Piloted arrested

A US fraud suspect has been arrested after apparently trying to fake his own death in a plane crash. Marcus Schrenker, 38, was wanted in Indiana on suspicion of misleading consumers who invested money in his wealth management companies and misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars. Schrenker was the only person aboard the small plane that took off for Florida on Sunday from Anderson, Indiana. Investigators said that as the plane flew over over Alabama the pilot made a fake emergency call, then put the plane on autopilot and parachuted out. The empty plane crashed in a swampy area a few hundred meters from several homes near the city of Milton in northwest Florida. No one was injured. Schrenker parachuted safely to the ground near the Alabama city of Harpersville on Sunday night, got a police officer to give him a ride to a hotel and then went on the run, investigators said. He had stashed a motorcycle near the hotel and got away before local police learned of the plane crash, officers said. US marshals arrested Schrenker late on Tuesday at a campsite in the north Florida town of Quincy. Police could not confirm reports that Schrenker was hospitalized after cutting his wrists in an apparent suicide attempt.

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ITN | January 14, 2009

Tags:. .ride. .homes. .misappropriating. .swampy. .campsite