BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Rescuers involved in the search for the kayaker missing on Green Lake are left in shock after the latest twist in the case.

The Green Lake County Sheriff announced last week there's evidence 45-year-old Ryan Borgwardt is alive and living in another country.

Borgwardt was first reported missing during his kayaking trip back in August. His vehicle and trailer were found in Dodge Memorial Park.

It wasn’t until after several searches that authorities discovered Borgwardt’s name was checked by law enforcement in Canada—the day after he went kayaking.

Deputies further learned that he obtained another passport earlier this spring—even though his family easily found his old one.

They said there was also additional evidence on his laptop, including searches about moving funds to foreign banks and that he bought an airline gift card.

The search for Ryan Borgwardt spanned several months. Critical to this investigation was Bruce’s Legacy.

It’s a day of maintenance for Keith Cormican’s search and recovery boat named “Bruce’s Legacy“. Cormican said he spent many weeks and a lot of man hours searching for kayaker Ryan Borgwardt.

“So, 23 days on the water and probably another eight to 10 days sitting in the office going, you know, reviewing all this on our data for this search,” Cormican said.

Cormican has 34 years of water recovery expertise. He’s participated in high-profile missing persons investigations across the state from Elijah Vue to Bill Salnik and Parker Kruse.

Cormican said he’s put his skills to use outside of Wisconsin and around the world.

“I’ve been called all over, all over the U.S., Canada. I’ve been in Nepal. I’ve been to Panama, Romania and Guatemala,” Cormican said.

Shortly after Borgwardt went missing, the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office requested Borgwardt’s Cormican’s help. 

He said he expected the search to be short because Borgwardt used the Life 360 tracking location app.

“I was pretty confident that we would find him probably the first day or two at the latest, because of the information we had on this case was the 360 app that the sheriff’s department had of him being out on a lake,” Cormican said.

After more than a week with no sign of Borgwardt, Cormican said he became suspicious.  

“We kept expanding out further across the lake and still not finding him. I would say around day 10, it was like, boy, there’s something just really wrong with this,” Cormican said.

Besides the man hours, there’s the wear and tear on his boat. Cormican said the trolley motor that holds the boat in position in the middle of the lake stopped working during the search.

“We had to replace the old one, and that’s, you know, end up being about a $4,500 purchase,” Cormican said.

It was Cormican’s suspicion that Green Lake Sheriff Mark Podoll credits as a turning point in this investigation.

The Sheriff said in a press conference, “Keith’s confidence that there was not a body located at the west end of big Green Lake was vital in changing the course of this case.”

While Cormican said he’s thankful to have the sheriff’s trust, he has mixed feelings about the time lost and donation money spent. 

“You’re happy that he is alive, and that’s certainly isn’t what we expected. Then the other thing is I spent a lot of time, wasted days that I could have been doing other searches. I was being called to go to Green Bay. I was being called to go to Wyoming for a search,” Cormican said. 

The latest turn of events in the Borgwardt investigation may be disappointing, but that’s not slowing Cormican’s mission.

He said his call to search for drowning victims is personal. His boat is named after his brother Bruce, who died in 1995 while responding to a water rescue.

Cormican said he’ll continue to honor his brother while moving on to his next water recovery in Wyoming.