The Wisconsin kayaker who faked his own death last summer to escape his family managed to disappear for three months before police finally tracked him down. Speaking from eastern Europe, Ryan Borgwardt, age 45, now explains how he performed his vanishing act — and it was simpler than you might think.
From AP News:
Borgwardt told authorities he traveled about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone in the lake and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He told authorities he picked that lake because it's the deepest in Wisconsin at 237 feet (over 72 meters).
After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 70 miles (110 kilometers) through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. From there, he took a bus to Detroit, then boarded a bus to Canada and got on a plane there, the sheriff said.
The actual escape seems pretty seamless, but it now seems he made a few missteps beforehand, including: he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy for his family earlier this year (red flag!); he got a new passport three months earlier (red flag!); he left behind his laptop — which offered authorities a digital trail of his failed scheme.
Whether or not Borgwardt — who blamed his escape on "personal matters" — returns to the United States is still up in the air. "The great news is we know that he is alive and well," Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said, via AP. "The bad news is we don't know where Ryan exactly is, and he has not yet decided to return home."
Previously: Man faked own death to avoid paying child support
