AP
June 17, 2008
A federal marshal ruled out suicide yesterday in the disappearance of a missing hedge-fund swindler whose car was found abandoned on a bridge and predicted the fugitive would be caught because "we always get our man."
Samuel Israel III disappeared last week hours before he was supposed to start a 20-year federal prison sentence for bilking investors in his Bayou hedge funds out of $450 million. His sentence, handed down two months ago, included paying back $300 million.
Investigators doubted a suicide almost from the moment they found Israel's 2006 GMC Envoy on the Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River on June 9, though the ominous message "Suicide is Painless" was scrawled into the dust and pollen on its hood.
"We're ruling out a suicide and considering it a fugitive investigation," US Marshal Joseph Guccione said yesterday. "Like all fugitive cases, we're tracking every lead."
