Found Alive WI - Ryan Borgwardt, 45, Green Lake, 11 Aug 2024 *evidence that he faked his death and is alive in Eastern Europe*

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  • #641
Charlot123 said:
P.S. a passport itself is not super usual for a person living in a tiny US town.
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RBSM - Do you have a source for this? I live in a "tiny US town" (fewer than 2,000 people) and everyone I know has a passport.
 
  • #642
Trino said:
In addition to a bicyclist I am a also former white water kayaker. (I've had a lot of "former" lives. I also raced canoes.) I did not do both in the same decade. You must be aware that kayaking uses upper arms and NOT legs. Totally different.
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My point is, imo, the man is capable of physical tasks including a long ebike ride, but I totally understand you have different opinion based on personal athletic accomplishments.

jmo
 
  • #643
Trino said:
When spring 2025 arrives, how about duplicating his route? Ride with GPS would give you the best route, which, assuming RB cycled. At night, of course. Certainly would prove your point.
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We dont know the route he took yet, but I doubt he was on main roads. Lots of backroads are paved in that area and are popular with road cyclists. I actually would be interested in this challenge. Spring 2025 I’ll see you in Green Lake ;-)

I feel pretty confident in my assessment because I’m familiar with the area and active lifestyle culture in this area. I find the one caveat is the night riding but this was a determined person and you can buy decent headlamps for bikes.
 
  • #644
It would be a tremendous risk to cycle that far at night, with or without spare batteries. It’s like something out of a spy novel. Must have been an exciting challenge to tackle each gamut. But why oh why do things the way he did? This took so much planning, organisation and determination. His poor family is probably wondering about everything to do with Ryan.
 
  • #645
Does it really matter how he made that journey?
They know when and where his passport was checked in Canada and they'll know which flight he was on so the key parts of his story are true.
I guess worst-case he might have had an accomplice who drove him part of the way and he's lying to protect that person. It seems like it's questionable whether Ryan himself would/could be convicted of any crimes so I doubt anyone else would be in trouble for assisting him.
 
  • #646
Occam's Zebra said:
RBSM - Do you have a source for this? I live in a "tiny US town" (fewer than 2,000 people) and everyone I know has a passport.
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It probably highly depends on the area and purposes. An enhanced license should be enough for entry to Mexico/Canada/Bermudas/Carribean. For other international travels, for sure, the passport is needed. How much people travel, and where, highly depends on the area.
 
  • #647
peas n carrots said:
We dont know the route he took yet, but I doubt he was on main roads. Lots of backroads are paved in that area and are popular with road cyclists. I actually would be interested in this challenge. Spring 2025 I’ll see you in Green Lake ;-)

I feel pretty confident in my assessment because I’m familiar with the area and active lifestyle culture in this area. I find the one caveat is the night riding but this was a determined person and you can buy decent headlamps for bikes.
Click to expand...
At what time did he start his supposed ride? Guesses are he did not overturn his kayak and paddle an inflatable at night. So, if it was daylight, did he get on his bike during daylight hours? Would make a difference in his "night" active bike ride.
 
  • #648
Trino said:
At what time did he start his supposed ride? Guesses are he did not overturn his kayak and paddle an inflatable at night. So, if it was daylight, did he get on his bike during daylight hours? Would make a difference in his "night" active bike ride.
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We don't know for sure, but here's what the Sheriff said at the press conference:

* Ryan told LE he threw his phone in the lake when he staged the kayak.

* Ryan texted his wife at 10:49pm to say he was heading to shore.

I am assuming he texted from his cellphone as otherwise his wife would wonder about a different number if he used a different phone. If he's telling the truth about throwing his cellphone in the lake, he didn't start his ebike ride until after 10:49pm.

He might not be telling the truth about the cellphone. If he didn't actually throw the phone in the lake, he could've ridden the ebike during the day and called his wife from wherever he was at 10:49pm.

So the timing depends on the truthfulness of a liar.

fox11online.com

What to know about Ryan Borgwardt, Wisconsin man who faked death and fled to Europe

Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said Thursday that Ryan Borgwardt began communicating with authorities Nov. 11, after they tracked him down.
fox11online.com fox11online.com

jmo
 
  • #649
The sheriff was quoted as saying “he rode through the night.” RB could be lying about that but what would he gain? For a guy trying to hide, it wouldn’t make sense he would exaggerate a story to make himself seem like more of a badass.

"He stashed an e-bike near the boat launch. He paddled his kayak in a child-sized floating boat out into the lake. He overturned the kayak and dumped his phone in the lake," the sheriff said. "He paddled the inflatable boat to shore and got on his e-bike and road through the night to Madison, [Wisconsin]. In Madison, he boarded a bus and went to Detroit, and then the Canadian border. He continued on the bus to an airport and got on a plane."
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/wisconsin-man-faked-death-safe-reveal-location-home/story?id=116057680
"We are continuing to verify this information," the sheriff added.
 
  • #650
Trino said:
In addition to a bicyclist I am a also former white water kayaker. (I've had a lot of "former" lives. I also raced canoes.) I did not do both in the same decade. You must be aware that kayaking uses upper arms and NOT legs. Totally different.
Click to expand...

I tried to look at as many images of Ryan as I could see. Sadly, they are of the same age. Two things that stand out to me:
- one, he always tends to hold his head to the right shoulder, could be a habit, but also could be torticollis (mild wry-neck).
- it is more obvious on his video from Turkey. Also, his lower portion of the face is quite pronounced, and it, too, seems to be progressing.
- in short, could there be something medical going on that causes changes in behavior? More pronounced head tilt, mild acromegaly…

I might be overemphasizing a mild trait, of course. Or, Ryan might be hearing better with one ear and hence the “habitual” head tilt, or he may be somewhat ashamed and hence not facing the viewer on the video. (However, I think the head tilt is something he is aware of, as he prefers semi-profile photos with the camera positioned a little bit above his head.) Or is something, indeed going on with him that is leading to changes in behavior? It would be interesting to see the photos from his youth.
 
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  • #651
Sorry if I missed this. Let's assume he really did text his wife at 10:49 PM to say he was heading to shore. Was it usual for him to be kayaking at that time of night? (Just wondering if the wife was surprised by this or if it didn't cause any suspicions because it's what he did on a normal day)
 
  • #652
www.fdlreporter.com

Ryan Borgwardt likely wouldn’t face significant jail time after staging death, experts say

Experts explain what the legal ramifications could be for a Wisconsin man who faked his own death.
www.fdlreporter.com

I wonder if insurance fraud could even be the charge. After all, he did not fake own death successfully, and the insurance claim, probably, was not made. I mean, we are assuming that this is why he faked own death, to provide for his family, but look at it from the other angle: he didn’t insure his life for too much nor did he care to conceal his tracks too well. The next day it was obvious that he was in Canada.

It was a very half-hearted attempt to look better. After all, here is this “model” husband and father, probably approaching midlife crisis, who fell in love with some woman from post-Soviet world (I’d guess that she is not a 20-year-old, but probably a good ten years younger than him.) And he abandons his family, basically, robs them of any means for existence. He doesn’t plan to return. He faked his death for the family - these two handsome boys, and lovely daughter who is so close to him, and obviously loving and happy woman, his wife. He planned on staying dead for them - at best. At worst, as i suspect, he didn’t care.

But not to look totally immoral in their eyes, now he can always say, “well, I left them my life insurance.” In his view, he is clean. “I did what I had to do.” Read: took care of them, too bad that it didn’t work out.

If he really tried, he’d at least attempt to stage death better, or cross the border the way illegal migrants do, perhaps stay in Canada for a while. Or maybe go to Mexico and fake disappearance there, but it is dangerous and costly. Too much effort for this egotistical lazy bum, much easier to click a mouse on his computer.

I would love to know if he courted his wife, if he promised to be the best husband ever if she’d agree, if he is one of these manipulators. I’d bet on “yes.”

If I were this woman from Uzbekistan, I’d look, very carefully, at the photo of his family. It is not her victory over them. He just discarded a visibly loving family with three children, and not even for her, for own novelty-seeking. Realities are very different in Central Asia, there are more single, hopeless women, but who’s to say he’s not going to do the same again? He can simply leave her “to go back” and move to yet another place. Now, she has to work darn hard to keep him, because there are other women around in Uzbek neighborhoods, even younger, even newer, and also desperate to have a better life. And god forbid she wants to have a kid of her own, because he’s been through it, three times. Then it stop being new and free.

I hope the community in Wisconsin supports his family and I hope that they close this door for him.

The woman he went to doesn’t need to be an ethnic Uzbek and religiously observant, but how I wish she were. The average summer temperature in Tashkent is about 35-40 degrees Celsius, and Samarkand is hotter than that. And imagine Ramadan falling on the summer, and you can’t eat nor drink till the first star, and there is 40C (104 F) in the shade. I always felt sorry for Uzbek women who gather cotton in the fields, especially if they are pregnant. But Ryan is likely living in Tashkent and can arrange air conditioning. Still, kayaking or biking in summer ain’t gonna be fun.

Leave him there, please.
 
  • #653
Charlot123 said:
I tried to look at as many images of Ryan as I could see. Sadly, they are of the same age. Two things that stand out to me:
- one, he always tends to hold his head to the right shoulder, could be a habit, but also could be torticollis (mild wry-neck).
- it is more obvious on his video from Turkey. Also, his lower portion of the face is quite pronounced, and it, too, seems to be progressing.
- in short, could there be something medical going on that causes changes in behavior? More pronounced head tilt, mild acromegaly…

I might be overemphasizing a mild trait, of course. Or, Ryan might be hearing better with one ear and hence the “habitual” head tilt, or he may be somewhat ashamed and hence not facing the viewer on the video. (However, I think the head tilt is something he is aware of, as he prefers semi-profile photos with the camera positioned a little bit above his head.) Or is something, indeed going on with him that is leading to changes in behavior? It would be interesting to see the photos from his youth.
Click to expand...
I think the only thing he suffers from is a severe case of midlife crisis.
 
  • #654
  • #655
  • #656
peas n carrots said:
He may or may not be a cyclist, but it’s more likely he would be a road cyclist than in most places in the US - active outdoor lifestyles are pretty common.

70 miles on an ebike - totally doable if he is a decent road cyclist. I recently did an e-cycle tour in Oregon, and my rental bike topped out at 22 mph on flat ground. If he had spare batteries he could have been hitting the throttle on all the uphills.
Click to expand...
You were cycling in daylight hours on Cycle Oregon. And, with others around. And you stopped. We don't really know his experience, but he did have a job requiring him to limit physical activities, plus he had a family. Seems odd that he would leave his family at home and train. Maybe he wasn't such a family man.
 
  • #657
No new updates from the sheriff? He's been gone 4 months. Predict not returning. No conscience about who he's left behind and no reason he left them except a supposed girlfriend.
I do wonder about the girlfriend. Did she send him an actual photo of herself? Did he send her money? What does she do for a living? What did she say online to get him hooked? Did she know about his wife and kids? Does she expect him to divorce and marry her? Is he living with her? Many more questions...
 
  • #658
  • #659
  • #660
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