A Man Was Missing for Months. Investigators Say He Faked His Death.

The authorities spent weeks searching a Wisconsin lake for the man’s body before discovering that he had moved money into a foreign bank account and had been communicating with a woman in Uzbekistan.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived at Green Lake in Wisconsin in August to search for a man who had failed to return from a solo fishing trip the day before, they found his vehicle and trailer parked beside a boat launch and a capsized kayak in the lake, suggesting that he had drowned.

But after 54 days of searching for his body, investigators said on Friday that they had found evidence that pointed to a different fate. The man, Ryan Borgwardt, they said, faked his death and left the country as part of an elaborate, monthslong plan.

Mr. Borgwardt, 45, a husband and father of three from Watertown, Wis., was reported missing on Aug. 12 after he went fishing in his kayak on Green Lake, about 65 miles southwest of Green Bay, said Mark A. Podoll, the Green Lake County sheriff.

Sheriff Podoll said that Mr. Borgwardt’s vehicle and trailer were found near Dodge Memorial County Park, where people launch their boats. The kayak was later found capsized in a part of the lake that is over 200 feet deep, he said.

The next day, the sheriff said, he brought in Bruce’s Legacy, a nonprofit that specializes in recovering drowning victims, to help search for Mr. Borgwardt’s body using sonar technology. Two fishermen casting nets recovered a fishing rod that Mr. Borgwardt’s wife confirmed belonged to her husband, Sheriff Podoll said. A tackle box was also found later that day with his keys, wallet and driver’s license inside.

At the end of August, investigators began using cadaver dogs and divers to search for Mr. Borgwardt’s body, Sheriff Podoll said. Bruce’s Legacy searched about 1,500 acres of the lake, the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

In early October, after almost two months of dead ends, the sheriff said his team widened its efforts, assuming that something “odd” had occurred. They found that the authorities in Canada “ran” Mr. Borgwardt’s passport the day after he was reported missing, the sheriff said.

Investigators then learned that Mr. Borgwardt had reported his passport lost or stolen and was issued a new one in May, but his family found his original passport in the house, according to the news release.

The sheriff sought help from state and federal law enforcement agencies, and he notified Mr. Borgwardt’s wife of the new leads.

A digital forensic analyst searched a laptop that Mr. Borgwardt’s wife had given the authorities, and found that he had moved money to a foreign bank account and bought an airline gift card, Sheriff Podoll said. The analyst also discovered that Mr. Borgwardt had been communicating with a woman in Uzbekistan in the months before he disappeared, and that he had also taken out a $375,000 life insurance policy in January.

Mr. Borgwardt had attempted to cover his tracks by removing his hard drive, wiping his browser history and changing his email address, the sheriff said.

Sheriff Podoll said that Mr. Borgwardt’s wife, whom he did not identify by name, had been “very strong” as she cooperated with the authorities, and that she had been careful not to share the new details about the investigation with her family, friends and others who believed her husband was dead. Her own children found out only the day before the news conference that their father was most likely alive and on the run, the sheriff said.

“Ryan, if you are viewing this, I plead that you contact us or contact your family,” Sheriff Podoll said at the news conference. “We understand that things can happen, but there’s a family that wants their daddy back.”

Sheriff Podoll said at the news conference that he did not know how much taxpayer money had been spent on the search for Mr. Borgwardt’s body. The sheriff’s office said in the news release that it would seek restitution for the cost of the search.

Keith Cormican founded Bruce’s Legacy after his brother, a firefighter, died while searching for a drowning victim. He told The Associated Press that he could have used the time his organization spent searching for Mr. Borgwardt to help other families.

“He definitely cost us a lot of grief, a lot of money, repairs and equipment,” Mr. Cormican said. “I just hope he comes forward sooner rather than later so the family can move on.”

The authorities are continuing to look for Mr. Borgwardt, who they believe is alive and in Eastern Europe, and anyone who may have assisted him in faking his death and fleeing.