A wife has taken revenge on her husband after he was caught after faking his own death and leaving their family behind to live outside of the country.
Ryan Borgwardt, from Wisconsin, US, stands accused of faking his death and fleeing his home and life after he turned himself into police on Wednesday December 11.
According to reports, Green Lake County Sherrif, Mark Podoll shared that he had left his life to start anew for around four months before he ‘returned on his own’.
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Borgwardt was subsequently handed a misdemeanour charge of obstruction, which he pleaded not guilty to.
Investigators confirmed that the 45-year-old had disappeared during a fishing trip to Green Lake in August, where he left his kayak and phone in the lake before taking a child’s boat to shore, where he had stashed an e-bike to get away.
Police shared that he had revealed to them that he had then cycled overnight to Madison, Wisconsin, before hopping on a bus to Detroit, Michigan, and then boarded a plane to Canada.
From there, he travelled to an unknown location for the months he was missing.
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Initially, authorities believed that he had drowned and spent one month searching for his body, which cost the city approximately $35,000 (£27,500), the Associated Press (AP) news agency stated.
It was on Wednesday that he appeared in court to share that he believed he was not guilty of the charges and stated that he would represent himself as he could not afford a lawyer.
To this, the judge shared that he would receive state representation at the next appearance.
While the husband spent his time away from the family, which includes his three children, his loved ones were left picking up the pieces of his ‘death’.
Sheriff Podoll shared that before Borgwardt's disappearance, he had transferred money to a foreign bank account and had also been speaking to a woman in Uzbekistan.
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While they don’t know where he went, even though there is evidence to suggest he used his passport, they did confirm that on December 10 he ‘arrived on US soil’.
After paying a $500 (£390) bond with the promise to appear for a future court date, he was allowed to leave.
His wife, who had shared a home and life with him for 22 years, was not about to let this ordeal slide, and as soon as the court appearance was over, she swiftly got her own back and filed for divorce.
Court documents state that she claimed that the marriage was ‘irretrievably broken’ and is filing to arrange sole custody of their children.
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According to Sheriff Podoll, Borgwardt began speaking with the police three months after going missing, where police were ‘pulling at his heartstrings’ to bring him home for Christmas.
In his news conference, Sheriff Podoll suggested that Borgwardt may be required to pay the city back for their expenditure to search for his body.
Police stated that when Borgwardt went missing on August 12, they searched the lake for 54 days, but when he communicated with them in November, the truth came out.
According to officials, the father-of-three contacted a Russian-speaking woman to connect him to the police.
He then sent the police a 24-second video of himself that showed him in an apartment with white walls where he confirmed: "I'm safe, secure, no problem."
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Whilst communicating, he allegedly told the authorities of his escape, which he conducted because of ‘personal matters’.
The next court date on January 13.
LADbible reached out to Green Lake County for comment.
Britt Jones