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A man in the USA has faked his own death in a kayaking accident.
Symbolbild: dpa
A family man from the state of Wisconsin faked his own death in order to start a new life with an internet acquaintance abroad. But the investigators are hot on his trail.
A man in the USA faked his own death in a kayaking accident, deceiving the authorities for months. The 45-year-old staged the accident "to escape his everyday life as a husband and father in Wisconsin", the New York Times quoted prosecutor Gerise LaSpisa as saying. For this, he must now spend 89 days in prison - the number of days he was considered missing.
The 45-year-old had met a woman on the internet, US media reported further. In regular messages, he had expressed his love for her and his desire to start a new life with her in Georgia. The father of three had transferred money abroad, reversed his vasectomy and researched ways to successfully disappear.
In August 2024, he then deliberately capsized his kayak on Green Lake and threw his cell phone, keys and wallet into the water. He returned to the shore in an inflatable boat and then traveled from neighboring Canada to Georgia, where he "began to build a new life with the woman he had met on the Internet".
For more than eight weeks, divers and sonar equipment searched unsuccessfully for his body. The man had already paid 30,000 dollars (around 24,000 francs) in compensation for the costs incurred.
The authorities had become suspicious because the 45-year-old had deleted his browser history and applied for a new passport before he disappeared. They then tracked him down using phone numbers and email addresses on his laptop. In December, he voluntarily returned to the USA and was charged there with obstruction of justice.
At the court hearing on Tuesday, the man reportedly apologized: "I deeply regret what I did that night and all the pain I caused my family and friends," he was quoted as saying.
27.08.2025, 22:21
