GREEN LAKE – Authorities say a viral video on social media of a man who looks like Ryan Borgwardt is likely not him.

Green Lake County Chief Sheriff Matthew Vande Kolk confirmed that police have seen the TikTok post but do not believe the missing kayaker, who is suspected of staging his own disappearance, is the same person in the video.

Vande Kolk revealed that the sheriff’s office has been in contact with content creator Baylee Boomhower, who posted the video featuring the Borgwardt lookalike, but they are not treating it as a “high priority lead.”

“We are not actively looking for this as a lead in this case, but we have seen the video and we have contact information for the people involved,” Vande Kolk told Northwestern on November 14.

“We don’t believe it’s Ryan,” he added.

TitTok video is the latest development in the story of the missing Watertown man

The TikTok video, which has been viewed more than 4 million times, is the latest development in a story that drew a national audience after the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Borgwardt is suspected of faking his death and sending him to Europe has fled.

Borgwardt, 44, who is married with three children, initially went missing on Aug. 12 when he failed to return to his Watertown home after kayaking on Green Lake.

Law enforcement apparently discovered Borgwardt’s plan to fake his disappearance after an investigation revealed that Borgwardt had a second passport, replaced his laptop’s hard drive, inquired about transferring money to foreign banks and, earlier this year, had taken out a life insurance policy worth $375,000.

A digital forensic analysis of that laptop also showed that Borgwardt had communications with a woman from Uzbekistan — a point that raised Boomhower’s suspicions, according to a news report from WBAY Action 2.

Timeline: Key events in the case of Ryan Borgwardt, a Wisconsin man who may have faked his death

In the TikTok video, recorded in June on California’s Pacific Beach, Boomhower holds an “Ask me for free advice” sign before a man, who looks like Borgwardt, rides up on a bicycle and asks her if he’s going to Uzbekistan should go ‘to meet a woman.”

The Borgwardt lookalike tells Boomhower that he is married, but his children are “out of the house now.”

In the Action 2 interview, Boomhower said she found it strange that Borgwardt also had ties to Uzbekistan.

Several other content creators and social media users attempted to make a similar connection, prompting the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office to debunk the theory on Facebook.

In a message dated November 13, the office said: “We have verified that this is not Ryan by contacting people who know Ryan.”

No further information was made available as the sheriff’s office continues to work with the FBI, the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigations and the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center to “continue to unravel the available digital information.”

Local authorities came to believe that Borgwardt was not “missing” on Green Lake after an extensive 54-day search involving aerial and underwater drones, a towable underwater sonar, divers and three K-9 cadaver teams.

With the help of the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center, authorities quickly determined that Borgwardt’s name had been checked by Canadian police on August 13 – a day after he was reported missing.

This led to the discovery that Borgwardt was issued a second passport after reporting the first passport missing. His family easily found the first passport.

Subsequent analysis of his laptop then led authorities to believe that Borgwardt had staged his disappearance.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 920-294-4134, ext. 1162.

Contact Justin Marville at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Fond du Lac Reporter: Ryan Borgwardt TikTok video: It’s not him, says sheriff