Ryan Borgwardt (Photo courtesy Green Lake County Sheriff's Office)
GREEN LAKE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Ryan Borgwardt, a Wisconsin man who allegedly faked his death and went to Europe, now faces a charge of obstructing an officer.
Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said Borgwardt arrived on U.S. soil Tuesday and was booked into the Green Lake County Jail. He appeared in court Wednesday, where a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. He was released from jail on a $500 signature bond Wednesday afternoon.
“We brought a dad back, on his own accord,” Podoll said during a news conference Wednesday. The sheriff also added that Borgwardt was being cooperative and believed he felt compelled to return home for family.
According to the criminal complaint, Borgwardt confirmed to law enforcement he intentionally placed physical evidence in an attempt to fake his death. He told investigators he had been looking at weather reports, planning when he was going to stage his disappearance.
RYAN stated on August 11, 2024, he woke up in the morning and went to church with his family. After church he came home and went to his shop to prepare. RYAN stated that at some point he did go home for a little while and load up a few more things.
Preparations included purchasing an e-bike and a life jacket, a hat and a backpack.
Borgwardt said he got to Green Lake around 10 p.m. He parked his van near Dodge Memorial Park and stashed the e-bike, helmet and backpack in the tree line near his van. He took his tacklebox, fishing pole, net, duffel bag and inflatable raft and got in his kayak.
RYAN stated he had to come up with a plausible story how he got out into the middle of the lake… During the interview RYAN made multiple comments that he had to make this believable so that everyone, including law enforcement, would think he drowned in the lake. RYAN stated that once he got out to where he thought the deepest part was, he tossed the phone in the lake. RYAN began inflating the raft and hopped in the raft. RYAN then flipped over the kayak.
Borgwardt took the e-bike to Madison and from there took a bus to Toronto, Canada. The complaint describes how he had issues getting through customs without a driver’s license, saying Borgwardt felt like the Canadian Border Patrol “were suspicious of him.”
He had no working phone at this point because it had died “after he sent a message to [the adult female he was going to meet with].”
Borgwardt flew to Paris, then boarded a flight to a country in Asia. It was there the adult female he was meeting came to pick him up, and the pair spent a few days together at a hotel. Investigators say he ultimately ended up living in the country of Georgia.
RYAN made comments that he had spent a great deal of time researching how to disappear… RYAN stated that he researched other individuals that had successfully disappeared recently… He researched lake deaths and researched how deep a body has to be without resurfacing. RYAN research a lot of other things in regard to his disappearance as well, such as travel, how to take money over to another country, and different ways he could leave the country with leaving a minimum number of clues as possible. RYAN stated, “everything hinged on me dying in the lake.” RYAN also stated the “whole idea was to sell the death.”
The criminal complaint says Borgwardt “knew at some point” officials discovered he was not dead, but he “wanted to make that as long of a time as possible.”
“RYAN stated even if we found out that he was not deceased, he wanted to add as many layers as he possibly could so that he could not be found or tracked,” the complaint states.
Borgwardt would check news reports periodically while he was out of the country. He expected authorities to give up the search in Green Lake after a few weeks, and when he received an email from the sheriff’s office, his “heart hit the floor.”
The complaint goes on to say that authorities were able to recover from his laptop a photo of the woman he went to Europe to meet, and “knew that he made a mistake, the one mistake that he couldn’t make.”
Podoll would not say what investigators may have said to Borgwardt in their communications to make him want to return to Wisconsin.
The criminal complaint does not specifically cite why Borgwardt chose to stage his death and leave the United States.
Borgwardt was reported missing in August after a kayaking trip on Green Lake. For months, local, state, and federal authorities searched for the man they originally thought drowned.
Then, in November, sheriff’s officials made the shocking announcement that they believe Borgwardt faked his death and traveled to Europe after communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan.
The runaway sent a video to the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 11 to prove his was alive and safe and wasn’t being held against his will.
Green Lake County is seeking restitution of $35,000 to $40,000.
In communications with Borgwardt, Podoll said he expressed remorse for wasting the county’s resources and time in searching for him.
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