Keith Lusher 07.23.26
A Wisconsin man who faked his own death to escape to Europe may have inadvertently left behind something that could save lives for years to come.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that it used the $9,000 paid by Ryan Borgwardt to purchase a new Towfish sonar system, a specialized underwater search device that has previously helped locate two missing people during four deployments.
The equipment was purchased using a portion of $30,000 that Borgwardt was ordered to repay after pleading no contest in 2025 to obstructing an officer following one of Wisconsin’s most unusual missing persons investigations.
For families standing on the shoreline waiting for answers, the irony is hard to ignore.
What started as an expensive search for a drowned man has now become a tool that helps search teams find people who are truly missing, officials said.
In August 2024, Borgwardt launched his kayak on Big Green Lake, Wisconsin’s deepest inland lake, and deliberately made it appear as if he died in a boating accident. They abandoned their overturned kayaks, life jackets and fishing tackle, triggering a massive search effort involving conservation wardens and multiple law enforcement agencies.
Over the next 58 days, Wisconsin DNR staff spent approximately 350 hours searching the lake, believing they were recovering the victim of a tragic accident.
Instead, investigators eventually uncovered an elaborate escape plan.
According to court documents, Borgwardt hid a small inflatable boat before launching his kayak. After intentionally overturning the kayak, he used the inflatable craft to return to shore, where he retrieved an electric bicycle hidden near the boat launch. From there, he biked to Madison, caught a bus to Canada and flew abroad before eventually settling in the country of Georgia.
Investigators later learned that he had also used a virtual private network (VPN) while searching for news reports about his disappearance to hide his location.
Authorities eventually convinced Borgwardt to return to Wisconsin, where he was sentenced to 89 days in jail and ordered to reimburse the state for part of the resources spent searching for him.
Rather than simply recoup the investigation costs, the DNR opted to invest a portion of the compensation in equipment that could improve future rescue and recovery operations.
towfish sonar Designed to scan lake and river bottoms remotely, creating detailed images that help locate missing people, submerged hazards and evidence without immediately sending divers into dangerous waters.
“The Towfish Unit is a vital tool in our program that will help provide closure to families and communities when tragedy occurs,” Lt. Drew Storch, who oversees the DNR’s underwater search and recovery team, said in a statement. “The new equipment will actually be used to search for missing people and help people waiting on the shore.”
In addition to locating missing people, sonar can also assist conservation wardens in environmental spill investigations, infrastructure inspections, and the protection of Wisconsin’s underwater cultural resources, including historic shipwrecks in Lake Michigan.
In a case that once took hundreds of hours to find someone who was never meant to be found, restitution has now been transformed into a resource that can help provide real answers to families facing a real tragedy.
keith lusher
Keith Lusher is an award-winning outdoor journalist who lives in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthShoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly outdoors column for the Slidell Independent Newspaper. He also writes for the St. Tammany Parish Tourism Commission’s VisitTheNorthshree.com. He is the former host of The Northshore Fishing Report radio show and is on the board of the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association. Keith contributes to numerous publications both online and in print and is proud to promote the unique fisheries of South Louisiana. To contact Keith email: keithlusherjr@gmail.com
