Rotten Mango - #405: Man From Viral Tiktok Looks Exactly Like Missing Husband- Did He Fake His Own Death For Another Girl

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Do you trust a random stranger to give you life-altering advice? A TikToker is standing on the sidewalk with a giant pasteboard - “ASK ME FOR FREE ADVICE.”  A middle aged man on a bike stops and asks “Do I go to Uzbekistan or stay here?” The whole exchange is bizarre. She asks him why would he move? He tells her for a woman. She asks him why doesn’t he just date an American woman? He tells her that he’s already married with kids… All of this is made more confusing by the fact that the entire time the man appears calm. He’s pleasant and keeps smiling…  That TikTok is filmed in June. In August, just 2 months later, a man goes missing in one of the deepest lakes in the state. He’s presumed dead.  But why does he look identical to the man in the TikTok video? Did this man actually drown?  Or did he fake his death, abandon his wife and kids, to be with a new woman? Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rumble. For the past three seasons of Gone South, we've covered one story per season. We tried to figure out who killed Margaret Coon. She told me I'm gonna kill you. I said, well, do it, bitch. Go ahead and do it. We delved into the violent world of the Dixie Mafia. I'm an outlaw and I was a thief, but I'm far from being the psychotic nutcase that I've been made out to be.

And we tracked a serial killer in Laredo, Texas. Just turn around, please. Turn around. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Now, Gone South is back for a fourth season, but this time, we're doing things a little differently. So, in Gone South Season Four, we'll be bringing you new stories every week with no end in

sight. I'm Jed Lapinski. Welcome back to Gone South, an Odyssey Original Podcast. Listen and follow now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every week. Do you trust a random stranger to give you life-altering advice? Imagine walking up to a stranger, you give them this coin. Hey, toss the coin. Toss the coin and based off of what it lands on, by you tossing it, I'm going to decide

whether or not I break up with my girlfriend and move to the other side of the country to join a band. And my fate is in this random person's hand. Someone I don't even know. I don't even know what this person is about. Would you trust a stranger with that level of power? At the pier in San Diego, California, there's this TikToker Bailey who's casually sitting on the side and she is hoping that people trust a stranger like that. She's got this giant poster board sitting on her lap and it just reads, ask me for free advice in big bright orange letters. I don't know how long she's been sitting out there for, but a middle-aged man stops on his bike.

Do I go to Uzbekistan or stay here? Mmm. Yes, and it's such an intense question. Say that one more time. Do I go to Uzbekistan or stay here? Do you have family there? No. Why do you want to go? To meet a woman. To meet a woman. And it was Uzbekistan.

Which that's a huge thing to ask a stranger for advice. Bekistan, which that's a huge thing to ask a stranger for advice. Do you move to the other side of the world for a woman or do you stay here? I don't know, but maybe he just needs someone who blirts out an answer. To give you the honest truth of how I feel about this TikTok, it appears to me that he just wants someone to say yes. Like, you know, when you ask someone for advice, but you already know what you want to hear. So anything else is just going in one ear and out the other.

It doesn't matter to you. It's like when you decide you want to buy something already, you ask your friend, and they tell you, do you really need it? You just keep going until they say, yeah, you should totally get it. That's the energy here. And the man on the bike has this very interesting outward appearance. He's wearing this black beanie, but it's only covering half of his bald head. And he's eerily calm the entire time. Like a bit too calm. The way he's just pleasantly smiling.

Do I just uproot my life and move to the other side of the country? Yeah, it's really odd, right? Yes. And the TikTokker Bailey continues to ask him, you know, like American women? Well, they're familiar. So you've given up on meeting someone here in America. No, I'm married. So he's married, pondering if he should move to the other side of the world for a woman. And the whole thing just gets stranger and stranger.

He talks about how his kids are out of the house. He has an empty nest. He wants to find a woman that he's content with. He says, quote, I want to find a companion that I'm content with. And the whole time he's just pleasantly smiling while Bailey keeps telling him, um, sir, you're unhinged. You need to at least talk to your wife about this or settle things out here first before you even think about moving out of the country. This is crazy. This is between you and your wife and he's mentioning that their love is diminished and he's just pleasantly calm

the entire time. And there's this one part of the TikTok where he just looks at her and says, yeah, and then six months later, and he kind of throws his hands up in the air as if six months later he's going to end up in Uzbekistan. Now at the very end of this very transparent conversation, I think that he realizes he's being recorded. He says, well, maybe I'll find myself on the internet and figure it out from there. That video was filmed in June of 2024, June of this year. A few months later in August, just like two months later, someone who looks very very similar to this man on the

bike, eerily similar, goes missing. Quite literally vanishes in the most bizarre kayaking trip out at the lake. His kayak is found in the water, overturned in the deepest part of the lake. His car is nearby. His wallet is found. But all netizens are wondering is, did he actually drown in the lake? Or did he leave his family and slip away to Uzbekistan? Or is that even really him in the TikTok video? We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support Bruce's Legacy. They are a volunteer-based non- nonprofit who specialize in search and recovery operations

for victims of drowning. For example, they have a specialized dive team that can be deployed to a drowning incident if the authorities lack the right resources. They also help by using side-scan sonar technology, decreasing diving risks for everyone involved in the search and recovery. As always, full show notes are available at rottenmango.com. One quick disclaimer, this case is also ongoing, and as of now, most of this remains, I want to say, legally unconfirmed by authorities. So with that being said, everything is alleged, and most of these are speculations by netizens.

The entrance to the cemetery looks straight out of a horror movie. Like a Halloween movie, like a Halloween movie. Like you know the show Wednesday? It kind of has that aesthetic. It's all iron. The gate to the cemetery is iron, and at the very top it has this ornate design, and there's just two words hanging there. Dartford Cemetery. It's only one of the most haunted spots in the entire state of Wisconsin. It's located just right around the corner from Green Lake, which happens to be one of the deepest lakes in the state, and the cemetery is now the final resting place for at least 2,591 bodies. The local legend is this. If you were to walk into the cemetery, you walk up to this one tombstone.

The name on there is Jackson Walker. Nobody really knows much about who Jackson Walker was, except that he died a long, long time ago. And he's got this giant mausoleum tombstone over his grave. It's huge. It could maybe fit five people on there, about four feet tall.

And you climb on top of this tombstone, and you just sit there and you wait. That's what the locals say. You wait and you wait until you feel something, like a hand on your back, and once you feel it, keep in mind this is very important, you do not look. Not that you really have the chance to, because by that point, that force is going to push on your back and it's going gonna completely push you off the tombstone. The whole thing is only about four feet tall so likely you're not gonna be injured but even so you're gonna be standing there feeling like there's a long hair that fell into your shirt and it's traveling down your spine. You're gonna feel a little shiver. One that is

in writes about the cemetery, I was a junior in high school and a group of friends and I had been looking for a place to hang out during late October It was during Halloween season. So seeing that Dartford Cemetery was only 20 minutes away from our place We decided you know what? Let's just venture out at 10 p.m. Check it out Upon arriving there was nothing out of the ordinary I mean it just looked like a cemetery My two friends and I got out of the car and we walked into the darkness with the only light reflecting off the old tombstones You know and the dare was we were to sit on this tombstone

That was rumored to contain the bodies of the children who had been struck in with polio and died so as we walked closer to the landmark I accidentally stepped on a grave and Suddenly the feeling of ice crept up my leg as if I was being grabbed by an icy hand. I quickly moved and I told my friends, but we kept going. I looked for the name on the headstone, it was too old to read. Once we got up to the tombstone, we sat on top of it. Only my friend Josh and I knew about the rumor of being pushed off by the ghost. We sat around, had a cigarette, and I felt really disappointed.

We decided to get off, go home, but as Josh and I stood up, Tom, our other friend, fell off the top. I was amazed, but at the same time in awe of what power beyond the grave could even do this event. The roof of the structure was not at all slippery, so there was no reason that he would fall off. And as we were briskly walking back to the car, we also had this feeling of being watched, and Tom claimed to have seen shadows moving between the headstones.

I have not been to Dartford Cemetery in several years since then, but I always think about it, about what happened that night. So why is the cemetery so haunted? I mean, technically, there are 20,272 registered cemeteries in the United States, not including the unregistered ones that nobody knows about, but out of the 20 something thousand, why is this one so haunted? For thousands of years, the indigenous people

considered Green Lake a very sacred place where you go to pay homage to, quote, the spirit that dwells beneath the water. Back then the cemetery on the lake had a more beautiful history surrounding it until of course the United States government forced the indigenous people off the land and that's when things clearly go south. Chief Hynocker, the last indigenous chief in the area, was buried at the cemetery. He's known to be one of the spirits haunting the area because, I mean,

do you blame him? He would have been very mad to see what happened to his people. Which, side note, it is said he passed away August 12th, 1911 from drowning in the Green Lake. And now, August 12th, 2024, exactly 113 years later, another man goes missing at Green Lake, presumably drowned in a part of the lake that is over 200 feet deep. Which if that's the case, that's not looking very good. The call comes in early in the morning from a woman. Her husband went missing last night at Green Lake. What do you mean he went missing?

He texted his wife the night before at around 11 p.m. He tells her that he was kayaking on the lake He's turning around in the water now, and he's heading to shore So he should have been home. I don't know Let's say latest midnight which already is alarming for authorities because even if you're an experienced kayaker Probably not the smartest thing to do in the middle of the night But nevertheless he doesn't make it home his wife doesn't notice until about 5 a.m. the next morning. She wakes up, he's still not there. The authorities rush to figure it out. Maybe he made it back to shore and decided to stay at a friend's house. Deputies

rush to the lake. The first bad sign they come across, the missing man, Ryan, his car, parked near the lake along with his trailer. Okay, that's okay. Maybe his kayak got stuck in the water and he's been waiting for someone to come and help him. You know, traumatic, but a great outcome considering the circumstances. First sweep of the lake, they find Ryan's kayak overturned, capsized, floating by itself in the lake. Now things are not looking as good.

The biggest problem now is, well, if for one, if Ryan capsized in his kayak, he's likely dead. He was last heard from 11 p.m. He isn't reported missing until 5 a.m. If he capsized, how could he have survived? Perhaps he swam to shore, but there's an undercurrent that's strong. That doesn't make sense. And why wouldn't he be near his car then? Meaning he's likely dead and in the water, which means even the search for him is going to be hard. The part where his kayak capsized is, like I said, one of the deeper parts of the lake, 220 feet deep. That's deeper than the average lake across the world. At 200 feet, you can barely see what's in front

of you. There's barely any sunlight that penetrates the water. The water is essentially black liquid. This is not something that the local sheriff's office can do alone. They have to bring in specialized search and rescue, a non-profit called Bruce's Legacy that offers to help search for Ryan. They're gonna bring in sonar technology to scan inside the lake. They have those beams that shoot out into the water. They scan what's down there without actually going down. You can kind of see an image on what's under the surface from on the boat, but you really can't have a

thorough search and rescue without divers. Sonar is like a flashlight. It quickly scans the whole room. It shows you where things are, but you can't tell exactly what each thing is. It narrows down a search area very quickly, but that's it. Once that area is narrowed down, you need divers. Additionally, the Sheriff's Office will be bringing in canine dogs. Canine dogs have actually been known to accurately detect remains even in murky waters at depths of at least 50 feet deep. What? They typically do not enter the water. They stand on the edge of boats to detect scents. They can do a lot of surface

area very quickly. That's crazy. Yes. But that also means that you need very specific boats because their snouts have to get close enough to the water to scan it while they're driving slowly. Really? Yeah. It's very interesting. The dogs will be very important considering the water is incredibly murky in this part of the lake that he's vanished. Every hour that passes since Ryan is reported missing feels like the tension is just getting bigger. His wife and his three kids are waiting to hear the news that he's okay. I mean they have faith that he's somewhere alive and well and they just need to find him. But within 24 hours of him being reported missing, a fisherman fishes up a giant fishing pole that is

identified to be Ryan's. They find a tackle box inside Ryan's wallet ID keys. For 54 days they're searching. The entire community is getting involved, giving out food gift cards to those searching so that they can go buy food because all they're doing all day for 12 hour days is searching the lake for Ryan's body. The local docs are loaning out boats to search in recovery. Meanwhile, Ryan's wife and three kids, the oldest is in high school.

They're selling T-shirts that say faith over fear to help fund the search. And they're being very optimistic, but it's just not looking good for Ryan. I mean, there is just no way that this man is at the bottom of the lake. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com slash rotten

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BetterHelp's online interface is designed for your convenience and suited to your schedule. Find comfort this December with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash rotten today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash rotten. Doug Ford gets it done for developers. We interrupt this ad to ask, does get it done means strip $3 billion out of school funding?

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Keith is the man that runs Bruce's Legacy. He started the nonprofit because his brother Bruce was a firefighter who drowned while searching for a drowning victim. And Keith has done a lot of searches. He's scanned through so many lakes. By this point, eight weeks later, in early October, he's pulling Sheriff Pudal aside. This is the sheriff in charge of the whole search.

Sheriff, I'm good at what I do. In this particular lake, he's been doing nine 12-hour days looking for Ryan, and he says, I'm telling you right now, I don't think that Ryan is in that lake What then where is he? Did he capsize the kayak swim ashore and then hide in the woods or something? What do you mean? He's not in the lake in Light of this conversation Sheriff Puddle decides I'm just gonna run his name I'm gonna run his name and see what happens. They run Ryan Borgwart's name, his passport comes up as entering Canada the day after he's reported missing.

Because there's a log of all of this. How is that possible? How does a dead, drowned man go to Canada? He's supposed to be at the bottom of the lake, the lake that they spent $40,000 searching for him. What the hell do you mean his passport came up in Canada? Wait, so this is 50 days later? 54. Days later. Yes. They didn't search his name in the system for that long. No, because I mean the evidence was very clearly and his passport was at home. Oh. Exactly. Then how did he pass? Okay, we'll get there.

So they start rabbit holeing. Not only did his passport come up in Canada, the laptop that they found at his house, the hard drive had been recently replaced, and his search history had been deleted the day he went missing. Why the hell would this family man delete his search history conveniently the day that he goes missing? The sheriff eventually makes a press announcement. Due to the discovery of new evidence, we are confident that Ryan Borgwort is not located

in the Green Lake. We have ended all search efforts associated with Green Lake. At this time, we believe Ryan is alive and likely in Eastern Europe. To put it lightly, they are now accusing Ryan Borgwort of faking his death escaping to Eastern Europe. Is that what the sheriff is saying? He tricks the whole town, his co-workers, family, wife, and kids all believe that he drowned in the lake when he really didn't. They're all passing out food to the search and rescue teams. What kind of person does that? I mean,

what kind of person has any good reason to fake their death? Did you know every situation of someone faking their death that we know of are unsuccessful ones? We don't know about all the successful ones. OneNet is in rights on Reddit. The best way to fake one's death obviously is not a kayak. That's some beginner novice shit. But rather, easiest way is killing someone roughly the same size as you. Dress them in your clothes, remove all their teeth and get rid of them, position the body inside your car on the driver's seat, now you remove all your teeth and place them in

the body, gas it up, set it on fire, walk away and go live a new life. Which is very extreme. That is crazy. So they're saying to fake your own death you have to commit murder and then pull out all your teeth and then you can pretend that you're dead. Yeah. Which at that point, that's crazy. But that still doesn't answer why someone would want to fake their death.

You know the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? It's like a very famous book. The author of that book actually staged this elaborate death where it appeared he jumped off a cliff and he wrote this note to go along with it, ocean ocean I will beat you one day or something poetic like that, when in reality he was hiding in his friend's trunk while they drove into Mexico. He faked his death to get away from a marijuana charge. In the end he was found doing copious more drugs in Mexico and brought back to the United States for a five-month jail sentence.

In 2003, a guy named Jesse Kiff died. Well he faked his death. He hacked into the Hawaii death registry system using stolen credentials from a doctor, declared himself dead, signed using the doctor's stolen credentials, all so he could allegedly avoid paying over $100,000 he owed in child support. Where maybe sometimes people fake their deaths because they're spies for high-powered government agencies. There's many reasons why someone would fake their death. But Sheriff Pidal is initially very cryptic.

He reveals, yes, we suspect that Ryan faked his death, but he doesn't really reveal why. He says, everything we have found, we're in a really good position that we know he is somewhere out there. All we want to know is that he is safe. Our goal is to identify any crimes that have been committed by any individuals who assisted with this crime. Ryan, if you're watching this, I'm pleading that you contact us or contact your family. We understand that things can happen, but there's a family that wants their daddy back. So why would Ryan Borgdwart fake his death?

Authorities are able to retrieve data from his computer that he thought he had gotten rid of. This man had been in contact with a woman from Uzbekistan. He had googled how to transfer funds into foreign bank accounts and he took out a $375,000 life insurance policy so that when he quote dies, his family will be taken care of if you will. So did he really fake his death to be with a woman from Uzbekistan? That is very extreme. Some netizens are calling him the ultimate passport bro. Evidently, I think marrying someone that doesn't have a similar culture or upbringing as you is a fascinating experience.

I think there's a lot that you can learn from each other. I also think that dating and love should be bound by no geographical constraints, right? However, I do think it's weird when people go abroad for the sole purpose of finding a partner because they hate all the quote options they have at home. I think that's a little weird. I do find that to be a very thin line between chasing your dreams and happiness to straight up looking for partners that are in more exploitable conditions. Welcome to the conversation of passport bros. Many netizens like to call them LBH.

Do you know what that stands for? The passport bros like to call themselves LBH? People like to call passport bros LBH. Oh, I don't know. Losers back home. Oh my god. Yeah. So they now are forced to travel to different countries to find people to date is what some

netizens say about passport bros. Draw your own conclusions. I'm not here to sway you into loving them, hating them, agreeing with them, disagreeing. I think they exist and I think it's fascinating and terrifying. One passport bro states that women overseas are just more open-minded. He goes on to state, you know, another misconception is that passport bros can't meet the standards of women in the US, so they travel overseas to date foreign women. But this perspective is elitist. What makes Western women the pinnacle of the global dating scene?

Which, I mean, I don't think anyone said that, right? Is the only reason someone travels abroad to date because they can't find a partner in the US? I believe many passport bros feel it's the opposite, and it's women in the US who can't rise to their standards. He says he hopes to find love and settle down in one of his top contending countries, Brazil, Colombia and South Korea. Which, I mean, like no one's getting married in South Korea, so I don't know what you're

thinking, but as for what he looks for in a woman, he says someone beautiful, loyal and family oriented. Again, I think if you love traveling or you love a specific culture and you wish to find a partner that's immersed and shares that same interest that's beautiful, but passport bros keep taking it 10 steps too far. This is from actually one of the more palatable passport bros out there. Others write about their travels in Southeast Asia, which by the way, Southeast Asian women are incredibly beautiful, yes, but the way they talk about these women in these forums is okay just listen. They have traditional values. Every single one of them that I talk to lived with their parents. These girls rate on a hot scale much higher than your average woman in the

West and they are more ready to please. Some of the passport bros just hate on invisible American women screaming into the empty chambers of their brain. To the salty Western women lurking on these forums, yikes, you have no idea the competition you are now facing for men. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, again, love who you love.

I think you can be attracted to different cultures, different aesthetics. But why put on this fictitious war between women fighting over you in your mind? That's just the beginning stage of a mental health condition that will eat away with you. But they keep ranting. You cannot even come close to what women overseas has to offer. So keep lurking on our forums, keep staying bitter, keep trying to shame us, and we will keep leaving

for greener pastures overseas. My next mission is to get my other single friends that also have great jobs like me to give Passport Bro life a chance. Again, nobody is stopping you, truly. This is why you have a passport. Some Passport Bros aren't even worried about what's, I'm so sorry guys, I have been lurking on these forums and I read it,

I felt the pain and now you need to too, okay? Some of these passport bros, they're not even worried about western women like that. They're worried about quote, ruining the woman overseas. A TikTokker posted a video from the Dominican Republic giving advice to other bros. Man, don't go crazy. These local countries, they have their own economy set up. In some places, for instance, in the Dominican Republic, you know the average person pays between $100, $200 a month for rent? So if you know you're coming here and being poppy

de Nero and spending two, three hundred dollars on a female in a day, you're just blowing things way out of proportion. You're messing up the local economy. So now the next guy comes down, these women are going to expect more than they've probably ever seen. I'm not going to say deserve, because you can get what you can get out of life. When you come here and you start going crazy, throwing things off balance, you know a lot of the guys are going down to the DR and treating the place like a strip club, you're upsetting the imbalance of things. I heard stories of guys back in the 90s, you know I heard stories of guys going down there and having a nice time with a young lady for 50

bucks or something for a couple of days. You try to offer that to a young lady now she's going to laugh in your face. Why? Because the local economy, the structure of things has been thrown off. Wow. Most people think that this man is a crusty man with crusty skid marks, but I regret to inform you that some people agree with him and that could be potentially terrifying. One comment reads, He's right. I ran into this exact problem the last time I went down there. Another netizen writes, A majority of these passport bros are turning the women in these countries into Western women.

I keep seeing posts about guys bragging about going on 10 different dates and 10 days sleeping with woman after woman as they go from country to country, basically treating them like disposable trash, which is why I won't even step foot into insert country, unless you're fine with dating a woman who has been run through by about 15 degenerate passport bros. They also complain about the worst things that could possibly happen while they date overseas, which side note, you know, some of the worst things that could happen to anyone and obviously a lot of women is well to be tortured, essayed, and killed going on a date, but passport bros complain online that some of the worst

dating encounters that they've had overseas, they write, the worst I've experienced is that they aren't as hot or as enthusiastic as they were online. Still significantly better than here in the US. On that same note, another netizen writes, oh yeah, the worst, the girl shows up and bum bum bum, she's fat. Another one just comments, oh yeah, the worst thing that could possibly happen is getting used for a green card. There's one video of a man who honestly I don't know how old he is, but he has a sour

wilted look to his face. He's standing in the parking lot filming a younger woman who is visually so clearly out of his league and he says loudly, passport bros, you to hear a success story? Look what I pulled. She doesn't even speak English, so I don't even have to listen to her. Which the top comment reads. Once she gets that green card, she will speak all the languages. But some passport bros try to argue that it's because they're just going where they're appreciated.

They write, I hated the term passport bro and all the negative connotations attached to it. For me, I was just going where I'm appreciated. It's really that simple. To which one netizen comments back, The US culture hates men. The US culture uses men and discards them for not performing enough in long-term relationships. Most women don't value men in the US and view them as competition.

Women have a chip on their shoulders due to dealing with a small group of shitty men, or I don't know, past childhood trauma due to a father that most likely wasn't there. The legal system is shit and blames men. I'll say this, fuck this culture. You matter. And seek out the destiny God has put in front of you. You are free.

You're not a slave to be used with nothing in return The bros rant about how quote it doesn't get better for a woman in the US anywhere outside the US Whether we're talking about earning power of men in the US Alimony child support divorce laws average women over 27 being overweight. Yeah, their life doesn't get better outside the US They also say that American women are so particular about love that they won't date a short guy even if he clicks off all the other boxes. With a strong absence of neurons firing away, one netizen writes, I know they ask, why don't you date an American woman? Well, American women are highly feministic since white woman feminism encourages women to go for tall men.

I am 5'6 and they rejected me. I'd already given up on women and I thought that I would die alone, so I had three choices in America, which are get height surgery, which is so extreme nobody told you that, which is dangerous and experimental, go for fat women, or go for women that are my age but mostly are all already single moms. I don't know why feminists are getting mad when they didn't even want us in the first place. Someone responds, first, you must understand that modern women are not feminist. They are opportunistic capitalists who use feminist tenets to obscure their behavior.

They aren't interested in equality. Only anything that men use to have the upper hand. They don't want a level playing field. They want an advantage to take revenge on the so-called patriarchy. Keep in mind that their idea of revenge is basically everywhere being sex in the city where they get easy access to rich men

and hot guys for sex. This guy is so mistaken. Every single girl in my life that I know, they do not care for capitalism. They care not to wedge their house keys between their knuckles in a parking lot. This is a mental war that you continue to fight with your own mind. You will never win the war because it is against yourself. In conclusion, you remain a loser. Not in like a mean childish derogatory way, just logically speaking, you're a loser.

Because you lose the map. Yeah. Meanwhile, this is what many, not all, don't get emotional, many passport bros are writing about in their forums. Listen to this. Been in Manila for about five months now, leaving soon in a few weeks.

In the last month, I had my girlfriend live with me. Lots of ups and downs. So he goes to Manila, gets a girlfriend, and has her move in. Mostly ups, but she can be extremely annoying, defiant, and clingy at times. But I guess that comes with the territory of dating a 19-year-old. How old is he? Do we know? Mid-late 20s, I think. This is the first time I've had a partner live with me.

And it has made me realize that I'm not ready for it. And maybe I never will be. Things were a lot better when she would just come and stay on the weekends. And I would be seeing other women during the week. Today, we got into a fight. I wanted to eat pizza for lunch and she wanted to eat something with rice. He goes on to detail that he threatens to abandon her without a ride back to their house, threatens to starve her until she starts quote acting right, and sits down at the restaurant with pizza.

He says, I can see how a lot of western guys with no dating experience come here and eventually get worn down and steamrolled by a girl they're dating because they're still in that western scarcity mindset. But I know that I'm the prize here. It's amazing to have so many options here because I know if she gets too uppity, I could just be dating a new girl tomorrow. And she knows this too. Wow. Which I know some people do argue the guys are getting something out of it. And maybe some of the girls, which side note, I think it is very strange

that we all believe everyone wants to move to America. Some people think, you know, if all believe everyone wants to move to America. Some people think, you know, if the girls do want to move to America, they know that the guy is not in love with them for who they are, this is their way to get a green card? By all means, do your thing. Everyone do their thing, right? It's its own little ecosystem that's working. It's a checks and balances. But these days, the passport pros are very angry about this idea as well. But these days, the passport bros are very angry about this idea as well. One writes, loving my passport bro decision, but I'm bringing my Filipino wife back to the West. I want to empower her to thrive, grow, and be fulfilled as a person, but I am concerned of her becoming converted to woke politicized feminist ideas. It sadly happened to my previous Western

girlfriends. Fellow passport bros, go crazy in the comments. It's probably going to happen. I would not bring her to an environment that fosters that mindset, but you do what you want. Or, fact is, all the odds are against you. Every aspect of Western culture promotes selfishness and lack of accountability and rewards women who have no morals. She will have friends and acquaintances on top of that that are influencing her.

It's built into women's brains, unfortunately, to never be satisfied or grateful for what they have, no matter how great it is, and always keep wanting more. Another commentator just gives tips. I cannot vouch for the helpfulness or the intelligence behind this statement, but he states, having an anti-feminist mindset is smart. She has to see the average Western feminist woman as foolish and unattractive. You know, frankly, there isn't much feminine about the average American feminist woman. They pretty much act like men.

That's why you did the passport thing. You didn't find them attractive. You didn't want to be with a woman that had a male mindset. She needs to fully understand that and see how unattractive that is to you and to most men. But ultimately, if you bring a woman to the west, then she's going to turn into the woman that you're trying to avoid. Other people just encourage him to impregnate her as quickly as possible when she gets to the United States so that she can stay focused on him and the family. So is that what Ryan faked his death for? To be a passport bro? That's everybody's best guess right now. I mean perhaps there's a better reason or perhaps the woman he's

communicating with online was just a friend or someone helping him figure out how to fake his death but didn't have any other relation to him. Maybe she ran an overseas relocation service. Who knows? He said American women are too familiar, right? That's what the guy on the TikTok said. Oh right, right. He said that they're familiar, which is exactly the verbiage that a lot of these passport bros use. Really? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Which, I do want to clarify, the Sheriff's Office has stated that they are doubtful that

it is Ryan in that viral TikTok video. They say, we are not actively pursuing this as a lead in this case, but we have seen the video and we have contact info for the people involved. We do not believe it is Ryan. Then who is the guy? Yeah nobody believed the sheriff so they argued again. We have verified that it is not Ryan by contacting people who know Ryan. Some people still don't believe it and they state either that's the same guy or there's a lot of married men with girlfriends in Uzbekistan. Yeah. Yeah.

Ultimately, all this news coverage because Ryan goes missing, the TikTok gets posted and everyone goes, wait a minute. Okay, so the TikTok is filmed June of 2024, but it's not posted until November 2024. He goes missing August. So he goes missing August. The TikTok is filmed or posted until November 2024. He goes missing August. So he goes missing August. The TikTok is filmed or posted in November. So people are like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This guy just went missing.

Like two months ago he went missing. I was seeing it on the news. Then this blows up, snowballs, everything goes, it becomes like international news. Ultimately, all this news coverage leads to Ryan sending in a proof of life video because he's alive. He's not dead in the lake. Wait, Ryan sent the video? Yes. To who? To the police, the sheriffs. What? How? Yes. Why? It appears that things are snowballing too much. The sheriff knew that he was alive, knew that he went into Canada and was like, Ryan, if you're seeing this, contact us. Uh-huh.

And I think he didn't want it to snowball into an international manhunt for him. Okay. So he sends in a proof of life video, and I will say it is the most bizarre proof of life video that I've ever seen in my life. I think those hostage videos where they hold up the newspaper is less bizarre than this. Okay. Yeah, the hostage movies I meant where they hold up the newspaper is less bizarre than this. He's wearing this orange shirt and he looks like he's having a rough time.

It looks like, and I don't say that with sympathy, I say that with he's not looking good. Uzbekistan is not treating him well, is the vibe. He says, good evening, it's Ryan Borgwart. Today is November 11th. It is approximately 10am by you guys. And this is my apartment. I am safe, secure, no problem. Hope this works.

Hope this works? Yeah. What does that mean? I don't know, but people think once this video came out, this reminds them so much of the TikTok video because their energies are so oddly similar. He's not smiling and pleasant, but it's just the deadpan. This is what's happening.

Okay. Do I go to Uzbekistan? Do I stay here? I am safe, secure, no problem. So looking at that video and the first TikTok video, yes, do they look like the same person to you? They actually look similar. But if you look at the ears and the eyebrows and the nose, which are typically

how people will indicate because those things don't change that drastically over time, it does not appear to be the same guy, but they look crazy similar. OK, but you would really I had to pause both videos and I was just studying. I was just analyzing their faces. Now I really need to know what happened to the TikTok guy. That's what everybody is saying. Where is he? He was in San Diego.

The video was filmed in San Diego. I don't know if he lives there. I don't know if he's visiting, but someone needs to find that man. Where does Ryan live? Wisconsin. I see. But he could have gone for vacation. Where does Ryan live? Wisconsin. Oh, I see. But he could have gone for vacation. Right, right, right. But I will say there are some discrepancies.

Ryan's kids, he has a high schooler and some in grade school. The TikTok video, the man said he is an empty nester. So all of his kids... But I think it's worse that there's two people like that. I think it would have been better if it's just Ryan. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So that's it, the context of the video that he submitted.

That's it. What happens next? The police is like, okay, with this video we don't have to worry about him anymore? So they take that as proof of life and they hold another press conference where they show this video to the world. They say, we received this video and the authorities hint at the fact that he's likely in an Eastern European country. Now, this could be valid. He could very much well be in Eastern Europe. But if he's in Uzbekistan, just technicality wise, that's not an Eastern European country.

It's a Central Asian nation. But I digress. OK, a lot of netizens have been pointing to it, so I want to include the discrepancy. But as of right now, the public is not even sure if he's in Uzbekistan. He could be anywhere for that matter. People have even tried to tag geoguesters to guess his location, but nothing particularly enlightening has come out of that. In the video, the 24 second clip sent by Ryan to the authorities, he says,

Good morning. it's 10am for most of you guys, which in Eastern Europe, if that is where he is, because he says good evening, but it's 10am for you guys, it would line up with Central Asia, Eastern Europe. They find a door with curved windows on it that could be traced to places like Turkey and China, but those are likely where it's manufactured. So technically they could be anywhere, but it doesn't seem like those doors are that

prominent in the Western world. I see. Now interesting is there these little vents above the main front door. So he just shows us like two doors. We don't really get to see anything. There's these two vents above his apartment front door they look like vents but they're actually circuit boards i see and people have been able to pinpoint that as being commonplace in uzbekistan to have circuit boards above your front door in apartments

so why did the police say he went to that Uzbekistan? Where does that information come from, if it's not from the TikTok? They said he... no, they found on his computer he was talking to a woman from Uzbekistan. But we don't know if she still lives in Uzbekistan. We don't know if she was like, hey, I'm in Uzbekistan, but let's meet in this other country. Right. but let's meet in this other country. Right. Whenever my nieces visit, they always remind me of little bamboos.

Okay, but mainly because they grow so quickly. Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth. It can grow up to like 35 inches per day. So whenever I haven't seen my nieces in a while and my sister sends me a picture or a clip of them in the group chat, I feel like I am missing out on so much because I feel like even in just a few days, they grow so much. That and there's always so much going on in the family group chat, so I'm just stuck scrolling to find the picture or looking through a gallery and then I get sidetracked and then I'm no longer looking

at the cute pictures of my nieces or my dogs I thought about framing pictures of my family to have something on my desk, but that doesn't really work either Don't get me wrong framed pictures are beautiful and they have their own appeal But with nieces so little and dogs that I take pictures of every single day of my life Who are also growing every week a framed picture starts to feel like I'm at a museum But I'm at a museum, but I'm only allowed to look at this one picture. Thankfully, not anymore.

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now in time for the holidays terms Terms and conditions apply. Hey friends, I'm Sharon McMahon, host of Here's Where It Gets Interesting. Each week I speak with authors, experts, and thought leaders on everything from American history and democracy to how to be a better person on the internet. And don't miss my extremely popular Dacu series, which educate you on things you never learned in history class. In the press conference, Sheriff Pidal states that Ryan has filled them in in exactly how he faked his death. It took months of meticulous planning. He took out the life insurance policy for his family January of 2020. Wait, he told the cops everything? Yeah. What? He went missing in August, so he's been planning that. I mean this was in the works for a very long time. He had more than enough time to have a moment of clarity thinking,

hey, so maybe this is crazy. But no, nothing never occurred to him. He applied for a new passport stating that his went missing, which is why they have his original passport in the house. They didn't run the passport, but they saw he had it. So they didn't assume he left the country because his passport is here. Right. I see. And everything else, there was no indication that he was thinking about leaving the country. Nobody was like, hey,

my co-worker who's missing, he actually said he was going to Uzbekistan. Nobody said anything like that. So I think that's why they did not search for his name early on in this process. Okay. He applies for the life insurance policy January, applies for a new passport in May, then in August he takes pictures of all of his passports, he transfers a few funds to a foreign bank account, changes his email address and is in constant communication with a woman from Uzbekistan. Then on the day that he disappears he clears his search history, syncs his iCloud and according

to investigators quote he had planned to head to Europe and try to mislead investigators. He purchased an airline gift card to buy the ticket so that I guess his wife wouldn't see the transactions. Okay. And how about the actual fake drowning? Ryan states that he had this child-sized inflatable boat. Okay. Then he strings his kayak. He paddles out into the deep part of the lake, capsizes the kayak and then rows the little inflatable child size boat

back to shore. He also dumped his phone in the lake. Then once he gets to shore, he had hidden an electric bike nearby. He rides that electric bike all the way to Madison, where he gets on a bus to Detroit, Michigan. Then he crosses the land border into Canada and then he gets on a plane to head to wherever he is

now. Which we don't know. At least the authorities are not telling us. Okay. They just said Eastern Europe. That is a crazy movie plot. Gone Boy. Gone Boy. He just gone boyed. Yeah. The sheriff states, he did his research. One of the reasons why he picked Green Lake was because it was the deepest lake in Wisconsin. He thought his plan was going to pan out, but it didn't go the way he planned.

So now we're trying to give him a different plan as to how to come back home. The sheriff states that he chose the wrong sheriff's department because Ryan said, I thought that you guys would only search for me for like two weeks before presuming me dead so that my family could get the life insurance policy. So do you think it's also like nobody, no insurance type of thing? Like I think you have to wait like seven years. Yeah, I see. Yeah. I see.

Yeah, but the sheriff states, well, I hate to tell you, you picked the wrong sheriff in the wrong department. As for how the authorities got in contact with Ryan, they were able to get in contact with a woman who spoke Russian. Through his laptop, I guess maybe there was some remnants of a woman. And that's it. They won't say who this woman is. They won't say if it's the same woman from Uzbekistan. They won't say what her relation to Ryan is. They won't say anything. Just a woman who speaks Russian. That's it. That's all we got.

Sheriff Padal states in the press conference, the great news is that we know that he is alive and well. The bad news is that we don't know where Ryan exactly is and he has not yet decided to return home. And it's been really hard for the kids, which would be considered an understatement. is that we don't know where Ryan exactly is and he has not yet decided to return home. And it's been really hard for the kids, which would be considered an understatement. He says, I cannot imagine what his wife and kids are going through because it's really hard.

They felt that their dad had drowned and then they found out that he wasn't. During the press conference, Sheriff Mike Padal was asked, how's the family doing? The family is doing rather well. We met with him earlier today. Yeah, it was a big shocker for them. I put a lot on his wife's shoulders. It was hard because of her kids and she couldn't tell them or anyone.

So for a while she couldn't tell them that the sheriff believed he was alive. Yeah. So community members are coming up to her apologizing, giving her condolences. And she's like, I think my husband faked his death and is in Eastern Europe, but I can't even say that. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. He says, that lady is very strong, very strong. The press asks, so there's no indication that any family members had any connection with Ryan and what he did? No, there is not. He goes on to state later, Ryan's biggest concern is how the community is going to react to him,

and I can see that. He staged his death, and unfortunately, one of the things he did say was that he didn't expect us to go more than two weeks searching for him. You know, so he is a little nervous about coming back, and he doesn't want to come back. The sheriff is asked, has he expressed remorse for what he put his family through? Yeah, he talks about that. He also talks about how he feels bad for the amount of hours that we've put in and the community. He says, you know, I got myself in this situation and I just got to try to get myself out of it. Sheriff Padal does state that Ryan gets emotional at times and that he's quote, trying to work out the right things. Sheriff Padal states, we just want him to come back home, rejoin his family.

They just want their dad back. They love him. They want him back in their lives. Christmas is coming, and what better gift could he give to his kids than to be here for Christmas? Which could be true, or it could be a way for him to get Ryan back home

to be charged. But they do state that they have been in contact with Ryan every single day since he sent that video. So potential charges are for faking his death, Ryan could be charged with a misdemeanor for obstruction, which is crazy. The actual act of faking his death is not illegal. Having everyone search for him causing a whole spectacle in the area and on a national scale is technically not illegal. Like it's not, yeah, it's the fact that he planted the kayak that's illegal. If he just disappeared without misleading investigators by putting things in certain places

that make them search the lake, that make them do certain things, then technically it's not illegal. Right, right, right. And even if it is a charge, it's a weak little misdemeanor. The law professor states that him either giving an officer false information or knowingly placing physical evidence that would mislead the investigation is obstruction. That's $10,000 or a max of nine months in prison.

However, the real legal trouble comes in if the feds want to go in and charge him for insurance fraud because that would actually be a felony. Like that charge is higher than the obstruction. The way insurance fraud is considered a worse crime than this, it just tells us what lobbying is doing. Okay, insurance companies have lobbied extensively to make sure insurance fraud gets classified as a felony in most jurisdictions. They paid a lot of money to legislators. To make things even more bizarre is that he's allegedly an insurance agent prior to all of this.

So, in this situation, the potential penalties likely won't be as extensive considering the family never actually received the payout. Honestly, we don't even know if he's ever coming back to the US, but it would be about a few years in prison. And on top of that, the sheriff's department would likely seek restitution between 35 to $45,000

to compensate for the search. Keith, who runs Bruce's Legacy, which was a foundation that he set up for his brother Bruce, he said about this whole search, you know, it was disheartening because he could have spent that time looking for others. He says you meet all kinds of people in the world and I guess this guy just went to the extremes faking his disappearance. So it's a first. He definitely cost us a lot of grief, a lot

of money, repairs, and equipment. I just hope he comes forward sooner rather than later so the family can move on. There is no way to force Ryan back. We don't know where he is and if he is in Uzbekistan, the US does not have an extradition treaty with them. Many netizens do not want Ryan to come back. They comment, he needs to quote come home to his kids, the same kids that he abandoned and convinced he died in a tragic accident. He needs to pay child support and stay the hell away from their lives. Other netizens point out that Ryan is not dumb, he knows better than to come home, even if the sheriff is saying, we're just trying to get him home to his family.

They write, the sheriff is catfishing Ryan right now. His butt is going to be in prison the minute he steps on US soil. He knows better than to come home. Another comment reads, they don't want that man to come home back for his kid, they want their $40,000 back. One netizen points out the fact that his family must have gone through all the stages of grief and it just amplifies their trauma. They read, they mourned him and everything.

That's messed up. I don't care how tired of life he was. He didn't have the guts to tell the truth. Those poor kids. How weird and crazy is that? He faked his own death and put his wife and children through that trauma. They're definitely better out without him. Another comment reads,

I can't even imagine this level of rejection from a parent. Leaving is one thing, but faking your whole death is just a different level of cruel punishment. My heart aches for his kids. The damage that he caused is going to affect them for the rest of their lives. Others are just hoping for the worst for Ryan. They write, Imagine he went all the way to Uzbekistan just to be catfished lol. Another netizen writes, imagine if the guy who faked his death and the guy on

the TikTok were both catfished by the same woman in Uzbekistan. To which another netizen responds, imagine if the wife is the one that catfished him to get rid of him by convincing him to leave the country and fake his death so that she could keep the house and the kids and collect life insurance payout Which clearly is not the case here, but I guess it's an interesting what-if that makes people feel better I would be doing a disservice by not highlighting some insane comments Some netizens point to the idea that someone should have seen this coming writing. He looks miserable in his family pictures

Imagine the amount of nagging it required for him to reach this point lmao Imagine the amount of nagging it required for him to reach this point, LMAO. That is crazy. Yeah, another agrees stating he looks hella uncomfortable around his family in this photo. I don't know man, I would just let him be. He looks traumatized with his family. I guess strange minds think alike. Another comment reads, saw this story on the news the other day? He supposedly had a bad bitch waiting for him in another country. LOL. I mean, that's one of the reasons why he faked his death. story on the news the other day, he supposedly had a bad bitch waiting for him in another country lol.

I mean, that's one of the reasons why he faked his death. I could give you four more reasons. AKA his three kids and his wife. Some even write, how do you know his wife wasn't the problem? To my amazement, a lot of people actually had that take. I would like to say the vast majority are not siding with Ryan, but some, one comment reads, well at least he didn't unalive his family like they usually do okay many netizens actually share this sentiment which to a degree i think yes we can all agree

killing people is bad and it could always be far worse it could have been far worse with others like it has been with others before but it's still a crazy thing to say and do and he should probably serve jail time if not even alone for the fact that you're kind of scary to go that far to fake your death which people are pointing out the bar is so low for men that a man faking his death is met with well at least he didn't murder his entire family but some netizens think it's just an excuse for him to move on with his life saying I'm happy he didn't kill them let Let him live his European life.

I'm not saying I agree, but I understand. Just kidding. Just kidding. At least he didn't unalive his family. Another comment reads that everyone should be happy that they're all alive, saying he left them a hefty insurance policy and their lives. LOL. The only people mad is the insurance company.

Everybody else is a hating ass. Another comment wildly puts it, Well, nobody died so I don't think anybody should be mad. He just hated his wife and kids and I'm okay with that because he didn't kill them. With one even implying that the wife and children need to move on. His former family should just respect his wishes. He doesn't exist anymore to them and the wife should file to be a free woman. Wow, the internet has an interesting place.

Yeah. Some even tried to feel sorry for the guy, writing, In this patriarchal system, quote, patriarchal, because we're not in a patriarchy, if he wanted a divorce, he would lose everything and be working every day just to give it away. It wouldn't really be any different than staying married. I'm sure he thought there was no way out besides marriage counseling. Jeez. This is a passbook, bro.

Yeah, these are absolutely diabolical things to say about this situation, but not as crazy as another comment that reads, how annoying do you think his family was for him to do something like this? Another reads, his wife must be a real bitch. Kidding, kidding. But he must have had the worst wife and kids ever. Faking your death to get away from them is pretty extreme. Another I can't hate.

They were probably annoying. At least he ain't no killer. They need to leave that man be. His family must be the worst people to put up with. You know, what drove him to such desperation? I would look at the wife. Another someone called the police for this one reads it probably would have been easier to kill her than to talk to her about divorce Another just jokes. He didn't let his family stop him from letting him be with the love of his life And you got to respect that I

Don't blame him some very good-looking woman over there in Uzbekistan Yeah, women from there are very beautiful, skinny, and not fat. Just say no to pizza. Yeah. Yeah, but then you have some women commenting, and they just write, how do I get my husband to do this? Yeah, and some people just write, don't let your wife stop you from finding your dream girlfriend.

Or another one reads, somewhere, someone just purchased a kayak is watching this and is looking at his return receipt thinking, damn, back to the drawing board. These are some crazy takes. And that is the case of the missing kayaker found alive. Well, missing kayaker, presumed dead, found alive with a woman from Uzbekistan connected to a TikTok of another man who wants to go to Uzbekistan. You think the TikTok played a role in this case or no? I think it played a role in making the case a lot more viral. So that's not why he reached out? No. Send the video? No. Okay it's just

the police are saying that. Yes so the police did two press conferences. And I think, you know, even from early October, he knew that they knew he was alive. The TikTok wasn't posted until November. So they, the police were on to him early October. And then everything just kind of blew up in November. The police did a press conference, the TikTok, mainstream media picked up on it. The police did another press conference and the tiktok, mainstream media picked up on it, the police did another press conference, and it just went crazy. wow. yeah. and i went to the depths of passport pro forums for this one, please let me know

what are your thoughts, and stay safe, don't go kayaking at night, and i will see you in the next one.