A globetrotting episode that generated scandalous headlines last fall began with a family trip to church. Ryan Borgwardt, a 45-year-old carpenter from Watertown was reported missing by his wife after failing to return home from an August kayaking trip to Green Lake.
At first it appeared that the father of three had drowned in a tragic accident, and for weeks law enforcement and volunteers conducted an extensive search utilizing drones, radar, boats and search parties.
In early October, the case took a strange twist when authorities giving it a second look found that Borgwardt’s passport had been checked by Canadian officials two days after he went missing.
Analysis of his laptop revealed he had taken out a life insurance policy, set up a foreign bank account and chatted online with a woman from Uzbekistan. Borgwardt, it turned out, had faked his death and fled the country. This, according to authorities, was his journey.
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Watertown
The morning of Sunday, Aug. 11, Borgwardt went to church with his wife of 22 years and three teenage children. Afterward, he gathered some supplies at home, then took his van and a trailer to his woodworking shop and loaded up his kayak, an inflatable raft and an e-bike he had secretly bought weeks earlier. In Oshkosh, Borgwardt bought more supplies at a Walmart, stopped by a friend’s house for a bit, then began to disappear.
Green Lake
Borgwardt drove 25-30 miles to Dodge Memorial County Park on Green Lake, arriving around 10 p.m., stashing the bike and paddling the kayak out into the water. At 10:39 p.m., he sent his last text to his wife, saying he was heading to shore. He inflated a small raft, threw his phone and tackle box into the lake, then sank his kayak and paddled the raft to shore, wading through muck and cattails onto land and the waiting bike. Overnight, Borgwardt pedaled some six hours and 70 miles to Madison, mostly on back roads.
Madison > Toronto
That morning, Borgwardt ditched the
bike and some clothes at a park, then walked for about 45 minutes to the Dutch Mill Park & Ride on the city’s southeast side, arriving around 9:15 a.m. There, he boarded a Greyhound bus to Toronto’s airport, a 21-hour route with major stops in Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit. At the bus’s crossing into Canada, border agents found Borgwardt suspicious and separated him from other passengers for questioning but eventually scanned his passport and let him through.
Paris > Uzbekistan (Probably)
At Toronto Pearson International Airport, Borgwardt used a Western Union card to buy a ticket to Paris – a flight of 7 hours and 20 minutes. From there, he switched planes to fly to a “country in Asia,” according to a criminal complaint; authorities have declined to identify the country, but it is widely believed to be Uzbekistan. He arrived after more than three straight days of travel with about $5,500 in cash in his pocket. He spent a couple of days in a hotel – an apparent rendezvous with the woman he had met on the internet.
Georgia
If Borgwardt was in Uzbekistan, it appears his final destination was the country of Georgia. After searching his computer, a sheriff’s deputy emailed Borgwardt on Nov. 8. The jig was up. “Everything hinged on me dying in that lake,” Borgwardt told authorities. Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll has said that their communications with Borgwardt had been “pulling at his heartstrings,” appealing to Borgwardt’s fatherhood and urging him to return and “clean up the mess he has created.”
Wisconsin
Borgwardt returned to Wisconsin on Dec. 10 and surrendered himself to the Green Lake Sheriff’s Department. He is charged with obstructing an officer, which has a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail. Borgwardt’s case was pending at press time, but he had been released from jail after posting a $500 signature bond. Borgwardt’s wife filed for divorce on Dec. 12, citing an “irretrievably broken” marriage.
