Authorities now believe a Watertown man who was reported missing while kayaking is alive and likely staged his own death before fleeing the country.

A viral TikTok video is not believed to depict missing man Ryan Borgwardt, Green Lake County sheriff's officials say.

GREEN LAKE, Wis. - Investigators say a missing kayaker faked his own drowning death in Green Lake. It's an investigation that reads like a movie script, and took everyone, including Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll by surprise.

Borgwardt, 44, disappeared on Aug. 11 in Wisconsin. Cops said he faked his own death to meet a woman from Uzbekistan.

Ryan Borgwardt, a Wisconsin kayaker, reportedly faked his own death and fled to eastern Europe, investigators say. Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll reported that Ryan Borgwardt went missing on August 11,

Green Lake County Sherriff’s Office believes 44-year-old Ryan Borgwardt staged his disappearance and has likely fled to Europe.

Ryan Borgwardt, a married father of three, has been missing since August after leaving for a fishing trip about an hour from his home in Watertown, Wisconsin. Investigators now suspect the experienced kayaker faked his death and fled to Europe through Canada.

A husband and father of three who vanished at a Wisconsin lake this summer may have faked his own death and fled to Eastern Europe, authorities said.

When a 45-year-old man failed to return home from a kayak outing on a lake, authorities thought he had drowned. Eventually, a different story emerged.