GREEN LAKE, Wis. (WFRV) - The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office provided an update on a kayaker who was reported missing on Aug. 12.
The missing man, 45-year-old Ryan Borgwardt, was not found but has been deemed to be not in the lake and is reportedly on the run.
Numerous efforts went across 54 days to search for Borgwardt. On Oct. 7, multiple law enforcement groups gathered together and decided to go in a different direction.
This direction led them to find out that Borgwardt's name was run on Aug. 13. by law enforcement in Canada. An analysis of a laptop given to them by Borgwardt's wife revealed that he had planned his disappearance and tried to conceal his efforts to mislead investigations.
Borgwardt allegedly replaced his hard drive and cleared the browser on the date of his disappearance, syncing it into the cloud on Aug. 11, and took photos of his passports.
Authorities say he also moved funds into a foreign bank and changed his email address while communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan.
In addition, he reportedly took out a $375,000 life insurance policy and purchased airline cards. The Sheriff's Office said that no charges have been decided upon at this time.
At this time, officials believe him to be alive and likely in Eastern Europe.
"Ryan, if you are viewing this, I plead that you contact us or your family," Sheriff Mark Podoll said. "We understand that things can happen but there is a family that wants their daddy back."
Sheriff Podoll said the family is doing "rather well" right now given the circumstances, although it's been a very tough couple months for them. He thanks the Borgwardt family for their help and support throughout the investigation, and said he hopes that Ryan gives them the answers they seek, and that he will seek forgiveness for what they've put them through.
Keith Cormican runs a nonprofit search-and-rescue operation called Bruce's Legacy and was part of the search for Borgwardt in Green Lake. He said he felt like something was off after the search began to drag on past a few days.
“After about 10 days of searching the area I was probably thinking something was up after 20 days I was just in awe," he said. "I couldn’t believe somebody could swim this far from the last ping.”
Sheriff Podoll said one of their priorities is making sure that they get restitution for the expenses from the search effort. He said right now he doesn't know if anybody assisted Borgwardt in leaving the country.
No additional details were provided. Local 5 will update this story as needed.