Married man sentenced to prison for faking his death before fleeing US to live with mistress he met online

A Wisconsin, USA man who staged his own kayaking drowning to abandon his wife and three children for a woman he met online has been sentenced to three months in jail.


Ryan Borgwardt, 45, of Watertown, appeared in court on Tuesday and was convicted of obstructing an officer. He received an 89-day jail sentence – matching the number of days he successfully misled law enforcement about his whereabouts.


The sentence was nearly double what prosecutors had recommended in a plea deal, according to FOX6News. “I deeply regret the actions I did that night and all the pain I caused my family and friends,” Borgwardt told the court before sentencing.


Judge Mark Slate, who presided over the case, said: “He obstructed law enforcement for a total of 89 days.” He added that the longer sentence serves as a warning to anyone considering faking their death to escape responsibilities.



Borgwardt was reported missing on August 12, 2024, after telling his wife the previous night he would be kayaking on Green Lake, about 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee. Investigators initially treated the case as a potential drowning. After 58 days of unsuccessful searches, suspicions grew that Borgwardt had staged his death.
 

Evidence revealed he had obtained a new passport three months earlier, applied for a $375,000 life insurance policy, reversed his vasectomy, and moved funds to a foreign account. Investigators later discovered he had been communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan and planned to meet her abroad.
 

The complaint detailed how Borgwardt overturned his kayak, left his identification in the water, paddled to shore using an inflatable raft, rode an electric bicycle 70 miles to Madison, then traveled to Toronto. From there, he flew to Paris and on to Georgia, where he stayed with the woman.


Authorities contacted Borgwardt in November and persuaded him to return to the U.S. in December. He turned himself in and was charged with obstructing the search for his body. His wife of 22 years divorced him four months later.

Borgwardt paid $30,000 in restitution to cover the costs of the search. His attorney, Erik Johnson, said his client returned to “make amends” and “deeply regrets his actions.”
 

The whereabouts of the mystery woman remain unknown.

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