German Tourist Vanishes Into Thin Air
On July 8, 2014, Lars Mittank, a 28-year-old German tourist, was last seen sprinting away from Varna Airport in Bulgaria, his actions captured on security footage that would later become central to one of the most perplexing disappearance cases of recent times.
Mittank, an engineer by profession, had been on a holiday with friends, but what was supposed to be a routine return home turned into a mystery that has gripped the imagination of many around the world. Described as a kind, normal young man by those who knew him, his bizarre disappearance after a series of strange events has raised countless questions.
Despite extensive search efforts, interviews, and speculation, his whereabouts remain unknown, leaving investigators, his family, and the public grappling with one of Europe’s most puzzling modern missing person cases.
A Dream Vacation Turns into a Nightmare
In June 2014, Lars Mittank, a resident of Itzehoe in northern Germany, traveled to the Bulgarian resort town of Golden Sands on the Black Sea coast with a group of friends.
Like many young men, Lars was on holiday to relax, enjoy the sun, and take a break from his routine. Golden Sands is known for its lively nightlife, affordable attractions, and beautiful beaches. But what was meant to be a carefree vacation took a dark turn.
During the early days of the trip, nothing seemed amiss. Lars and his friends spent their time drinking, swimming, and enjoying the tourist attractions.
“The week went by really fast”, said Paul Rohmann, one of Mittank’s friends, in 2016 on German television. “We relaxed on the beach, swam in the pool, played football, went clubbing. He was relaxed. He was in a good mood.”
Another friend, Tim Schuldt, said that Mittank did not eat much, and that he would have only a small bowl of soup or a small salad at a time. His friends reported no additional abnormal behaviour by Mittank until the final part of the trip.
The Injury and a Strange Decision to Stay Behind
On 6 July 2014, the day before they were supposed to return home, Mittank and his companions were at a bar in town, and Mittank got into a disagreement with some other German nationals over football. Mittank, a fan of the football club SV Werder Bremen, had differences with fans of FC Bayern Munich.
He then parted from his friends outside a restaurant after leaving the bar, and disappeared for the rest of the night. Mittank turned up at the resort the following morning and told his friends he was beaten up by four men hired by the group in the bar whom he disagreed with the night before.
The fight resulted in Mittank suffering an injured jaw and a ruptured eardrum. He went and saw a doctor who advised him not to fly due to his injury, and prescribed the antibiotic Cefprozil.
Mittank’s friends wanted to stay with him, but he insisted he was fine on his own, and told them to follow the original travel plan and fly home on 7 July, which they did.
His injury seemed manageable at first, but it soon became a pivotal factor in the unfolding mystery. This was when Lars began acting strangely.
According to Lars’ friends, he became unusually paranoid after the fight. He insisted that they return to Germany without him, assuring them that he would follow as soon as he was fit to fly.
Alone in Bulgaria, Lars checked into the Hotel Color Varna, a budget establishment near the Varna airport. Hotel staff later reported that he appeared nervous and agitated. He was seen pacing around the hotel lobby and acting suspiciously.
The closed-circuit television cameras in the hotel recorded him pacing up and down the halls, looking out windows, and hiding in an elevator. At 1:00 a.m., he left the hotel before returning about an hour later.
It is not known what he did in the intervening period. In the morning, he once again called his mother, Sandra Mittank, telling her that the people pursuing him were getting closer.
The Bizarre Events at Varna Airport
On July 8, 2014, Lars Mittank’s behavior became even more erratic. After spending a restless night at the Hotel Color, he took a taxi to the Varna airport to catch a flight back to Germany. He was still concerned about his ear injury, so he visited the airport’s doctor, Dr. Kosta Kostov.
According to Dr. Kostov, Lars appeared calm during the examination. However, things quickly escalated when an unknown construction worker entered the doctor’s office, leading to a sudden and dramatic change in Lars’ demeanor.
“He saw the worker and immediately became terrified,” Dr. Kostov later told investigators. Lars stood up, muttering something about not wanting to die and that he needed to leave. He yelled: “I don’t want to die here! I have to get out of here!”
He then sprinted out of the doctor’s office and into the airport terminal.
This moment of panic was not just an isolated incident but seemed to reflect a deeper, underlying fear that had been building within him.
Surveillance cameras captured what would become one of the most famous pieces of footage in missing persons history. In the video, Lars is seen walking through the terminal, then suddenly breaking into a run.
He exits the terminal, climbs a fence, and disappears into a nearby field of sunflowers, leaving behind all of his personal belongings, including his backpack, phone, and wallet.
Despite extensive search efforts, no trace of Lars Mittank has ever been found. The area around Varna Airport, including the sunflower fields and nearby forests, has been thoroughly searched by Bulgarian authorities and private investigators hired by Lars’ family. However, no clues have emerged to suggest what happened to him after he fled the airport.
Several alleged sightings of Lars have been reported over the years, both in Bulgaria and other European countries, but none have been confirmed.
One witness claimed to have seen him living among the homeless in Varna, while others reported seeing a man matching his description in Germany and Poland. However, none of these leads have led to any breakthroughs in the case.
Lars’s mother, in various interviews, has expressed a mix of grief and bewilderment. “It’s like the earth just swallowed him,” she lamented, reflecting the family’s ongoing torment over his disappearance.
Theories and Speculation
Since Lars Mittank’s disappearance, numerous theories have emerged. Some speculate that his behavior was the result of an adverse reaction to the antibiotics he had been prescribed. Cefuroxime, while generally safe, has been known to cause rare side effects such as hallucinations and paranoia in certain individuals.
Others believe that Lars may have suffered from undiagnosed mental health issues that were triggered or exacerbated by the trauma of the fight and his subsequent isolation in a foreign country.
Another popular theory is that Lars became involved with drug trafficking or organized crime, given the well-documented presence of such activities in the region. Some people theorize that he was being pursued by criminals, which might explain his increasingly paranoid behavior and his belief that he was being followed.
Lars’ mother has consistently rejected theories of criminal involvement. She believes that her son suffered a mental breakdown due to his head injury and the antibiotics, which caused him to act irrationally. In interviews, she has remained adamant that Lars would not have willingly disappeared without contacting his family.
“There is no reason for Lars to disappear,” she said in a 2016 interview. “He had his job, his apartment, his friends. He loved his life.”
It is also unknown what happened to Mittank after he fled the airport. With the police unable to determine Lars Mittank’s fate, Sandra Mittank hired a private investigator, Andreas Gütig. He checked hospital records for patients without identification, but found nothing.
It was as if he had disappeared into thin air.
The disappearance of Lars Mittank remains one of those cases where every piece of information seems to lead to more questions than answers. In a 2020 interview with German media, Sandra expressed her enduring hope that Lars is still alive. “I will never give up on him,” she said. “I believe he’s out there somewhere, and I believe we will find him.”
