GREEN LAKE, Wis. — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning, left his wife and three children and was believed to have been in Eastern Europe, has willingly returned to the U.S. after roughly four months and was in custody, a sheriff said Wednesday. He has since been released on bail.
Ryan Borgwardt “came back on his own” because of his family, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said.
Borgwardt, 45, was living in Georgia, a small former Soviet republic, according to a court filing.
“We can stand here feeling relieved,” Podoll told reporters.
Borgwardt, 45, landed in the U.S. Tuesday and was being held at the county jail, pending an afternoon court appearance. The sheriff said his office has recommended a number of charges, including obstruction.
Last month, Podoll said Borgwardt began communicating with authorities on Nov. 11, after disappearing for three months, but had not committed to returning to Wisconsin. Podoll said police were "pulling at his heartstrings” to come home.
The criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt with misdemeanor obstruction offers a detailed account of how he pulled off his disappearance, including how he struggled to emerge from the water, almost didn’t make it through customs on his way overseas and was living in the country of Georgia when he realized he had left too many clues behind.
The sheriff said at this time, investigators were working to verify Borgwardt’s description of what happened.
A judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf during a brief court hearing on Wednesday afternoon. He was released on $500 bail, although he would only have to pay that amount if he misses a future court date.
Borgwardt told Judge Mark Slate that he would represent himself going forward since he has only $20 in his wallet. The judge advised he could get a court-appointed lawyer but didn’t name one for him.
It’s unclear what Borgwardt plans to do now. His parents were in court, but he was led out by bailiffs after the proceeding ended without speaking to them. Bailiffs escorted the couple out through a rear door to avoid waiting reporters.
Borgwardt was reported missing on Aug. 12. According to a criminal complaint, Borgwardt told investigators that he had been researching how to disappear, studying lake deaths and how deep a body has to sink so it won't resurface.
Borgwardt told authorities last month that he faked his death because of “personal matters,” the sheriff said. He attended church with his family on the morning of Aug. 11 and then put his plan into motion that night. He traveled about 50 miles from his home in Watertown to Green Lake.
Sheriff Mark Podoll said Borgwardt told investigators he picked Green Lake because it's the deepest lake in Wisconsin.
He paddled his kayak to the middle of the lake, inflated a raft he brought with him, overturned the kayak and paddled back to shore in the raft, dumping his cell phone and a tackle box with other identification in the lake on the way, according to the complaint.
Borgwardt said “he had to make this believable so that everyone, including law enforcement, would think he drowned in the lake,” the complaint said.
He told investigators he struggled to get out of the lake, sinking into waist-deep muck. Worried that police would find his muddy footprints, he tried to wash them off the road before retrieving an electric bike he had stashed nearby. He traveled 70 miles through the night to Madison, where he caught a bus to the Toronto airport.
He said he barely got through Canadian customs because he didn't have his driver's license, which he had thrown in the lake. He eventually boarded a flight to Paris and then to an unspecified country in Asia.
After landing in that country, a woman picked him up. They spent a couple days in a hotel, and he later took up residency in the country of Georgia, according to the complaint and a probable cause statement.
Investigators contacted Borgwardt through information they found on a laptop he left behind, including a photo of the woman he traveled to meet. He told investigators he had to leave the laptop behind to make his death believable but left too much information on it, according to the complaint.
Podoll said in November that investigators found passport photos, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks and communication with a woman from Uzbekistan. They also discovered that Borgwardt took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January. Podoll has said the policy was for his family.
The sheriff’s office said the search for Borgwardt’s body, which lasted more than a month, cost at least $35,000. Borgwardt told investigators he often checked the news for updates on his disappearance and thought the search would last only a few weeks, according to the complaint.
Borgwardt told investigators that he knew police would find him but he wanted to delay their efforts for as long as he could, according to the complaint.
Podoll announced in November that investigators had made contact with Borgwardt and were “pulling at his heartstrings” to come home.
The sheriff told reporters during a news conference Wednesday morning that Borgwardt returned to the U.S. willingly and turned himself in at the Green Lake County Justice Center on Tuesday afternoon. He declined to detail Borgwardt's return trip, saying only that “he got on an airplane.” He also declined to elaborate on what drove Borgwardt to return.
“That’s going to be up to him someday," the sheriff said. “We’re not going to release that. ... We brought a dad back on his own.”