Indiana Injury Lawyer Blog

Two Purdue University students are seriously hurt after a World War II plane crash in Tippecanoe County. The aviation accident happened Tuesday afternoon near Americus, Indiana. The Tippicanoe County Sheriff's Office says the students involved are 22-year old Anthony Cole and 22-year old Thomas Williams, both from West Lafayette.

Cole is the most serious injured and was the pilot. He underwent surgery this morning at Methodist Hospital in Marion County. Medics airlifted him there after they got him out of the Taylorcraft plane. He arrived at the hospital in critical condition. Williams, the passenger, is listed in serious condition at Saint Elizabeth Hospital in Lafayette.

The FAA and NTSB are planning to investigate this accident. Rescue workers found the single engine aircraft in a wooded area on a farm with its nose in the ground and tail in the air. So far, crews are pointing to engine failure as the cause of the accident.

Investigators believe the plane's tail number is that of a privately-owned 1944 Taylorcraft out of Ohio. According to Taylorcraft.org, the Taylorcraft Corporation boomed in Alliance, Ohio between the years 1935 and 1946. However, following the end of World War II, the company saw its demise.

Continue reading "TWO PURDUE STUDENTS HURT IN VINTAGE PLANE CRASH IN INDIANA" »

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.

According to new media reports, the Fishers Indiana business man who attempted to fake his own death by jumping from a turbo-prop single engine plane on Sunday has been apprehended by U.S. Marshals.

Indiana authorities will now seek to have him brought back for prosecution to answer to charges filed in Hamilton County Superior Court in Indiana. On Tuesday morning, Hamilton County prosecutors filed an Affidavit for Probable Cause and an Arrest Warrant citing allegations of investment fraud.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, an Indianapolis suburb financial investor, was discovered late Tuesday at a northern Florida campground. Just two days prior, Schrenker had apparently tried to fake his own death in a plane crash. Schrenker owned the plane he jumped from and is reported to have been a very accomplished pilot with video demonstrations appearing across the web showing him flying at over 200 mph beneath a bridge. Authorities believe Schrenker parachuted to the ground and later sped off on a motorcycle that he had previously stashed away in a central Alabama storage facility.

At the time of his arrest, Schrenker had reportedly sustained a self-inflicted gash just below his elbow and extending to his wrist. The US Marshall's office indicated that he was airlifted to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in fair condition early Wednesday.

Although evidence was still being investigated, by all accounts Schrenker's activity revealed a well-orchestrated chain of events apparently intended to fake his death and run away from looming legal action. Prosecutors in Hamilton County Indiana had been investigating financial fraud.
Authorities reportedly served a warrant on New Year's eve, just one day following a Petition for divorce that was filed by Schrenker's wife. An Indiana Department of Insurance investigation was apparently probing three Schrenker businesses that had been under a cloud of suspicion after angry investors accused him of stealing investments and taking unauthorized commissions.

At 38, Schrenker had amassed what appeared to be an impressive accumulation of wealth. He collected luxury automobiles, owned two airplanes and lived in a 10,000-square-foot lake house in an upscale Indianapolis suburb neighborhood known as "Cocktail Cove," where affluent boaters often socialize with cocktails in hand.

While Marcus Schrenker continues to make national headlines for his D.B. Cooper impression, few media outlets are reporting his prior ties with the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office.

According to Court records, Schrenker and his wife filed suit in the Federal Court of the Southern District of Indiana in 2005 against the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, the Hamilton County Prosecutor, Sonia Leerkamp, and the Town of Fishers, as well as an individual deputy prosecutor and Sheriff employees. In their FEDERAL LAWSUIT, as filed by Indianapolis Attorney, Jeffrey McQuary, Schrenker alleged that he was wrongfully detained, arrested, and physically and emotionally injured following an incident with a motorcycle.

According to the lawsuit, Hamilton County Sheriff Deputy, Donald Ball, wrongfully and forcefully arrested Schenker on allegations that he was illegally operating a motorcycle near his then McCordsville, Indiana, home. Along with these allegations, the lawsuit also referenced harassment by the Hamilton County Prosecutor and a Deputy Prosecutor in an attempt to avoid reporting the Sheriff's Deputy's actions. According to Court records, the case was dismissed in 2007.

Continue reading "PLENTY OF BAD BLOOD BETWEEN MARCUS SCHRENKER AND HAMILTON COUNTY INDIANA PROSECUTOR" »

A Hamilton County Indiana Judge agreed to freeze the assets of pilot and Indianapolis businessman, Marcus Schrenker, 38, following an alleged attempt to fake an emergency with his single engine airplane, and then parachute from it before it crashed in a swampy area a few hundred yards from a residential neighborhood in the Florida panhandle. The temporary Order was issued in conjunction with an Affidavit for Probable Cause and an Arrest Warrant filed by the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday.

According to police, Schrenker's financial businesses were under investigation by the Indiana Department of Insurance. Preliminary investigations indicate that Schrenker exited his small plane before it crashed, and later checked into a hotel in Alabama under a fake name before putting on a black cap and fleeing into nearby woods.

According to local media reports, the US Marshall's office has been dispatched to locate Schrenker; however, details of the search were not yet being released to the public. Airport officials at the Anderson Municipal Airport in Anderson, Indiana, indicated that Schrenker left the airport by himself on Sunday in a six-seater Piper PA-46. At the time of the incident, records indicate that Schrenker was president of three Indianapolis financial agencies called Heritage Wealth Management, Heritage Insurance Services, and Icon Wealth Management, all Indianapolis based organizations sharing the same address. According to the Indiana Secretary of State's Office, those three companies were under investigation for possible securities violations at the time of Schrenker's disappearance.

Officials believe the plane crashed at 9:15 p.m. CT on Sunday in a swampy area off the Blackwater River in East Milton, Florida. According to reports, Schrenker made a distress call to air traffic controllers indicating that the window of his plane had imploded and he was bleeding profusely. Controllers tried to tell the pilot to divert the flight to Pell City, Alabama, but he did not respond.

After the call came in, military aircraft were dispatched to intercept the plane. The pilots spotted the Piper and deployed flares to illuminate the plane as it was flying, but noticed that its door was open and the cockpit was dark. Meanwhile, Schrenker was reportedly more than 220 miles north of the crash site in Alabama. Officials in Florida received a call on Monday from the Childersburg, Alabama Police Department indicating that a white male fitting the description of Schrenker had approached a Childersburg's police officer, and indicated that he had been in a canoeing accident with friends. According to reports, Schrenker's pants were wet from the knees down. According to a police news release, Schrenker also had parachuting goggles and his own Indiana Driver's License with him.

At the time Schrenker approach them, Childersburg police had not been advised of the plane crash. Per his request, they took Schrenker to a nearby hotel. When reports of the crash came in, police went back to the hotel and entered Schrenker's room but he had already left. According to hotel staff, Schrenker paid for the room with cash and checked in with a fake name.

Continue reading "INDIANAPOLIS INDIANA BUSINESSMAN FAKES HIS OWN DEATH WITH PLANE ACCIDENT" »

An accident involving a 1974 Piper single-engine plane claimed the life of a Northern Indiana couple. According to media reports, 64 year-old Lowell Owens and 51 year-old Susan Owens were killed when their plane went down in eastern Tennessee while returning home from Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The aircraft went down on Saturday near Washburn, Tennessee, which is approximately 35 miles northeast of Knoxville.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration's investigation, the Owens' were flying home to Warsaw, Ind., when the accident occurred. The FAA is still attempting to determine the cause of the flight's doom.

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