Update: Missing Indiana pilot arrested in Florida
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Updated: 4:28 PM Jan 14, 2009
Update: Missing Indiana pilot arrested in Florida
Quincy, FL
Federal authorities say the pilot at the center of a plane crash mystery has been found alive in northern Florida after he apparently slit one of his wrists.
Posted: 12:39 AM Jan 14, 2009
Reporter: Joel Schipper
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Police say 38-year-old Marcus Schrenker is alive and in custody in Gadsden County, Florida after being taken into custody late Tuesday night.

He was arrested at a KOA campsite near Tallahassee. Authorities say he has superficial injuries to a wrist, consistent with a suicide attempt.

Police say on Sunday night Schrenker faked a distress call, parachuted out of his small plane over Alabama, and then let it crash in a Florida panhandle swamp.

Schrenker was a stunt pilot who took part in the Elkhart Air Show back in 1999.

Security video shows a man believed to be Schrenker checking into a hotel in Alabama on Sunday night not long after his plane crashed more than 200 miles away.

Investigators discovered he had stashed a motorcycle inside a nearby storage unit the day before the crash.

Schrenker's neighbor says the pilot sent him an email saying it was all an accident and he embarrassed his family for the last time.

Fearing it was a suicide note, the neighbor turned the message over to authorities.

Weeks before the plane crash, Schrenker lost a $500K judgment against one of his companies when he skipped a court hearing. His wife had filed for divorce and he was under investigation for securities violations.



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