Madison, Wisconsin – A Wisconsin kayaker who forged his death so he could start a new life with a country woman Georgia His wife loved her the night she was executing her plan and told her that he had gone to the lake to see the Northern Lights.
Emily Borgwardt The next morning, she woke up alone, with her desperate words “Where are you??” and “Baby?” received no reply. By then her husband, Ryan Borgwardthad overturned his kayaking on the Green Lake and had biked to Canada throughout the night, his first stop to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to meet with the Ukrainian women he secretly proposed online.
The texts, one of the large number of documents in the case, were released to the Associated Press this week to the Associated Press’s Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office, a glimpse of the couple’s tense marriage. In the included interviews, Borgwardt Telling the detective that he was a failed man, he called on his plan to abscond to the country at a “crazy, emotional dream”.
Borgwardt46, was convicted of blockage last month. His wife divorced him in May.
The cabinetmaker lives in Watertown with his wife and their three children and heads to Green Lake on the evening of August 11, 2024 for kayaks. He never came home.
The sheriff’s deputies found his kayaking on the lake, and the water in the area is about 200 feet (60 meters). The search for his body lasted for 50 days.
Borgwardt The kayak was deliberately overturned and rowed back to the shore with an inflatable raft. He retrieved an electric bike, which he hid nearby, and rode 70 miles (112 kilometers) all night to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, where he took a bus to Toronto Airport.
He eventually arrived at Tibilsi, where he met a woman named Katya, whom he met on a dating site in December 2023.
Sheriff’s investigators eventually contacted him by email using the information on the laptop he left behind. They convinced him to return to Wisconsin in December, mainly by begging his family to do the right thing.
Before they book Borgwardt In jail, investigators asked him why he did it in a three-hour interview.
He said he felt he was a failure, and later said in an interview that he had accumulated about $75,000 in credit card debt and $130,000 in commercial debt. He said he had no good relationship with his wife and his children didn’t want to do anything with him anymore.
“I think it’s just impossible to feel like you can talk to your wife about some of these things, maybe you have total despair in the situation you’re in,” he said. “And you end up meeting a friend who is somewhat similar to a story somewhere on the other side of the world and you end up being a friend and things that end up being more of a friend ending up being more, but you don’t really plan that.
He added: “It’s not your intention. So a door can be opened for you to make things possible to make things work.”
He said he hoped he could avoid probing long enough to declare a legal death. At that time, he planned to apply for citizenship Georgia But if he is pronounced dead, he hasn’t figured out what to do.
The tensions in Borgwardts’ marriage were evident in the last passage of the night he fled.
He told her at 10:36 pm that he “may sneak up onto the lake.”
“That’s great.” Emily Borgwardt answer. “I began to doubt why you didn’t go home.”
After he apologized, she replied, “Nothing new. I should be used to it now. So many nights, I don’t know you’re late.”
He replied that he would work on their communication, adding that he saw the northern lights, which were pink. Then he texted, “I love you… Good night.”
Emily Borgwardt Tell him that she loves him too and be safe.
He replied at 10:49 pm: “I will be back on the shore as soon as possible, this is the final message he asked where he was at 5:12 AM.
Throughout the Detective’s interview Borgwardt Repeatedly asking Katya if there is trouble. He said he wanted to come back to her because the cost of living was much cheaper Georgia More in the United States
At the end of the interview, he asked the detective if he could use the Justice Center Wi-Fi to let Katya know he was OK. A representative told Borgwardt him‘Email her.
Borgwardt On August 26, no defense was made against the allegations of obstacles. He was sentenced to 89 days in prison.
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Associated Press writer Scott Bauer contributed to the report.
