There’s an old saying that if you hear hoofbeats, you should think horses, not zebras. It means that in most situations, the simplest, most likely explanation is probably the right one. But you know we deal in “stranger than fiction” here, folks, and sometimes you turn around expecting horses and you get a stampeding herd of zebras instead. Things are not always what they seem at first glance. And today, we’ll tell you two stories where digging down below the surface pulled investigators through the looking glass, and into the strangest cases they’d ever seen.

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Source:
https://fox11online.com/news/local/man-accused-of-faking-his-own-death-to-face-another-status-conference-ryan-borgwardt-green-lake-county-kayak-europe-charges-obstruction-restitution-search-missing
https://www.wmtv15news.com/2025/06/04/another-status-conference-scheduled-wisconsin-man-accused-faking-his-death/
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/what-happened-to-the-kayaker-who-faked-his-drowning-in-green-lake/
https://spectrumnews1.com/wi/milwaukee/news/2024/11/21/ryan-borgwardt--wisconsin-kayaker--fake-death
Investigation Discovery's "Forensic Files" episode "Grave Danger"
NBC's "Dateline," episode "Bodies of Evidence"
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/man-burned-alive-no-limbs-33703446

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