Ryan Borgwardt, kayaker who faked his death on Green Lake, misses court hearing on case documents

GREEN LAKE, Wis. (WBAY) - Online court records show Ryan Borgwardt and his attorney were no-shows at a court hearing on Tuesday.

Borgwardt was sentenced to 89 days in jail back on August 26, 2025. He pleaded no contest to obstructing an officer after he faked his own drowning while kayaking on Green Lake. He left his wife and three children to meet a woman in the country of Georgia.

Wisconsin’s online court system, known as CCAP, notes that neither Borgwardt nor his attorney appeared in court for the hearing that was scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Back on December 16, Borgwardt filed a motion to delete certain digital materials related to his case. Since Borgwardt didn’t show up Tuesday, the court dismissed his motion.

Nothing else was scheduled on CCAP for Borgwardt.

Borgwardt was reported missing on Aug. 12, 2024, after telling his wife the night before that he was kayaking on Green Lake, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Milwaukee.

His disappearance was first investigated as a possible drowning. But after failing to find his body following a 58-day search, the investigation broadened. Subsequent clues, including that he obtained a new passport three months before he disappeared, led investigators to speculate that Borgwardt had faked his death to meet up with a woman from Uzbekistan he had been communicating with.

Investigators made contact with Borgwardt in November and convinced him to return to the U.S. in December. He turned himself in and was charged with obstructing the search for his body. His wife of 22 years divorced him four months later.

According to the criminal complaint, Borgwardt traveled 50 miles (80 kilometers) from his family’s home in Watertown to Green Lake on Aug. 11, 2024.

During the night, he overturned his kayak on the lake, paddled back to shore in an inflatable raft that he brought with him — dumping his identification in the lake along the way — and rode an electric bicycle 70 miles (112) kilometers) to Madison.

From there, he caught a bus to Toronto, flew to Paris and then to “a country in Asia,” before he landed in the European country of Georgia, according to the criminal complaint.

He told investigators that a woman picked him up and they spent several days in a hotel before he took up residency in Georgia, according to the complaint.

“His entire plan to fake his death to devastate his family in order to serve his own selfish desires hinged on him dying in the lake and selling his death to the world,” Green Lake County District Attorney Gerise LaSpisa said ahead of sentencing.

She noted that he took out a life insurance policy, applied for a replacement passport and reversed his vasectomy before faking his death to meet a woman he met online just months earlier.

“The defendant did not count on the determination and dedication of our law enforcement,” LaSpisa said.

Borgwardt’s attorney, Erik Johnson, said Borgwardt “deeply regrets” his actions, and that he returned to the country “to make amends.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.