Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled to Eastern Europe is in custody, online records show
GREEN LAKE, Wis. — 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 Tuesday afternoon, according to the Victim Information and Notification Everyday system, a service that provides information to crime victims, such as the status of a person’s prison sentence. No costs are mentioned.
The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post Tuesday that a news conference would be held Wednesday morning to update the Borgwardt case. The post stated that no further information would be provided until then.
A person who answered the phone at the sheriff’s office Tuesday evening declined to confirm whether Borgwardt was in custody. County jail officials did not immediately return a message Tuesday evening.
Last month, Sheriff Mark Podoll said Borgwardt began communicating with authorities on Nov. 11 after disappearing for three months, but had not agreed to return to Wisconsin. Podoll said police “wrought his heart” to come home. He suggested that Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance.
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 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 chose that lake because it is the deepest in Wisconsin.
After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bicycle about 70 miles to Madison overnight, the sheriff said. From there, he said he took a bus to Detroit, then hopped on a bus to Canada and boarded a plane.
The sheriff said at the time that investigators were working to verify Borgwardt’s description of what happened.
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 Borgwardt told authorities he did not expect the search to last more than two weeks.