “He didn’t really seem to have a job.”
For all the swagger of a man leading a charmed existence, life for Mr. Schrenker, a 38-year-old investment adviser, had lately taken a desperate turn. He faced crushing financial woes, legal troubles including charges of fraud, and a divorce proceeding initiated by his wife, Michelle.
In what the authorities describe as a bizarre and reckless effort to escape his troubles by faking his death, Mr. Schrenker, a daredevil pilot, parachuted out of his plane over Alabama on a flight from Indiana early Monday — leaving the aircraft to fly on autopilot 200 miles to the Florida Panhandle, where it crashed near a cluster of homes — and then fled on a motorcycle.
Some investigators speculate that he had hoped the plane would make it to the Gulf of Mexico, where an inability to find his body might not have raised suspicions, but that it simply ran out of fuel.
Law enforcement officials caught up with Mr. Schrenker late Tuesday inside a tent at a campground near Quincy, Fla. He had arrived there Monday night after fleeing into the Alabama woods from a motel in the town of Harpersville and picking up the motorcycle, which, the police say, he had previously stored in a nearby shed.
When the authorities found him, one of his wrists was bleeding from apparently self-inflicted cuts. He was airlifted to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
Mr. Schrenker, who the authorities say lied to air traffic controllers in Alabama when he radioed a distress call that his plane’s windshield had “imploded,” now faces a variety of new charges, including reckless endangerment for allowing an aircraft to fly off on its own.
In the midst of the manhunt, Mr. Schrenker had sent an e-mail message to a friend, Tom Britt, back in Indiana, asking him to straighten out the facts being reported nationwide about the case.
In the message, which Mr. Britt turned over to the authorities, Mr. Schrenker insisted that the windshield had really shattered, causing a loss of cabin pressure and a condition known as hypoxia, which “can cause people to make terrible decisions.”
The note also included this vow: “I have embarrassed my family for the last time.” Mr. Britt pointed to it as evidence that Mr. Schrenker now really did intend to kill himself.
Mr. Schrenker grew up near Chicago in Merrillville, Ind., where his father was once superintendent of schools. He attended Purdue University, where he was a cheerleader and met Michelle.
Mr. Schrenker, who had three investment consulting firms, lived with his wife and their three children in a sprawling stone-and-brick home on waterfront property here. The Indianapolis Yacht Club is close by.
The 10,000-square-foot home has a boat dock and a swimming pool. Neighbors say the Piper, one of two aircraft Mr. Schrenker owned, was worth more than $1 million. The home has been valued at $3 million.
The Schrenkers are an attractive couple, and some thought they seemed to have stepped out of the pages of a magazine.
“The first time I met the family,” said a woman who lives down the street, “I thought, ‘These are the most beautiful people I have ever seen.’ ”
But trouble had begun cascading on Mr. Schrenker, who is charged with financial fraud in Indiana and has been accused in a number of lawsuits of misleading investors. Last Friday a Maryland judge issued a $533,500 judgment against one of his companies, and investigators looking into possible securities violations searched the Schrenker home on Dec. 31, a day after Ms. Schrenker filed for divorce.
David Smith, a retired airline pilot, has filed a complaint against Mr. Schrenker with the insurance authorities in Indiana, claiming that he was duped into buying an annuity that netted huge fees for Mr. Schrenker but that imposed a 25-year wait before Mr. Smith could begin drawing income. “He’s not who he seems to be,” Mr. Smith has told reporters.
Among some neighbors, Mr. Schrenker was known as an affable man who plowed driveways for neighbors and made children feel welcome to play with his own children at the Schrenker home. But others say that they were warned not to invest with him.
“He has almost two personalities,” his friend Mr. Britt told The Indianapolis Star. “There was the one that I knew, which was the family man. There was another guy that I didn’t know, the one you heard the stories about. People would be fearful of having business dealings with him because of previous dealings or stories they’d heard.”
Mr. Schrenker had gone broke before: he filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and again in 2003. But by all appearances, he was certainly living the good life these days. At his home, neighbors say, he delighted in sharing expensive wine and showing off the “toys” in his garage, including the red motorcycle that the police say he put in storage in Alabama before taking his strange flight from Indiana.
The lavish home is a far cry from the Florida campsite where investigators found him late Tuesday. The authorities said he had paid $25.75 for a night. Before his capture, they said, he had gathered some firewood and bought a six-pack of Bud Light.
A Man With Everything, Including a Lot to Flee
By DIRK JOHNSON
McCORDSVILLE, Ind. — Marcus Schrenker favored Armani suits, drove a silver Lexus and flew his own Piper aircraft. With his wife, he hosted extravagant parties, complete with brilliant fireworks, at his home in this affluent Indianapolis suburb. As neighbors note, some a bit archly, he seemed to have it all.
But something about his flashy life did not add up.
“You know, he was always out in the yard,” said Jeffrey McDonald, a resort executive, who marveled at the leisure of someone so successful. “He didn’t really seem to have a job.”
For all the swagger of a man leading a charmed existence, life for Mr. Schrenker, a 38-year-old investment adviser, had lately taken a desperate turn. He faced crushing financial woes, legal troubles including charges of fraud, and a divorce proceeding initiated by his wife, Michelle.
In what the authorities describe as a bizarre and reckless effort to escape his troubles by faking his death, Mr. Schrenker, a daredevil pilot, parachuted out of his plane over Alabama on a flight from Indiana early Monday — leaving the aircraft to fly on autopilot 200 miles to the Florida Panhandle, where it crashed near a cluster of homes — and then fled on a motorcycle.
Some investigators speculate that he had hoped the plane would make it to the Gulf of Mexico, where an inability to find his body might not have raised suspicions, but that it simply ran out of fuel.
Law enforcement officials caught up with Mr. Schrenker late Tuesday inside a tent at a campground near Quincy, Fla. He had arrived there Monday night after fleeing into the Alabama woods from a motel in the town of Harpersville and picking up the motorcycle, which, the police say, he had previously stored in a nearby shed.
When the authorities found him, one of his wrists was bleeding from apparently self-inflicted cuts. He was airlifted to the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
Mr. Schrenker, who the authorities say lied to air traffic controllers in Alabama when he radioed a distress call that his plane’s windshield had “imploded,” now faces a variety of new charges, including reckless endangerment for allowing an aircraft to fly off on its own.
In the midst of the manhunt, Mr. Schrenker had sent an e-mail message to a friend, Tom Britt, back in Indiana, asking him to straighten out the facts being reported nationwide about the case.
In the message, which Mr. Britt turned over to the authorities, Mr. Schrenker insisted that the windshield had really shattered, causing a loss of cabin pressure and a condition known as hypoxia, which “can cause people to make terrible decisions.”
The note also included this vow: “I have embarrassed my family for the last time.” Mr. Britt pointed to it as evidence that Mr. Schrenker now really did intend to kill himself.
Mr. Schrenker grew up near Chicago in Merrillville, Ind., where his father was once superintendent of schools. He attended Purdue University, where he was a cheerleader and met Michelle.
Mr. Schrenker, who had three investment consulting firms, lived with his wife and their three children in a sprawling stone-and-brick home on waterfront property here. The Indianapolis Yacht Club is close by.
The 10,000-square-foot home has a boat dock and a swimming pool. Neighbors say the Piper, one of two aircraft Mr. Schrenker owned, was worth more than $1 million. The home has been valued at $3 million.
The Schrenkers are an attractive couple, and some thought they seemed to have stepped out of the pages of a magazine.
“The first time I met the family,” said a woman who lives down the street, “I thought, ‘These are the most beautiful people I have ever seen.’ ”
But trouble had begun cascading on Mr. Schrenker, who is charged with financial fraud in Indiana and has been accused in a number of lawsuits of misleading investors. Last Friday a Maryland judge issued a $533,500 judgment against one of his companies, and investigators looking into possible securities violations searched the Schrenker home on Dec. 31, a day after Ms. Schrenker filed for divorce.
David Smith, a retired airline pilot, has filed a complaint against Mr. Schrenker with the insurance authorities in Indiana, claiming that he was duped into buying an annuity that netted huge fees for Mr. Schrenker but that imposed a 25-year wait before Mr. Smith could begin drawing income. “He’s not who he seems to be,” Mr. Smith has told reporters.
Among some neighbors, Mr. Schrenker was known as an affable man who plowed driveways for neighbors and made children feel welcome to play with his own children at the Schrenker home. But others say that they were warned not to invest with him.
“He has almost two personalities,” his friend Mr. Britt told The Indianapolis Star. “There was the one that I knew, which was the family man. There was another guy that I didn’t know, the one you heard the stories about. People would be fearful of having business dealings with him because of previous dealings or stories they’d heard.”
Mr. Schrenker had gone broke before: he filed for bankruptcy in 1991, and again in 2003. But by all appearances, he was certainly living the good life these days. At his home, neighbors say, he delighted in sharing expensive wine and showing off the “toys” in his garage, including the red motorcycle that the police say he put in storage in Alabama before taking his strange flight from Indiana.
The lavish home is a far cry from the Florida campsite where investigators found him late Tuesday. The authorities said he had paid $25.75 for a night. Before his capture, they said, he had gathered some firewood and bought a six-pack of Bud Light.
