DNR Uses Restitution From Kayaker Who Faked Death To Fund Public Service Equipment

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today announced the restitution received as part of a 2025 Green Lake County Circuit Court ruling against a kayaker who staged his death was used to purchase new sonar equipment for emergency response to public safety incidents and natural resource protection cases.

Ryan Borgwardt staged a boating fatality on Big Green Lake, the state’s deepest inland lake, back in August 2024. Almost two months later, authorities determined he had fled the country and falsified his death for personal reasons. Green Lake County Sheriff and other law enforcement partners located Borgwardt in Europe and convinced him to return to Green Lake.

The court ordered Borgwardt to pay restitution to the DNR for its approximately 350 hours of staff time spent searching for him. The DNR used about $9,000 of the funds to purchase a device called a towfish sonar. The unit can map the bottom of waterbodies for missing persons, items and hazards.

Within weeks of the new unit achieving operational status, the towfish has already been deployed to four missions and located two missing people. The use of these highly sophisticated, remote tools helps to maximize effectiveness and efficiency of underwater searches and reduces the need to expose public safety divers to risky recoveries involving scenarios such as significant depths or entanglement.

“The towfish unit is a vital tool to our program that will assist in bringing closure to families and communities when tragedy strikes,” said Lt. Drew Starch, who oversees the DNR's underwater search and recovery team who utilizes sonar and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to locate and retrieve submerged items. "The new equipment will be used in searches for the truly missing and help those waiting on the shore."

Remote tools also support other essential mission sets for wardens and have been used to ensure critical infrastructure protection, respond to environmental spills and protect Wisconsin’s submerged cultural resources, such as the many shipwrecks covering the Lake Michigan beds. 

Learn more about the work of the conservation wardens on the DNR’s Division of Public Safety and Resource Protection webpage.