Missing man, presumed drowned in Green Lake, likely faked death to disappear to eastern Europe

A story of a missing man, presumed drowned in Green Lake County this summer, took a plot twist that sounds like it came out of a Hollywood movie Friday, November 8, 2024.

The family of 44-year-old Ryan Borgwardt of Watertown, reported him missing the morning of August 12, 2024, after he failed to return home the day before from a fishing trip on Green Lake.
Officials found the man’s kayak overturned with a life preserver during their initial search and have since found items like his water bottle, a tackle box and a fishing rod.

Daily searches from the air and water went on for weeks looking for the man, but now officials are painting a different story of what likely happened to Borgwardt.

On October 7, 2024, Green Lake County Officials took a renewed look at the disappearance and learned that law enforcement in Canada did a law enforcement enquiry August 13th on Borgwardt… two days after he supposedly drowned.

Digging deeper, law enforcement learned Borgwardt had reported his passport missing on May 22, 2024, and was issued a replacement, though his family was easily able to locate his so called missing passport.

A digital forensic analysis of a Borgwardt’s laptop provided a digital trail showing that he had planned his disappearance to Europe and attempted to conceal his efforts and mislead lawenforcement’s investigation by faking the drowning.

Also on the laptop was Inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks, changed email addresses associated with financial accounts on the day of his disappearance, and Communication with a woman from Uzbekistan… a country in the middle east located just north of Afghanistan.

Due to the discovery of this new evidence, the sheriff’s office says they are confident Borgwardt is not located in Green Lake and have ended all search efforts there. They say they have many more steps to unravel this case but are working with national and international law enforcement to do so.

The sheriff’s office says after they identify all crimes that have been committed, Borgwardt will be held responsible for restitution of all cost associated with the search for him that as of now has been funded by taxpayers in the form of police and fire resources.

They want Borgwardt to know his plan is being uncovered and that the best thing he can do at this point is return home to his wife and kids.