Ryan Borgwardt, Wisconsin kayaker who faked own drowning death to live with European lover, arrested as a press conference is to be held. No listed charges. Obstruction of investigation charge previously alluded along with recovery of $35K searching for missing man who abandoned wife and three kids for new woman.
A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning death only to then leave his wife and three children to go to live in Eastern Europe after striking up an alleged dalliance with a foreign woman on the net, is now in police custody, online records show.
Ryan Borgwardt, 45, was booked into the Green Lake County Jail on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Victim Information and Notification Everyday system, a service that provides information to crime victims such as a person’s jail custody status. Of note, no charges had been filed.
Faked death for ‘personal matters’
The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a Facebook release that a news conference would be held Wednesday morning to update the Borgwardt case. The post said no further information would be provided until then.
The Wisconsin husband and father’s arrest follows Sheriff Mark Podoll saying last month that Borgwardt of Watertown, reaching out to authorities on November 11 after disappearing for three months. At the time, the Sheriff said the missing Wisconsin man who was urged to return to the United States for his family sake hadn’t committed to returning.
While Borgwardt left of his own will, under pretence, the man faced no charges. Nevertheless Podoll suggested Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance if he failed to return to Wisconsin.
Borgwardt told authorities last month that he faked his death because of ‘personal matters,’ the sheriff said.
He told them that in mid-August he traveled about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He said he picked that lake because it’s the deepest in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin husband who abandoned wife and 3 kids moral dilemma
After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 70 miles (110 kilometers) through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. From there, he said he took a bus to Detroit, then boarded a bus to Canada and got on a plane.
Prior to his abrupt disappearance, Borgwardt had ‘celebrated’ his 22nd wedding anniversary in July 2024 with wife, Emily.
The sheriff said at the time that investigators were working to verify Borgwardt’s description of what happened.
Through Borgwardt’s mistress, the Sheriff’s Office was able to get in contact with the father-of-three and asked him to answer questions only he would know and to film a video of himself, which he did.
In the November video, Borgwardt – who has not contacted his family since his disappearance – showed off his apartment, telling officers: ‘I am safe, secure, no problems.’
The sheriff’s office has said the search for Borgwardt’s body, which lasted more than a month, cost at least $35,000. The sheriff said that Borgwardt told authorities that he hadn’t expect the search to ‘last more than two weeks.’
It remained unclear if Borgwardt was now on the hook for the amount after public resources were expended on discovering the whereabouts of the missing man after authorities initially believing they were involved in a recovery of body mission.
It would only be later that authorities, began to investigate further after failing to find the missing man’s body that they discovered that the husband and father had concocted an elaborate rouse to get out of maintaining his responsibilities to his wife and three children. And seek out an alternative life on the other side of the world.
Before his disappearance, Borgwardt had changed all the email addresses linked to his bank accounts and moved money to a foreign bank account.
