Authorities believe missing kayaker may have faked his own death and is alive in Europe

MINNEAPOLIS — A missing Wisconsin man authorities thought had drowned might be alive in Europe.

Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said Ryan Borgwardt went kayaking on Aug. 11 on Green Lake and never returned home. His deputies found his kayak overturned. They believe it capsized, so he started to swim without a life jacket. A fisherman found his fishing rod two days later, while someone else found his tackle box.

Podoll called Keith Cormican with Bruce’s Legacy, a volunteer search and recovery group for drowned victims, to help find Borgwardt. Cormican started the nonprofit in honor of his brother, Bruce, a Black River Falls firefighter who drowned searching for a missing father.

Cormican helped Podall with searches at Green Lake in the past, and felt confident they would find Borgwardt because of all the cellphone data.

“I was thinking a day or two I would have this wrapped up,” Cormican said.

But it turned into 23 days.

“We had covered that lake like I had never covered any other lake. We just scoured that thing just assuming he was there and based on that cellphone information,” he said.

Cormican said his team worked tirelessly to find him using sonar equipment and a remote operated vehicle — basically an underwater drone with lights — cameras and its sonar to check target areas. So, when they couldn’t find him, he knew something was off.

“It was the multiple days of just scouring this area kept building to the question of whether he’s there or not,” Cormican said. “He should have shown up on the sonar information.”

He said he noticed a few flags early on, but they continued to search based on the initial investigation and wanting to get closure for the family.

“One of the driving forces to keeping us searching on the lake is always the support from the family and the local department,” he said.

Cormican eventually had a conversation with Podoll about continuing the search at the lake. He said he started to think something else happened and they needed to check other places.

Podoll said they renewed their investigative efforts based on what Cormican said because he’s an expert at what he does and Cormican was confident there wasn’t a body in the lake.

Shortly after they learned Borgwardt’s name had been checked by Canadian law enforcement on August 13 with help from the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center. Then he learned Borgwardt reported his passport was missing and got another on May 22. His family found his original passport.

Podoll said they were able to analyze a family laptop and discovered the hard drive was replaced, search browser had been cleared the day he disappeared, passport photos, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks, he was talking with a woman from Uzbekistan, and he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.

“Just the information that we gleaned from the computer lead us to believe, he’s not in the lake, he’s out of the state of Wisconsin, and he’s in some other country. Do we know that he’s alive? No, we don’t know that yet,” Podoll said.

Investigators believe he faked his own death and ran away to Europe.

Podoll said they searched for Borgwardt for 54 days. They’ve since ended all search efforts at the lake.

The sheriff said this has been a difficult time for the family.

“They’re doing OK. It’s a whole switch now from having their loved one drowned and to now knowing he’s out of the country some place,” he said.

“I’m very surprised that somebody could actually do this. First time it’s ever happened to me. I’ve been doing this for 34 years,” Cormican said.

Cormican said he was shocked to hear he might still be alive.

“Multiple feelings. I mean right of way it was kind of a relief knowing that he is alive for one thing, and that I didn’t miss him because he’s not there. I was really questioning my abilities having done this for so many years,” he said.

What makes this news difficult to hear now is that he got called to help with other searches while looking for Borgwardt.

“That’s the sad part about it. I was getting requests to go out to Green Bay to search for a young man out on the lake so that kind of put a damper in that search. I split my time up between the two of them,” he said. “Then later into that search I got asked to out to Wyoming for an individual that was originally from Wisconsin, parents are from Wisconsin, and he is from Minneapolis, so I had to delay that because I was bound and determined to get this guy found first.”

He said he’ll be able to move past this, but he knows it won’t be as easy for the family.

Podoll said he’s never seen anything like this, and his office won’t stop searching for him.

“His entire family is here for him. They miss him, and we just want him back. We can deal with the situations and what he got himself into, that we can deal with, it’s just get back home to his children,” Podoll said.

In the meantime, Podoll said they are trying to see what crimes were committed and figuring out how much this search and recovery cost taxpayers.

“We don’t have an exact figure. We’re putting that together. Our plan is to get some kind of restitution request,” he said.

Podoll is encouraging people who have any information or may have knowingly or unknowingly helped Borgwardt to contact the sheriff’s office or the Green Lake County Crime Stoppers.

You can text “GETTHEM” to 847411 or call 1-800-GET THEM.