The spouse of a Wisconsin man, who faked his death to escape to Georgia, anxiously texted him after he disappeared, not realizing he was already on his way to meet an online acquaintance.

Ryan Borgwardt, a 46-year-old cabinetmaker from Watertown, carefully orchestrated his vanishing act on August 11, 2024, by tipping over his kayak in Green Lake and disappearing into the night.

He aimed to leave behind his wife and their three children to begin a new life with a Ukrainian woman in Tbilisi, Georgia.

That same night, his wife, Emily Borgwardt, was sending desperate messages that would go unanswered.

As per recently released documents from the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Borgwardt had messaged his wife late at night, claiming he had ‘sneaked out on a lake’ to view the northern lights.

When she asked why he hadn’t told her, he apologized. 

She responded with a cutting, ‘Nothing new. I should be used to it by now. So many nights I have no idea where you are when it’s late.’

Attempting to ease tensions, he assured his wife he’d ‘work on communication,’ described the northern lights as ‘pink,’ and sent a final message at 10:49 p.m., saying: ‘I love you…. goodnight.’

Emily replied with love and urged him to be safe.

But hours later, with her early morning texts still unanswered, she frantically reached out again – unaware her husband was already long gone – sending messages like ‘Where are you????’ and ‘Babe?’

The Sheriff’s Office said Borgwardt had been planning his escape for months. 

After overturning his kayak, he claimed he paddled back to shore in an inflatable raft, retrieved an electric bike he had stashed nearby, and rode 70 miles overnight to Madison. 

There, he caught a bus to Toronto and flew to Tbilisi, where he met a woman named Katya, whom he had connected with on a dating site in December 2023.

During extensive interviews with detectives, Borgwardt described the scheme as a ‘crazy, emotional dream’ and admitted he felt like a failure. 

He said he was carrying roughly $75,000 in credit card debt and $130,000 in business debt. He also claimed his marriage was strained and said his children no longer wanted anything to do with him.

‘I think just the inability to feel like you could talk to your wife about some of this stuff, and maybe the complete hopelessness that you have in the situation that you’re in,’ he said in a three-hour interview. 

‘And you end up meeting a friend somewhere on the other side of the world… and the friend thing ends up turning into more.’

By April 2024, Borgwardt was researching how to fake his own death. He hoped to be declared legally dead so he could eventually apply for Georgian citizenship, though he hadn’t figured out how to do that under a false identity.

His kayak was eventually discovered in a deep part of Green Lake, triggering a 50-day search for his body. 

Investigators eventually used information from a laptop he left behind to contact him via email. Several months later, in December, they persuaded him to return to Wisconsin, appealing to him to do right by his family.

Borgwardt pleaded no contest to an obstruction charge on August 26, 2025, and was sentenced to 89 days in jail. His wife, Emily, divorced him in May.