UPDATE: Pilot on the run from Alabama authorities

January 13, 2009 06:03 am

— ANDERSON — A pilot who left Anderson Municipal Airport on Sunday apparently made a phony distress call, bailed out of his airplane, causing it to crash, and was on the run late Monday from Alabama officials.
Marcus J. Schrenker, 38, of Fishers, was last seen near Harpersville, Ala., around 2:30 a.m. Monday. Five hours earlier and more than 200 miles away, Schrenker’s six-seat, single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed into a marshy area of the Florida Panhandle with no one on board.
Schrenker was flying over Huntsville, Ala., when he made a distress call saying the windshield had “imploded” and that he had “severe bleeding.” Air traffic controllers in Atlanta advised the pilot to land at the Pell City Airport, but he did not respond.
“All indications now are that he made some type of false emergency call (and) abandoned the plane by parachute,” said Sgt. Scott Haines of the Santa Rosa County, Fla., Sheriff’s Office.
Schrenker told officers from the Childersburg, Ala., Police Department that he was in a canoeing accident and asked for a ride to a hotel. Unaware of the plane crash, officers agreed. When they returned to the hotel in search of Schrenker, he had disappeared. The officers learned he had paid for his room in cash before putting on a black cap and running into the woods next to the hotel.
“He stated that he was bleeding profusely; there was no blood located inside the cockpit of the plane,” Haines said. “And the windshield appeared to be intact, which was not consistent with his story.”
Anderson Municipal Airport records show the plane left around 6:15 p.m. Sunday. Interim Manager Ron Smith said Schrenker runs a wealth-management company based in Indianapolis and keeps the plane at the Anderson airport.
“He’s based here, he flies pretty regularly,” Smith said. “He went (to Florida) pretty regularly, that’s the kind of thing (the plane) was built for.”
Military aircraft from Whiting Field were called to assist Schrenker’s plane, and personnel saw it as it went down. Pilots used flares to illuminate the cabin and said the door to the plane was open and the cockpit was dark. A search for Schrenker began immediately, including helicopters, boats and dogs. The search was suspended because of high tide.
Bill and Debbie Timbie, whose house is less than 100 yards from where the plane crashed, were home Sunday night when they heard the jets flying overhead. Bill Timbie gave rescuers looking for the downed plane a ride through the swamp in his canoe.
“Now, after you think about it, it could have been real bad, it could have taken out two or three houses,” he said Monday.
In the weeks before the crash, Schrenker’s life was spiraling downward: He lost a half-million-dollar judgment against one of his companies when he skipped a court hearing. His wife filed for divorce, and investigators probing his businesses for possible securities violations searched his home and office.
The plane was registered to Indianapolis-based Heritage Aircraft LLC and was bound for Destin, Fla., where Schrenker owns a home. Schrenker is the president and CEO of Heritage Wealth Management in Indianapolis, which was facing investigation.
“Heritage Wealth Management Inc., Heritage Insurance Services Inc. and Icon Wealth Management are the subjects of an active investigation by the Indiana Securities Division,” said Jim Gavin, communications director for the office of Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita.
Gavin confirmed that a related search warrant was served on Dec. 31.
On Dec. 16, 2008, Indy Aero, which operates the Mount Comfort Airport, filed suit against Schrenker in Hancock Circuit Court for “slander of title, defamation, false informing, tortious interference with a business relationship;” the suit was re-docketed on Jan. 2.
Schrenker’s name is listed on a YouTube site featuring skydiving videos. On the site, Schrenker identified himself as 38 and an “Unlimited Aerobatic Pilot with 10,000 plus hours of experience.”
In December 2007, a Schrenker spoke in opposition to annexation of the Geist Reservoir area by the town of Fishers. A Marc Schrenker was also listed as a member of Holy Spirit Parish at Geist by The Catholic Movement Web site.
Paul Schrenker of Anderson, Schrenker’s cousin, said the two do not keep in touch and he knows little about him.
“He’s been living in Fishers for a little while,” said Paul Schrenker, the son of former Madison County judge Paul Schrenker. “I don’t really know much about him.”
Officers who searched Schrenker’s home Dec. 31 were looking for laptops, computers, notes, photos and other documents related to those companies. Court records show his wife, Michelle, filed for divorce a day before the searches.
Gavin said the Indiana Securities Division obtained a temporary restraining order Monday freezing the personal assets of Marcus Schrenker and Michelle Schrenker and the assets of the three companies.
On Friday, two days before the crash, a federal judge in Maryland issued a $533,500 judgment against Heritage Wealth Management Inc., and in favor of OM Financial Life Insurance Co. The OM lawsuit contended that Heritage Wealth Management should have returned more than $230,000 in commissions because there were problems with insurance or annuity plans Heritage had sold.
Smith described Schrenker as an “outstanding pilot.”
That description made Tom Britt, who edits a newsletter for the affluent Indianapolis suburb in which Schrenker lives, suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the crash when he heard about it from a local reporter. Britt knew about the securities investigation.
“I said, ’Do they have his body? Call the police and tell them to pull the teeth out of it, because if there’s a body in that plane, I guarantee that’s not Marc Schrenker,”’ Britt said.
Residents jokingly call the community where Schrenker lives, which overlooks a reservoir, “Cocktail Cove” because the boaters plying its waters often have a mixed drink in hand.
The serene setting belies what Britt described as a sometimes tense relationship between Schrenker and his neighbors. He said Schrenker has two sides — one very cordial and generous, the other threatening and litigious — and that many in the neighborhood had run-ins with him and “didn’t care too much for him.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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