Lars Mittank

In late June 2014, 28-year-old Lars Mittank from Itzehoe, Germany traveled with friends to the Bulgarian resort town of Golden Sands for a beach holiday. During the trip, Lars got into an altercation outside a bar, sustaining a ruptured eardrum. His friends flew home as scheduled on July 6, but Lars was advised by a doctor not to fly due to his ear injury. He stayed behind alone at a hotel in Varna.

Over the next two days, Lars began exhibiting increasingly paranoid and erratic behavior. He called his mother, telling her that he felt unsafe and that four men were trying to kill him. He texted friends saying he should hide his valuables and his passport. His mother, growing alarmed, stayed on the phone with him and urged him to go to the airport and take a bus home instead of flying.

On July 8, 2014, Lars went to the medical office at Varna Airport for a fitness-to-fly examination. CCTV footage shows him entering the doctor's office, then suddenly bolting out of the room, sprinting through the terminal, jumping a fence, and running across a parking lot into a sunflower field and wooded area adjacent to the airport. He left behind his backpack, passport, wallet, and all belongings.

Despite extensive searches by Bulgarian police, German authorities, and private investigators hired by his family, Lars Mittank has never been found. The area around the airport was searched with dogs and helicopters. Some investigators believe he suffered an acute psychotic episode, possibly triggered by the antibiotic Cefuroxime prescribed for his ear infection, which can rarely cause psychiatric side effects. Others speculate he encountered a genuine threat. His mother Sandra has continued searching, and the case has become one of the most discussed disappearances on the internet.