Authorities said Wednesday that the Wisconsin man who reportedly devised a complex scheme to stage his death before arriving in western Asia with a lady had returned to the United States and been taken into custody.
Ryan Borgwardt was charged with obstruction of an officer when he appeared before a Green Lake County judge on Wednesday afternoon while handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit.
“I have $20 in my wallet in the other room, so that’s what I have,” Borgwardt, 45, responded when Circuit Court Judge Mark Slate asked him if he could afford bail.
Slate stated that Borgwardt did not present a significant flight risk because he “voluntarily turned himself in” on Tuesday from “halfway around the world,” and he set bail at $500.
Borgwardt might be imprisoned for nine months and fined up to $10,000 for the alleged plot that led him across the Atlantic Ocean.
According to officials, Borgward orchestrated his disappearance on August 12 on Green Lake, which is roughly 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee, to appear to be a deadly kayaking accident.
Searchers discovered a capsized kayak, Borgwardt’s car, and his trailer parked in Dodge Memorial County Park after he failed to return home from his day on the lake.
To “make this believable” so that “everyone, including law enforcement, would think he drowned,” Borgwardt left his tackle box, fishing rod, and life jacket in the kayak, according to a criminal complaint filed by District Attorney Gerise LaSpisa.
The complaint claims that Ryan said, “everything hinged on me dying in that lake.” “Ryan also stated, (the) ‘whole idea was to sell the death.'”
No physical evidence or remnants of Borgwardt were found during an air and water search.
According to officials, investigators then discovered that he had hidden an electric bike in a tiny inflatable boat he used to get back to shore. According to the complaint, Borgward rode it to Madison and then got on a bus that carried him to Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, and Canada before getting on a plane.
Agents from the Canadian border patrol, suspicious of Borgwardt’s lack of a driver’s license, which he had left in his wallet in the lake, almost thwarted his plan.
He successfully negotiated his way out of that halt and arrived in Toronto, where he bought a ticket on Air France to Paris and then took a flight to another country in “Eastern Europe/Western Asia,” the complaint claims.
However, officials were able to track down the married father of three when he used his own passport in Canada.
Borgwardt emailed “an adult female” to arrange for a pickup after he arrived in the post-Paris location, and “they stayed at the hotel for a couple of days,” according to the prosecution.
Prosecutors strongly implied that Borgwardt was in the former Soviet country of Georgia, even though the court document did not specifically say where he ended up with $5,500 in cash on him.
Using a VPN to “make it look like he was in Russia or somewhere else other than Georgia,” the Wisconsin guy told police he went online to look up news reports about his abduction.
Borgwardt “stated that he knew that Georgia” could extradite him to the United States “and he wanted to be informed and prepared,” the complaint reads.
According to officials, the investigation also revealed that Borgwardt had spoken with a woman from Uzbekistan and opened a foreign bank account.
According to officials, a Russian-speaking woman contacted Green Lake County Sheriff’s officers and assisted them in getting in touch with Borgwardt following worldwide pleas for assistance in finding him.
Prosecutors said that on November 8, Borgwardt got an email from Green Lake County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Matthew Vandekolk, which made him realize that his strategy was failing.
After receiving the email, Borgwardt claimed that his “heart hit the floor,” according to the complaint.
“Ryan also stated that he saw the picture of [the woman that he went to meet] and knew that he made a mistake, the one mistake he couldn’t make,” said the lawsuit.
On the laptop he left at home, investigators claimed to have discovered proof.
“Ryan stated that he had to sell the death and that he couldn’t take his laptop with him, it needed to be believable that he died in the lake,” according to the lawsuit.
A portion of the sheriff’s department’s video chat with Borgwardt, who on November 11 claimed to be alive, well, and residing in an apartment, was made public on November 21. His precise location was not made public.
Borgwardt had been urged by the sheriff to spend the Christmas with his family at home.
Sheriff Mark Podoll told reporters on Wednesday, “We just spoke to them for a short while, and I can only, only imagine how they feel.”
Whether any members of Borgwardt’s family were present in court on Wednesday was not immediately apparent.
Slate pled Borgwardt not guilty and scheduled his upcoming court appearance for January 13.
Sheriff Podoll thanked his staff, federal authorities, and local volunteers who worked on this case, saying, “We brought a dad back on his own accord.”
Podoll said, his voice breaking with passion, “They’re the ones that kept this going.” For what they done for a family, I am incredibly proud of them. We persisted. And you can feel relieved as you stand here today.
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