In e-mail, financier admits to doing ‘stupid things’

Marcus Schrenker, the Indiana businessman whom authorities suspect tried to fake is own death by parachuting out of a plane he was piloting, sent an email Monday night to friend Tom Britt in which he denied staging the crash. The full text of the e-mail, including Schrenker's misspellings, reads:

Dear Tom:

You are the only person I am going to contact and I hope you will set the record straight, or to the best of your ability.  My family is surely hurting at the recent events and I hope you can do what you can to help distribute the facts as necessary. I read the articles on CNN and ATGEIST and I am stunned. I can only imagine how upset and embarrased my friends and family are.

(1) The accident last night was caused by the pilot side window imploding. It happened so fast that I panicked and did the best I could. The aircraft was broken into before ( in Atlanta) and the window was damaged. It started to spidercrack at 22,000 feet. When the cockpit depressurize it blew out the back door and the front window (or shappenel) struck me in the neck. I used all my oxygen but still lost consciousness. I bleed a hell of a lot and my clothes were soiled. Hypoxia can cause people to make terrible decisions and I simply put on my parachute and survival gear and bailed out. I woke up some time after that on the ground. I had no idea where I was and walked to the nearest house. I asked for a ride back to where I could get a hotel to figure out what happened. I did not tell them about what happened as I was embarrased and scared. I just made a 2 million dollar mistake. It is true that I made up a name to check into the hotel. 

(2) I did not own Icon Group and it was owned by Andrew Geyer. I sold the business to him 2Q of 2008 and he ran it into the ground.  Myself or Michelle did nothing wrong and we did everything we could to see the company succeed. The securities fraud investigation was because the company invested funds offshore that lost money. 

(3) Michelle is a great woman.   Life has been very hard for me and Michelle has certainly felt the brunt of my stress and problems. I hope you will clear her name of any wrong doing.  She filed for divorce on December 30th, 2008, I and I deserved it. I still love her deeply and I am so sorry for how terrible I treated her.

TODAY The wreckage of Marcus Schrenker’s plane was found in a Florida bayou.

Tom, I have been under so much stress that I have not felt good in some time. Nothing is clear and my thoughts are surely blurred.  I have embarrased my familty for the last time and by the time you read this I will be gone.  I can not bear the magnitude of the pain I have caused Michelle and the kids.  It is true that I have wanted to end my life for sometime.  Although If I would have wanted to committ suicide with an aircraft I just would have flown it into a mountain.  I would never purposly abandone an aircraft and endanger other lives. 

Please do not put up conversations (podcasts) of the two of us talking or voicemails. That only hurts my family more.

Please give my love to my family. With me gone Michelle will need all the support she can get.

I'm sorry again. I never meant to hurt anyone. When life becomes too much people do stupid things. 

Take care,

Marc

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