A circuit court judge on Tuesday sentenced a Wisconsin kayaker who faked his own death last year to 89 days in prison for obstructing officers.

Ryan Borgwardt, a 45-year-old Appleton resident, entered a plea of no contest to the misdemeanor, according to court records, and in addition to the jail time must submit a DNA sample and pay court costs and $30,000 used to investigate his disappearance.

On Aug. 12, 2024, Mr. Borgwardt rowed onto Green Lake, Wisconsin’s deepest, overturned his kayak, dumped his phone and other items and rowed back to shore in an inflatable boat. He got on shore, washed away footprints and retrieved a stashed electric bike to travel to Canada, according to a criminal complaint cited by The Associated Press.

Once in Canada, Mr. Borgwardt flew to Paris and to an unspecified Asian country, where he met up with a woman. The two then went to the country of Georgia, according to the complaint.

Investigators found that Mr. Borgwardt communicated with a woman in Uzbekistan prior to his disappearance in addition to making monetary preparations to leave.

The Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office managed to contact and communicate with Mr. Borgwardt via the unnamed Russian-speaking woman, according to the Watertown Daily Times. Mr. Borgwardt, the sheriff’s office said, left the U.S. due to unspecified personal issues, leaving behind his wife and three kids.

“He just had personal matters going on, and he felt that this was the right thing to do. There was talk about the life insurance plan that he took out — it wasn’t for him, it was for his family. He was just going to try to make things better in his mind that this was the way it was going to be,” Green Lake County Chief Sheriff Mark Podoll said, according to the Wisconsin newspaper.

Mr. Borgwardt ultimately decided to return to the U.S. in December. His attorney said the missing man returned to face the music, since obstructing an officer is not an extraditable offense.

“If he didn’t want to come back, he didn’t need to come back. He came back from Europe to take responsibility for his actions,” attorney Erik Johnson told NBC News.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.