By Steven White
Copyright dailystar
A dad-of-three faked his own death during a late-night kayaking trip in a shocking attempt to abandon his family and run off with a woman he’d met online. Ryan Borgwardt, from Wisconsin in the US , staged the elaborate disappearance on August 11 last year. The 54-year-old told his wife of 22 years, Emily, that he was heading out to watch the Northern Lights. But instead of returning home, he simply vanished. A massive, and costly, search operation ensued with his distraught wife and kids left fearing the worst. However, Borgwardt was alive and well and on his way to the European country of Georgia to hook up with his fling. In newly released text messages from the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office, his wife slammed him for his lack of communication after texted that he’d “snuck out to a lake.” After apologising to her, she replied: “Nothing new. I should be used to it by now. So many nights I have no idea where you are when it’s late.” Borgwardt’s final text to his wife, sent at 10:49pm. read: “I love you…. goodnight… I’ll be heading back to shore soon.” But at 5:12am the following morning when he hadn’t returned, she wrote: “Where are you???? Babe?” Cops later discovered his overturned kayak and lifejacket floating in the water, leading to major concerns that he had drowned. What followed was a massive eight-week search involving local volunteers and helicopters. Borgwardt’s heartless plan eventually unravelled though when authorities traced his movements by using data from his computer. They discovered that he had wiped his computer, opened a secret bank account and taken out a $375,000 (£276,922) life insurance policy, the New York Post reported. Astonishingly, he had taken an electric bike 70 miles overnight to catch a bus to Canada and from there to Paris, continuing on to Georgia where he met up with an Uzbekistani woman he had been chatting to online. Canadian authorities flagged his name the day he was reported missing, helping US investigators uncover the truth. He was eventually tracked down in November 2024 and agreed to return to home, where he was arrested and charged with obstructing the search for his body. Borgwardt admitted to the cops that he felt like a failure in both his career and family life, claiming his relationship with his wife had broken down and that he no longer felt close to his children. He also said he was in approximately $75,000 (£55,000) in credit card debt and $130,000 (£96,000) in business debt “You just end up becoming friends with someone across the world… and then it turns into something more,” he said. “It wasn’t planned, but it happened.” Emily filed for divorce shortly after his return, telling the court their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” Last month, Borgwardt was sentenced to 89 days in jail – twice as long as the term requested by prosecutors as part of their plea deal with Borgwardt. He was also ordered to pay $30,000 (£22,159) in restitution costs spent by looking for him. Addressing the court during sentencing, he said he “deeply” regretted the pain he had caused. “I wish I could undo what I did,” he added. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .
