A Wisconsin man who faked his own death and left his family to be with a woman from Uzbekistan who he met online has been sentenced to 89 days in jail Tuesday.
Ryan Borgwardt, 45, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a police officer. ABC News noted that the jail sentence was equal to the time he was missing after faking a kayaking accident on Aug. 11, 2024.
"I deeply regret the actions that I did that night and all the pain that I caused my family and friends," Borgwardt said in court, according to Fox 6.
According to PEOPLE, Borgwardt told police how he was able to fake his own death. Borgwardt paddled the kayak to the middle of Green Lake while towing a child's raft. He then flipped the kayak over and used the raft to paddle back to shore.
PEOPLE reported that Borgwardt had an e-bike hidden and used it to get to Madison, Wisconsin. From there, he took a bus to Detroit before crossing into Canada and then traveling to Eastern Europe.
Borgwardt had "researched and studied how to successfully disappear," ABC News reported prosecutors said. They also said that Borgwardt believed that "Green Lake's great depth would mean that a body would not surface."
Borgwardt also had to pay $30,000 in restitution to law enforcement to compensate them for their search efforts, PEOPLE reported. The outlet reported that he had also taken out a $375,000 insurance policy on himself that his family could collect after had had disappeared and been presumed dead.
Law enforcement tracked Borgwardt down in November and pleaded with him to contact his family, PEOPLE reported. At the time, he told authorities he was safe and well, but then in December returned to the U.S. and was charged.
