[imagesource: Facebook/ Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office]

It looks like a Wisconsin man found the perfect exit strategy.

For weeks, the family of passionate kayaker Ryan Borgwardt clung to a grim hope that search divers would recover his body from the depths of a Wisconsin lake. On August 12, the day he vanished, his kayak, fishing rod, wallet, and car keys were found at Green Lake—painful evidence of a sudden, unexplained disappearance.

A lone lifejacket drifting on the water seemed to confirm the worst: his wife and three children had lost both husband and father, left to mourn in the shadow of uncertainty.

But as the investigation unfolded, the shocking truth emerged: Borgwardt had taken out a $375,000 (over R6,7 million) life insurance policy, staged his own death, and disappeared without a trace. All signs point to him fleeing—perhaps to Central Asia—to join a woman he’d been secretly communicating with online.

“We don’t know where he is, but he is not in our lake,” the Green Lake county sheriff, Mark Podoll, told a media briefing, as NBC News reported on Monday.

“It’s really hard, because they felt that the dad drowned a day ago. They found out that he wasn’t.”

The 45-year-old escapee was a husband and father of three; two sons in high school and a daughter in elementary school.

Image:here

Borgwardt last texted his wife on the night of Aug. 11, saying he was turning his kayak around and heading to shore soon, Podoll said. Responders believed the missing dad drowned and they scoured the lake using divers, drones, sonar and cadaver K-9s, officials said.

“The search continued for about 54 days, with no sign of Ryan,” the sheriff said during a news conference on Friday. “Near daily drone searches were completed.”

Keith Cormican, of Bruce’s Legacy, a non-profit organisation that specialises in water searches, said he spent about four weeks spaced over two months involved in the operation.

“Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred,” the sheriff said.

The first indication that something was not right came when his detectives took a deeper dive into Borgwardt’s affairs, including a forensic analysis of the hard drive of his laptop that revealed further evidence of careful planning.

Among the unsettling discoveries was the fact that, just after taking out the life insurance policy in January, Borgwardt had received a second passport. He’d also tried to transfer funds to an overseas account and, conveniently, cleared his internet browser the day before his fishing trip. Even more damning, investigators uncovered that he’d set up a new email account and had been in regular contact with a woman in Uzbekistan.

“Due to these discoveries of the new evidence, we were sure that Ryan was not in our lake,” Podoll said, adding that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were assisting in efforts to locate Borgwardt, and anyone who might have helped him.

While they pleaded for Ryan to come clean and tell everyone he is safe, Podoll added that their goal is also to identify any crimes that have been committed by any individuals who assisted with this crime.

Image: Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office

Although the children were surprised to learn that their father had allegedly French exited their lives in a big way, Borgwardt’s wife had known for much longer that her husband had probably faked his own death – and has been cooperating with authorities.

The sheriff remarked: “I put a lot on her shoulders. That is one strong lady.

“Ryan, if you are viewing this, I plead that you contact us or contact your family. We understand that things can happen, but there’s a family that wants their daddy back.”

Yeah, Ryan is not coming back after all that effort.

[source:abcnews]