Wife wants payback on kayaking husband who faked death and left family

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A man who faked his own death and jetted abroad to be with his mistress has been met with a stark message from his heartbroken wife after he returned to America - a petition for legal separation.

Ryan Borgwardt, is thought to have staged an elaborate hoax giving him a chance to spend time in an Eastern European love nest.

However, after four months the dad-of-three returned to Wisconsin to face his family. His devastated wife Emily, 44, filed for a legal separation the day after he landed back in his homeland, reports the Mirror.

"The marriage is irretrievably broken", she said in her petition. She is also asking for property and debt division, as well as her husband contribute to her legal costs.

At a press conference following Borgwardt's return, Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said the 45-year-old faces, "a number of charges", including "obstruction". He has told authorities that he faked his death because of "personal matters", Podoll said.

Borgwardt's disappearance sparked a huge manhun in August. His vanishing act was elaborately planned, with Borgwardt leaving his original passport at home. He attempted to cover his tracks by removing his laptop's hard drive. He also changed all the email addresses linked to his accounts and moved money to a foreign bank.

It is thought he deliberately flipped his kayak and ditched his belongings in the water before paddling away on an inflatable boat and e-biking more than 50miles to Madison overnight.

In November, Borgwardt sent investigators a video showing that he was safe from his hideaway in Eastern Europe. Sources told the Mirror he could have been inspired by British canoe man John Darwin, who faked his disappearance, due to the similarities in the case.

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Police say Borgwardt staged the incident, which was very similar to the Brit, and also took out a life insurance policy before his disappearance.

Authorities traced his movements to Canada and it was discovered that he had been communicating with an Uzbek women in Georgia. He handed himself in to the Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin on Wednesday of this week.

The former school janitor was led handcuffed into the Green Lake County Court and charged with obstruction related to the manhunt.

Court records confirm Emily lodged the documents in Dodge County almost immediately after his return, reports MailOnline. The couple, who married in 2002, have three teenaged children - two sons aged 17 and 15 and a 13-year-old daughter. Emily wants the children remain in her care and demands that her estranged husband pay child support.

A judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf and set bond at $500 for the misdemeanour obstruction charge.

His distraught family are being supported by the Sheriff's Office. "They are doing okay, that's probably the best thing you could say," Green Lake Chief Deputy Sheriff Matthew Vande Kolk said last month.

"I can't compare their situation to anything I have ever experienced in law enforcement before, I don't have any reference."

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