Hunt Launched For Wanted Man Who Crashed Plane To Fake Death, Escape Lawsuits

Indianapolis, IN (AHN) - Authorities are hunting an Indiana financial manager facing several lawsuits, including investment fraud and divorce, after he crashed a plane to fake his death but actually parachuted out of it and disappeared on a motorcycle in Alabama.

The nationwide hunt for Marcus Schrenker, 38, of Fishers started Tuesday, the same day a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Hamilton County court to try him for charges of illegally working as an investment adviser.

Schrenker, who is also an acrobatic pilot, also is facing suits for slander and business interference from an airplane operator in Hancock County, for unpaid fees from a home building contractor,for unpaid commissions from an insurance firm, and for divorce from his wife of 15 years, while the three companies he owns are facing lawsuits for misappropriating investors' money.

An Indiana judge ordered the freezing of Schrenker's assets on Monday, a day after his private plane crashed into a Florida swamp. Investigators learned the crash was faked after the pilot of a military aircraft dispatched to intercept Schrenker's plane in response to his distress call and flew beside it saw its cockpit empty and the door open. Later, no body was found inside the wreckage nor blood purportedly from the pilot who told air traffic controllers he was injured by the broken windshield of the cockpit.

At 2:30 a.m. Monday, a police officer in Childersburg, Alabama met Schrenker, who was using a different name and claimed he figured in a canoeing accident. The police brought him to a motel but when he returned to the place after learning the plane crash, Schrenker was gone.

Authorities learned Schrenker escaped on a red motorcycle he stashed in a storage unit in Harpersville, Alabama the day before the plane crash.