Kayaker accused of faking his own death was arrested and is in U.S. custody

The husband and father of three accused of staging a kayaking accident to fake his death, abandon his family and start a new life has returned to the United States and been arrested after sheriff’s investigators turned his alleged gambit into a guilt trip.

Ryan Borgwardt, 45, was charged Wednesday with obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine, a day after he turned himself in to the Green County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin and was arrested, according to authorities and court records. During Borgwardt’s court appearance Wednesday, Green Lake County Circuit Court Judge Mark Slate entered a not guilty plea for Borgwardt and gave him a personal recognizance bond in exchange for Borgwardt’s promise to return for future court appearances.

Borgwardt did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

Borgwardt’s arrest is the most recent twist in a bizarre saga that started in August when he didn’t return from a Sunday kayaking trip to Green Lake, which spans some 7,600 acres and reaches 220-foot depth in some spots. His disappearance sparked a search that turned up his kayak, vehicle and driver’s license, but despite weeks of looking, rescuers didn’t recover his body. Instead, investigators determined he had faked his death, announcing their findings Nov. 8 at a news conference.

At the same time, sheriff’s investigations emailed Borgwardt a message that included a photo of a woman he’d gone to meet, one with whom he’d been secretly communicating for months. His “heart hit the floor … and knew that he made a mistake,” according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Borgwardt started communicating with the investigators, a back-and-forth that would continue for more than a month and during which he would tell them about his plans and how they had all unraveled, according to the complaint.

Borgwardt told investigators he had spent months planning, the complaint states. In January, he allegedly took out a $375,000 life insurance policy. He also allegedly researched how to disappear, stage a death and make money in other countries.

“Everything hinged on me dying in the lake,” Borgwardt told investigators, according to the complaint. The “whole idea was to sell the death.”

Around Aug. 8, with the stage set, Borgwardt checked the weather forecast, noting Sunday looked promising, which would allow him to more easily carry out the part of his plan that required him to travel long distances by bicycle, the complaint states.

On Aug. 11, he attended church with his family and then returned home to prepare, loading up an e-bicycle he had bought a few weeks earlier and stashed in his shop, according to the complaint. Worried about surveillance cameras, he allegedly pulled his trailer to the building so they wouldn’t capture footage of the secret bike.

After buying a hat and backpack at Walmart and visiting a friend’s house, Borgwardt arrived at Green Lake about 10 p.m., the complaint states. He allegedly dodged security checks; stashed the e-bike, helmet and backpack in some trees; and then kayaked into the lake.

Borgwardt eventually went to what he thought was the deepest part of the lake, tossed his phone into the water, blew up an inflatable raft and then transferred to that vessel before flipping over his kayak to make it look like it had capsized in an accident, the complaint alleges. For good measure, he also tossed his fishing pole and tackle box, which had his wallet and keys in it, the complaint states.

After making it to shore, Borgwardt hopped on his e-bike and peddled through the night, using back roads to travel the roughly 70 miles to Madison, swapping out the bike’s battery for a spare he had in reserve, according to the complaint. During his alleged trip, he noted when the clock hit 5 a.m., the time his wife normally woke up.

“He was worried because now things were in motion and there was no going back,” the complaint states.

Once in the Madison area, Borgwardt allegedly ditched the e-bike, some clothes and the inflatable raft at a park, then walked to a Greyhound stop where he caught a bus that took him through Chicago and Detroit before heading to the Canadian border. There, Canadian authorities separated him from the rest of the passengers because, while he produced a passport, he had no driver’s license, the complaint states. Despite their suspicions, they ultimately let him into the country, according to the complaint.

As planned, Borgwardt arrived at the Toronto airport, where he used a Western Union card to buy an Air France ticket and flew to Paris, the complaint states. While in flight, he allegedly fired up his computer to check if there was any news back home.

“He did remember seeing something about the missing kayaker and believes that his plan had worked,” the complaint alleges.

Upon landing in Paris, Borgwardt boarded another flight and eventually made it to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where the woman he had been communicating with for months picked him up, the complaint states. They stayed at a hotel for a couple of days, it adds.

As the weeks passed, Borgwardt checked every couple of days for news back in Wisconsin, sometimes using a VPN to hide his location, according to the complaint. He assumed sheriff’s investigators would search for his body for a couple of weeks and then give up, it states.

Then came the email from the sheriff’s office that made Borgwardt’s heart drop and the Nov. 8 news conference during which Podoll publicly announced that Borgwardt had staged his death because “he felt this was the right thing to do.”

“He was going to just try to make things better, in his mind,” the sheriff said as he pleaded with Borgwardt to contact his family.

Borgwardt eventually sent authorities a 25-second proof-of-life video in which he said, “I am safe, secure - no problem,” before panning the camera to show what he said was his apartment.

With Borgwardt out of his reach, the sheriff ended a follow-up Nov. 21 news conference vowing to keep pulling at his heartstrings to get him to return voluntarily. Podoll said that Borgwardt’s wife and children still very much wanted their husband and father in their lives.

“Christmas is coming,” Podoll said, his voice straining, “and what better gift could he give his kids than to be there for Christmas?”

On Wednesday, Podoll declined to talk about the conversations between investigators and Borgwardt that had happened in the nearly three weeks since his last news conference, or what ultimately compelled Borgwardt to return to the United States. But, the sheriff added, the important part is that he did return.

“We brought a dad back,” Podoll said, “on his own accord.”