The Disappearance of Lars Mittank: The Most Famous Missing Tourist on the Internet
In a world of CCTV and constant connection, vanishing seems impossible. And yet Lars Mittank did exactly that.
He didn’t disappear into fog or history. He disappeared into the lens of a camera.
Mid-stride.
Mid-sprint.
Eyes wild, barefoot, terrified.
Then gone.
What happened in those final seconds at Varna Airport has become one of the most-watched true crime clips on the internet. But this isn’t a video story…it’s a human one.
And it begins like most disappearances do: with something small. A trip with friends. A ruptured eardrum. A whisper down a phone line:
"I don’t feel safe."
A Holiday Gone Wrong
Lars Mittank was a 28-year-old German man, cheerful and athletic, with no known mental health issues. In June 2014, he flew to Golden Sands, a resort town on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, with a group of friends.
They swam. They drank. They argued about football.
And that’s where things begin to splinter.
According to his friends, Lars got into an altercation…possibly over his support for the Werder Bremen football club. He vanished for hours. When he returned, he said he’d been beaten by four men, possibly hired by someone he’d argued with earlier.
He was injured. A Bulgarian doctor diagnosed him with a ruptured eardrum and advised against flying. Lars decided to stay behind while his friends flew back to Germany. They offered to wait. He told them not to.
That decision would echo through the next ten years.
Alone in Varna
Lars checked into a budget hotel called Hotel Color, not far from Varna Airport.
And then…his behavior changed.
He called his mother, Sandra Mittank, whispering that people were trying to kill him. He asked her to cancel his credit cards. He told her he was hiding.
Security footage from the hotel shows him pacing the halls, looking behind his shoulder, ducking in and out of the elevator. That night, he left the hotel around 1 a.m. and disappeared into the night…returning hours later without explanation.
Was he being followed?
Or was something unraveling inside him?
The Airport Footage That Shook the Internet
On July 8, 2014, Lars headed to the airport, texting his mother that he was on his way home.
At Varna Airport, he visited the airport doctor to clear him for flying. While in the exam room, a construction worker entered the area…possibly just for maintenance.
That’s when it happened.
Lars stood up suddenly, muttered that he didn’t want to die, and bolted.
Security cameras caught the entire sequence: Lars running out of the airport, leaving his luggage, passport, phone, and wallet behind. He sprinted across the parking lot, scaled a barbed-wire fence, and vanished into the surrounding forest.
No one has seen him since.
Theories and Speculations
The internet has offered every theory under the sun, from plausible to outlandish. But four core possibilities dominate:
1. Medication-Induced Psychosis
Some believe Lars had an extreme reaction to the antibiotic Cefprozil, which can (rarely) cause hallucinations, anxiety, and paranoia. But there’s one problem: the airport doctor noted that Lars hadn’t filled the prescription.
So, if it wasn’t the meds…what was it?
2. Sudden Onset of Mental Illness
Schizophrenia typically appears in young adulthood. Paranoid delusions, auditory hallucinations, and erratic behavior often surface during times of stress…like being injured, alone, and in a foreign country.
It’s possible Lars was experiencing a psychotic break.
But his family insists there were no warning signs.
This connects with Why the Mind Leaves the Body During Trauma, where I explore how the brain can fracture under pressure. Sometimes the fracture is emotional. Sometimes it’s chemical.
Sometimes, it makes you run.
3. Targeted by Criminals
Some believe Lars was assaulted for more than football loyalty, that he saw something or someone he shouldn’t have. Bulgaria has a known issue with organized crime, and Golden Sands isn’t immune.
But no footage shows anyone following him.
No evidence points to foul play.
Only fear.
Which brings us to the final theory…
4. A Voluntary Disappearance
Could Lars have chosen to vanish? There’s no clear motive…he wasn’t in debt, wasn’t in trouble, wasn’t unhappy. His life was full. His mother adored him. His job was stable.
But people do strange things when they feel hunted. When they’re no longer sure what’s real.
And sometimes, people disappear to survive.
The Forest That Swallowed Him
The area around Varna Airport is densely wooded. Forest meets coastline. There are caves. Old bunkers. Wildlife.
Rescue teams searched for days with dogs and drones.
No body. No clothing. No phone pings. No trail.
Just air.
His mother believes he’s alive. She maintains a website—Findet Lars Mittank—dedicated to finding him. She’s received hundreds of messages from people claiming to have seen Lars in other countries, usually homeless, often disoriented.
None have been confirmed.
What Went Viral…and Why It Matters
The CCTV footage of Lars sprinting through Varna Airport has been viewed millions of times.
It became a digital ghost story. A riddle wrapped in pixels.
But we have to ask ourselves:
Are we watching for answers…or just for the chill it gives us?
The Science of Going Missing
Statistically, adults who go missing fall into four major categories:
Voluntary escape (often under extreme psychological stress)
Foul play
Mental illness
Accidental death
Only 2% of cases remain unsolved after one year.
Lars’s case is entering its second decade.
That’s the part we’re not trained for.
Travel Safety Kit
If you’re traveling abroad (or you know someone who is) consider this travel safety kit with GPS tracker and emergency beacon. It’s small, discreet, and is mostly for hiking.
No one expects to vanish.
But having tools just in case? That’s not paranoia. That’s protection.
Related Reads from This Blog:
The Real Horror Is the Silence
Lars wasn’t a conspiracy. He was a person. A real one.
Someone loved him. Someone raised him. Someone still wakes up at night wondering if they missed a sign. If maybe that final call could’ve gone differently.
In The Disappearance of the Flannan Isles Keepers, I talked about the sea taking men whole.
But here? It wasn’t the sea.
It was fear.
It was air.
It was a barefoot sprint away from something no one else could see.
And maybe that’s what makes this case so compelling.
Because we all fear that one day, something might crack.
And no one will understand.
And we’ll just run.
