11/8/24 Green Lake County Sheriff’s Comments on Missing Kayaker Investigation
8 November 2024 News
Provided by the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Department:
Good afternoon, thank you for attending. I am Sheriff Mark Podoll of the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office, and I have called this press conference to update the community on the search for missing kayaker Ryan Borgwardt. I’ll refer to him as Ryan going forward.
I’d like to start by reviewing how this search began.
August 12 2024—
At 532am We received notice from Dodge County Sheriff’s Office that Ryan had not returned home and was last known to be on Green Lake in his kayak.
At 600am Ryan’s vehicle and trailer were located in the area of Dodge Memorial Park. Parked on the south side of the road by the marsh boat launch.
At 631am Sheriff’s deputies located Ryan’s kayak overturned with a lifejacket attached in the middle of the western basin of Green Lake. In an area with depths over 200 feet.
Through contact with Ryan’s wife we learned that the last known contact with Ryan was a text message advising her that he was turning around and heading to shore soon at 10:49pm on Sunday August 11, 2024.
Deputies requested phone pings from cellular providers, but the data associated was from earlier on the 11th and not beneficial.
FLOCK cameras located Ryan’s vehicle on STH 26 at 553pm on August 11, 2024 the vehicle was northbound.
Location sharing data from Ryan’s wife provided the most accurate information indicating the last digital contact was at 11:55pm on August 11 located on the waters of Big Green Lake off of Dodge Memorial Park. This phone data led us to believe that Ryan may have confused two lighted towers in the area, and swam after capsizing, toward a tower leading him further into the lake rather than toward shore.
With the information collected we believed there was a very high probability that Ryan had capsized his kayak and was without a life jacket. Searches of the area were completed with the assistance of the Wisconsin DNR and the Sheriff’s Office watercraft. We searched the area utilizing side scan sonar. We also flew the area extensively with our drone unit. The bottom could be viewed in 10’ of water and less.
Bruce’s Legacy was contacted and Keith Cormican and crew responded to assist as well, beginning on August 12 arriving at 1:15pm.
A fishing rod was located in the area being searched by a fisherman on August 13, 2024. That fishing rod was determined to be Ryan’s.
A tacklebox was located on August 13 by a person near the Heidel House Resort the contents confirmed that the tackle box belonged to Ryan.
The search of the lake continued with assistance from multiple entities.
Nortons Dry Dock provided boats and boat operators for dive operations and cadaver K9 searches.
Pierless Boat Rentals provided boats for dive operations and cadaver K9 searches.
On August 24, we were assisted by 3 K9 cadaver teams and 2 divers on highly technical deep water dives.
On August 25, we continued to search deep water areas of interest with the volunteer divers.
An additional dive was completed on August 28.
Numerous other people and businesses offered support with meals and other donations.
The search continued for about 54 days with no sign of Ryan. Near daily drone searches were completed, and Bruce’s Legacy methodically searched approximately 1500 acres with large portions of the search area over 100 feet of water. Keith Cormican and Bruce’s Legacy sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images.
Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred and we were looking in the wrong place entirely.
We renewed investigative efforts in hopes of finding new information that might guide our search on October 7th 2024.
As we began that effort, we soon learned with the assistance of the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center (MOCIC) that Ryan’s name had been checked by law enforcement in Canada on August 13, 2024.
We searched further and learned that Ryan had reported his passport lost or stolen and had obtained another passport issued May 22nd 2024. His original passport was easily located by his family.
With this information we made contact with Ryan’s wife and advised her of our concerns.
We made contact with our law enforcement partners at Customs and Border Patrol, Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigations to assist us in continuing the investigation.
A digital forensic analysis of a laptop has provided a digital trail showing that Ryan had planned his disappearance to Europe and attempted to conceal his efforts and mislead our investigation.
We have located things such as:
The replacement of the hard drive on the laptop
The clearing of browsers on the day of disappearance
Syncing the laptop with Icloud on August 11th 2024
Photos of passports.
Inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks
Changed email addresses associated with financial accounts on the day of disappearance
Communication with a woman from Uzbekistan
A new $375000 life insurance policy in January 2024
and a purchased airline gift card
Due to the discovery of this new evidence, we are confident that Ryan is not located in Green Lake and we have ended all search efforts associated with Green Lake.
The expertise of Keith Cormican and Bruce’s Legacy cannot be overstated. His dedication and persistence in the search efforts was unmatched, and finally his confidence that there was not a body located in the West end of Big Green Lake was vital in changing the course of this case. Keith is certainly one of the best in the world at his craft.
Our investigation has many more steps to take to put this puzzle together. We are working with the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigations, Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center and the FBI as we continue to unravel the digital information available and provide the clearest possible picture of what has occurred.
At this time we believe that Ryan is alive and likely in Eastern Europe.
Our goals for this case going forward are to:
1) Identify any and all crimes committed, any individuals who assisted with those crimes, and completely and thoroughly investigate all aspects of this case with the assistance of our state, federal, and international partners.
2) Pursue restitution for the expenses of the search that have been funded by the taxpayers.
3) Alert Ryan that his plan is being uncovered, and that the best thing he can do is return home to his family and children.
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to all of the entities that assisted in the search efforts, the volunteer expert divers, the K9 cadaver teams, Norton’s Dry Dock, Pierless Boat Rentals, Bayview Motel, the Green Lake community businesses and citizens, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Keith Cormican and Bruce’s Legacy and the dedicated staff of the Green Lake County Sheriff’s office. But most of all I would like to thank the family of Ryan. I cannot imagine what your feelings and emotions are like today. I cannot imagine what the last 3 months have been like for all of you. It is my hope and prayer that Ryan will give you the answers you seek, and that he will seek forgiveness for what he has put you through. The support you have shown the search effort and investigation has been greatly appreciated.
We ask the media to give the family TIME and SPACE. Undoubtedly they will need time to process all of this as well.
If there is someone out there that has either knowingly or unknowingly assisted Ryan in his efforts, we encourage you to come forward by contacting the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 920-294-4134 ext 1162. If there are people that have information pertaining to this case they can remain anonymous and provide information through Green Lake County Crime Stoppers. Text “GETTHEM” to 847411. Tips provided that lead to arrests or convictions will be eligible for a reward. If you cannot text, you can call 1-800-GET THEM.
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