A Wisconsin man who officials say faked his own drowning roughly four months ago and fled to Eastern Europe – leaving his wife and three children — has willingly returned to the U.S. and turned himself in.
According to Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll, the man – Ryan Borgwardt — came back on his own because of his family, but remained tight-lipped on why Borgwardt left, and where exactly he’s been for the past four months. Borgwardt, 45, landed in the U.S. on Tuesday and was being held at the county jail, pending a court appearance. The sheriff said his office has recommended a number of charges, including obstruction of justice.
Sheriff Podoll said Borgwardt began communicating with authorities on Nov. 11 after disappearing but hadn’t committed to returning to Wisconsin, telling authorities that he faked his death because of “personal matters.” Borgwardt – an experienced kayaker – had told authorities in mid-August he traveled about 50 miles from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore, saying he picked that lake because it’s the deepest in Wisconsin. After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 80 miles through the night to Madison, Wisconsin where he boarded a bus to Detroit before eventually crossing the Canadian border and flying to Europe. Borgwardt took out a $375,000 life insurance policy back in January (which authorities state was intended to help his family) and had transferred funds to a foreign bank account prior to his disappearance and changed his email while he communicated with a woman in Uzbekistan.
The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said the search for Borgwardt’s body went on for seven weeks with the help of trained volunteers at a cost of at least $35,000, in which they only discovered the man’s kayak and a tackle box containing a set of keys, a wallet and his license. Officials eventually uncovered evidence that Borgwardt had fled to Europe via Canada.
The sheriff’s office said in communications with Borgwardt, they “expressed the importance of his decision to return home and clean up the mess that he has created”. They added that Borgwardt has admitted regret for how he has hurt his family and “also feels bad about the amount of hours that we have put in the community.”
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