Wisconsin man who faked his death charged with obstructing search of his body | Wisconsin

A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning and left his wife and three children for eastern Europe willingly returned to the US after four months and was charged Wednesday with obstructing an intense lake search for his body.

The criminal complaint charging Ryan Borgwardt with misdemeanor obstruction offers a detailed account of how the 45-year-old pulled off his disappearance, including how he struggled to emerge from the water, almost didn’t make it through customs on his way overseas and was living in the country of Georgia when he realized he had left too many clues behind.

Police said Borgwardt turned himself in to authorities at the Green Lake county sheriff’s office in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

A judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf during a brief court hearing on Wednesday afternoon. He was released on $500 bail, although he would only have to pay that amount if he misses a future court date.

Borgwardt told Judge Mark Slate that he would represent himself going forward since he has only $20 in his wallet. The judge advised he could get a court-appointed lawyer but didn’t name one for him.

It’s unclear what Borgwardt plans to do now. His parents were in court, but he was led out by bailiffs after the proceeding ended without speaking to them. Bailiffs escorted the couple out through a rear door to avoid waiting reporters.

Last month, Green Lake county sheriff, Mark Podoll said Borgwardt began communicating with authorities on 11 November after disappearing for three months but had not committed to returning to Wisconsin. Podoll said police were “pulling at his heartstrings” to come home.

Podoll declined to say specifically where Borgwardt has been since he disappeared and deflected a question about any conversations that may have persuaded him to return.

“That’s going to be up to him someday. We’re not going to release that … We brought a dad back on his own,” Podoll said.

Podoll declined to discuss the details of Borgwardt’s return trip, other than to say “he got on an airplane and landed in the US” and turned himself in at the Green Lake county justice center on Tuesday.

Borgwardt told authorities last month that he faked his death because of “personal matters”, the sheriff said in November. He told them that in mid-August he traveled about 50 miles (80km) from his home in Watertown to Green Lake, where he overturned his kayak, dumped his phone and then paddled an inflatable boat to shore. He said he picked that lake because it is the deepest in Wisconsin.

After leaving the lake, he rode an electric bike about 70 miles (110km) through the night to Madison. From there, he said he took a bus to Detroit, then boarded a bus to Canada and got on a plane.

An analysis of a laptop – it was not clear whose – revealed a digital trail that shows Borgwardt had planned to head to Europe and tried to mislead investigators.

The laptop’s hard drive had been replaced and the browsers had been cleared on the day Borgwardt disappeared, Podoll said in a news release in November. Investigators found passport photos, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks and communication with a woman from Uzbekistan. They also discovered that Borgwardt took out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.

Law enforcement personnel made contact with Borgwardt on 11 November. He sent them a video of himself wearing an orange T-shirt and not smiling. He said in the video that he was in his apartment and briefly panned the camera but mostly showed just a door and bare walls. He did not say where he was.

The sheriff’s office has said the search for Borgwardt’s body, which lasted more than a month, cost at least $35,000. The sheriff said that Borgwardt told authorities that he did not expect the search to last more than two weeks.