A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer and left his wife and three children has been located in Eastern Europe and is communicating with law enforcement, but he has not committed to returning home, authorities said.
Ryan Borgwardt began communicating with authorities Nov. 11, after they tracked him down, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said Thursday. The sheriff showed a video that Borgwardt sent police that day from an undisclosed location.
The sheriff said no charges have been filed and that he doesn’t think they will be necessary while authorities “keep pulling at his heartstrings” to come home.
Here are some things to know about Borgwardt and his disappearance:
Who is he?
Borgwardt, who is in his mid-40s, lived with his wife and children in Watertown, a city of about 23,000 people northwest of Milwaukee that is known for its German heritage, parochial schools and two dams on the Rock River.
When did he disappear?
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The sheriff has said his department was told Aug. 12 that Borgwardt had not been heard from since the previous day, when he traveled about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home to Green Lake to go kayaking. Borgwardt’s wife said he texted her at 10:49 p.m. to say he was heading to shore.
How was the search conducted?
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Deputies found Borgwardt’s vehicle and trailer near Green Lake. His kayak was discovered on the lake, overturned and with a life jacket attached to it, in an area where the water is about 200 feet (60 meters) deep. An angler later found Borgwardt’s fishing rod. The search for his body continued for more than 50 days, with divers scouring the lake on several occasions.
How did authorities find Borgwardt?
Clues — including that he reported his passport lost or stolen and obtained a new one a few months before he disappeared — led investigators to speculate that he made it appear that he had drowned to go meet a woman he had been communicating with in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Podoll declined to comment when asked what he knew about the woman, but he said law enforcement contacted Borgwardt “through a female that spoke Russian.”
His identity was confirmed through asking him questions that the sheriff said only Borgwardt would know and by a video he made and sent them Nov. 11. He has spoken with someone from the sheriff’s department almost daily since. However Podoll said Thursday that Borgwardt’s exact location in Eastern Europe was not known.
Why are U.S. authorities struggling to pinpoint his location?
Podoll said Chief Deputy Matt Vande Kolk has been the one communicating with Borgwardt and their conversations have all taken place via email. Vande Kolk told The Associated Press in an email Friday that authorities are trying to determine Borgwardt’s exact location. But that might not be easy even with modern surveillance technology.
Scott Shackelford, executive director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research at Indiana University, said authorities should be able to locate Borgwardt through his device’s internet protocol address, a unique number assigned to every device connected to the internet. But he said it’s very easy to mask an IP address and make it appear as if the device is in one country when it’s really in another. Software exists that can route your IP address across the globe, Shackelford said. Police may not have the expertise, the manpower or any interest in digging through multiple layers of cyber deception, he said.
What was in the video Borgwardt sent to law enforcement?
Wearing an orange T-shirt, Borgwardt, unsmiling, looks directly at the camera, apparently filmed on a cellphone. Borgwardt says he is in his apartment and briefly pans the camera, but mostly shows a door and bare walls. “I’m safe and secure, no problem,” he says.
How did he fake his death?
Borgwardt has told authorities he overturned his kayak on the lake, dumped his phone in it and paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He told authorities he chose Green Lake because it is Wisconsin’s deepest at 237 feet (over 72 meters). He then rode an electric bike stashed by a boat launch about 70 miles (110 kilometers) through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. From there, by Borgwardt’s account, he traveled by bus to Detroit and then Canada, where he boarded a plane. Police are still verifying Borgwardt’s description of what happened, Podoll said.
Why did he do it?
Borgwardt faked his death and fled because of “personal matters,” thinking it was the right thing to do, the sheriff said. Investigators found that he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January for his family. “He was just going to try and make things better in his mind, and this was the way it was going to be,” Podoll said.
What’s next?
Borgwardt has not yet decided to return home, and if he does it will be of his own free will, according to Podoll. Deputies are stressing to him the importance of returning home and cleaning up the mess he made. The sheriff suggested that Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance, but so far no counts have been filed. The search for Borgwardt, which lasted more than a month, is said to have cost at least $35,000. Borgwardt told authorities that he did not expect the search to last more than two weeks, Podoll said, and his biggest concern is how the community will react to him if he returns.
