The Ghost Plane: The Marcus Schrenker Escape

Summary

---

Crime Salad — "The Ghost Plane: The Marcus Schrenker Escape"

Hosts: Ashley & Ricky
Release Date: June 19, 2026

---

Overview

This episode of Crime Salad dives into the shocking true story of Marcus Schrenker, a wealthy Indiana financier and amateur pilot who staged his own death in 2009 by faking an airplane distress call, bailing out over Alabama, and sparking a massive manhunt across the South. Ashley and Ricky meticulously unravel Schrenker’s double life as a con artist, the details of his escape plan, and the devastating fallout for his family and clients. The hosts balance detailed investigative reporting with character-driven storytelling and a bit of dark humor, keeping the focus on accountability and the human impact of white-collar crime.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The "Ghost Plane" Incident

[00:47–03:06]

• Initial Scene: January 11, 2009—a private jet over Alabama, piloted by Marcus Schrenker, issues a dramatic mayday call claiming a shattered windshield and fatal injuries.
  • Ashley: “He screams over the channel that his windshield has just completely shattered… He explicitly says that he's bleeding profusely from his face.”
• Technical Analysis:
  • Ricky raises questions about altitude and the plausibility of such a depressurization disaster at 2,000 feet.
  • Ashley clarifies the lack of violent decompression at that lower altitude.

2. The Life and Schemes of Marcus Schrenker

[03:33–09:47]

• Schrenker presented as a successful, self-made financial advisor in Indiana’s affluent “Cocktail Cove,” living in a $4 million mansion.
• Marriage to Michelle, three children; he ran three intertwined financial firms with her as CFO.
• He cultivated connections specifically with airline pilots, especially Delta retirees at risk of losing pensions.
  • Ashley: “Being a pilot himself gave him the inside track... managing the retirement accounts for dozens of active and retired Delta Air Lines pilots.”
• He used affinity fraud—targeting communities that trusted him (including family).
• Ran profitable “surrender charges schemes” and pitched a fake “foreign currency fund.”
  • Ricky: “He would convince them and close his investors out of one annuity and move them to another just purely to generate that commission.”
• Victims lost hundreds of thousands—elderly clients, close friends, and even his aunt.
  • Ashley: “He also scammed one of his closest friends of 10 years… money that Charles had explicitly set aside for his three young children's college fund.”

3. Collapse and Preparation for Escape

[13:07–14:25]

• In late December 2008, wife Michelle files for divorce due to Schrenker’s affair.
• Police and regulators raid the mansion, confiscating cash, documents, and evidence of fraud.
  • Ashley: “Nine massive plastic tubs filled with shredded financial documents. He was actively destroying evidence.”

4. The Elaborate Escape and Manhunt

[17:41–26:25]

• After the staged mayday, the FAA calls in F-15 fighter jets; pilots expect a tragedy, but instead:
  • Ashley: “There is no pilot at all. It's just on autopilot… the main cabin door is wide open and flapping in the wind.”
  • Ricky: “So that dude jumped.”
• Schrenker’s intention: crash the plane over the Gulf, faking his death and covering up his crimes.
• Instead, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed just 50–75 yards from a Florida neighborhood.
  • Ashley: “By some absolute miracle, this aircraft crashed just 50 to 75 yards away from a residential neighborhood... No one on the ground was injured, but the plane was completely destroyed.”
• Schrenker parachuted into Alabama night, reaching a self-storage unit where he’d stashed a motorcycle, cash, and disguise.
  • Ricky: “He thinks he’s the star of this mastermind show. Right.”

5. On the Run and Capture

[28:25–35:13]

• After landing, he lies to police about a “canoe accident,” but due to lack of warrants, they give him a ride to a motel.
  • Ricky: “They literally gave Marcus a ride. Like, you can’t make that up, right?”
• He escapes and retrieves his getaway motorcycle, then heads to a KOA campground in Florida.
• Schrenker is tracked using the IP address from an email sent over campground Wi-Fi to a friend.
  • Ashley: “You can’t go on the run from the US Marshals and then start sending emails from your personal account… That’s Fugitive 101.”
• [34:19]: Authorities find him in his tent after a failed suicide attempt and arrest him.

6. Legal and Personal Consequences

[35:14–39:19]

• In court, Schrenker tries to deflect blame, even claiming “a divine force gently put the aircraft down.”
  • Ashley: “He gave a rambling speech… he refused to take full accountability for the crash.”
  • Ricky: “A divine force?… He seems delusional.”
• Sentenced to:
  • 51 months federal prison for the airplane hoax and destruction.
  • 10 consecutive years (state) for securities fraud.
  • Over $20 million in civil claims filed by victims.
• Released on parole in 2015 into financial ruin.
• His wife Michelle, as company CFO, lost access to all assets and had to start over while caring for their children.
  • Ashley: “She was stripped of the life that she thought she had built, judged by her affluent neighbors, and left to financially and emotionally fend for her three young kids.”
• Victims only received pennies on the dollar from liquidation sales of the mansion and possessions.
  • Ashley: “Most of the victims only got back pennies on the dollar.”

---

Notable Quotes

• On the staged mayday call:
  • Ashley [00:47]: “He screams… that his windshield has just completely shattered… he’s bleeding profusely from his face… and then the radio cuts to dead static.”
• On affinity fraud:
  • Ashley [08:18]: “You infiltrate a specific community, learn their language, and use their inherent trust of each other against them.”
• From a victim:
  • Ricky [12:28]: “You haven't been bilked until you’ve been scammed by Marcus Schrenker.” — Bob Sellers
• Summing up the escape:
  • Ricky [25:32]: "He thinks that he's like living in a movie. He thinks he's the star of this mastermind show."
• On Schrenker’s hubris:
  • Ashley [33:36]: “But his ego is ultimately what gets him caught. Instead of laying low… he logs onto the campground's Wi-Fi network, and he sends an email…”
• On consequences for his wife:
  • Ashley [37:22]: “She was stripped of the life that she thought she had built, judged by her affluent neighbors, and left to financially and emotionally fend for her three young kids while Marcus was sitting in a Florida jail cell.”

---

Timeline — Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:47] — The staged “ghost plane” mayday call
• [03:33] — Schrenker’s background, wealth, and marriage
• [08:01] — Affinity fraud and targeting Delta pilots
• [09:47] — Details of the annuity/surrender charge schemes
• [13:07] — Financial collapse, marital crisis, evidence destruction
• [17:41] — Military response and discovery of abandoned plane
• [20:16] — Schrenker’s parachute escape and crash aftermath
• [25:32] — Motorcycle getaway, self-storage plan
• [28:25] — Landing in Harpersville, police assist fugitive
• [33:36] — Email trace, federal capture at Florida campground
• [35:14] — Trial, sentencing, and release
• [37:22] — Devastation for family and financial impact on victims
• [39:00] — Asset liquidation, victims receive minimal restitution

---

Memorable Moments

• The Eerie Ghost Plane:
  • Fighter pilots finding an empty cockpit, open door, but no signs of trauma—“just on autopilot.”
• Local Police Unwittingly Aiding a Fugitive:
  • Marcus is given a ride by officers straight after his escape.
• KOA Campground Capture:
  • Schrenker’s trail ends with a traceable email and a failed suicide attempt.
• Financial and Emotional Fallout:
  • The impact on Schrenker’s wife, children, elderly clients, and close friends—humanizing white-collar crime’s victims.

---

Tone & Style

The conversation is detailed but accessible, alternating between the gravity of the crime’s human impact and moments of incredulity or dark humor (e.g., quips about “Florida stories” or the absurdity of law enforcement giving the fugitive a ride). Ashley and Ricky emphasize truth, accountability, and the destruction fraudsters leave in their wake, never straying into sensationalism.

---

Final Thoughts

This episode exposes not just the headline-grabbing stunt of Marcus Schrenker’s faked death but also the deeper, more destructive ripple effects of his years-long fraud. The story is a cautionary tale in misplaced trust, systemic oversight failures, and the high price paid by victims—highlighted with thoughtful narration, well-timed levity, and respect for those most affected.

---

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Send Help is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

[Ashley]

We're somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand.

[Ricky]

Getting us out of here should be your focus. I'm your boss. You work for me.

[Ashley]

We're not in the office anymore.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

It's bold, relentless and endlessly rewatchable.

[Ricky]

Discover why critics give it 93% on rotten tomatoes.

[Ashley]

You're so fired. Oh, am I?

[Whitney]

No.

[Shopify Advertiser]

Help is coming.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Send help.

[Ricky]

Rated R. Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

[Ashley]

It's the evening of Sunday, January 11, 2009, and the pitch black sky over Alabama is eerily quiet. High above the clouds, a private six passenger jet is cruising steadily. But suddenly the silence is shattered by a frantic, terrifying distress call to the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center. The pilot, a 38 year old man named Marcus Schrenker, he radios in absolute panic. He screams over the channel that his windshield has just completely shattered. He tells the controllers that his cockpit is rapidly depressurizing. And he explicitly says that he's bleeding profusely from his face. A man desperate in his final moments, losing consciousness right in the sky. And then the radio cuts to dead static.

[Ricky]

Honestly, what a terrifying thing to hear. But I'm curious about the altitude of the plane. I mean, are we talking 30,000ft or like a thousand feet? Because if a windshield implodes at a high altitude, I mean, that pressure change alone, I mean, it could knock you out. Not to mention the physical trauma of being hit by the glass at hundreds of miles per hour. So I'm kind of thinking he wasn't at an extreme altitude. But either way, I mean, it's terrifying nonetheless.

[Ashley]

Right, so he was at approximately at an altitude of 2,000ft. And from what I could find the cabin, it wouldn't have been heavily pressurized. So it's not like he would have been violently sucked out of the plane compared to if he were as high up as 30,000ft into the air.

[Ricky]

I mean, it makes sense because he was able to reach out to air traffic control.

[Ashley]

Yeah, and he probably wouldn't have been able to even act if he were at 30,000ft in the air. So the air traffic controllers, they desperately tried to connect with him again. N428DC, do you copy? Nothing. Just silence. The pilot is now unresponsive on an uncontrollable aircraft.

[Ricky]

By going silent, the controllers believed that he had lost consciousness and was bleeding to death at the controls.

[Ashley]

But what they didn't know yet is that that this horrific aviation tragedy is actually the beginning of one of the most bizarre and elaborate criminal manhunts in American history. Let's toss the salad on this one. I'm Ashley.

[Ricky]

I'm Ricky.

[Ashley]

And this is crime salad.

[Ricky]

So if you met 38 year old Marcus Schrenker from the outside, you would think he was someone who had it all completely figured.

[Ashley]

He was married to a woman named Michelle, and together they lived just outside of Indianapolis in an extremely affluent, exclusive neighborhood situated on Geist reservoir. The locals actually nicknamed their specific waterfront area Cocktail Cove.

[Ricky]

That's a pretty nice name. That sounds like somewhere I want to be.

[Ashley]

Yeah, sounds like the party spot. This was the spot where all the wealthy boaters, athletes, socialites, they would dock their boats and they would throw massive weekend parties on the water.

[Ricky]

It doesn't sound like the place for us, but Geist is a very well known, highly thought after area in Indiana. We're talking serious money here, the cream of the crop.

[Ashley]

And Marcus didn't just want to buy a house on the market. He specifically sought out a vacant waterfront lot right in the heart of Cocktail cove so that he could custom build his dream home from the ground up.

[Ricky]

Right. He wanted a physical monument to his wealth. So they custom built this massive 10,000 square foot French chateau style waterfront mansion that was valued at well over $4 million. They had multiple private boat docks, A gorgeous swimming pool overlooking the reservoir, and a driveway constantly filled with luxury cars. Over the years, Marcus owned multiple Porsches, a Lexus, and even owned two airplanes. One including the airplane that crashed the the Piper Malibu Meridian. And just to put it into perspective, a Piper Meridian around the year of 2009 retailed for anywhere between 1.3 million and 1.5 million brand new. Marcus's specific plane was a 2002 model that he financed A few years later. Even used, it was still worth well over $800,000.

[Ashley]

Now you may be curious as to how they got to this point. The married couple met in college. They were college sweethearts and they met back when they were students at Purdue University.

[Ricky]

Yeah, Marcus went to Purdue specifically to study finance. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and started working on getting his state insurance and investment advising licenses right away. And Michelle was right there with him, studying business.

[Ashley]

Exactly. And when they got out of college, they didn't just settle into quiet corporate nine to fives. Marcus started out doing standard financial consulting, but he quickly realized that he hated working for someone else. He wanted to be the boss.

[Ricky]

And Michelle didn't just sit on the sidelines either. When Marcus launched his own independent firms, she actively worked alongside him and even eventually became the Chief Financial officer. The CFO handling the books and their

[Ashley]

neighbors would describe them as the ultimate golden couple. Michelle was known as this beautiful, dedicated mother to their three young children. She stayed out of the neighborhood drama and completely supported Marcus as he built his financial empire from the ground up.

[Ricky]

He actually ran three of his own independent firms, all headquartered out of the same corporate address. He was the owner and operator of Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services, and Icon Wealth Management.

[Ashley]

So as he continued to build his American dream, while doing all of that, he pursued his private pilot's license. Now, earning a private license requires hundreds of hours of legitimate flight training, passing written FAA exams, and passing check rides with an instructor. So while it was a hobby, he was fully trained, licensed and legally cleared to fly.

[Ricky]

He viewed flying as a high adrenaline hobby and a status symbol. He often filmed his own high speed aerial stunts and posted them on YouTube to show off to his friends and clients. He had a reputation around Cocktail Cove as a bit of an aviation hotshot.

[Ashley]

And as for his clients, he was incredibly strategic about who he threw his net out to. Being a pilot himself gave him the inside track and it opened a lot of doors to network. He carved out a very specific high end niche for himself, managing the retirement accounts for dozens of active and retired Delta Air Lines pilots.

[Ricky]

So looking into this, we found that in 2006, Delta Air Lines was going through bankruptcy and they tried to terminate their pilot pension plans. Now, Marcus saw this as an opportunity and swooped in and he presented himself as this financial savior to them, which

[Ashley]

is textbook affinity fraud. You infiltrate a specific community, learn their language, and use their inherent trust of each other against them. According to court depositions, he convinced a group of panicked retired pilots to let him help them fight Delta. And he actually formed a group with them and was supposed to testify on their behalf in federal court. But in true con man fashion, he bailed and was a no show two days before the hearing.

[Ricky]

But it didn't really matter because by then he already had their money. One retired pilot named David Smith later went on record and said he had a way about him. You kind of trusted the guy. He talked a good talk. So we entrusted him with a task that he never produced. He was running financial seminars for these pilots, taking them out to dinner and treating them like they were family.

[Ashley]

So he is a thrill seeker with deep pockets, like living a luxury life. But the reality of how he was funding all of this was incredibly dark. Marcus wasn't a financial genius. He was A con artist. According to Indiana State Insurance Commissioner Jim Adderholt, Marcus was utilizing a surrender charges scheme. And to make matters worse, investigators later discovered that Marcus's state financial advisor's license had actually expired. He was completely unlicensed, operating rogue and running a shell game with his clients futures.

[Ricky]

So let's break down how he actually did it. He was heavily dealing in something called annuities. In basic terms, an annuity is a long term retirement contract. You hand an insurance company a large lump sum of cash and in exchange, they guarantee to grow it and pay you a steady income when you retire.

[Ashley]

Exactly. And because these are designed for retirement, it is meant to be a long term commitment. The insurance company expects to hold your money for say, like seven to 10 years. And if you try to break that contract, you pull your cash out early, they slap you with a massive financial penalty called a surrender charge.

[Ricky]

And these fees are no joke. If you put $100,000 into an annuity and tried to move it the very next year, you could get hit with an $8,000 penalty fee. You just surrender that money instantly. Which brings us to Marcus's brilliant, evil little scheme. As the middleman, Marcus would look at his clients accounts and say, hey, this annuity that you have isn't performing well. Let's drop it and buy this brand new one.

[Ashley]

But he was conveniently leaving out the fact that moving the money triggered those massive surrender charges for the client. And the client loses thousands of dollars in penalties. But Marcus, he didn't really care because the new insurance company was cutting him a massive lucrative commission check just for bringing them a new client.

[Ricky]

He would convince them and close his investors out of one annuity and move them to another just purely to generate that commission. So that was his main way of bringing in money. But then he ups the ante and he created a completely fake investment opportunity called a foreign currency fund. It sounds fancy. Sounds good. Basically, he would take the client's life savings and put it into a completely fabricated fund. But here's the thing, that fund doesn't exist.

[Ashley]

It makes you sick. Especially knowing who he was targeting. One client was his own aunt. To think that he swindled people he personally knew. Not to mention people who worked their entire lives to build their pensions. I mean, there was a 49 year old airplane pilot from Atlanta named Charles Kinney, and he saw his elderly parents lose $135,000 of their $900,000 retirement fund purely to Marcus's fake fees. Kinney even told the press, we've learned over time that he's a pathological liar. You don't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth.

[Ricky]

Another investor named Bob Sellers handed over nearly half a million dollars. Sellers later went on record with a quote that perfect up the devastation. You haven't been bilked until you've been scammed by Marcus Schrenker.

[Ashley]

And the most heartless one of them all for me is his aunt Rita. She transferred more than $200,000 to one of Marcus's investment companies in August of 2008. And he also scammed one of his closest friends of 10 years, a man named Charles, out of $15,000, money that Charles had explicitly set aside for his three young children's college fund, which is

[Ricky]

just a heartless thing to do. He managed to keep this illusion alive for nearly a decade. But finally, the walls started closing in. On December 30, 2008, his wife, Michelle officially filed for divorce after discovering he had a mistress. The very next day, New Year's Eve, Indiana state police and financial regulators executed a massive raid on his waterfront mansion.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

Investigators walked out with schrenker's passports, over $6,000 in hidden cash, the title to Alexis, six computers, and nine massive plastic tubs filled with shredded financial documents. He was actively destroying evidence.

[Ricky]

So by the time he gets into that plane a few days later in January, he's facing millions of dollars in restitution, total public humiliation, and the absolute certainty of a long federal prison sent. When the initial news broke that his plane had crashed in Florida, the people in Cocktail Cove were in shock. They thought a brilliant entrepreneur had just died in a horrific accident. But as federal investigators would soon find out, the only thing Marcus was a victim of was his own greed.

[Ashley]

Summer's approaching, and it always makes me rethink, what am I going to wear every day? I crave lighter fabrics, better materials, pieces that just feel good the moment you put them on and look effortless. That's why I keep going back to quints. I am in love with the few springy items I picked out. My new favorite is a jersey fit flare dress. It's incredibly comfortable. It's so flattering. But what I love even more is they have clothes for our entire family. I got the cutest shirt for my son who wears a 5T. It's a button up vertical striped shirt. It looks so nice. It's so cute. And it was only $24, 90 cent. It would have cost like $40 at traditional retail. It's so nice to find amazing pieces for myself and our family. Quince has beautiful everyday pieces like 100% European linen pants, dresses and tops with styles starting at $32 and their denim is soft and easy to wear and their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights. Everything at quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands and they do this because Quince works directly with ethical factories and out the middleman. And it's not just clothing. Quinn's has already become a destination for elevated essentials across home kitchen, bedding and beyond. Like I said, your whole family can get some new clothes, making it easy to bring a more premium feel into everyday life. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quint.com Crimesalad for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U I N C E.com Crimesal for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Crimesalad starting or growing your own

[Shopify Advertiser]

business can be intimidating and lonely at times. Your to do list may feel endless with new tasks and lists can easily begin to overrun your life. So finding the right tool that not only helps you out, but simplifies everything as a built in business partner can be a game changer for millions of businesses. That tool is Shopify. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Gymshark, Rare Beauty and Heinz to brands just getting started. Shopify has hundreds of ready to use templates that can help you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand's style. And you can tackle all the important tasks in one place from inventory to payments to analytics and more. No need to save multiple websites or try to figure out what platform is hosting the tool that you need to and if people haven't heard about your brand, you can get the word out. Like you have a marketing team behind you with easy to run email and social media campaigns to reach customers wherever they're scrolling or strolling. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com realm. Go to shopify.com realm that's shopify.com realm.

[Ashley]

So the second the air traffic controllers in Atlanta hear that distress call, the screaming, the shattered windshield, the blood and then nothing but dead radio static, they initiate a massive emergency response because right now they have a plane flying blind at cruising altitude and and they have to assume the pilot is unconscious or deceased at the controls.

[Ricky]

Right. Because we have an uncontrolled aircraft flying over populated areas. I mean, that is a massive threat that is so dangerous, and they can't just wait and see where it drops. They have to figure this out and they have to get eyes on it immediately.

[Ashley]

Exactly. So the FFA immediately contacts the military, and two F15 fighter jets from the 159th Fighter Wing of the Louisiana Air National Guard are deployed. These are highly trained pilots, Major Matt Rippen and Captain Josh Fogel, who are on 24 hour alert for homeland defense out of Belle Chase, Louisiana. They burn through the night sky to intercept Marcus's Piper Malibu Meridian.

[Ricky]

And what an eerie mission that would be for those military pilots. They're pulling up alongside a civilian plane in pitch black, fully expecting to see a gruesome, tragic scene inside the cockpit.

[Ashley]

Yeah, so they're expecting this really gruesome sight. And the F15s locate the plane, which is still flying completely level at a high altitude, cruising right toward the Gulf of Mexico. The fighter jets pull up close, and the military pilot looks over into the civilian plane, and he's preparing for the absolute worst at this point. But when he looks inside the cockpit, it's dark.

[Ricky]

So what do you mean dark? I mean, it's dark outside, but are we talking, like, the instruments are dark? Like the plane is off?

[Ashley]

The cockpit is completely unlit. So the military pilot, he shines his light directly into the cabin to get a better look at Marcus. But there's no shattered glass from an imploded windshield. There's absolutely no blood sprayed across the dashboard. In fact, there is no pilot at

[Ricky]

all who's flying the plane.

[Ashley]

It's just on autopilot. So it's completely empty. He radios back to the command and reports this bizarre reality of what he is seeing. The windshield is perfectly intact, but the main cabin door is wide open and is flapping in the wind.

[Ricky]

So that dude jumped.

[Ashley]

He had to have. Marcus didn't pass out. He didn't crash. He opened the door of his own plane, strapped on a parachute, and he jumped out into the freezing Alabama night.

[Ricky]

That is crazy. So the entire mayday call, the screaming, yelling, bleeding profusely, it was all just a theatrical performance for the air traffic control.

[Ashley]

100% an act. He put the plane on autopilot, pointed it toward the Gulf of Mexico, and he bailed out. He fully intended for the plane to fly out over the open ocean and vanish into the deep water, taking his body and the evidence with It.

[Ricky]

So he's faking his own death here. So where did the plane land? Did it land in water?

[Ashley]

You would think, but it actually didn't. Marcus. He must have miscalculated the fuel load. The F15 pilots, they shadowed the empty ghost ship over 200 miles as it drifted toward Florida, waiting for it to finally run out of gas.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

And.

[Ashley]

And it missed the Gulf of Mexico and instead plummeted out of the sky, crashing into a wooded, swampy bayou in Milton, Florida, which is a town in the Panhandle.

[Ricky]

I'm kind of putting myself into his shoes here, but I'm guessing he thought if he jumped out of the plane, you know, it would crash, the windshield would get broken anyways. Like, all of these things, the fact that they actually flew, found the plane, and it's still flying, that's something you could never expect. Like, there's no way he expected that to happen.

[Ashley]

Definitely did not. Yeah, he was expecting this to crash into the ocean and they would never find it. And they're just like, well, he must be in the ocean somewhere. It's it, like. And something ate him.

[Ricky]

It's insane to me. Okay, so the unpiloted plane, it drops out of the sky. I mean, that's incredibly dangerous. But did it hit anything? Like, where did it land?

[Ashley]

By some absolute miracle, this aircraft crashed just 50 to 75 yards away from a residential neighborhood. And if it had drifted just a few more seconds, it would have wiped out multiple families, homes. No one on the ground was injured, but the plane was completely destroyed.

[Ricky]

So now the authorities have an empty crash plane in Florida, an open cabin door, and a pilot who just literally dropped out of the sky somewhere over Alabama. And honestly, the financial fallout for the crash itself, I mean, that has to be massive. And of all places, I mean, a plane just crashed in Florida. Like, that's such a Florida thing to happen.

[Shopify Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

Like, very bizarre. And could you imagine, like, who was in the plane? Nobody was in the plane. Like, was anyone hurt?

[Ricky]

Right.

[Ashley]

There wasn't anyone in the plane.

[Ricky]

I think the only thing that could make it more of a Florida story is if an alligator was flying the plane.

[Rebel Girls Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

Or if an alligator was there and they're like, well, I don't know, maybe the alligator ate them.

[Ricky]

Or the airplane actually fell out of sky and hit an alligator.

[Ashley]

That would have been. Yeah, that would have just put the icing right on the cake. Now, the Piper Malibu that he destroyed, it wasn't even fully his yet because he actually financed it by the Harley Davidson Credit Corporation.

[Ricky]

They do airplanes?

[Ashley]

Supposedly they do. And he was eventually ordered to pay them over $871,000 in restitution for the destroyed aircraft, plus another $34,000 directly to the US Coast Guard to cover the cost of the massive search and rescue operation that he faked.

[Ricky]

The ironic thing here is that if he did pay them back the 871,000 or the 34,000, it would be coming from all of the people he conned. Like, that's not his money. That's conned money.

[Ashley]

It gets worse, trust me.

[Ricky]

So the military, the Coast Guard, and local police realized that they aren't dealing with a rescue mission anymore. I think that's pretty obvious here. They realize the golden boy of Cocktail Cove, he just staged one of the most reckless, elaborate, fake deaths in modern history.

[Ashley]

He did. It instantly shifts from an aviation tragedy into a federal fugitive manhunt. And when you look at the timeline, you realize that this wasn't like the sudden heat of the moment. Panic attack, runaway. This escape was meticulously, coldly premeditated, but

[Ricky]

it wasn't done to perfection. Like, there was a lot of things that could have went better. Like, one, he could have jumped out of the airplane and watched his airplane crash. Right. He had no idea where that plane was. And go figure, it was still flying.

[Joey Taranto]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

He didn't think about how much fuel he was, you know, supposed to put in it must have topped it off. So just days before he took off from the airport in Indiana, he was quietly laying the groundwork to disappear. He had secured a fake identification card. He had packed heavy wads of cash that he had siphoned from his clients, and even traveled down to Harpersville, Alabama, under a fake name, rented a local self storage unit and stashed a bright red Yamaha racing motorcycle, a laptop, dry clothes all inside waiting for him.

[Ricky]

Right. I think this is like a movie script moment, though. I mean, he had all of these things in a storage unit. Like, he jumps out of the plane, he travels down the road, he finds this storage unit that he has all this stuff in. Like, I don't know, this dude. He thinks that he's like living in a movie. He thinks he's the star of this mastermind show. Right.

[Ashley]

He drops out of the sky right where he was supposed to to get to that storage unit.

[Ricky]

Yeah, well, he dropped where he should have. But the airplane definitely didn't.

[Ashley]

No, he didn't. He said, I don't know where it's going, but it's not my problem anymore. Yeah, it is your problem.

[Ricky]

One thing I wonder though, is okay, so he's, he's faking his own death, but what's he going to do? Is he just going to hide out? I guess he has money and all. But like, wouldn't you go to like a foreign country? You have an airplane. You could have went to like Costa Rica or somewhere, right?

[Ashley]

Right.

[Mike Carruthers]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

He could have just fled.

[Ricky]

Like he's in Alabama. Yeah.

[Ashley]

What are you going to do there?

[Rebel Girls Advertiser]

Hi, listeners. We want to tell you about a podcast we love. It's called Rebel Girls, formerly known as Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. It's about real life women who are changing the world with their courage, creativity, and big bold ideas. Want to know how Taylor Swift became a superstar? Or hear how Simone Biles became the greatest athlete of all time? From immersive stories to heartfelt interviews to super smart advice, Rebel Girls brings you stories that will get you fired up to become your best self. There are over 400 episodes for you to explore with new episodes every week. So check it out. Listen to Rebel Girls wherever you get your podcasts and find us on YouTube.com rebelgirls and whatever you do, stay rebel.

[Ellen Marsh]

Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood.

[Joey Taranto]

Could we get something a little bit lighter? Some lighter music here?

[Ellen Marsh]

Are you a fan of true crime TV shows?

[Joey Taranto]

And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jump started all of our love of true crime?

[Ellen Marsh]

I'm Ellen Marsh.

[Joey Taranto]

And I'm Joey Taranto.

[Ellen Marsh]

And we host I Think Not, a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows all the way to Unsolved Mysteries.

[Joey Taranto]

Baby, you will laugh, you will cry. You'll think about true crime in a whole new way. And you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics?

[Ellen Marsh]

New episodes of I Think not are released every Wednesday, with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon.

[Joey Taranto]

And every Monday you can listen to our True Crime rundown where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week.

[Ellen Marsh]

So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Ashley]

So let's talk about the actual jump Marcus. He puts puts his Piper Malibu on autopilot. He opens the cabin door. He bails out into the pitch black sky. At around 2,000ft, he parachutes down into the freezing swampy woods near a small town called Harpersville, Alabama. It's January, so the ground is frozen and it's wet. And he lands in the muck, getting completely soaked in the process.

[Ricky]

And let's think about this. He jumped out of a plane, in the dark, like, over a swamp. This is extremely dangerous and honestly, not something that even experienced skydivers would do. I mean, he could have easily. I mean, broken a leg, landed in deep water, hung in a tree, and froze to death. Any of those things.

[Ashley]

Exactly. And it shows how desperate he was to escape. And he manages to even cut himself out of his parachute. He hikes his way out of the woods and he makes it to a local highway. And he eventually walks up to a brightly lit convenience store in Harpersville, dripping wet from the knees down, covered in mud, and wearing aviation goggles.

[Ricky]

Aviation goggles? Isn't that a dead giveaway? Like, take that shit off. How do you even begin to explain to the clerk or the police that you're wearing aviation goggles and you're all muddy and it's in the middle of the night?

[Ashley]

Well, he did have an explanation. So he came up with a lie that was incredibly bizarre, but it actually worked. He told the locals and the responding Harpersville police officers that he had been in a horrific canoe accident. He claimed that he was out canoeing with friends. They all hit something in the dark, the canoe flipped and he had to swim to shore. He said that the goggles were to protect his eyes from branches.

[Ricky]

Okay, so, I mean, that kind of explains the aviation goggles. Still weird. But I think where he messed up here is he said that he was canoeing with friends because if there's an accident now they gotta go find friends. Yeah.

[Whitney]

Where are they? Where are they?

[Ashley]

Okay, right.

[Ricky]

They're gonna quickly find out that this isn't a real story. So when the police did talk to him, though, did they try to ID him? Like, what would he even give them?

[Ashley]

Yeah, they did. They actually ran his real Indiana driver's license. But because the state regulators in Indiana had literally just raided his house, there were no active federal warrants in the national database, yet his records came back completely clean. So the police officers, they decide to be helpful. They give the international fugitive a courtesy shuttle ride to a local motel in town so that he can get cleaned up, get some rest, and dry off.

[Ricky]

Talk about hidden in plain sight. I mean, he literally gave Marcus a ride. Like, you can't make that up, right?

[Ashley]

But Marcus, he doesn't stay in that motel room very long. He pays the room in cash. And the second the police leave, he puts on the black cap and he runs right back into the woods. He heads straight to a local self storage facility.

[Ricky]

This is like some catch me if you can type shit. Like with Leonardo. I mean, he puts on the cap and he just kind of disappears to the storage unit where he had everything, you know, stored for his getaway. It was a getaway kit.

[Ashley]

Yeah, Just waiting for him there. And he rolls up the metal door of the unit that he rented just days prior under a fake name. He changes into his dry clothes, straps on a black motorcycle helmet, hops on the bright red Yamaha, and he speeds off into the night, heading south toward the Florida Panhandle. His plan worked. He's basically a ghost.

[Ricky]

But the problem is he hasn't fully vanished yet because the plane eventually crashes and the military confirms he isn't inside it.

[Whitney]

Right.

[Ashley]

And by the time the sun comes up the next morning, the Harpersville police, they see the national news reports about a missing Indiana financer whose plane crashed in Florida. Can you imagine that? Like, them sitting there, like, drinking their coffee, like, spits it out, like, are you serious? That was Guy we just took to the motel. He had aviation goggles on.

[Joey Taranto]

Oh, shit.

[Ricky]

We can't tell anybody we gave her that dude a ride.

[Whitney]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

So they realize that canoe guy they gave a ride to is Marcus Schrenker. The U.S. marshals are now called in, and a massive federal manhunt is launched. And Marcus's mugshot is plastered across every television screen in the country. The walls are closing in for a second time. So Marcus thinks he's out free. He's, like, riding on his motorcycle down through the Deep South. And he eventually pulls into a KOA campground in Quincy, Florida. He pays for cash for a tent site. He buys some firewood, six pack of beer, and he uses a fake name.

[Ricky]

I mean, he probably feels like he got away with it at this point. I mean, he literally dropped out of the sky and walked away.

[Rebel Girls Advertiser]

He did.

[Ashley]

But his ego is ultimately what gets him caught. Instead of laying low and staying completely off the grid, he's going off the

[Ricky]

high dive at the KOA Yeah, Marcus,

[Ashley]

he logs onto the campground's WI FI network, and he sends an email to a friend who lives back in Indiana named Tom Brittle. And in the email, he claims the crash was a misunderstanding. He blames the lack of oxygen for making him bail out. And he says that he fled because he was embarrassed. He ended the email by saying, by the time you get this, I'll be gone.

[Ricky]

I mean, you can't go on the run from the US Marshals and then start sending emails from your personal account. I mean, that's Fugitive 101 there.

[Shopify Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Ashley]

And his friend immediately hands the email over to the police and and the U.S. marshals track the IP address right back to that specific KOA campground in Florida. By the afternoon of Tuesday, January 13th, just two days after he jumped out of the plane. The campground owners contact the local sheriff because they noticed something deeply concerning. There is a large, dark red stain soaking through the flap of Marcus's tent. Authorities swarmed the campground and they opened the tent, and they find the golden boy of Cocktail Cove barely conscious. He had made a half hearted attempt to slash his wrists and elbow, but paramedics were quickly able to control the bleeding. The grand escape, the stage plane crash, the secret motorcycle, all of it lasted less than three days. He was handcuffed to a hospital bed.

[Mike Carruthers]

Wow.

[Ricky]

What a way to end. So all these people that he conned, did he actually face the consequences for everything that he did to those clients?

[Ashley]

Well, in the courtroom, it was intense. So during his federal sentencing, Marcus, he sobbed uncontrollably. He gave a rambling speech to the judge where he refused to take full accountability for the crash. He literally claimed that a divine force gently put the aircraft down in the swamp.

[Ricky]

A divine force? I mean, he put that plane on autopilot and he jumped out. He seems delusional.

[Ashley]

And the judge didn't buy it either. He didn't just get one sentence. He got hit twice in federal court. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison and fined nearly a million dollars just for intentionally destroying the plane and staging the fake distress call. Then the state of Indiana hit him with 10 consecutive years in prison for the massive securities fraud scheme.

[Ricky]

Okay, so he spent some time behind bars. Where's he now?

[Ashley]

So Marcus served his time, and he was officially released on parole by the Florida Department of Corrections in September of 2015. And he is currently a free man. But he walked out of prison into absolute financial ruin with over $20 million in civil claims filed against him. And there was another major victim in all of this who was just left completely out to dry, and that was his wife, Michelle. She was living a nightmare. I mean, imagine finding your husband. For over a decade, he had a mistress and you're filing divorce. And the very next morning, state police officers are kicking in your door and seizing your computers. And because she was listed as the CFO of his company, an Indiana judge officially sided with state regulators and completely froze Michelle's financial assets, placing everything into a court appointed receivership.

[Ricky]

Wow. So she loses her husband, discovers his secret life, and then instantly loses access to all of her money.

[Ashley]

Yeah, and the children do too. And Michelle told reporters Outside of the courthouse, quote, I have done nothing wrong. The only thing my husband did was give me a glorified title in that company. But she was completely cut off from her finances. While the national media camped on her lawn, broadcasting her husband's manhunt, she was stripped of the life that she thought she had built, judged by her affluent neighbors, and left to financially and emotionally fend for her three young kids while Marcus was sitting in a Florida jail cell.

[Ricky]

And you also have the elderly clients, pilots, his Aunt Rita, and his friends who trusted him with their life savings, who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. And we'll never fully get that back.

[Ashley]

Exactly. Marcus Schrenker wanted to fly away and disappear, but the only thing he really destroyed was the lives of everyone who trusted him.

[Ricky]

Okay, so I have to ask, with over $20 million in civil claims filed against him, did the victims ever get any of that back?

[Ashley]

Well, they did, but nowhere near what they actually lost. Because the house, it was essentially a monument built with stolen money. An Indiana judge seized it almost immediately. Eight months after the crash, a court appointed receiver sold the Cocktail Cove mansion. But even though it was valued at $4 million, it only sold at a massive loss for just $1.8 million.

[Mike Carruthers]

Wow.

[Ricky]

But what about, like, all of his cars and the other plane?

[Ashley]

They actually auctioned all of that off. Everything he owned was liquidated to put into a pool and to try to pay back his investors. But because he had blown so much of their life savings on his ridiculous daredevil lifestyle, most of the victims only got back pennies on the dollar.

[Ricky]

Wow. Talk about a crazy case. And with that, I mean, that wraps up the TEMU version of Wolf of Wall Street. Thank you all for coming.

[Ashley]

We appreciate you so much for listening and tuning in every week to Crime Salad. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know. Make sure you subscribe, leave us a review and follow us on social media like our TikTok and Instagram. We will see you all next week with a brand new case.

[Ricky]

Also, don't flame me. It's Tamu.

[Ashley]

I say Teemu.

[Ricky]

Me too. Obviously.

[Ashley]

Tamu.

[Mike Carruthers]

Temu.

[Ashley]

Same thing.

[Ricky]

We only know because it was a Super bowl commercial anyways, right? All right, stay safe out there.

[Katie]

Okay.

[Ricky]

Foreign.

[Whitney]

Hi, I'm Whitney.

[Katie]

And I'm Katie.

[Whitney]

And we're the hosts of True Crime Campfire. We set out to make a true crime podcast we'd want to listen to. We get right to the story. We don't do a lot of extra talking. And when we do, it's Usually to roast the short hairs off of some loser murderer or scammer. You'll laugh, but only at the people who deserve it.

[Katie]

Like which serial killer would you most like to shove into a locker?

[Whitney]

BTK and his awful poetry dude got caught cause he didn't understand what a floppy disk was.

[Katie]

We look for the stranger than fiction stories like the case of Patty James, a killer catfish before the Internet was even a thing.

[Whitney]

Or Howard Walmsley, a sentient wad of damp laundry who convinced his town he'd won the lottery, fleeced local businesses out of thousands, and then became a romance scammer.

[Katie]

We've covered tons of cases you never heard of. Cults, scammers, killers.

[Whitney]

So come find your next great binge. Listen to True Crime campfire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Friday.

[Woodbine Narrator]

There are vampires out there. They walk among you. Shoulder to shoulder in the dark. Heading to work, heading home. Going to the bar. It's a life just like anyone else's and I have grown used to it. To the darkness, to the moon, to the taste of blood on my tongue. But vampires are dying out. We are a fading kind, and I am the first one created in so long. And that is a dangerous thing to be. Those who came before me, elders of all stripes, they do not want to see our kind gone. And they will do anything to keep their power. And for myself and for Grace, who created me. That is a sword that hangs above our heads. And the worst person of all carries our secret. And he will use it however he sees fit. Who do you look to when things are at their darkest? From the creators of Park d' Il Haunt comes Woodbine, a podcast about monsters, dreams and changes, those you want and those you never saw. Coming Season 2 arrives September 24th. Distributed by Realm

[Narrator/Advertiser]

the world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not so dark, not so stormy, hard boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the intrepid Chaotix Detective Agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high flying, action packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every clue they can find. It's one heck of a tale, which is good because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you.

[Ashley]

Wait, what?

[Narrator/Advertiser]

All will be revealed in Sonic the Hedgehog Presents the Chaotix Case Files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts

[Ashley]

when the chaotics are on the case.

[Mike Carruthers]

Now before you go hunting for something else to listen to. Let me make it Easy. Mike I'm Mike Carruthers, host of a podcast called Something you should Know, and I speak with experts about fascinating things that affect your life from human behavior, relationships, health, science, and everyday mysteries. We've been downloaded millions of times because every episode teaches you something you'll be talking about later. Open up something you should know and give it one episode. You might just find your new favorite podcast.