FISHERS INDIANA MONEY MANAGER MARCUS SHRENKER TO FACE COMPETANCY HEARING BEFORE FLORIDA FEDERAL COURT
Marcus Shrenker, the Fishers, Indiana, money manager who gained notoriety after he jumped from his perfectly good million dollar-plus turbo-prop Piper Malibu airplane, told media that he "wasn't of sound mind" when he attempted to fake his own death.
Shrenker continues to deny the fact that his jump was a suicide attempt. In a telephone interview with ABC's "Good Morning America", Schrenker said his plane crashed as a result of "clear air turbulence". He claims to have sustained injury as a result of the turbulence.
A federal judge has set a hearing on Thursday to determine whether Schrenker is competent to stand trial on criminal charges resulting from the crash and his alleged financial misdoings. Schrenker told Good Morning America that he has had mental problems for years, and "[t]here was clearly something going on mentally with me starting in 2007". Shrenker went on to tell ABC that family members attempted to have him hospitalized just days prior to his crash, but he had refused. On January 13, 2009, Schrenker was arrested at a Florida KOA campground. This was just two days after he apparently bailed out of his plane over Alabama. According to media reports, Shrenker was attempting to flee family and financial issues that had come to a head at the beginning of the New Year. Shrenker was found in a tent semiconscious and bleeding heavily from self-inflicted knife wounds to his wrist.
