Missing pilot picked up in Florida

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- An Indiana investment adviser accused of faking his own death by crashing his private plane was found in Florida Tuesday, authorities said.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, charged by Hamilton County (Ind.) prosecutors with two felony counts of unlawful acts by a compensated adviser and unlawful transaction by an investment adviser, was taken into custody about 10:30 p.m. at a campground in Gadsden County, which is just west of Tallahassee, Fla., WINK-TV reported.

The sheriff's office said Schrenker was taken to a hospital, the Fort Myers, Fla., TV station said.

Officials say the Fisher, Ind., man was motivated to fake his own death because of allegations he had defrauded several investors through his financial management firms. They allege he took off alone Sunday night in a Piper PA-46 from Anderson, Ind., en route to Destin, Fla., put the aircraft on autopilot and parachuted to the ground before the plane crashed in a swamp near East Milton, Fla.

Police said they believe that after landing near Harpersville, Ala., Schrenker made his way to a storage unit he leased a few days earlier under an assumed name and rode off on a 2008 Yamaha street bike he had stashed there.

An Indiana judge froze Schrenker's assets at the request of investigators Monday, Jim Gavin, spokesman for the Indiana secretary of state, told CNN.