In 2014, a German tourist by the name of Lars Mittank mysteriously disappeared while on his way back home from a trip to Bulgaria. As details began to emerge it soon became apparent that something wasn’t quite right with this case as the surveillance footage just didn’t make any sense.
Mittank was a 28-year-old German man whose last recorded sighting appeared to show him running from something although nobody can tell what. Even now, 11 years on, the mystery still intrigues armchair detectives online with Mittank’s case being regularly discussed by true crime and murder mystery YouTubers. Theories are still being shared regarding what happened to him but unfortunately there have been no answers so far.
What happened to Lars Mittank?
Mittank had been on vacation in Varna, Bulgaria, with his friends prior to his disappearance. The holiday itself seemed to pass by without much of note (that’s to say nothing that could have predicted the Mittank’s fate), but the night before the group were supposed to head home things begin to unravel.
According to an article from PEOPLE, Mittank got into a fight with another group over football. His friends had already returned to their hotel rooms but Mitank told them that he had been punched in the face which had resulted in an injury to his jaw and a ruptured eardrum.
Mittank saw a doctor for his injuries and was prescribed Cefprozil. He was also advised not to fly, leading him to make the decision to stay in Varna alone while his friends flew home as originally planned. He checked into the Varna airport hotel on his own but things soon took a turn for the worse.
Paranoia sets in
While his friends were on their flight back to Germany, Lars was becoming paranoid on his own in the hotel. That night, he called his mom, Sandra, and apparently told her that his life was in danger, “I could hear his heart pounding over the phone.” Sandra claimed on a German Television show from 2016, “He said people were trying to rob him or kill him.”
Hotel security showed Mittank pacing the halls and hiding in an elevator at one point. He left the hotel at 1am for an hour and returned for a few more hours before calling his mom again and claiming the people trying to rob or kill him were near.
Later that day he left for the airport and saw the doctor Kosta Kostov who cleared him to fly. Kostov recalled that Mittank was “nervous and erratic,” upon being told he was clear to fly, Mittank reportedly yelled, “I don’t want to die here, I have to get out of here!” Before running out of the office.
Security footage shows him sprinting out of the office and the airport before making his way outside. Witnesses claim they saw him climbing over a fence before disappearing for good.
Naturally this mystery has caught the attention of many for how bizarre the whole case is. What make Lars Mittank, a seemingly stable guy, lose his nerve so suddenly and act out in such a strange way? And more importantly, why was he never seen again? Surely if he wasn’t really being followed he would have shown up somewhere by now. And yet, there has been no sign of him since he left the airport that fateful day.
