Overview

• Ryan Borgwardt was sentenced on August 26 in Green Lake County and ordered to pay $30,000 to cover law-enforcement search costs.
• Prosecutors sought a 45-day term, but the judge imposed 89 days to mirror the length of his disappearance.
• He staged an overturned kayak on Green Lake with his ID left behind, then traveled via Toronto and Paris before reaching Georgia to meet a woman from Uzbekistan.
• Authorities searched the lake for 58 days, then expanded the probe after finding signs of planning such as a newly issued passport and life-insurance activity, later locating him in November and persuading a December return.
• He initially pleaded not guilty, later accepted an agreement described as an abstention that was treated as the basis for sentencing, and his wife of 22 years sought a divorce four months after his return.