Man faked his death in the United States to abandon his family and flee to Europe

Ryan Borgwardt, 45, appeared as a loving husband and father of a family in Wisconsin, United States. On August 11, 2024, the disappearance of the subject, who had gone kayaking to Green Lake, was reported. There was no trace of him until something in Canada caught the attention of investigators.

Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in a press conference that after the disappearance was reported, in the area they found the vehicle with its trailer and the kayak of the alleged victim, of whom there was no trace. That is why boats and divers were requested to find the body of the father of the family in the lake, which is 238 feet deep (more than 72 meters).

The search continued for 54 days, but there was not a single trace of him.

In the midst of the investigations, the authorities were notified that Border officials in Canada had checked Ryan Borgwardt’s name on August 13, two days after the disappearance of the subject.

That led them to discover more irregularities in the case of the man’s alleged death, whose investigation the FBI joined. “He replaced his laptop hard drive, cleaned the browser on the day of his disappearance, took photos of his passports and we discovered that he had moved funds to a foreign bank, changed his email and contacted a woman who, it is believed, “He is in Uzbekistan,” the sheriff revealed. ““We found out he was somewhere in Europe, we were sure Ryan wasn’t in our lake.”he added. However, it has not been established why he made the decision to disappear.

He detailed that the supposed dead man took out a life insurance policy for $375,000 in January 2024 and bought airline cards.

Podoll did not hesitate to thank the family of the man who had faked his death to leave the United States. “I want to thank his wife, who is a strong woman, whenever we called her she responded and gave everything she could for us. “I can’t imagine what he’s going through and what (his children) are going through, it’s really difficult because they felt like their father had drowned and a day ago they found out that wasn’t the case.”

He then sent a message to the man, whose whereabouts are still unknown, who, according to the officer, ““He basically decided to flee the country and basically tell a lie.”: “Ryan, if you are seeing this I ask you to contact us or your family. “We understand that things can happen, but there is a family that wants their dad back, that’s all I have to say.”

The subject could face charges because, according to the sheriff, a lot of taxpayer money was spent trying to find the body that would never have existed. Furthermore, if there are more people involved, they would also have to respond to the justice of the United States.