In the summer of 2014, Lars Mittank, a 28-year-old from Berlin, Germany, went on his first overseas trip to Varna, Bulgaria, with his friends.
Yet, the day he was supposed to fly home, he fled the airport and vanished in the surrounding forest without a trace.
The last known sighting of Lars was captured on airport surveillance footage, and the clip has been viewed by millions of people on the internet.
Despite Lars being called “the most famous missing person on YouTube,” his disappearance remains unsolved to this day.
Lars, who grew up in Itzehoe and worked at a power plant, reportedly never traveled out of Germany, which made his week-long trip to Bulgaria that much more special. He and his friends were staying at the Viva Club Hotel, located at the Golden Sands resort.
As the end of their trip approached, though, Lars became a victim of a bar fight. Two days before they were set to go home, he reportedly got into an argument with four men about which soccer club, SV Werder Bremen or Bayern Munich, was better.
Lars, an SV Werder Bremen fan, returned to the hotel later and reportedly told his friends that he’d been attacked. But when speaking with authorities, certain friends recalled slightly different versions of events.
Some claimed that Lars had been beaten up by the same group of soccer fans he encountered inside the bar; meanwhile, others alleged the fans had hired local men to attack Lars.
Either way, he was left with a ruptured eardrum and an injured jaw. Lars visited a doctor and was prescribed antibiotics known as Cefuroxime 500. Due to his injuries, he was also advised to stay back while his friends flew home on July 7, 2014.
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Lars’ friends were willing to postpone their travels home to stay with him, but he told the group that he’d be fine. He proceeded to check into a hotel close to the airport by himself and recover before he planned to fly home on a later flight.
However, while at the hotel, Lars started to act strange. He was seen hiding in the elevator on hotel security cameras and leaving at midnight. Lars also contacted his mother in a panic and asked her to cancel his credit cards. He suggested that four men were after him.
“I thought, god, my son is in danger. I could hear his heart pounding over the phone. He said people were trying to rob or kill him,” recalled Lars’ mother, Sandra Mittank.
He reportedly spoke in a whisper over the phone, worried that somebody might hear him, and admitted he didn’t feel safe in Bulgaria. Then Lars texted his mother to ask about the antibiotics he’d been taking.
Still, Sandra thought everything was going to be okay the following morning of July 8, 2014, when Lars texted and confirmed he’d arrived at the Varna airport. She purchased him a bus ticket and sent 500 euros, money he never ended up withdrawing.
Lars arrived at the airport via taxi, and once there, he went to see an airport physician, Dr. Kosta Kostov. That’s when things took an even stranger turn.
The doctor assessed Lars and deemed him fit to fly. Nonetheless, Lars appeared on edge and inquired again about his antibiotics.
Next, a construction worker entered the office since the airport was undergoing renovation and overheard Lars say, “I don’t want to die here. I have to get out of here.”
At that point, he got up, left his personal items on the floor, and ran down the hallway. Lars exited the airport, climbed a fence, and went missing in the surrounding forest.
Even though Lars was captured on surveillance footage as he fled, he has never been seen or heard from again, and his puzzling disappearance has prompted numerous theories.
Some suggest that because Lars had no history of mental illness, he ran away and began a new life. This seems unlikely, given Lars had remained in contact with his mother and didn’t take any of his belongings with him.
Others speculated Lars might’ve been concussed or suffered a psychotic reaction after taking the antibiotics. Yet, according to Dr. Kostov, this possibility was ruled out since Lars allegedly never filled his prescription.
Officials in Germany spent years investigating Lars’ case, but his body has never been recovered. His family also hired a private investigator, which yielded no leads.
Following Lars’ initial disappearance, his mother traveled to Bulgaria to assist in the search. With no clues to follow, she said, “It’s like the earth swallowed him up.”
It’s still unclear exactly what caused Lars to experience such intense paranoia. His friends and family maintain that he didn’t use drugs, so it’s unknown if he was suffering a head injury, medicinal reactions, an undiagnosed mental illness, or truly was being threatened by attackers.
A Facebook page has been created to continue raising awareness about Lars’ case. The page has over 55,000 followers and remains active.
