The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office is providing an update on a man accused of faking his own death

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – The Green Lake County community is supporting Ryan Borgwardt's family after he is believed to have faked his own death, fleeing to Europe and leaving his family behind.

The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office, along with several other agencies, continue to investigate Borgwardt, who initially appeared to have drowned while kayaking in a lake.

Sheriff Mark Podoll confirmed details of the investigation in a one-on-one interview with WMTV 15 News on Monday.

The investigation is still ongoing, meaning even the sheriff doesn't have many answers to the community's lingering questions about Ryan Borgwardt's fate.

Podoll says the community in general has been supportive, particularly toward Borgwardt's family, including his wife and three children.

“Most people are sorry,” Podoll explained. “They feel bad for the family because he drowned first, and they feel like he died, and then suddenly they get the information that he's still alive, and it was all fake.”

Podoll says the family has received a lot of support from their church. He also asks that the family be given space to process this information.

The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office hopes to bring Borgwardt home to his family by finding out where he is and convincing him to come home.

First they have to figure out exactly where he is and how he got out of the United States

Authorities believe he is somewhere in Europe after examination of his laptop revealed he was having conversations with a woman in Uzbekistan. They also discovered that his passport had been documented by officials in Canada the day after he was reported missing.

Officials are also working to determine how much money and resources were poured into the eight-week search for Borgwardt in Green Lake. Podoll says he hopes they receive compensation, but is proud of how thoroughly they searched before concluding there was no possibility he was in the lake.

“It's very clear that he faked his death, with the information that we have, with all the evidence that we found on our lake that he did that,” Podoll said.

Podoll also explained that it took so long to initiate the investigation in this new way and deal with his online trial because they wanted to explore every possibility, but it seemed that at that point the most likely thing was that he drowned in the lake.

“You know we all have criminal thoughts, so in the beginning you think of everything from drowning to maybe someone deciding to just kill him and throw him in the lake. “Okay, let's take a look at that, but the information we started with was that it was a drowning accident,” Podoll said. “The family worked very closely with us to get us the information we needed to help us and nothing there shows us otherwise, so stick with what you have.”

The department is still seeking more information from the public to answer their outstanding questions. If you know anything about where Ryan Borgwardt is or how he left, you are asked to call the Green Lake County Sheriff's Office.

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