That's Georgia, Asia.
Among the things Borgwardt did in preparation for his life after fake death was get his vasectomy reversed.
August 27, 2025
"Borgwardt told investigators that on the day he disappeared, he took a kayak out on Green Lake and brought a child-size inflatable boat with him."
"After flipping the kayak and dumping his phone in the water, he paddled the inflatable boat to shore, got on an e-bike that he had stashed at the boat launch and rode through the night to Madison, some 70 miles away, according to the complaint. There, he said, he boarded a bus to Detroit, crossed the Canadian border to Toronto Pearson International Airport and flew to Paris and then to an unspecified country in Asia. He met up with the woman, whom he had met months earlier, and eventually traveled to Georgia...."
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I have never thought about this, but my husband asks what law he broke. He wouldn't be the beneficiary of life insurance on himself, so maybe not that (although he did facilitate an unwitting fraud his wife would have committed by collection on it?). Passport fraud? Or was it under his own name? Cost of the investigation?
I've just always assumed it's against the law to fake your own death, but why?
Borgwardt seems like a good name for him.
This is how we know Trump won't be sending the NG to Milwaukee. There's no crime problem in Wisconsin.
This made me think of the mysterious disappearance of Ambrose Bierce in 1913 and Weldon Kees in 1955.
Wikipedia has a list of mysterious disappearances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_disappeared_mysteriously:_1910%E2%80%931990
Jamie - I was curious enough about that to click the link.
Obstructing an officer.
Cost of the investigation, defrauding the insurance company, which he, not his wife did, passport violations, and hopefully child abuse. Then there are the sins he committed.
Yeah, I am not seeing how the passive things he did add up to obstructing anyone. For all he knew, his wife said “well that prick’s gone” and went on with her life. And he traveled internationally with his own name. Should have taken the police less than 89 days to find the passport hit and no-crime this thing.
He should have identified as a black woman and gone to trial, chanting Fuck da Police until the judge put a Hannibal mask on her. A Madison jury would have acquitted.
I can’t imagine a large city would have prosecuted this.
Madison must indeed be a peaceful ackademicall village.
RR
JSM
If he had just stopped in Ontario, he could have claimed he could no longer live in Trump's America and everyone would have understood.
Child abuse?
John Mosby, he committed the insurance fraud. And he emotionally tortured his children. I would think that would rise to the level of child abuse. Plus, he owes costs for the search for his body. Just like Jussie Smolett viz the investigation costs.
Yes, child abuse can be causing extreme psychological pain.
...faked his drowning with an overturned kayak to establish a new life in Eastern Europe with a woman he met online, prosecutors said.
"Oh, my God, that's a giant bush!"
My favorite of these stories from years ago is still the married submarine future-CO who got involved with a mistress. As part of his wooing efforts, he misrepresented what he did in the navy, claiming to be a SEAL. He got orders to take command of a boat out in Guam and, in order to cut off his fling, he had one of his friends generate a fake death notification to be sent to his petite amie. This woman, having been pre-fed a story by our hero that he was getting sent on some mission somewhere, took initiative to try and pull additional detail (as I recall, trying to get a memorial service going or some-such) and began calling his navy acquaintances, (alleged) previous commands at which he had been stationed, etc... Through the course of that effort, his story unraveled and resulted in a JAG investigation and him being yanked from his command.
It's one of those stories they tell junior officers at sub school as part of the 'don't be That Guy' curriculum. To this day, unfortunately, That Guy still appears to be an aspiration for some...
When they say 89 days in prison does that mean at home with his wife?
Sounds like he was having F.U.N. while it lasted. It brings to mind the plots of Brazil (1985) and Walter Mitty and American Psycho.
One says '98 days total' another says '98 days for EACH day he mislead authorities'... so which was it?
David Foster Wallace is alive.
"A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again"
If you can't read it on the WaPo site, here is the story in the New York Post:
https://nypost.com/2025/08/27/us-news/wisconsin-father-ryan-borgwardt-who-faked-own-death-on-kayaking-trip-to-be-with-his-online-eastern-european-fling-learns-fate-in-court/
A for effort I say. Tenacity!
I agree with the above, I don't see the crime here. If he merely left his wife without telling her and changed his phone number and she asked the police to search, I don't see it being criminal - why does the kayak make it different? If this was a woman leaving her abusive husband, would any charges have been brought?
That might've worked before 9/11.
More info, no paywall.
I read the NY Post story. He flew on a plane from Canada. I wonder if it is routine in cases like this to just check with TSA re whether guy's passport was being used. Maybe not. Faking own death cases are probably pretty rare. He says he expected to be found out within a couple of weeks. But that doesn't really make sense. Also, I want to see a photo of the Uzbekistani woman.
I had no sympathy for the defendent until the last line of the post, where at least his intensity of purpose was demonstrated.
Vasectomies are easy. Vasectomy reversal are another story. I wonder what story he told his wife.
Guy looks like Ralph Fiennes.
The Maltese Falcon has a similar story in it, told by the detective Sam Spade, about a man who has a near-death experience, an iron girder just missing him when it fell from a construction site. The man leaves his entire life behind, moving to a new location, eventually finding a new job, a new wife and raising a new family. Spade, hired to find the ex-husband, points out that the most interesting thing about the case to him was that this man, Charles Flitcraft, moves on from his shock over life's inherent randomness and settles into the same kind of orderly life he had before, because the desired orderliness of his everyday life was only interrupted that once by a falling girder.
Virgil: "I wonder if it is routine in cases like this to just check with TSA re whether guy's passport was being used. Maybe not. Faking own death cases are probably pretty rare."
Yeah, I think the "89 days of investigation" consisted of a couple of days of searching, followed by about 80 days until the detective tried to close the file, at which point the captain said "Stosh, did you run him for recent hits in NCIC? How about asking ICE if his passport's been used? We can't just close dis ting because we're tired of it - we gotta make some effit." To which Stosh said "ya chief," made the calls, and found out the guy was still alive.
RR
JSM
Dude was charged with "obstructing the search for his body" - how is that criminal?
I feel a screenplay coming on…
I don’t want to read about this. Seems like a giant waste of time all of the way around.
If someone wants to leave the country they should just go.
“The problem is all inside your head," she said to me
“The answer is easy if you take it logically
I′d like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be 50 ways to leave your lover”
She said, "It's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won′t be lost or misconstrued
But I'll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
There must be 50 ways to leave your lover”
“You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don't need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don′t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free”
She said, "It grieves me so to see you in such pain
I wish there was something I could do to make you smile again"
I said “I appreciate that, and would you please explain
About the fifty ways”
She said, "Why don′t we both just sleep on it tonight?
And I believe in the morning you'll begin to see the light"
And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right
There must be 50 ways to leave your lover
Every patriot should have an unmarked black electric bike that was bought for cash at a garage sale or thrift store. Also Levi's 501s, black Chuck Taylor sneakers, an unmarked black T-shirt, a Champion or Under Armor black hoodie, common sunglasses like Ray-Bans, a black balaclava providing good coverage against facial recognition cameras, and a black backpack from which identifying labels have been removed, all of which likewise have no paper trail.
I want to see a photo of the Uzbekistani woman.
Central Asian women are frequently stunningly beautiful, with just a hint of that hapa/Eurasian exoticism.
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