They Scoured the Lake for His Body. He Wasn't Dead

A Wisconsin carpenter and father of three named Ryan Borgwardt vanished during a late-night kayak trip on Big Green Lake in August 2024, setting off an intense search by local deputies. As Jamie Thompson writes in a lengthy piece for the Atlantic, Borgwardt, 44, had texted his wife, Emily, that he was out stargazing and fishing. By morning, only his kayak, fishing rod, and tackle box were found floating on the water. Authorities, relying on location data and sonar, scoured the lake's depths, assuming he had drowned in one of Wisconsin's deepest lakes—especially after noting nothing amiss in his browsing history or in conversations with Emily.

But after two fruitless months, they decided to nose around elsewhere, and quickly discovered that Canadian authorities had searched Borgwardt's name at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel—the day after he disappeared. The dominoes began to fall: Borgwardt had reported his passport lost four months before his disappearance and had been issued a replacement. His wife still had the old one. A state lab analyzed his computer and found the number for a burner phone, details of a new bank account in the country of Georgia, and messages he had exchanged with a woman named Katya. Borgwardt had also accumulated significant debt, unbeknownst to his wife. It became clear he wasn't dead—but had fled.

As the truth emerged, detectives reached out to Katya and soon began exchanging messages with Borgwardt himself, who confirmed his identity and location in Georgia. After months of negotiation, Borgwardt agreed to return to Wisconsin, where he was arrested for obstruction and later sentenced to 89 days in jail and ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution. Borgwardt, for his part, expressed regret, but also seemed to see himself as the tragic protagonist of his own story, writes Thompson. He insists he was trying to protect his children from the pain of divorce. "I guess I just didn't feel like there was any other way," he said. "I like what I have now." (Read the wild full story here.)