Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled to Eastern Europe willingly returns to US

A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children and was believed to have been in Eastern Europe willingly returned to the U.S. after roughly four months and is in custody, a sheriff said Wednesday.

Ryan Borgwardt “came back on his own” because of his family, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said.

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“We can stand here feeling relieved,” Podoll told reporters.

Borgwardt, 45, landed Tuesday and was being held at the county jail, pending an afternoon court appearance. The sheriff said his office has recommended a number of charges, including obstruction.

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Last month, Podoll said Borgwardt began communicating with authorities on Nov. 11 after disappearing for three months but hadn’t committed to returning to Wisconsin. Podoll said police were "pulling at his heartstrings” to come home. He suggested Borgwardt could be charged with obstructing the investigation into his disappearance.

Borgwardt told authorities last month that he faked his death because of “personal matters,” the sheriff said. He told them that in mid-August he traveled about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He said he picked that lake because it’s the deepest in Wisconsin.

After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 70 miles (110 kilometers) through the night to Madison, the sheriff said. Taking a bus from Madison to Detroit, Borgwardt then made his exit to Canada and got on a plane.

The sheriff said at the time that investigators were working to verify Borgwardt’s description of what happened.

The sheriff’s office has said the search for Borgwardt’s body, which lasted more than a month, cost at least $35,000. The sheriff said that Borgwardt told authorities that he didn’t expect the search to last more than two weeks.