A sheriff says a Wisconsin man who faked his own drowning this summer and abandoned his wife and three children is in Eastern Europe.

A Wisconsin man is alive and well and likely in Uzbekistan after faking his own death in a staged kayaking accident — and is now in talks with officials hoping to bring him home to his family, authorities said Thursday.

Ryan Borgwardt, a Wisconsin kayaker accused of faking his own drowning and fleeing the country, is alive somewhere in Eastern Europe and has been talking to investigators, officials said. But it’s still unclear whether he will ever return home to his wife and three children.