they seemed to live a charmed life, in exclusive cocktail cove. but be behind the facade -- >> they dubbed the streets wisteria lane. >> he made millions. then millions wednesday missing, of other people's money. >> he's the madeoff of indianapolis. >> leaving behind a trail of scandal. with this house of cards collapsing, he took off in his million dollar plane. they fond the wreckage, but not

the body. >> apparently he parachuted out. >> the beautiful wife, left holding the bag? or hiding the cash. >> i believe she very well knew what was going on? >> but did she? >> guilt by association is not always true. >> flying high at cocktail cove. it was a honeymoon like a dream come true. >> this was a luxurious vacation of a lifetime. >> until the groom's life was cu sht. he disappeared leaving behind a bride and some misster clues. like the awning below the balcony. >> i noticed a red blood stain on it. >> there were tales of a booze-soaked party spree. >> there is where it stops

becoming a normal night. >> reports of loud voices. >> she remembered hearing a scream. >> and a certain young man who was really worried about the bride. accident, suicide, murder? what really happened. disappearance before dawn. in 2005 a young groom disappeared during a honeymoon cruise through the mediterranean. good evening. i'm ann curry. the lateest on a disappearance of a young groom. one minute he was partying with a young crowd, and the next minute s dad and his bride still has no idea what happened. x

>> reporter: take a luxurious cruise ship -- handsome honeymooners -- add sun-drenched ports of call -- parties till dawn -- and an ugly blood stain on the awning over the life boat deck -- >> she remembered hearing a scream -- >> reporter: and you have the ingredients for a classic old-fashioned mystery like a dusty agatha christie. but this one's quite real and quite confounding. >> then it ended with one big thud. >> reporter: what could account for the disappearance before dawn of the young man from his locked stateroom? >> this could be an accident, a suicide or foul play. >> reporter: where was the pretty young bride during the critical minutes in question? and who are the hard partiers called "the russians" and what part do they play in the puzzling affair? >> reporter: you've got a floating crime scene here, don't you? potentially. >> you really do. you -- >> reporter: 2,000-plus witnesses maybe. is it even knowable what happened aboard the vessel brilliance of the seas, somewhere betwe greece and turkey in the aegean sea? >> the captain came on and said last night someone might have

gone overboard, and we knew that was it. >> reporter: it had been a lavish wedding in june 2005. friends and family gathered at a smart inn in newport, rhode island, on a bluff overlooking the bay, an appropriate setting, by the sea. the two had met here in newport back when. the bride was jennifer hagel from central connecticut, daughter of a realtor and a builder who'd once been a policeman. jennifer was a high- school athlete, soccer, basketball and golf all four-years. she graduated from trinity college in hartford. sh was reallpretty, rt o always made-up and looked really nice all the time. kara klenk, a year behind jennifer, was happy to hear that the petite secret weapon of their intramural stball am was excited about getting married. >> i always, always figured things would work out for her. she was a nice person, good looking and athletic. you know you always think those kind of people are just going to make it, make happy lives for themselves. jennifer, to no one's surprise,

had married a jock, george allan smith iv, the son of a family that has run a very successful liquor store in wealthy greenwich, connecticut. george was a big guy, 6' 2" over 200-pounds. coach bob darula recalls a good linebacker and a nice kid at greenwich high. >> very likeable, quiet young man, coachable, ya know? very dry sense of humor. always had a nice smile, ya know? >> reporter: george had graduated from babson college in massachusetts with a business degree, a background he hoped to bring to the family store when his father retired. >> george did like to go out and have a good time. >> reporter: shawn keenan lived two doors down from george smith at babson. a friend he remembers as a well-buffed mass of muscles.hm they lifted weights together almost every day. >> in a group situation he had a tough exterior but he definitely liked being around people. he just was the kind of guy that liked to have a lot of fun, kind of a prankster. you know, not the class clown or

anthing but definite, you know, liked to have fun with all the guys on the floor. >> reporter: george and jennifer, now mr. and mrs. smith, booked a 12 day honeymoon cruise of the mediterranean on board the royal caribbean cruise ship, brilliance of the seas. the tantalizing ports of call included barcelona, the french riviera, rome, the greek islands, the 2500-passenger cruise ship is one of the most popular in the royal caribbean fleet. a virtual floating city of cabins, restaurants, bars, a casino and health club, everything for travelers who want to see some of the world and still bring the comforts of the mall along with them. lynn martenstein was then a vice-president with the cruise line. >> we attract a lot of active vacationers, a lot of families. >> reporter: the honeymooners, george and jennifer, bought a packa vd alge10atue, ,0 $a 00 mid-ship stateroom, portside on the 9th deck, a cabin with a desirable balcony overlooking the ocean.

on june 29th, four-days after the newport wedding, the couple boarded the cruise ship in they and every other passenger were issued a card called a sea pass or an a-pass, an electronic key embedded with your photo that not only opens your cabin but records the precise time of day you entered and left. the same goes for boarding and leaving the ship. >> so every time that you come and go off that ship, you swipe your card. you stand in front of the security guard, you swipe your card. the security guard looks at you, looks at his computer screen, makes sure you're the same person and then you're allowed to come and go on that ship. so the information embedded in this is giving you a head count. >> exactly, exactly. reporter: leaving barcelona, settled into their stateroom, from their balcony, george and jennifer could watch the water gliding by that night as they made their way to the first port of call, the south of france. an important new chapter in their lives had opened-up.

they were young by all accounts, in love and he had only five nights left to live. and he would spend those nights with a rowdy new ud.> d posse. >> loud. 18 to 20-year-old guys partying on a boat. >> reporter: but at some point things turned deadly, when disappearance before dawn continues. , stunning high gloss, and flawless gray coverage all in just 10 minutes. a breakthrough so big, it won the most awards from beauty editors they even say... "perfect 10 has forever changed our opinion of at-home color." has it changed yours yet? perfect 10. the 10 minute, high gloss color that changes everything. from clairol. and i'm a pc.ello, i'm a mac. and i'm looking to buy a great computer. well allow me to introduce the top-of-the-line pc. oh, wow cool.

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>> reporter: the honeymooners, jennifer and george, had booked heelves on snazzy state of the art cruise ship, a floating five- star hotel with round-the-clock diversions. up on deck seven, illinois teenager emilie rausch and her sister, cruising with their mom, were thrilled with the view out their balcony. emilie had a brand new camera and was eager to try it out. >> i got that camera as a present right before we left for our cruise >> reporter: emilie's family had booked the vacation as a college graduation present for her sister. that made them typical passengers on this mediterranean run. this particular line of ship was designed with active families in mind, more than the sedate retirees, maybe, of the cruise

ship stereotype. up on deck 9, clete hyman, for instance, a deputy police chief from redlands, california, now retired, had reserved cabins for eight extended family members, a stress-free, no cell phones, no e-mail, spin around the med. >> your hotel, if you will, goes with you. you're not packing and unpacking. there's very little that you have to worry about. >> reporter: down the same hallway, pat and greg lawyer had a special celebration underway. >> this was our 35th anniversary present to each other ani've always wanted to go to the greek islands. >> reporter: and the cruise line delivered on schedule, the delights of florence, on july 1st, wonderful weather in rome on the 2nd. the second night of the trip, though, clete hyman did have one complaint. after leaving france, the young couple in the cabin right next door, #9062, had a noisy party with he guessed four to six other people that lasted until 3:00 in the morning. >> are the walls that thin or

were they that loud? >> well, i think it's a combination of both. >> reporter: the raucus party-throwers were the honeymooners, george and jennifer. according to some fellow passengers who got to know them, the younger people on board, the twenty-something's, tended to hang out together at night after the older passengers turned in. after dinner, some in the young crowd say, they would try their luck at the casino on deck 6 - continuing the festivities late into the night at the disco bar on 13 with the newlyweds sometimes joining them, one of the couple's new acquaintances was josh askin, a then 20-year-old college student from california. he was helping his parents celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. >> this was a luxurious vacation of a lifetime they were planning together. >> reporter: keith greer is a lawyer for josh's family. did josh get to know these honeymooners, george and jennifer? >> yeah, the family actually met them at first in florence, they got off the boat together. neither of the groups had tours set-up and so they shared a cab

they spent a little bit of that day together that day, which is when they first met. >> reporter: according to fellow passengers, george, jennifer and now josh, were joined by another group of young men, two cousins and a friend, who were vacationing with their families from brooklyn, new york and florida. their parents had emigrated from the soviet union so they became known in the events tha followed as the three russian boys. how does josh describe his temporary friendship with these guys? >> fun, good group of guys, loud. you know, it's -- but, you know, 18 to 20-year-old guys on a boat partying. >> reporter: the honeymooners, josh and the three russian boys became buddies, boisterous young compadres at sea with a mostly older crowd. though a young woman on the same cruise told us off-camera that she thought the russian boys were rough around the edges. she remembers them trying to pick fights and stealing liquor fro the ship's bar. her instincts told her to give them some distance.

on the 4th of july, the ship tied up in mykonos. the greek island with the whitewashed houses and blue doors was as beautiful as the brochures. what would happen in the next 12 hours after mykonos is the crux of the mystery, between the evening of the fourth of july and the wee hours of the 5th, with the ship bound for its next port of call in turkey. the account of the evening is told through josh's lawyer who says that josh, george and jennifer and the three russian boys made the ship's casino their home base in a night of heavy drinking. >> this evening you can't even imagine the amount of drinking. there was an incredible amount of alcohol. >> reporter: josh's attorney says the newlyweds gambled, but not always together. >> in and out of the casino -- there josh sees jennifer at the blackjack table and then george at the craps table and in fact, that night, george taught josh how to placraps for the most part. >> reporter: was george having some luck that night? >> no and see that's interesting.

there's talk out there about big money and big winnings, didn't happen. george at one point in time went over to the table with jennifer and she had been losing, not big, but losing and he had to go back to the room and get some money to come back and give it to her. >> reporter: so he doesn't stagger out of the casino that night with a wad of hundreds in his pocket? >> no, no, nothing like that. >> reporter: with the night in full swing, josh would make an emphatic point about what he thinks he sees next. jennifer and the man he calls the casino manager getting cozy. at 2:30 in the morning, now july 5th, the casino is closed for the night and the honeymooners, josh and the three russian boys head for the disco bar up on deck 13. everyone's tipsy or better, according to josh. >> this is really where it stops becoming a normal night. >> reporter: packed into the elevator with the partiers is the casino manager and one of his dealers. josh says he thinks he sees the casino manager put a move on jennifer, right in front of her

by now very drunk husband. >> jennifer's there on the other side of the elevator with the casino manager next to her with his arm around her in the elevator and then another casino dealer. >> reporter: so presumably george is seeing the same kind of thing taking place? >> yeah, but everybody's still happy, everybody's still jovial. you know even you know george is happy and hugging the guys and singing and it was still party atmosphere at that point. >> reporter: up at the disco bar, josh notices that the new bride and the casino manager are together again. >> jennifer's there, but there's a couch adjacent to the table. jennifer sits down on the couch with the casino manager sitting right next to her. >> reporter: as another account goes, george and the guys sit around a table and produce their own bottle of alcohol, something not permitted by the cruise line. someone has a bottle of an especially volatile green liqueur, with a notorious history, absinthe. one form of it was banned at the

1900s, and young drinkers are attracted now to its taboo and reputation for being a kind of hallucinogenic. that's largely urban myth but it will get you smashed. the boys sat in a circle, doing shooters of absinthe, almost in a kind of ritual. at 3:30 a.m., the barman closes down the disco lounge, the party's over. >> the lights go on, time for everybody to go to their rooms. the russian boys and josh escort george back to his room. >> reporter: could george get there under his own power? >> no, no, by that time george was stumbly, dropping his cigarette according to josh it was some -- he was about 50% on his own power on the way back to the room. he wasn't being carried but he was being guided with some assistance of the two larger boys. jennifer is no longer with the guys. for months, there would be speculation about her whereabouts in the next 4 hours. >> reporter: where's jennifer gone? >> that's the big question. >> reporter: continuing josh's version of events, he and the three russians stumbled george

to his cabin on deck 9. when they see there's no jennifer, george changes his shirt and they all set out again to find her. it's now about 3:45 a.m., the posse of five heads right to the place that the young people on-board know as the after-hours hook-up spot. >> they go to the jacuzzi in the solarium area. no jennifer. so it's five, ten minutes there are very short amount of time looking 'cause it's obvious there's nobody else there and then five, ten minutes back to the room which puts them back to the room at about 4:00 in the morning. >> reporter: josh describes a tame ending to the night. >> when they got to the room with george the last time, the boys put him down in bed -- actually josh was going to the bathroom, using the bathroom in the cabin -- the other boys put him down on the bed, take his shoes off, leave the room, "good-bye, good-bye, les go we're outta here." they go down to one of the russian boys' rooms, order an incredible amount of room service, and sit. room service shows up 4:30, 4:45 -- with the food. they eat.

josh is back in bed by 5:15 that morning. >> reporter: but clete hyman, the veteran california police officer, in the cabin next door had been awakened at 4 a.m. by a ruckus that's at odds with josh's account. through the common wall he shared with the smith's cabin, he heard 15 minutes of loud voices and commotion that make him one of the best witnesses to the mysterious events in stateroom 9062. >> that's when i heard what i described as a horrific thud. >> reporter: and when the sun came up, that noisy cabin turned up empty. where were the newlyweds. >> we subsequently found mrs. smith. >> reporter: and mr. smith? ♪

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a newly-married couple on a has been son a cruise and seein new sights. one teenage passenger describes a disturbing site. >> we woke up early in the morning and we wept outside at about 7:00 to look at the ocean.

>> reporter: emilie rausch was looking forward to the day's excushion, a tour of the ancient ruins in turkey. her brand new digital camera would get a workout. but her first snapshot that day was this. a blotchy stain several feet long on the 12-foot wide metal overhang protecting the lifeboats. >> i noticed where there was this read blood stain on it. i didn't think it was blood at first. i was hoping it was paint or something else. >> reporter: the teenager remembered seeing three bloody handprints or footprints, though they are not visible in her photo. >> itook itrobabl o of curiosity, and i thought maybe it might matter later. >> reporter: she's right. >> the first hint anything wrong is at 8:30. >> reporter: lynn, a vice

president of the cruise ship, surmised it was a blood stain and thought they might have someone overboard. >> we started focusing on the cabins. >> reporter: by 9:30 a.m., the ship's officer determined one of e smiths was missing. >> they very carefully entered the cab inch, and we started the public address announcements and we found mrs. smith. >> reporter: where was she? >> she was in the spa. we found her in the spa. >> reporter: found the bride, but not the groom. the smith's cabin was secured by security, a guard posted outside until local turkish authorities could complete their vestigation. when clete hyman of redlands, california, swiped his card to get back on ship, the buzzer went off. two ship's personnel flagged him. >> they approached me and told me they wanted to talk to me

about mr. smith. >> reporter: he was right next door, and what he heard from 4:00 until 4:20 or so is part of an ongoing investigation into george smith's disappearance. >> a little after 4:00 in the morning, we were awaned by loud cheerig, something like a college drinking game. this happened two distinct times. >> reporter: he was awakened, and george and his buddy has returned from a fruitless search for jennifer who had gone missing. chief hyman, a police veteran, refl reflexively noted the time, called the ship's security notice to complain and banged on the wall.

>> after a couple of minutes we heard voices outside the door of the smith cabin. i don't recall hearing the door open. i assumed they were leaving the party. but that was just my impression at the time. >> reporter: for a few minutes the next door cabin quieted down, male voices in normal conversation. the chief couldn't for the most part make out words or subjects. >> this went on for a period of time and then we heard what sounded like arguing out on the balcony. >> reporter: arguing? >> yes. several, couple of male voices arguing, not a physical confrontation it was just like they were arguing over some type of point. >> reporter: so after you heard these voices out on the balcony part of the cabin, what happened next? >> well then i heard a voice just repeatedly say "good-night" and my first assumption was that someone was trying to usher these people that were arguing out of the cabin. in fact, you could hear the progression through the cabin.

>> reporter: now it was about 4:15 in the morning. chief hyman heard the adjacent cabin door open and voices receding in the hallway. >> so i waited for a couple of seconds and then opened the door and looked out. >> reporter: what did you see? >> i saw three younger males walking down the hallway. young males - but only three of them - leaving george's cabin. >> reporter: then through the wall, chief hyman heard a single male voice moving about speaking in a conversational tone though, oddly, no one was replying. then there was more loud noise. >> it's what i would say sounded like furniture moving. like, again, my impression was, "good! they're cleaning up the room." >> reporter: whoever was next door the chief says he heard them moving between the cabin and the balcony. it was now approaching 4:20. >> and then for the la, maybe, couple of minutes it appeared to be concentrated out on the

balcony area. the chairs on the balcony are metal so they make a different type of sound. heard that noise and then there was silence, it got very quiet, heard no voice. it was just very quiet. >> reporter: silent for how long? a couple of minutes or? >> yes. maybe three minutes, approximately, and at that point that's when i heard what i described as a horrific thud. >> reporter: tell me in detail. >> the first thought in my mind was somebody fell on the balcony this was because it was the last place i had heard anyone. however, i quickly dismissed that because the noise was just too loud. there was actually a reverberation to the noise and somebody just falling you know off their feet to something on a balcony would not cause that much noise. >> reporter: unbeknownst to clete hyman, pat and greg lawyer on the other side of the smiths say they had been awakened not by the noise from the cabin but

by three soft male voices, two of themccented, in the hallway before the commotion all started. they heard the cabin door open. >> i figured that this young man was drunk or inebriated and they were calmly bringing him back to his room. in my mind, there was a young person who was saying, "settle down, calm down, george." >> reporter: pat and greg -- on almost exactly the same timeline, just after 4 a.m. didn't hear what clete hyman thought was a drinking game, but they did hear that same moving about of furniture. where the police officer read it as the room being noisily put back in order, pat and greg heard violence. a room, they thought, was being trashed. >> and then all of a sudden there was a lot of noise coming from the cabin next door, the george smith cabin, and what it sounded to me like is somebody was throwing things against the wall, like throwing furniture in the room against the wall or against the floor. >> i kept saying to my husband, "what in the world is he doing there?"

and i did use the term "he." i didn't use the term they because we did not hear any voices. >> and these there were maybe a series of shuffles and bangs against the wall and then it ended with one big thud like somebody had picked up the couch or the sofa and threw it against the wall and then it and then that occurred, it was maybe a stretch of like two-minutes, something like that, where these thuds took place, a series of thuds, what i call trashing the room and then it went quiet. >> reporter: after the awful thud, both the deputy chief and the couple heard a "knock, knock, knock" two sets of raps on the smith cabin door about 4:30 a.m. greg lawyer, curious, opened the door to see two uniformed ship personnel standing outside the smith cabin. >> and i looked at them and i said, "hey, you guys, you better get in there because that room is trashed." then they sort of gave me the "hi" sign. they didn't say anything. >> reporter: the cruise line confirms they were ship's security officers responding to the noise complaint clete hyman made just after 4 a.m.

loud party apparently now over, royal caribbean says the uniformed men left without entering the smith cabin. chief hyman and his wife could finally get some peace and quiet and a few hours sleep. at 7 a.m. the chief went out on his balcony to take some snapshots of the turkish port and peeked around the partition to the smith cabin next door. he saw cigarette butts, the metal chairs and coffee table moved. >> i noticed that the drapes had been pulled back. that was allowing me to see in and that the bed appeared to ve been slepin. the sheets were in disarray. >> reporter: did you notice if the furniture in the room had in fact been moved around? >> i couldn't see that far into the room. >> reporter: he didn't look down from his balcony. where he might have seen emilie photogphing a bloodstain.

she would show that image to her mom later that afternoon. her mother later that afternoon. the image would jog a sleepy memory in her mom. >> she remembered hearing a scream late in the middle of that night too, and we put it together and we thought this might be something that might be happening. this might be bad. >> reporter: someone has reported a scream. did you hear it? >> never. >> reporter: the policeman who wanted nothing more than a relaxing cruise around the mediterranean with his family, found work following him. a mystery right next door and he had crucial details. that night before dinner, the ship's captain announced that there had been a tragic accident, a guest had apparently fallen overboard. the chief, and so many of the other guests wondered, as wild rumor and speculation swept every nook and cranny of the ship. buzz about missing money, blood found in the cabin. >> this could be an accident, a suicide or foul play. i don't have enough of the facts to formulate an opinion which it is. >> reporter: jennifer, josh and the three russians would be interrogated.

how was it that george smith fell to a terrible and certain death in the sea between greece and turkey? or was it a fall? coming up, when questioned by authorities, young josh has something to say about the bride and that casino manager. >> you need to get him in here. i'm not letting her go to jail.m >> reporter: the morning after, when "ddisappearance before daw continues. groove, bust it, shake it, get down, - ♪ she's a super freak, super freak ♪ - get funky - ♪ she's super freaky - and let your freak flag fly. - ♪ ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh, oh, oh ♪ - ( laughs ) - visa debit is the safe, secure way to pay online. - ♪ super freak, super freak - ♪ that girl's a super freak, ohh, ohh, ohh, ohh... ♪ - more people go with visa. ...that only lasts four to six hours? i discovered claritin has a new 12-hour. it works all day, so i can make it to the top.

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>> reporter: george smith, 11 days into his marriage, had disappeared from the luxury cruise ship. the reverberating "thud" heard by several passengers about 4:20 a.m., the morning on july 5th and the bloodstain beneath smith's balcony cabin, gruesomely answered the question of what happened to the young honeymooner, but nohow? lynn martenstein was a cruise line spokesperson at the time of the incident -- >> we started notifying proper authorities. in this case it was the fbi and american consulate, because we were dealing with an american citizen. it was the turkish authorities because we had just docked in a turkish port. >> reporter: while most of the

ship's passengers departed for a day tour of the ancient city of ephesusa. turkish authorities boarded the brilliance of the seas and began processing the honeymooners' cabin as you wld a crime scene. >> they took samples. they took photographs. they conducted -- >> reporter: they fingerprinted it? >> they dusted for fingerprints. they did their forensic investigation both of the cabin d of the metal overhang. they spent the better part of the day on the ship. >> our understanding is that the turkish authorities turned over anything that had found in that cabin to the fbi. >> reporter: by 6 p.m. that night, the blood stain on the overhang was cleaned and, according to some passengers, painted over. the turkish investigation on the ship was concluded. on that same day, because they were some of the last people known to have been seen with george, both turkish authorities and the ship's officers questioned jennifer, josh and the russian boys about what had happened just hours before. jennifer, according to the cruise line spokesperson, gave a

statement to the tks in the presence of an fbi representative and was then flown home to the u.s. josh's statement is the only one we know about in detail. that's because his mother and father sneaked a home video camera to their son's appearance before turkish authorities on shore and those bootlegged pictures capture a chaotic initial inquiry. >> so my name, my mother's name? >> reporter: josh, in the red shirt, is being asked here to set down a perfunctory chronology of what he did and saw and then sign the statement when it's typed up. >> translator: you took george to the room and he was very drunk. >> yeah, but you are missing a lot. >> josh, let her read! >> but the story's the same. >> translator: yeah, is it the same story? >> reporter: were george and jennifer having a fight, he's asked? no they were happy he replied. >> translator: yeah, just tell me your story. >> reporter: he tells in abbreviated fashion the story you've already heard, getting george to the room, using his bathroom. good-night. >> i said "bye" but i didn't see if he was laying on the bed or anything. they're missing a whole huge

part though. >> it doesn't matter. it has to do with the last time you saw 'em. that's all they wanna know. they don't wanna know what else happened. all they want to know is the last time you saw him. so sign it and let's go. >> reporter: josh signs the statement about what he knew and after the initial business is over, makes a point of defending jennifer and implicating the casino manager. >> she has no idea what happened. she was with another man. >> reporter: after suggesting that the bride and casino manager had left the bar together josh is dismissed and returned to the ship with his family. it had been josh's second questioning of the morning. the young man's lawyer says that earlier -- even before the meeting with turkish authorities -- josh's electronic swipe card set off a buzzer when

he tried to leave the ship with his family. ship's personnel escorted josh to guest services where he says he saw jennifer for the first time since leaving the disco bar about six-hours before. >> reporter:hat does he notice about jennifer? the biggest thing was she's wearing the same dress she was wearing the night before. she's distraught and she asked at some point in the time and they mentioned that there's a question of where's george and jennifer says to josh -- "what happened?" "i blackedut. i don't remember anything after the casino." >> reporter: she drank too much and passed out? >> blacked out. >> reporter: memories may be fuzzy but investigators, now the fbi, have a very crisp record of some of the things that happened on the ship. in addition to the electronic room keys, documenting down to the second when and where a cabin door is opened, guests on the brilliance of the seas may be unaware that the ship has several hundred security cameras continuously recording virtually every public area onboard.

the cruise line has turned over more than ninety of those tapes to the fbi. it is an ongoing investigation and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on what's on the tapes. without saying exactly how it knows it, the cruise line claims that the casino manager josh raises suspicions about, actually a manager trainee, and the other employee drinking with them, a casino dealer, each went to their separate cabins about 3:15 am and jennifer was with neither man. after our interview, the cruise line v.p. added another detail about jennifer. she allegedly left the disco bar alone at about 3:20 and a custodian on that deck 13 thought she was wobbly and need help. the custodian rode down with her in the elevator to 9, her cabin deck level. she told him she was fine and went on her way. but to where? in january, 2006, when the cruise line issued a timeline of events, we finally found out. after being escorted to deck 9,

where her cabin was, jennifer apparently got disoriented she was found about an hour later by a ship security guard sleeping on the floor of a corridor. just before 5:00 am, guards took jennifer by wheelchair back to the cabin, where they did not see her husband george, nor anything amiss in the room. >> blood could very easily run this way, you know, the motion of the ship tipping. >> reporter: when we come back, one of the fbi's most seasoned former special agents looks at the case the timeline, the contradictions, the same evidence you've now heard. what will clint van zandt make of the disappearance of george smith? >> i don't think anyone can exclude foul play at this point.

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>> is it a very tragic accident or is this a homicide? >> reporter: george smith went overboard. there's no doubt about that. and even though it happened in the aegean sea on a bahamian-registered ship, for the last four years the case has been handled by the fbi bureau in new haven, connecticut, the lost man's home state. >> what we need realize is that if the bureau came to the point

where they felt strongly it was an accident, they would close tir case. >> reporter: clint van zandt was with the fbi for 25 years, supervisor and proler with the now famous behavioral science group, nicknamed the "silence of the lambs" unit. "dateline" asked van zandt, an nbc news analyst, to look at the public record of evidence in the george smith case. >> first, in a case like this, you've gotta go in and you gotta say, "well, what happened? we got a missing person. okay, if he's gone, is a homicide, is it a suicide, is it an accident?" >> reporter: what about an cident? both witnesses on either side the smith cabin noticed one of the metal balcony chairs had been turned around so that its back was near the four foot tall railing. hypothetically. did george smith, foolishly, perch on the balcony rail for literally a last cigarette? >> i push the chair up against the balcony. i sit up on the edge. i have a cigarette. the ship hits a bump or something and i go over the side? we can't say that didn't happen because we don't have the body

to get the forensics from. so, i cannot at all discount the idea of an accident. >> reporter: the former fbi man eliminates suicide right away, since there's nothing that he sees in george smith's background to remotely suggest it. >> we get homicide and accident. we take our legal pad. we draw a line down the middle and then we start to build a case on ther side and see which one we can support with the evidence. we looked at each bit of evidence, in turn, starting with the photo of the blood stain. when you look at this picture here, do you see this point right here? that look like that ws pooling blood. this is ten-feet-plus wide here, so if a human body fell here, if this is evidence perhaps of a head injury. >> reporter: a bleeding kind of injury, right? >> a bleeding where there was continued bleeding. it can be blood that had been contaminated with water, sea spray, something like that, that made it spread out like this. perhaps, george smith, by whatever means, went over the balcony two flrs down.

he crashes on top of this metal awning. he lays there for awhile, he's already bleeding. he bleeds out a little bit. and then he starts to crawl. does he pick himself up? does he zig when he should have zagged? or does someone come up on the body and help it over the side? >> reporter: does this picture tell you, "i am the victim of an accident, i'm a victim of foul play."? >> don't we wish. >> reporter: since the bloodstain doesn't tell the full story, that makes the statements by witnesses all that more important. here, not eyewitnesses, so much as ear-witnesses, the two sets of people in the cabins on either side of the smiths, starting with the deputy police chief clete hyman. >> in this particular case, this is a cop who's kind of leaning forward in the saddle and saying, "what's going on next door?" >> i saw three younger males walking down the hallway. >> reporter: walking away from you? >> that is correct. >> reporter: assuming those three people had just come from george's room, van zandt thinks

that could be important for the foul play theory. remember, they had been a group of five. >> four as a posse, plus george. five. three out the door. george is still there. where is the other person? and who is that? somewhere, in between, is the story of that fourth person. >> reporter: but the attorney for one of the russian boys now says clete hyman's recollection is wrong. he insists all four boys left george's room together, which would mean there is no 4th person left to account for. still, something else in the police officer's recollection intrigues van zandt. the business about a lone voice in the cabin. >> the challenge here is this single voice. is this alleged highly intoxicated man talking to himself? or, is this perhaps george smith laid out on a bed? and this other person is still in the room of this group of four, this ones still there? >> repoer: the chief hears hat voice moving.

>> who's up moving around, opening and closing cabinet doors? what would george smith be looking for if he's opening and closing cabinet doors? moving furniture? or what would somebody else be looking for? >> reporter: likewise, van zandt thinks the couple through the other cabin wall, pat and greg lawyer's description of loud noisesis an important clue. >> what it sounds to me like is somebody is throwing things against the wall, like throwing furniture in the room against the wall or against the floor. this is not just, "let's scoot a chair across the floor." this is banging. this is moving. this is dragging. this is something that has to reverberate against the wall to make that kind of sound. >> reporter: purely speculation, what the couple hears, what they regard as this kind of violent moving about of furniture. could it be a physical fight? could it be guys exchanging blows and throwing one another around the room? >> what we're missing is, "why are you doing this to me? don't hit me again. you no good so-and-so." we're missing the profanity that might normally accompany this

type of fisticuff. now, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. and it may mean that one person was simply not capable of talking. >> reporter: as for the three russian boys and josh askin, their attorneys have said their clients did nothing wrong and are unfairly living under a cloud of suspicion. keep in mind, fbi investigators have many more interviews, photos and presumably forensic evidence than we've talked about with clint van zandt. in the meantime, the case, and the controversy surrounding it, are far from over. >> reporter: five months after george smith's mysterious death, jennifer hagel smith broke her silence about her husband's last day alive. >> we had this just great dinner, a very romantic dinner. and we were just, you know, toasting tthe future, toasting to life, and just saying, "god, we are the two luckiest kids in the world." and we kept saying that. and it'sronic now. >> reporter: but she said she couldn't reveal much about those critical hours in question the

night her husband disappeared. >> my number-one priority -- and i am going to say this again and again. -- is just, you know, doing what the fbi has told me. and, basically, you know, there's nothing that i am going to sort of release that -- that happened to me that night. i am excited in the future to be able to talk freely and openly, because that will mean that the fbi has solved their case. >> reporter: but that hasn't happened yet. the fbi's case remains open and unsolved four years after george smith went overboard, which frustrates george's parents, because they've believed all along that their son was the victim of a crime. mr. and mrs. smith, accident or murder? >> murder. >> it's murder. >> reporter: you say without any hesitancy. >> oh, there's no doubt. once we heard exactly about the blood and about the way he fell on to the -- >> the overhang. >> the overhang. and the way he fell onto the overhang, it wasn't like he fell overboard.

it was like he was dumped overboard. >> reporter: and now the smiths are battling their former daughter-in-law in court. after jennifer reached a million dollar settlement with royal caribbean in 2006, the smiths claimed she settled too cheaply and gave up chances to get more information out of the cruise line that could potentially solve the case. the smiths are now trying to get that settlement overturned, and have jennifer removed as the executor of george's estate. just the latest, sad chapter of a marriage that lasted only 11 days. the tragic voyage of mr. and mrs. smith. a trial is scheduled for next year to determine if the settlement will be thrown out and if jennifer will be removed as executor of geor smith's estate. jennifer has moved on with her life. she is engaged to be married again. for more, logon to our website, at dateline.msnbc.com.

now the latest on one of the most dramatic investment scams that rocked this nation lately. back in january, marcus schenker radioed air traffic controllers that his small plane was going down. at that moment, investigators say he strapped on a parachute and put into motion a daring plan to fake his own death and hide his double life. here is keith morrison. >> reporter: they seemed so perfect, this golden couple. he, who soared so fast and high, she who dazzled down below. their life? it was a dream come true. the plentiful money which appeared as if from air, and here from their mansion, they cared for their children,

collected fine things and lived well-earned success out loud. it could be sad on land and in the water and in the air, marcus and michelle schenker made waves, perhaps of envy, among those less lucky in life. and then, oh, yes. and then. the stage on which this bizarre play soared and then scratched is part of a story, a kind of naught call cul-de-sac. the local has a nickname for it, a cheesy reflection of a less sober time. cocktail cove. a little less frothy these days, perhaps, but once upon a time, particularly in a certain imitation chateau, it was shaken and stirred. ♪

. >> reporter: in a weekend in the summer sun, cocktail cove is a place to be. the lake is man made, as is the life. the water sports, the boating, the sense of achievement, lubricated in suntan oil, new money and an all-day happy hour. former indianapolis television personality pat carlini lives here. >> they play hard on the weekend. >> reporter: it almost gives you an idea for a tv show. >> the whole desperate housewives feel. i can totally see a reality show. the geist gals. >> reporter: there was one of those gals pat and the neighbors

kind see very often. yet everyone seemed to know who she was. michelle schenker, the attractive young wife of the well to do hot shot, who built one of the biggest houses on geist. >> reporte >> it's a nice, affluent neighborhood. >> reporter: a bit of a payton place? >> reporter: yeah. >> secret back biting going on that type of thing. >> yeah. that can be said about it. absolutely. i'm usually the one they are talking about, so -- >> reporter: what do they usually say about you? >> i don't know if it's so much about me, but more about my husband. the back strapping that went on, it wasn't that i wanted to participate with. i didn't want to be part of the. >> reporter: from the beginning? >> from the beginning. >> reporter: the beginning. she met him one summer in the early '90s while both were on summer break fr purdue university.

>> we had a unique first date. we went flying. a little scary at first. >> reporter: it soon became comfortable. they married in 1995. >> i adored him. porter: he was a young man in a hurry. he lauhed>> a career as april investment adviser. the business seemed to grow steadily. it had several names, including heritage wealth management. >> i would describe him as a financial adviser who, you know, did portfolio management for affluence individuals. he managed the business, and i managed the home. >> reporter: and that may be, but go back a few years and take a look at the heritage wealth management website. there is marcus. with what now seems an oddly

foreboding sales pitch. >> your investments are your parachute. >> reporter: and then there's michelle. >> i'm michelle schenker, chief financial officer. >> that was done, gosh, a few years ago and at the time, he did a little spot. the dialog was written by marcus. marcus wanted to create an image. >> reporter: a big company. >> to make it seem bigger than maybe it was at the time. >> reporter: michelle was really a stay-at-home mom, focused on her children, and by all accounts did a wonderful job. >> they had aall. beautiful children. >> reporter: friends, like cindy gooding say the shepgers were a perfect family. when cindy took the kids to lunch one day, she said a stranger stopped her. >> he said i have to tell you, your children are the most well

behaved children i have ever seen. i started tearing up. i was so proud of them. that's the kind of family they were. >> reporter: to some, that is. but around geist in recent years, strange stories began circulating about marcus. >> i would describe his personality --ith been described as dr. jekyll and mr. hyde. i can see that. >> reporter: tom britt, who runs the geist area newsletter and website, knew the she reschenke liked marcus. >> what i heard didn't sync up th the guy that i knew. there was a lot of scari, esn they were urban legends, to hear so many of them, you have to believe some of them are true and if any one of themre true, you think this guy is crazy. >> reporter: and as the stories get stranger and stranger, questions began to percolate in the waters much cocktail cove.

coming up, people are talking about marcus and some mysterious goings on in the neighborhood. his wife is not listening, though, not until she discovers something shocking. >> i saw him and her in the c it's time to get schooled on mcdonald's new angus third-pounders. >> reporter: when flying high at cocktail cove continues. t handle that much flavor! gazing at its crisp red onions, crinkle-cut dill pickles and hickory-smoked bacon... atop a third-pound of 100% angus beef, has made grown men cry! look away! only look directly at the angus burger... when it's securely in your hands. consider yourself schooled. next lesson: ree ways to elevate your angus game -- mcdonald's style! ba a ba ba ba!

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reporter: in an upscale neighborhood known as "cocktail cove" near indianapolis, a young investment advisor with big ambitions was making an even bigger name for himself. but it wasn't quite the reputation marcus schrenker might have wished. pat carlini lived nearby. >> it seems like he just had run-ins with one neighbor after another. >> reporter: over what? >> it could be the fact that somebody was building a house next to him, and the stone on that house would look too much like the stone on his house. >> reporter: that might sound like typical neighborhood pettiness. but to others, marcus schrenker had reputedly turned into the neighbor from hell. a pretty bad tenant, too. he rented office space at this building near his home. tom britt runs the local newsletter. >> a couple years ago, he had an argument with his then-landlord.

the next day, the guy wakes up and goes out to his dock, and his boat isn't there. and he gets a call from the fire department saying that there was a boat registered to him that had gone over the dam and had crashed, and nobody could ever pin it on marcus. all the while, marcus was living the od le with his wife michelle and their three children in their big house on the water. >> reporter: what'd he tell you about that? >> that he didn't do those things. that it's ridiculous he did those things. four years ago michelle was by marcus' side on the local news, after he sued the county sheriff'department for wrongful arrest following a dispute about one of his motorcycles. >> he grabbed me and handcuffed me. threw me to the ground right here and basically wrestled me as hard as he could. >> reporter: the sheriff's department denied any wrongdoing, and the lawsuit was settled. but on cocktail cove, there was something unsettling about

marcus' ability to grab the spotlight. >> i know they always wondered about our income and that sort of thing. i know there was a lot of talk about marcus -- >> reporter: where -- where do they get their money? >> yeah, but i just never paid much attention to it. but others did. >> he made a big splash with the plane, flying over the reservoir and buzzing people. i heard those stories.teeporr c reporter chris proffitt of nbc affiliate wthr in indianapolis has covered the area around geist for two decades. >> this was a guy that favored armani suits. he had an attractive wife.pr he had cars. he had planes. he seemed to have a really good life. i think it's become clear that marcus wanted to give the appearance of success. >> reporter: and did he ever. he had all the expensive boy toys a guy could want. to marcus, though, planes were the ultimate status symbols, and

he loved to show his off. he'd even have cameras in the cockpit. he was a regular at air shows, where he could display his pilot skills, his daredevil streak. for marcus, planes were at the very center of everything. look at the full-page ad the schrenkers did for a luxury car dealership. marcus, michelle, the lexus, the airplane. >> it was flattering that they asked us to do it. i mean, it was nice. and we did it. we may have gotten a lexus there before, and we knew the manager over there who had lived in our neighborhood. so, you know, it was no big deal. >> no big deal. >> reporter: everything about marcus schrenker and his apparent success was no big deal. he just seemed to rake it in despite a few neighborhood suspicions. there were few questions asked, few things out of place for this all- american success story of a family. there was one ood thing back in 2005.

marcus schenker turned to his wife, michelle and said we're leaving town, moving down south to atlanta. how was the move? >> it was hard. it was sort of hard on me and hard on the kids to adjust, but we did it. and it wasn't a happy time. >> reporter: the schrenkers lived in another beautiful home in a gated subdivision. it turns out, atlanta is home to thousands of pilots, and marcus made a specific pitch to them on his website. >> while your focus is on the lives of others, whose focus is on yours? your investments are your parachute. >> reporter: marcus had entry in atlanta. he already knew a pilot, charles kinney, and they became close. >> i got to hold his baby, play with his kids. we knew his family. >> reporter: some of charles' family members invested with marcus, as did pilot david smith. >> we had a lot of fun. we went skeet shooting. we went down to see the shuttle launch. so we became pretty close friends rapidly.

>> reporter: but after 18 months or so in atlanta, marcus had another surprise for michelle. >> he woke up one morning and just said, i've decided we're going to buy a lot in our old neighborhood and we're going to build a house and move back. >> reporter: before long, the schrenkers were back on cocktail cove. where did the money for the good life come from? how did his business work? >> he made the trades. he managed people's funds. but i don't know. i didn't specialize in what he di d. that was his business. my focus was not the business. my focus was our family. >> reporter: but marcus was focusing on a new incarnation of the business. heritage wealth management soon got a new name, and marcus called the man who runs the widely read newsletter covering the geist area. >> he contacted me and said i'm going through this rebranding and i want to get your input, your help. and i thought, you know, i might

get an advertiser out of it. >> reporter: and he did look at this. a four-page ad. schenker's new company was icon group. had a nice ring to it. it had offices in indianapolis and sao paulo and tokyo and london, a far flung empire. >> way he portrayed it to me was he said that they were already established businesses, and they were buying his business. and he was just going to be t ng securities el for them. >> reporter: life looked very good indeed for the schrenkers last year and, remarkably, continued to look good even as markets the world over were collapsing. and then last fall, quiet signs of trouble. referring to icon group, he sent an e-mail to a friend saying, "we have a compliance issue." another said, "i've had to take some time off for stress." and during the holidays, a close family friend got a phone call. >> i think it was christmas eve

when another investor had contacted my husband and said, "hey, something's just not right." and they did a little digging. >> reporter: christmas. joy was in the air around cocktail cove. but at the big house on the water? well, joy would not be the word. earlier, michelle schrenker had stumbled on a painful discovery. how did you find out? how did he finally tell you? >> he never really told me. i caught him. and i saw him and her, going into the condo. >> reporter: what'd you do? >> i confronted him. >> reporter: an affair. there was no denying it. a woman from the local airport in which schrenker had invested and where he spent a lot of

time. in november, michelle says, she filled out paperwork for a divorce but didn't go through with it. the kids, she says, had been looking forward to a family christmas, a vacation. where were you going to go on this family vacation? >> florida, to see his family. >> reporter: so why didn't you go? >> his parents got sick, and i said we'll just get a hotel somewhere and still go, and he said, "well, we really can't afford it." >> reporter: can't afford it? the high-flying marcus schrenker couldn't afford a brief vacation in florida? >> and i said, "okay fine." you know? and then a couple days later, ironically, key afford to go to key west. he could afford to go to key west with his girlfriend. >> reporter: this is airport surveillance video from december 29th, showing marcus and his girlfriend before leaving for

key west. and that, decided michelle, was the end. while he was away, on december 30th, 2008, she filed for divorce. the next day, new year's eve, she was upstairs. >> and my six year old came up and said, "mommy, there's a policeman that wants to talk to you. >> reporter: coming up, with investigators closing in, marcus takes flight. it was more than a sayew tawith his girlfriend. >> the air force called me and then i knew something was really wrong. >> reporter: when "dateline" continues. my parents all smoked. my grandparents smoked. i've been a long-time smoker. you know, discouragement is a big thing in quitting smoking. i'm a guy who had given up quitting. what caused me to be interested was,

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>> reporter: it was the last week in december 2008. financial advisor marcus schrenker was in key west, florida with his girlfriend. back in the indianapolis area in the neighborhood known as cocktail cove, schrenker's wife michelle was brooding about the future. the next day, new year's eve, here at the big house on the cove, wound slowly, through a gloomy afternoon. marcus gone, michelle on her own with the children. and then the youngest, a boy, called out. a policeman was at the door. >> and i said, "he wants to talk to me? what are you talking about? where's the policeman?"

and he said, "downstairs. he asked for daddy, but he wants to talk to you." and they started yelling, "mrs. schrenker, get down here right now, right now." >> reporter: in fact, several investigators had arrived, and they had a search warrant. they went through the huge house room by room. do you think he knew, when he left to go on the little vacation with his girlfriend, that he was about to get raided? >> i don't know for sure, but i felt like it. in fact, whether marcus schrenker knew it or not, regulators had been following a trail through his financial papers for the previous eight days. indiana secretary of state todd rnchg ik >> this started december 23rd for us, and it's been going at breakneck speed. so in one weeks time, we were able to get enough evidence to convince a judge to issue a warrant to go seize that property. >> reporter: according to investigators, marcus had been selling investments without a license, and they were finding,

they say, other significant evidence of wrongdoing. how much money's involved? >> we're talking about millions. but we're not talking about tens of millions. >> reporter: criminal charges had not yet been filed. but marcus knew the law was closing in. his personal problems were, too. and then it was as if time suddenly began to spin, faster and faster. marcus returned to indiana the first week in janua. he stayed with his girlfriend at this condominium complex. michelle called him about the divorce. what was his reaction? >> i think it was a surprise. and said he didn't want it. he didn't want a divorce, "please don't do this," which i found very ironic. then, on january 4th, marcus' stepfather died. he attended the funeral. but around geist reservoir and cocktail cove, the talk was about business. >> i got a voicemail on my cell phone, and it was marc, and

he said, "tom, i'm calling because something's happened to the company." >> reporter: on january 9th, marcus was hit with a half-million dollar judgement in a federal lawsuit brought by an insurance company. he'd been holding on to commissions that he should have returned to the insurer. and over recent weeks, michelle couldn't help but notice that marcus was growing increasingly agitated. >> and i would ask him what he's stressed about, and he would just say, "there's always somebody yelling at me." but he would never elaborate. >> reporter: then, on january 10th, marcus drove to alabama using a trailer to drop off a red motorcycle. then, quickly, back to indianapolis and then, on the evening of sunday, january 11th, he filed a flight plan for destin, florida. >> yeah, he told me he was going to visit his dad, and i didn't think much of it. >> reporter: that evening, airport security cameras caught marcus' pickup truck doing donuts on the snow covered

tarmac. they brought his plane out. and in his high-powered, $1.9-million piper meridian similar to this model, florida was less than three hours away. it was 6:45 eastern time when he took off. destination: infamy. michelle was home with the kids. it was around 9:00. >> i got a call from an air traffic controller from alabama, and they said they need his cell phone number. and i said, "why?" and they said, "we lost contact with him." and i said, "is everything ok?" and they said, "yeah, we just loscontacwith him, ad we're just trying to get a hold of him." and then an hour passed. and then another. and then, about 12:30 in the

morning, the air force called me and started asking me questions about who owned the plane, and then i knew something was really wrong. >> reporter: oh something was wrong, all right. dreadfully so. coming up -- >> i said do you thank marcus schenker's plane went down in northwest florida last night? >> reporter: when flying high at cocktail cove continues.

>> reporter: it was supposed to be a routine flight. or, so its ordinary flight plan advertised. on the night of sunday, january 11th, a high-performance, single-engine turboprop belonging to investment advisor, marcus schrenker, was enroute from anderson, indiana to destin, florida. marcus was at the controls. less than two hours into the flight while the plane was somewhere over northern alabama air traffic controllers received a distress call. it was marcus. in a frantic voice, he told them his windshield had imploded, that he was bleeding profusely and needed emergency help. then, nothing. controllers radioed back, "land at the nearest airport."

no response. the plane kept flying on and on and on. from new orleans, two f-15 fighter jets scrambled into the night hoping to catch up with the unresponsive plane as it hurtled towards the gulf coast and the sensitive military installations near pensacola. soon, in the florida panhandle, an emergency call came into the santa rosa county sheriff's department. it was from a military air traffic controller. >> as it started to unfold, it started becoming very obvious that this was something that was very bizarre. >> reporter: residents heard sonic booms, saw flares lighting up the sky. word was a pilot was in big trouble. later, back home in indiana, in the big house on cocktail cove, michelle schrenker was trying to comprehend what was wrong, getting calls from air traffic control and the military asking who might have been flying on marcus' plane. they wouldn't tell you why they were calling, other than that?

>> they said they were looking for him. >> reporter: they couldn't find him? >> uh-huh, so they were looking for him. and i asked what happened. and they said, "we're just looking for him. he got off the radar." >> reporter: within an hour, another call came in from the air force. >> by then, i was crying and i said, you know, "what's going on? i mean, has something happened to him?" you know, "what's going on?" and she asked if i had family there. and i said, "no, i've got three sleeping kids." >> reporter: then finally, near pensacola, florida, confirmation. in a place strangely remincent of cocktail cove, a plane had, in fact, crashed. >> i knew something was odd right away, because there were military aircraft, jets, circling ahead. >> reporter: now a ground search was on. it took nearly an hour to get to the crash site. it was marcus' plane. was marcus alive or dead?

>> somewhere in the 3:00 area, my doorbell rang and a sheriff and a colonel rang my doorbell. i mean, i just started shaking, 'cause i knew when they come to your door, it's not good. and they said, "are you mrs. schrenker?" and they said, "your husband's plane has gone down," and my knees kind of gave out underneath me. >> reporterbut th wasn't all. >> and he said, "but his body isn't in the plane, which is good, so we're still looking for him." >> reporter: no body? at could poiblyave happened? could he have been thrown from the plane? somehow survived and walked away from the crash into the swamplands of florida? >> when we got there with the dogs, we didn't locate any blood. we didn't locate any imploded windshields, such as the emergency call stated. that's when we realized that

something was definitely not right with the situatio >> reporter: as monday morning dawned, indianapolis tv reporter chris proffitt heard about the crash in florida. he called tom britt the man who runs the local newsletter. >> i said, "do you know at marcus schrenker's plane went down in northwest florida last night?" >> i knew something was up, my immediate radar went up. i said something was going on. >> he says, "this guy would fake his own death i'm positive of it." >> reporter: would he really? just where was marcus? >> i said, well, did you find him? and he sidapptlar ayend he pa parachuted out. >> reporter: marcus schenker back to work, when "dateline" continues. welcome to the now network. right now five coworkers

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>> reporter: in the early morning hours of monday, january 12th, 2009, at the big house on cocktail cove, michelle schrenker tried to focus. her estranged husband's plane, she's just been told, had crashed in a florida swamp. but the plane was empty. no marcus. >> it'd been a roller coaster. >> reporter: but hundreds of mis to the south, investigators were finally sorting out the bizarre details. those sonic booms and flares some people reported near

pensacola overnight were from the f-15 fighters which had scrambled to take a look at marcus' unresponsive plane. >> we find out from the military pilots that were up there, that when they flew along next to this aircraft, that the doors were already open. and the cockpit appeared dark and empty, they said. >> reporter: a pilotless plane? it sounded too weird, too eerie, to be true. then, more surreal news. >> the colonel got a call and i said, "well, did you find him?" and he said, "yeah, he's alive. and apparently he parachuted out." >> reporter: parachuted out? it seemed too far-fetched. but according to federal authorities the night before, at about 2,000 feet above alabama, marcus jumped out the door of his plane and pulled the rip cord.

a pilot who abandons a perfectly healthy airplane? what other conclusion but this? marcus schrenker must have tried to fake his own death. then, waiting at home, michelle got some news. 'd beespotted. >> he went to a house, and told 'em he was in a canoeing accident. and i was dumbfounded. >> reporter: but it was marcus. sopping wet from the knees down, he'd made it to a highway, hitched a ride to a motel. this picture is from a security camera there. then he took off on that red motorcycle, which he'd stashed away two days earlier, he'd stored it near the motel. and a manhunt was on. >> i didn't know if they were going to arrest him, shoot him, you know, what was going to happen. at this k.o.a. campground near tallahassee, a motorcyclist pulled in a few hours later. >> real friendly.

asked for a tent site. needed electricity. i assumed he had a laptop with him, needed internet access. >> reporter: owner, caroline hastings, said the motorcyclist went online for awhile, then began to act quite strange. >> reporter: back in indiana, tom britt was checking his messages. >> i checked my e-mail, and there was an e-mail from marcus schenker. >> reporter: there it was, an e-mail from marcus. he wrote that he really did have a window implode in flight, said he lost consciousness. said he still loved michelle and how sorry he was for treating her so terribly. he also said, "i have embarrassed my family for the last time and by the time you read this i'll be gone." so, what you think? >> well, my initial reaction was i have to assume the worst, and he's really gonna take his life. i know the walls have been caving in around him. and the first thing i do is i call the police. >> reporter: at the k.o.a. campground the next day,

caroline hastings and r husband drove by the motorcyclist's tent. >> my husband pulled up on the golf cart and noticed some red tinge on his tent that he didn't see the night before. so, he got an uneasy feeing. >> reporter: the sheriffs came then. the u.s. marshal's service too. they opened the tent. it was a ghastly sight. >> blood, lots of blood. right around the time that the ambulance was pulling in, they walked over to say, "yeah, he had sliced a wrist and they didn't think he'd make it." >> reporter: it was marcus. on the internet the day before, he'd learned his plane crashed on land, had been found, identified. if he had tried to fake his death he'd blown it. he was rushed by a flight for life helicopter to a nearby hospital. he'd almost made good on the cryptic threat in the e-mail. while marcus recovered, officials in indiana were perusing their case against him. >>i would say he's the madoff of indianapolis. >> reporter: investigators say marcus simply pocketed some of

the money he was supposed to be investing for his clients, and there was more. >> i looked at the documents, i looked at the evidence. and i thought, "wow, if these allegations are true, we've got a serious situation here." >> reporter: investigator harpenau had heard from marcus' old pilot friends in atlanta. >> when the light goes off, you realize, "oh, my god, i've been had." >> reporter: when harpenau pored through the pilot's documents, she found that marcus had taken their investments and shifted them from up with annuity to another. each time earning a handsome commission and each time passing on huge fees to his unsuspecting pilot clients. it's a practice known as churning. >> we're talking about surrender fees of hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> they'd find out their nest egg, which they've been working on for years, is dwindling. quickly. >> reporter: investigators say marcus' alleged wrongdoing is a perfect example of what's known as affinity fraud. >> you're gonna see it a lot in a bad economy.

it's not fraud by a stranger. it's fraud by a family member, a church member, someone who runs in your social circles. >> i mean all these things started coming in that i had no knowledge of. just complete and utter shock. and all these things that i had no idea about. >> reporter: it was a house of cards. >> yeah. >> reporter: and you didn't know anything? >> no. >> reporter: even around cocktail cove, no one yet seems to know the extent of marcus' alleged fraud,r how many friends have been taken in. >> it's over $100,000. >> reporter: cindy gooding was one of marcus and michelle's closest friends, godmother to their youngest child. she and her husband say even they were ripped off by marcus, the dashing young man they loved like a son. >> it's wrong. who has the right to take anything from someone else they haven't earned? that's just wrong. >> reporter: earlier this year michelle schrenker was left at the big house on the cove with

her three children. along with all of marcus' assets her assets were frozen, too, and she said she was penniless. >> i'm left holding a bag with everything. >> reporter: and whether or not it's true, you feel like maybe that was his intent. >> yes. >> reporter: but there was a bigger question: did michelle schrenker just enjoy the proceeds, or was she in her husband's alleged schemes up to r eyeballs? coming up, marcus schenker faces a judge, and a fresh interview with his wife, which has something on her mind. >> guilt by association is not always true. >> reporter: when flying high at cocktail cove continues. noaa

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get the lg neon for $29.99 here she was this past march, out in the rain, literally and figuratively. and according to her, holding the bag. michelle schenker's estranged husband, marcus, was in custody, accused of bilking clients and

trying to fake his own death. the state of indiana froze his assets, and he was ordered to pay half a million in fines and restitution to victims of his annuity schemes. michelle's assets were frozen as well. she was utterly penniless. she felt like a virtual prisoner she said here in the big house on cocktail cove. >> i had nothing. i have nothing of my own. >> reporter: so like ruth madoff, the wife of fraud king bernie madoff, michelle fought back against the idea she was a party to any fraud. >> this went to other places, not to me. i know i haven't done anything. >> reporter: a lot of people don't believe you. >> i know. >> reporter: they vilify you. they think you're lying. they think you must have been in on it. >> i don't know what else to do

but tell the truth, and that's what i'm doing. >> reporter: did you know he was in trouble with the law? >> no. >> reporter: did you know his business was tanking? >> no. >> reporter: how could she not have known? michelle says because all she could think about back then was her husband's exextramarital affair. >> my mind was occupied with keeping my marriage and family together and making sure my children were okay, because my family was which complete turmoil. i'm michelle schenker, chief financial officer of heritage wealth management. >> reporter: but years earlier, michelle seemed to deal with the firm. she says she simply read from a teleprompter. as you read from the teleprompter from the script he wrote for you did you at any point say, marcus, i don't do that stuff? >> yes, a little bit. but i just kind of go along with

it, and you think it's not hurting anything. >> she was the chief financial officer of his company. and she lid a beautiful life. >> reporter: indiana secretary of state, todd rikita. >> the ill gottenai this family lived on for years is reason to try to get the assets that are left back into those -- into the hands of those who have been hurt. >> reporter: indeed, there were some eyebrow race raising checking account records. around the holidays, including the very day she was dealing with her divorce and the day her house was raided, she cashed out more than $70,000 from the corporate account. you mention withdrawals fromback accounts, like $5,000 here, $10,000. >> they weren't withdrawals. they were transfers he asked me to make to other accounts prior to the end of the year to get bills paid. >> reporter: outside court in february, michelle cast herself

as a victim. as much of a victim as any of marcus' clients. >> the only thing my husband did was give me a title in that company. >> reporter: does it worry when you you try to go to sleep at night because of the title of cfo you could spend time in jail, lose your kids, lose everything? >> i worry about it, but i know i haven't done anything. i haven't done anything. i went in, and i paid some bills, and i had a title. i didn't act as a cfo. that is not what i did. at all. >> reporter: michelle's attorney, mary smith. >> the fact that she has the title of cfo and not the acting duties of a cfo. her duties, she went to the office for a couple of days a

week and pay bills, and go home and be a mom. >> reporter: she'll still be a mom, but not here in july, mitchel and the kids had to move out of the big house on cocktail cove. neighbor pat carlini. >> i think he has about $2 million into it. they wanted $1.6 and i think they got $1.1 million. >> reporter: a bargain. >> it was a steal to somebody. >> reporter: the proceeds will pay fleeced investors. as for michelle, we caught up with her a few weeks ago in downtown indianapolis. how are you hanging in there? >> just taking it a day at a time. >> reporter: turns out michelle wanted to talk to us again, especially about these documents. in interviews with investigators, marcus' former business partner, said when it came to michelle's chief financial officer job, "it is just like i had.

a glorified title where i was just a support person." when asked if michelle had training or experience, the whistleblower said "as for as i know, my impression of mitchel is a victim." >> yes, he said i was avictim. the same thing i've been saying all along. i paid the bills. all i did was pay the bills and come in a couple of times a week. everything i have been saying the entire time. that all i had was a glorified title like everyone else. >> reporter: it is true, according to this guy? >> according to the deposition he gave back in december and back in april. i have known they have had it for so long and i was hoping it would surface. >> reporter: and then in a written statement last week, the spokesperson for indiana's secretary of state todd rikita confirmed, officially, she is not being schargeed at this time. michelle hpes her name will be cleared. what would you say pple about a situation like in? >> i wish people wouldn't judge so quickly.

you know, guilt by association is not alwa true, and i -- so many people have been judging me based on the fact that if -- what they have read in a newspaper. >> reporter: for marcus schenker, however, it's another story. last week he was sentenced to more than four years in prison after he pleaded guilty of crashing his plane intellige intelligentally and making a fake distress call. he apologized to his family, air traffic controllers and the homeowners in the area where his anean crashed. to this day i can't believe i could do something so reckless and selfish he told the judge. and he'll be moved to indianapolis to face the fraud charges on top of the two he already faced. they flew so high, and then it all came crashing down.

you know him probably better than anybody, in spite of the lies. what happened to him? >> i wish i knew. i don't know. >> reporter: did he want too much? were his ambitions too big? >> i can only guess. trying to fill holes. i don't know. because it sure isn't buying happiness. >> for the latest, log on to our website, dateline.msnbc.com. that's all for this edition of "dateline friday." we'll be back again on sunday,