The fugitive hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III surrendered to law enforcement officials on Wednesday, ending a manhunt that began shortly after he faked his suicide on the day that he was to report to prison in Ayer, Mass.

Mr. Israel, who disappeared June 9, surrendered in Southwick, Mass., at 9:15 a.m., a spokeswoman for the marshals said.

He was talking to his mother on the phone when he walked into the lobby of the local police station and surrendered to the authorities, a spokeswoman for the Southwick Police Department said. He was kept briefly in a holding cell in the Southwick station and was later by marshals to the federal courthouse in Springfield, Mass.

Marshals from the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force in Illinois had been in "close contact" with Mr. Israel's mother, Ann R. Israel, according to Carolyn Gwathmey, a spokeswoman for the marshals.

"They were talking to her right before he surrendered," Ms. Gwathmey said.

Southwick is along the Massachusetts-Connecticut border, just southwest of Springfield, Mass.

Mr. Israel was scheduled to begin serving his 20-year sentence on June 9, when he was supposed to turn himself into Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer, which is west of Boston and holds inmates requiring long-term medical or mental health care. Mr. Israel suffers from severe back pain, according to court records, and has had a long battle with an addiction to prescription painkillers. At the time of his disappearance, he was scheduled for the latest in a series of operations on his spine.

On the day that he was to report, Mr. Israel's abandoned GMC Envoy was found along a shoulder of the Bear Mountain Bridge near the Hudson River with the message "suicide is painless" written in dust on the hood. The keys and a bottle of pills were still in the car.

When Mr. Israel's body failed to turn up and the message turned out to be the theme song of "M*A*S*H," the authorities began to suspect he was on the run.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Israel's girlfriend, Debra Ryan, was charged with aiding and abetting his flight and was taken into custody in White Plains. She was released later on $75,000 bail.

According to the complaint filed in that case, Ms. Ryan helped Mr. Israel pack up a recreational vehicle, attaching a motor scooter to it, and then accompanying him in her car while he drove the recreational vehicle to a rest area near Interstate 684 early on the morning of June 9.

After leaving the vehicle there, according to a complaint, she drove him back to their home in Armonk, N.Y.

Shortly after noon on June 9, Mr. Israel's abandoned GMC Envoy was found.

A earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the city where the federal medical center is located. It is Ayer, Mass., not Ayers.