A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children to go to Eastern Europe is 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. No charges were listed.
The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday in a social media post 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.
Borgwardt has been talking with authorities since November 11 after disappearing for three months, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said at a news conference earlier last month. The sheriff later showed a video that Borgwardt had sent the sheriff’s office that day. “The great news is we know that he is alive and well,” Podoll said. “The bad news is we don’t know where Ryan exactly is, and he has not yet decided to return home.”
"I’m safe and secure, no problem"
Borgwardt, wearing an orange T-shirt and not smiling, looked directly into the camera in the video, which appears to have been taken on his phone. Borgwardt said he was in his apartment and briefly panned the camera but mostly showed just a door and bare walls. “I’m safe and secure, no problem,” Borgwardt said. “I hope this works.” Borgwardt told authorities he fled because of “personal matters,” the sheriff said. Podoll did not elaborate. Borgwardt told authorities he travelled about 80 kilometres from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone in the lake and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He told authorities he picked that lake because it’s the deepest in Wisconsin at 237 feet.
After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 110 kilometres through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. From there, he took a bus to Detroit, then boarded a bus to Canada and got on a plane there, the sheriff said. Police were still verifying Borgwardt’s description of what happened, Podoll said.
The sheriff suggested Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance, but so far no counts have been filed. The sheriff’s office said the search for Borgwardt’s body, which lasted more than a month, cost at least $35,000. Podoll said that Borgwardt told authorities that he didn’t expect the search to last more than two weeks. Whether Borgwardt returns will be up to his “free will,” Podoll said. Borgwardt’s biggest concern about returning is how the community will react, the sheriff said. “He thought his plan was going to pan out, but it didn’t go the way he had planned,” the sheriff said. “And so now we’re trying to give him a different plan to come back.”
The sheriff said authorities "keep pulling at his heartstrings" to return home. “Christmas is coming,” Podoll said. "And what better gift could your kids get than to be there for Christmas?"
How did investigators know about his fake death claim?
Borgwardt's disappearance was first investigated as a possible drowning after he went kayaking on Green Lake, about 160 kilometres northwest of Milwaukee, in August. But subsequent clues — including that he obtained a new passport three months before he disappeared — led investigators to speculate that he faked his death to meet up with a woman he had been communicating with in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia.
The sheriff declined to comment when asked what he knew about the woman, but he said police contacted Borgwardt “through a female that spoke Russian.”
Prior to the sheriff’s office speaking with Borgwardt last week, he had not been heard from since the night of August 11 when he texted his wife in Watertown shortly before 11 p.m., saying he was headed to shore after kayaking. Deputies located his vehicle and trailer near the lake. They also found his overturned kayak with a life jacket attached to it in an area where the lake’s waters run more than 200 feet (60 meters) deep. The search for his body went on for more than 50 days, with divers on several occasions exploring the lake.
In early October, the sheriff’s department learned that Canadian law enforcement authorities had run Borgwardt’s name through their databases the day after he was reported missing. Further investigation revealed that he had reported his passport lost or stolen and had obtained a new one in May.
Borgwardt withdrew $3,75,000 life insurance policy
The sheriff’s office said the analysis of a laptop revealed a digital trail that showed Borgwardt planned to head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators. The laptop’s hard drive had been replaced and the browsers had been cleared the day Borgwardt disappeared, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators found passport photos, inquiries about moving money to foreign banks, and communication with a woman from Uzbekistan.
They also discovered that he took out a $3,75,000 life insurance policy in January, although the policy was for his family and not him, the sheriff said. Authorities tried every phone number and email address on the laptop in “a blitz fashion,” Podoll said. They eventually reached the Russian-speaking woman, who connected them with Borgwardt. It’s unclear whether she is the woman in Uzbekistan. Podoll said he wasn’t sure how Borgwardt was supporting himself but speculated he has a job: “He’s a smart guy.”
(With inputs from agency)
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