A Wisconsin dad who polices he believes he organized his own disappearance was in contact with an Uzbek woman and took out life insurance before disappearing.

Ryan Borgwardt has not been seen by his family or authorities since August, when officers responded to a missing persons call and found his vehicle and trailer in Green Lake County, Wisconsin, the police said. county sheriff, Mark Podoll, during a press conference broadcast by WFRV.

When authorities searched Green Lake, Podoll told reporters, a capsized kayak was found. The next day, searchers found Borgwardt’s fishing rod and tackle box in the lake. Inside the box was the missing man’s driver’s license.

Borgwardt, married and father of three children, according to WBAYwas not located, leading to a 54-day search involving search dogs and dive teams, Podoll said.

But the search took a different direction on Oct. 7, after Podoll said police learned that Borgwardt’s name had been checked by Canadian authorities a day after she disappeared.

“It was something we didn’t expect,” Podoll said.

The sheriff said a search of Borgwardt’s laptop led authorities to discover that he had replaced his hard drive and deleted his Internet browser history on the day of his disappearance. Authorities later discovered that Borgwardt had taken photos of his passport, transferred funds to a foreign bank account, changed his email address and communicated with a woman in Uzbekistan.

Podoll added that a few months before his disappearance, Borgwardt had taken out a $375,000 life insurance policy.

“With these new evidence discoveries, we were confident that Ryan was not in our lake,” Podoll said.

Authorities now believe the missing father is “somewhere in Europe”.

Podoll thanked everyone who helped search the lake, including a volunteer search and recovery organization called Bruce’s Legacy, which conducted its own search for nearly a month.

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“They thought their father had drowned,” Podoll said of Borgwardt’s children. “A day ago they found out that wasn’t the case.”

The sheriff also thanked Borgwardt’s wife, calling her a “strong lady.”

“Ryan, if you are watching this, I am imploring you to contact us or your family,” the sheriff said. “We understand that things can happen, but there is a family that wants their dad back.”