Distraught text messages released by the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office show the final exchange between a Wisconsin man who staged his own disappearance and the wife who reported him missing after he failed to return from a kayaking trip.
The messages show Ryan Borgwardt, 45, telling his then-wife, Emily, on Aug. 11, 2024, that he loved her and had “snuck out” to view the northern lights. His last text that night read, “I love you…. goodnight… I’ll be heading back to shore soon,” sent at 10:49 p.m. Emily replied that she loved him and told him to be safe. When Borgwardt did not return the next morning, Emily sent urgent messages including “Where are you????” and “Babe?” and later reported him missing.
Investigators initially treated the disappearance as a likely drowning after finding an overturned kayak and a lifejacket belonging to Borgwardt in Green Lake, about 100 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The community and authorities mounted an extensive search that lasted 54 days and cost more than $50,000 in local resources before detectives concluded the disappearance had been staged.
Law enforcement said Canadian authorities flagged Borgwardt’s name the same day he was reported missing. Investigators later determined he had opened a new bank account, sought to move money overseas, wiped his computer, and had taken out a $375,000 life-insurance policy months earlier. Detectives traced his movements from Wisconsin to Madison, where prosecutors say he rode an electric bicycle about 70 miles overnight, then took a bus through Detroit, crossed into Canada and flew from Toronto to Paris before traveling to Georgia, the country, to meet a woman he had met online.
Authorities said Borgwardt had been communicating online with a woman from Uzbekistan and that, after being tracked overseas, he was located by investigators in November 2024. He was persuaded to return to the United States the following month, where he surrendered and was charged with obstructing a search for his body.
Borgwardt told investigators that his decision to vanish and start a new life stemmed from feelings of failure and distance in his marriage and family life. “Hoping to be remembered for the better things, not all the mistakes that you have. And if you don’t have maybe the best communication relationship with your wife,” he told detectives, according to local reporting, adding that a friendship with someone abroad had developed into something more.
He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing an officer. At a sentencing hearing in Green Lake County court, Borgwardt received an 89-day county jail term—coincidentally the same number of days spent searching for him—and was ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution. He addressed the court and said he “deeply” regretted his actions and the “pain I caused my family and friends.”
Emily Borgwardt filed for divorce four months after his return, telling the court the marriage was “irretrievably broken.” Prosecutors and local officials said the case illustrated both the personal consequences of Borgwardt’s actions and the public costs of large-scale search efforts. Local search and rescue volunteers and sheriff’s deputies spent weeks on water and land searches before investigators uncovered evidence that Borgwardt had orchestrated his disappearance.
The case drew media attention and prompted discussion in Green Lake County about the toll on families and emergency resources when a missing-person incident proves to be deliberately staged. Authorities said restitution was intended in part to reimburse the community for the expense and manpower devoted to the search. Borgwardt’s sentence and restitution were handed down after he pleaded no contest in county court in late 2024.
The sheriff’s office released the texts as part of public records surrounding the investigation. The messages show a last-night exchange that contrasted sharply with the months of planning that prosecutors say preceded Borgwardt’s disappearance, and with the extensive search and investigation that followed his disappearance and eventual return to the United States.