Wisconsin kayaker who faked his own death to leave wife sentenced

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A Wisconsin kayaker who prosecutors said faked his own death to flee his family and meet up with a woman he met online was sentenced to the same number of days as police searched for him.

Ryan Borgwardt received the 89-day sentence this week following the August 2024 incident in which he staged his own drowning and left his wife and three children to rendezvous with a woman in the Eastern European country of Georgia.

“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,” Green Lake County District Attorney Gerise LaSpisa said ahead of sentencing.

Investigators made contact with Borgwardt in November and convinced him to return to the U.S. in December. He turned himself in and was charged with obstructing the search for his body. His wife of 22 years divorced him four months later, according to the Associated Press.

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Borgwardt, 45, initially pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor. However, under a plea deal unveiled Tuesday, Borgwardt changed his plea to no contest and agreed to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement to cover what was spent trying to locate him.

“I deeply regret the actions I did that night and all the pain I caused my family, friends,” Borgwardt said in court on Tuesday before being sentenced.

Prosecutors asked Green Lake County Circuit Judge Mark Slate to sentence Borgwardt to just 45 days in jail. But the judge nearly doubled it to 89 days. That is the number of days from when he was declared missing until the sheriff’s department made contact with him overseas, the judge said.

“He obstructed law enforcement for a total of 89 days,” Slate said.

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After attending church with his family on Aug. 11, 2024, Borgwardt allegedly told investigators he drove to Green Lake, about 50 miles from his home and 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee, which he picked because it’s the deepest lake in Wisconsin. He paddled to the middle of the lake in his kayak and overturned it, according to authorities.

Borgwardt then paddled back to shore in an inflatable raft he brought with him and dropped his cellphone and ID in the lake. After attempting to wash away his muddy footprints, Borgwardt then allegedly rode off on a bike he had hidden there.

After riding for 70 miles, he said, he caught a bus from Madison, Wisconsin, to Toronto, Canada. From there, he caught a flight to Paris and then an unnamed Asian country before he traveled to Georgia.

Borgwardt told investigators that a woman picked him up, and they spent several days in a hotel before he took up residency in Georgia, according to a criminal complaint.

LaSpisa said Borgwardt took out a life insurance policy, applied for a replacement passport and reversed his vasectomy before faking his death to meet a woman he met online just months earlier.