A few days ago, Chad Elwartowski made a desperate social media plea.

The Michigan native wrote on Facebook: “PLEASE SHARE THIS POST OUR LIVES DEPEND ON IT,” followed by a complex narrative about how he and his Thai girlfriend came to face high drama on the high seas.

Elwartowski — who grew up in Tecumseh, attended Michigan State University and became involved with Bitcoin cryptocurrency — said he is on the run from the Thai government, which, he wrote Tuesday on Facebook, “wants us killed.”

The reason, he said, is because he and his girlfriend — Supranee Thepdet — have been living on a seastead, a house in the ocean near Thailand, and the Thai government considers them a threat to national security.

If caught, Elwartowski claimed, they could be imprisoned for life or suffer the death penalty.

Elwartowski's story — which could end up as an international dispute — is filled with intrigue, adventure and controversy and is getting coverage by news outlets all over the world.

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It also is raising questions about efforts by citizens of various nations who seek to set up permanent homes out of the reach of existing governments, establishing communities with their own laws and utopian visions.

It's unclear where the couple is now, although, it appears Elwartowski is continuing to post to Facebook. He responded to Free Press messages, saying that the Seasteading Institute is now speaking on his behalf.

And one of Elwartowski's four older sisters, Delynne Elwartowski of Noblesville, Indiana, said on Friday she and the rest of their family — especially their 78-year-old mother, Judy — are "scared for him."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Thursday the American government is aware of the reports Elwartowski was charged by Thailand and takes its responsibility to assist U.S. citizens abroad seriously.

But the spokesperson added that in a foreign country, U.S. citizens are subject to that country’s laws, and emphasized that U.S. consular officers cannot provide American citizens legal advice, represent them in court or effect their release.

In addition to Elwartowski's posts, Ocean Builders — a group that describes itself as "a team of engineering-focused entrepreneurs who have a passion for seasteading" — offered more insight through its own statement.

Ocean Builders said: "Thailand is currently being run by a military dictator," and predicted that if Elwartowski were caught, there would be no trial for him because the Thai government has already been "judge, jury and executioner of the historic very first seastead."

Thailand was chosen for the seastead, according to the statement, because there is a "large amount of tourism," "relatively calm seas" and "because all of those involved love the Thai people and their culture."

Seasteading experiment

Elwartowski's adventure seems to have started in March when, in a promotional YouTube video, he and his girlfriend, who also goes by the name Nadia Summergirl, hoist glasses of sparkling wine at their ocean dwelling.

It's an octagonal-shaped, white pod that seems to be floating on the water.

In the video, a youthful-looking Summergirl with braces on her teeth says they spent the first night in the "open sea international waters" alone. She said she was a little worried, but she knew she would be safe.

"You cannot buy this view," Summergirl says, a subtle setup for what is a commercial for a pitch by Ocean Builders to sell other dwellings like it. "You can see the sunset and sunrise and see the thousand million stars."

Elwartowski adds, "It's ocean-front property at a fraction of the cost of any other place you would get ocean-front property." Ocean Builders puts the cost at about $150,000.

The video gives glimpses of the inside: stark white bulkheads, arched doors and doorways, stainless-steel ladders, and tiny portholes with rounded corners, like on a ship to avoid weak spots in the glass.

Elwartowski, who has long held libertarian beliefs according to his family, explains the prototype is part of a concept called seasteading — a combination of the words sea and homesteading — that asserts residents can live free from any government control.

He suggests that the seasteader efforts allow people to start over.

"It's basically a blank slate," he says in the video, promising that 20 more seasteads would be built based on what is gleaned from their experience. "Hopefully, with this great blank slate, we can create some great governance."

"We're looking forward to freedom-loving people to come join us on the open ocean."

A lack of public trust?

One group that has championed seasteading is the Seasteading Institute, which claims that the sea, through "floating cities," is a way to "allow the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for how to live together."

The institute was founded in 2008 by Patri Friedman — a political-economic theorist who is the grandson of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman — and technology entrepreneur Peter Thiel.

The San Francisco-based institute encourages countries, such as the French Polynesian islands, to pass legislation that would allow for the development of seasteading projects.

Throughout history, people have sought to form their own governments with varying degrees of success. The United States, after all, was one of them.

Joseph Hamm, an assistant professor at Michigan State who has studied public trust in governmental entities, said that in some cases, these efforts were driven by an erosion of public trust.

"You could imagine a situation in which someone felt that they had so little trust in government they had to remove themselves from it entirely," Hamm said. "It does seem like these are people who feel some vulnerability towards government."

Hamm added that he didn't know whether a lack of government trust is the root cause of seasteading efforts, but "people often talk about the ebb and flow of trust and there is that conversation that keeps showing up."

Couple in deep water

The chain of events leading to Elwartowski's plea for help is partly documented on his Facebook page and by news accounts.

The youngest of six, Chad Elwartowski grew up in Tecumseh, his sister Delynne Elwartowski, 51, said. He graduated from Tecumseh High and Michigan State.

In high school, she said, he wasn't a preppy or jock. He played saxophone in the marching and jazz bands. He seemed to have a lot of friends and always appeared to be laid back.

Later, she said, her brother made a name — and a lot of money — for himself as an early adopter of Bitcoin.

Elwartowski's Facebook entry also lists him as a systems analyst at General Dynamics who also attended the Florida Institute of Technology.

In early March, Elwartowski posted seasteading videos. They were followed over the next few days by various posts about seasteading efforts, Bitcoin, Thailand's elections and "startup societies."

But on Saturday, Elwartowski's post took a darker turn.

He wrote a cryptic message: "I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world. It was glorious."

It is followed two days later by his desperate plea.

On Wednesday, his post started: "Nadia and I are still safe."

But he worried about his belongings, including 20 years of postcards he collected from visiting all over the world. All he owns, he said, is on the seastead.

The post ended: "As long as Nadia and I are able to live through this that is all that matters to us right now. We just want to live."

On Thursday the Bangkok Post, an English-language newspaper, offered the Thai government's perspective.

According to its report, the Royal Thai Navy is set to remove the dwelling within a week. It is about 12 nautical miles from Phuket, an island in the Andaman Sea. Authorities, the report said, filed a police complaint.

The report quoted a Thai official saying an investigation showed Elwartowski wanted to exploit legal loopholes to operate a business based on Bitcoin, a form of electronic cash that doesn't require a central bank.

The Thai government views the dwelling as an affront to its national sovereignty.

While Elwartowski's friends and relatives have said they are concerned, some of the comments on his Facebook posts have been critical, questioning whether he had used good judgement and could start his own country.

The Thai government and the couple now seem locked in a standoff.

"We hope this issue can be resolved diplomatically with the Thai government and are ready to talk to anyone in charge at any time," Ocean Builders offered in its own statement. "We have tried several times to talk to anyone but were always told that we have nothing to worry about because we are legally in international waters."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.