Emily Borgwardt, the wife of Wisconsin father-of-three Ryan Borgwardt, had his life turned upside down, again, after her husband was discovered alive months after he was presumed lifeless during a late-night kayaking trip.
In newly released text messages obtained by the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Emily’s confusion, panic, and heartbreak are captured in real time, as her husband was in fact fleeing the country to start a new life with his online mistress.
Highlights
- A woman’s final texts show panic after her husband vanished during a late-night kayak trip.
- Authorities presumed the man had drowned, launching a costly 8-week search before discovering the truth.
- He had fled to meet his online mistress in Georgia, after secretly planning his disappearance for months.
Now, details surrounding the last message Ryan sent have provided a sobering look at the calculated manipulation he used to comfort his wife while secretly preparing to disappear.
Details surrounding the final conversation between Ryan Borgwardt and his wife have surfaced, a year after he faked his disappearance
Image credits: Green Lake County Sheriff's Office
Emily spent the day messaging her husband, expressing frustration over yet another night of his unexplained absence.
“Nothing new. I should be used to it by now. So many nights I have no idea where you are when it’s late,” she wrote.
Ryan claimed he had “snuck out” to watch the Northern Lights and promised to “work on communication,” revealing the tension that had clearly been building in their marriage. He then painted a peaceful picture of the sky above Green Lake, describing the aurora in soothing detail.
Looking back, it was an intentional gesture made to defuse Emily’s frustration and lull her into a false sense of reassurance.
Ryan promised to go back, when in reality he had everything in place to run away forever
Image credits: Emily Borgwardt
Emily responded with love, unaware she was being emotionally pacified in real time. She went to bed expecting him to return, still believing they had more time to work things out.
But by 5:12 am, when he still hadn’t returned, her worry turned to desperation.
“Where are you?”
“Babe?”
The final text Ryan sent came at 10:49 pm.
“I love you… goodnight… I’ll be heading back to shore soon.”
Unbeknownst to her, it was all part of an elaborate plan.
Ryan planned the disappearance for months, going to great lengths to convince everyone he had lost his life
Image credits: Green Lake County Sheriff's Office
That same day, Emily reported Ryan missing. Police found his kayak overturned on Green Lake, his life jacket floating nearby. The signs seemed to confirm Emily’s worst fears: her husband of 22 years was suddenly, inexplicably gone.
No foul play was apparent. There were no signs of struggle or suspicious clues, just a man gone without a trace. In the absence of a body, authorities presumed he had drowned during a late-night solo paddle.
What she didn’t know was that Ryan had spent months carefully orchestrating the illusion of his own death.
He had wiped his computer, opened a new bank account, and taken out a $375,000 life insurance policy.
In truth, he was already on the move.
Efforts to locate him cost the state upwards of $50,000, but Ryan was already headed for Europe
Image credits: WBAY
After staging the scene at Green Lake, Ryan rode an electric bike 70 miles overnight to Madison. From there, he boarded a bus to Detroit, crossed into Canada, and flew from Toronto to Paris.
His final destination was the country of Georgia, where a woman he had met online, a stranger from Uzbekistan, was waiting to start a new life with him.
Back in Wisconsin, the community was consumed by the search. For eight weeks, volunteers, divers, drones, and helicopters combed the lake and surrounding areas.
Ryan said he felt like a failure in his family life, unable to communicate with his wife, and shunned by his children
Image credits: Green Lake County Sheriff's Office
When investigators finally found him in November 2024, he returned to the US, where he was charged with obstructing the search for his own body.
In his interrogation, Ryan tried to explain the emotional spiral that led him to vanish.
Image credits: Emily Borgwardt
“It came down to the feeling of failure in about every aspect of your life,” he said, as reported by local media.
“And you end up meeting a friend somewhere on the other side of the world that sort of has a somewhat similar story. Then the friend thing ends up turning into more.”
Image credits: Emily Borgwardt
Ryan explained how his relationship with his children had grown cold. Saying that they didn’t even want to spend time with him.
“I think just the inability to feel like you can talk to your wife about some of this stuff and maybe that complete hopelessness that you have in the situation that you’re in,” he added.
Emily filed for divorce four months after his return, describing the marriage as “irretrievably broken”
Image credits: Green Lake County Sheriff's Office
Last month, Ryan Borgwardt was sentenced to 89 days in county jail. The punishment was symbolic, meant to mirror the exact number of days he let his family believe he had lost his life.
He was also ordered to pay $30,000 in restitution for the massive search operation his lies triggered.
In court, he expressed remorse.
Ryan Borgwardt may be back on US soil, but as far as his family is concerned, the man they know said goodbye with one last message text at 10:49 pm, August 11, 2024.
Netizens described what happened to Ryan as a "mid life crisis on steroids"
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