Missing Kayaker Who Faked His Own Death Told Investigators How He Did It, Sheriff Says

GREEN LAKE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer so he could abandon his wife and three children has been communicating daily from Eastern Europe with police, even telling them how he did it, but has not committed to returning home, a sheriff said Thursday.
Ryan Borgwardt has been talking with police since Nov. 11, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said at a news conference. The sheriff showed a video that Borgwardt sent police that day. Police don’t know exactly where he is, Podoll said, but it was somewhere in Eastern Europe.
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 to show the inside, but mostly showed just a door and bare walls.
“I’m safe and secure, no problem,” Borgwardt said. “I hope this works.”
Borgwardt gave police details about how he faked his death and fled, Podoll said. He told police that he overturned his kayak and dumped his phone in Green Lake, paddled an inflatable boat to shore, and rode an electric bike through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. That’s a distance of about 70 miles (110 kilometers). 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 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.”
Podoll suggested Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance, but so far no counts have been filed. 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?”
But whether Podoll returns, the sheriff said, is “on his own free will.”
Borgwardt’s disappearance was first investigated as a possible drowning after he went kayaking on Green Lake, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee. 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 police speaking with Borgwardt last week, he had not been heard from in three months. On the night of Aug. 11, Borgwardt 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. An angler later discovered Borgwardt’s fishing rod.
Investigators initially speculated that Borgwardt’s kayak capsized and he didn’t have a life jacket. 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.
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Police said the analysis of a laptop revealed a digital trail that showed Borgwardt planned to head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators.
Police said the laptop’s hard drive had been replaced and the browsers had been cleared the day Borgwardt disappeared. 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 $375,000 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 a Russian-speaking woman who connected them with Borgwardt. It’s unclear whether she is the woman in Uzbekistan.
Podell said Borgwardt has an apartment wherever he is, but the sheriff wasn’t sure how he was supporting himself.