For months, it was believed that Ryan Borgwardt drowned in a lake in an unfortunate paddling accident.
But authorities now say they believe the missing Wisconsin husband and father of three faked his death so he could flee to Eastern Europe.
The last time Borgwardt’s wife heard from him was Aug. 11, when he told her he was finishing canoeing at Green Lake and was heading to the beach. He never returned home and the next day he was reported missing to the police.
While searching the lake, cops found the 44-year-old’s overturned kayak with a life jacket attached to it. They also found his car and a trailer nearby, and in the following days, a fisherman discovered his fishing rod.
Search and rescue teams scoured the lake for more than 50 days, believing his kayak had capsized while he was not wearing a flotation device. Divers searched the lake several times and sophisticated sonar equipment was brought in, as well as cadaver dogs, but Borgwardt’s body never turned up.
Green Lake Mayor Mark Budol said in a news conference late last week that the entire lake was searched over the course of eight weeks.
“On October 7th, I got my staff together — the three detectives and my chief deputy — and we talked, and we said, ‘We have to Go in a different directionPodol told reporters last Friday.
“We don’t know where it is, but it’s not in our lake.”
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From there they began looking into Borgwardt’s personal life.
In early October, Podol’s administration learned that Canadian law enforcement had run Borgwardt’s name through their databases the day after he was reported missing. The press release did not say why his name was published or provide any other details about the circumstances.
This image from WKOW video shows Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Budol speaking at a news conference on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, about authorities believing a Wisconsin man faked a drowning this summer so he could abandon his family and flee to Eastern Europe.
WKOW via AP
Further investigation revealed that he had reported his passport lost or stolen, and that he had obtained a new passport in May. Al-Sharif said that his family easily found his original passport.
An analysis of a laptop — the statement did not say who — revealed a digital trail showing Borgwardt was planning to head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators.
The laptop’s hard drive was replaced and the browsers were wiped clean the day Borgwardt disappeared, Podol said in the news release. Investigators found passport photos, inquiries about transferring money to foreign banks, and communications with a woman from Uzbekistan. They also discovered that Borgwardt also took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.
“At this time we believe Ryan is alive and likely in Eastern Europe,” Podol said in the statement.
During Friday’s press conference, Podol sent a direct message to Borgwardt.
“The most important thing for us is to know that you are safe,” he said. “We can talk about all this and we can work things out.”
The sheriff told ABC News this week that he was “Shocked” by the turn of events.
“It was unbelievable that we would have a situation like this where there was a party In fact they staged his death“.
The sheriff’s office said authorities hope to pursue reimbursement for search expenses and are “looking into possible charges,” but described it as a “work in progress.”
Owner Bruce’s Legacy, a nonprofit that specializes in recovering drowning victims and spent hours searching Green Lake extensively and scouring sonar data and images, called Borgwardt’s search “disheartening.”
Keith Cormican started the company in honor of his brother Bruce, a firefighter who drowned while searching for a drowning victim in 1995.
“You meet all kinds of people in the world, and I think this guy He went to extremes in faking his disappearance“It’s the first time,” Cormican told The Associated Press. “It’s definitely cost us a lot of grief, a lot of money, repairs and equipment. I just hope it comes forward sooner rather than later so the family can move on.”
— With files from The Associated Press
&Copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
