Photo: Cameron Worsley//Unsplash
Ryan Borgwardt was reported missing on August 12 in Green Lake, Wisconsin. His wife was the last person to have heard from him the evening before when he sent a text letting her know he was headed to shore. But when he still wasn’t home on the morning of the 12th, she let local authorities know. A week later, police reported they had found his kayak capsized in the lake and a tackle box that contained his wallet, keys and driver’s license. They spent the next 54 days searching the lake with the help of the non-profit search organization, Bruce’s Legacy, without finding Borgwardt.
“Keith Cormican, [who leads] Bruce’s Legacy, sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images,” Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said. “Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred.”
Nearly three months since the 45-year-old’s disappearance, the Green Lake’s sheriff’s department still hasn’t found a body after searching every corner of the lake. Instead they believe Borgwardt staged the entire thing and fled the country.
Sheriff Podoll laid out the findings of the investigation in a November 8 press conference, including the shocking news that Borgwardt may have been faking the entire thing. A turning point in the investigation came in early October when they learned that Canadian border authorities had actually checked Borgwardt’s name the day after he’d gone missing. More evidence started to pile up after that major discovery.
For example, he erased everything on his lap top’s hard drive just after synching all of the contents to the cloud on August 11. He’d also taken out a $375,000 life insurance policy months before the disappearance, transferred funds into a foreign bank, and authorities say they’ve traced communication between Borgwardt and somebody in Uzbekistan.
What was a major search and rescue operation for a missing kayaker has turned into a criminal investigation with several departments, including the FBI. A press release from the Green Lake County Sheriff’s department didn’t lay out specific charges that could be applied, but they are looking into any people that could have knowingly helped the father of three plan his disappearance. Sheriff Podoll emphasized that recovering the expenses lost in the search and rescue effort will be a top priority for the department.
