Wisconsin fake drowning: Man misled family, police to meet online lover; jailed

Ryan Borgwardt (Picture credit: AP)

A Wisconsin father who faked his drowning in a lake to escape his family and begin a new life overseas with a woman he met online has been sentenced to 89 days in jail, matching the number of days he was presumed dead.Ryan Borgwardt, 45, appeared in Green Lake County Circuit Court on Tuesday and pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour charge of obstructing an officer. Judge Mark T Slate imposed the sentence immediately, rejecting a plea deal that had recommended 45 days. “He obstructed law enforcement for a total of 89 days,” Slate said, adding that the punishment should serve as a deterrent to others, as per news agency AP.Borgwardt was first declared missing on August 12, 2024, after telling his wife he was kayaking on Green Lake, about 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Investigators initially treated the case as a drowning, finding his overturned kayak, life jacket, and personal belongings in the water. A 58-day search involving sonar scanners and divers failed to locate his body. According to prosecutors, he deliberately capsized the kayak, discarded his phone and wallet, then cycled overnight to Madison before travelling through Toronto and Paris en route to Georgia, where he settled with the woman he had been corresponding with. Authorities later uncovered he had obtained a new passport, taken out a life insurance policy, and even reversed a vasectomy as part of his plan. “His entire plan to fake his death to devastate his family in order to serve his own selfish desires hinged on him dying in the lake and selling his death to the world,” district attorney Gerise LaSpisa said in court, as per AP. She added that Borgwardt transferred money overseas and professed love to the woman, with whom he rented an apartment and found a job.The ruse unravelled in October 2024, when digital forensics of a laptop revealed his online communications and foreign bank transfers. By November, investigators had traced him abroad and persuaded him to return to Wisconsin, where he was charged in December. Borgwardt last week repaid $30,000 in restitution to cover the cost of the search operation, according to the New York Times.In court, Borgwardt expressed remorse and said, “I deeply regret the actions that I did that night and all the pain that I caused my family and friends.” His lawyer Erik Johnson said his client had returned voluntarily despite knowing he could not have been extradited from Georgia on a misdemeanour charge.His wife of 22 years later divorced him. Prosecutors said while he may now be punished, “the destruction to his family can never be undone.”