A Wisconsin man, Ryan Borgwardt, faked his death to abandon his wife and pursue a new life with a European woman he met online. His ruse was discovered, however, and he is behind bars.
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As reported by The Associated Press (AP), the last time a married Borgwardt was seen was on August 11, 2024. The man who lived with his wife and three children drove 50 miles from his home in Watertown to Green Lake and went kayaking. He never returned home.
Before he went silent, Borgwardt texted his wife, Emily, that he “may have snuck on a lake.” She, relieved, said, “That would have been nice to know.” After Borgwardt apologized, Emily responded with a text that sheds some light on how their relationship had evolved.
“Nothing new. I should be used to it by now,” Emily responded to his apology. “So many nights I have no idea where you are when it’s late.”
His final message, after telling her that he loved her, was, “I’ll be heading back to shore soon.”
The next messages exchanged between the then-married couple were Emily’s frantic texts asking where he was. He never answered.
Faked Own Death
Authorities found his kayak on the lake and searched for his body for 50 days, to no avail. Everyone believed Ryan Borgwardt had died. It turns out, he wasn’t dead at all.
In reality, he had abandoned his wife to be with a woman he met online in a dating back back in December 2023: a Ukrainian woman based in Tbilisi, Georgia. The two had grown fond of each other by February 2024, and by April, Borgwardt had researched how to fake his own death, the AP reported.
While everyone believed he had drowned, Borgwardt had actually overturned his kayak on purpose and used an inflatable raft to get back to shore. Then, he used a previously stashed electric bike to drive to Madison, Wisconsin. Later, he took a bus to Toronto, where he took a plane to Europe. There, he finally met Katya, the woman he had met online.
His ruse, however, lasted for 89 days. As reported by ABC News, investigators discovered that Borgwardt’s name had been checked in Canada on August 13, 2024. That is, two days after his “disappearance.” Authorities also found he had been communicating with the European woman.
Other suspìcious activity carried out by Borgwardt included wiping his internet browsers, asking about moving money to a foreign bank, and even obtaining a new passport, among other things.
Eventually, by using a laptop that belonged to Borgwardt, he was contacted by November. In December, authorities managed to convince him to return to the United States to make things right.
Jailed, Sentenced
Before he was booked in jail, Ryan Borgwardt talked with investigators. He revealed he felt like a failure and that he had a broken relationship with his wife and children.
I think just the inability to feel like you could talk to your wife about some of this stuff, and maybe the complete hopelessness that you have in the situation that you’re in,” Borgwardt said. “And you end up meeting a friend somewhere on the other side of the world who sort of has a somewhat similar story and you just end up becoming friends and the friend thing ends up turning into more, but you didn’t really plan on that.”
In May 2025, Emily Borgwardt divorced him. He pleaded no contest to a charge of obstructing an officer. A judge sentenced him in August to 89 days in jail. That is the exact number of days he was “dead.” Borgwardt was also ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement.
“I deeply regret the actions that I did that night and all the pain that I caused my family and friends,” Borgwardt said before he was sentenced.