{{Short description|2014 incident in Varna, Bulgaria}} {{Good article}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Lars Joachim Mittank | image = Lars Joachim Mittank (2013).jpg | caption = Lars Mittank in 2013 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1986|2|9|df=y}} | birth_place = Berlin, West Germany | disappeared_date = {{Disappeared date and age|df=y|2014|7|8|1986|2|9}} | disappeared_place = Varna, Bulgaria | disappeared_status = {{Missing for|2014|7|8}} | known_for = Disappearing under mysterious circumstances }}
'''Lars Joachim Mittank''' (born 9 February 1986)<ref name="BKA">{{cite web|work=BKA Germany|url=https://www.bka.de/DE/IhreSicherheit/Fahndungen/Personen/Vermisste/Mittank/Sachverhalt_Mittank.html|title=German Police Is Looking For A German Citizen}} Retrieved 9 December 2020</ref> is a German man who disappeared on 8 July 2014, near Varna Airport in Varna, Bulgaria. Mittank was on holiday at the Golden Sands resort, where he was supposedly involved in a fight, and was unable to fly home with his friends for health reasons. Mittank was documented acting strangely while alone in Bulgaria. He called home to his mother claiming that people were trying to kill him. On the day when he was supposed to fly home, Mittank went to the Varna Airport to consult with a doctor. He was later seen on airport security footage running out of the airport and towards an adjacent forest. He has never been seen since. The case has generated intense interest, and the frequency with which people viewed the footage of him fleeing the airport has led to him being named "the most famous missing person on YouTube".<ref name="Mirror5112018">{{cite web |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/chilling-mystery-most-famous-missing-12516672 |title=Chilling mystery of the 'most famous missing person on YouTube' who vanished into forest never to be seen again |last=Taylor |first=Joshua |date=11 May 2018 |publisher=Mirror |access-date=10 March 2022}}</ref>
==Background of Lars Mittank== Lars Mittank was born on 9 February 1986, in Berlin, Germany.<ref name="BKA"/> He grew up in Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein, and lived there for his entire life. He worked at a power plant, had friends and a girlfriend. He visited his parents frequently. After his father suffered a stroke, he often helped at his parents' home after work. He was described as a normal person.<ref name="Pepi">{{cite web |last1=Pepi |first1=Kirk |title=The Mystery of the Most Famous Missing Person on YouTube |url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/the-mystery-of-the-most-famous-missing-person-on-youtube-2 |website=MEL Magazine |accessdate=26 October 2018 |date=23 April 2018}}</ref>
==Unusual behaviour and disappearance== {{OSM Location map | coord = {{Coord|43.233936|27.823342}} | float = | zoom = 12 | width = 250 | height = 200 | mark-coord1 = {{Coord|43.233936|27.823342}} | mark-title1 = disappeared | caption = Location disappeared | auto-caption=1 }}
{{external media |width = 250px |video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4q5_D-w_8M CCTV footage from Varna Airport].<ref>{{cite AV media |series=Missing People CCTV |title= Missing People CCTV Footage: Lars Mittank (UPDATED) |medium=Videotape |publisher=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4q5_D-w_8M |access-date=11 May 2026}}</ref> Mittank's last confirmed sighting.|float=right}}
On 30 June 2014, 28-year-old Mittank travelled with five of his friends to Varna, Bulgaria. It was his first journey outside of Germany. The group was on holiday at the Golden Sands, a popular seaside resort just outside of the city of Varna.<ref name="Pepi"/><ref name="O'Neill"/> "The week went by really fast", said Paul Rohmann, one of Mittank's friends, on German television in 2016. "We relaxed on the beach, swam in the pool, played football, went clubbing. He was relaxed. He was in a good mood."<ref name="Pepi"/> 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.<ref name="Pepi"/>
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.<ref name="Pepi"/> 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.<ref name="Heise">{{cite web |last1=Heise |first1=Thomas |title=Verschwunden in Bulgarien: Auf der Suche nach Lars Mittank |url=http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/bulgarien-28-jaehriger-lars-mittank-verschwunden-interpol-sucht-ihn-a-989060.html |website=Spiegel Online |accessdate=26 October 2018 |language=de |date=31 August 2014}}</ref> He went and saw a doctor who advised him not to fly due to his injury,<ref name="O'Neill">{{cite news |last1=O'Neill |first1=Marnie |title=People are mysteriously vanishing from airports |url=https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/people-who-mysteriously-vanished-from-airports/news-story/c6f453d76b2ff527ac278356f257c4e1 |accessdate=26 October 2018 |work=news.com.au |date=30 May 2016}}</ref> and prescribed the antibiotic Cefprozil (500 mg). 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.<ref name="Pepi"/>
Mittank checked out of the resort the same time as his friends, and checked into the Hotel Color Varna for one night. The hotel was cheap and close to the airport. However, a day after his friends left, he began to act paranoid. While at the hotel, Mittank called his mother, Sandra Mittank. In a whisper, he told her that people were trying to kill or rob him and that she should cancel his credit cards. 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{{nbs}}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, telling her that the people pursuing him were getting closer.<ref name="Pepi"/>
Mittank was last seen at Varna Airport on 8 July 2014, the day that he was hoping to fly home to Germany. He texted his mother that he had arrived at the airport. He went to consult with the airport doctor, Kosta Kostov. Kostov later described his behaviour as "nervous and erratic". According to Kostov, he told Mittank that he was fine and could return home. However, Mittank did not leave his office, expressing doubt about the medication that he was taking. At that time, a construction worker entered the office. The airport was undergoing renovation at the time. Kostov said that Mittank then began to tremble. He yelled: "I don't want to die here! I have to get out of here!" He then got up and fled the office. He left behind all of his luggage, which included his wallet, mobile phone, and passport. He was captured by airport security cameras fleeing the terminal. Once outside, he can be seen on the footage jogging away from the airport, climbing a fence, running into a meadow, and sprinting off camera in the direction of an adjacent forest. Those are his last confirmed whereabouts.<ref name="Mirror5112018"/><ref name="Pepi"/><ref name="Heise"/>
==Speculation and subsequent developments==
There is no definitive agreement among experts and family members as to the causes of Mittank's behaviour and to what extent his paranoia was rooted in reality.<ref name="Pepi"/> Mittank's mother, alongside Bulgarian and German doctors, have suspected that Mittank's unusual behaviour was the result of a rare side effect from the antibiotic that he was prescribed, Cefprozil.<ref name="Missing after taking antibiotics">{{cite web |url=https://www-apotheke--adhoc-de.translate.goog/nachrichten/detail/panorama/aktenzeichen-xy-lars-mittank-vermisst-in-bulgarien-nach-einnahme-von-cefcil-cefprozil/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-GB&_x_tr_pto=nui |title=Vermisst nach Antibiotikum-Einnahme |trans-title=Missing after taking antibiotics |date=6 August 2015 |website=apotheke adhoc |access-date=2 November 2021}}</ref> A cephalosporin, it has been known to induce psychotic side effects, including hallucinations and paranoia.<ref name="Cefprozil">{{cite journal |last1=Wiseman |first1=L.R |last2=Benfield |first2=P. |date=February 1993 |title=Cefprozil. A review of its antibacterial activity, pharmacokinetic properties, and therapeutic potential |journal=Drugs |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=295–317 |doi=10.2165/00003495-199345020-00008 |pmid=7681376 }}</ref><ref name="Psychosis as an adverse effect of antibiotics">{{cite journal |last1=Essali |first1=Norah |last2=Miller |first2=Brian. J. |date=December 2020 |title=Psychosis as an adverse effect of antibiotics |journal=Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health |volume=9 |article-number=100148 |doi=10.1016/j.bbih.2020.100148|pmid=34589893 |pmc=8474525 }}</ref><ref name="Cephalosporin-induced psychosis">{{cite journal |last1=McDonald |first1=C. Ann. |last2=Addis |first2=Steven |date=October 2003 |title=Cephalosporin-induced psychosis |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1046/j.1440-1614.2003.01243.x |journal=Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=627–628 |doi=10.1046/j.1440-1614.2003.01243.x |pmid=14511096 |s2cid=26225897 |access-date=2 November 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, according to Kostov, Mittank had not been taking his medication. "He didn't take those antibiotics. He didn't even fill out his prescription", Kostov said. "So his behaviour couldn't have been a result of that. I can't think of a single reason why he left my office in such a panic. I'm still confused."<ref name="Pepi"/> His mother said that he had no history of mental illness.<ref name="Pepi"/> However, a mental breakdown caused by an undiagnosed mental illness has been discussed as a possible explanation for his conduct.<ref name="Mirror5112018"/>
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. Mittank had experience in hunting, fishing, and trapping, but there is skepticism about whether he would have been able to survive for long outdoors due to intense heat in the summers and lack of food.<ref name="Pepi"/> His mother has expressed belief that he is still alive, possibly having lost his memory.<ref name="O'Neill"/><ref name="Spectator7192020">{{cite news |url=https://berlinspectator.com/2020/07/19/germany-new-hope-in-the-lost-son-case/ |title=Germany: New Hope in Lost Son Case |last=Immanuel |first=Marcus |date=19 July 2020 |newspaper=The Berlin Spectator |access-date=8 March 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417102359/https://berlinspectator.com/2020/07/19/germany-new-hope-in-the-lost-son-case/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> About a year after his disappearance, a truck driver thought he saw him hitchhiking in Varna. There have been multiple reported sightings of him in several other countries, but none have been confirmed.<ref name="Pepi"/><ref name="Spectator7192020"/> In 2019, a German truck driver gave a hitchhiker a ride from Dresden to Schildow in Oberhavel, Brandenburg. The driver became aware of the Mittank case later, and said that the man with him resembled an older version of Mittank. The driver said that the man had long hair and a beard. He said that his eyes seemed tired and his cheekbones were prominent.<ref name="Spectator7192020"/>
Mittank has been described as "the most famous missing person on YouTube". By May 2018, less than four years after his disappearance, the security footage of him in the airport had been viewed more than 16 million times. The mysterious nature of the case has led to frequent discussions and the growth of numerous theories. The case remains unsolved.<ref name="Mirror5112018"/>
Mittank is listed as {{convert|180|cm|ftin|frac=2}} tall with dark blond hair. He has a scar on his left forearm.<ref name="BKA"/>
== See also == {{Portal|Bulgaria|Germany}} * Disappearance of Stoyan Kostov – another high-profile disappearance of a man in Bulgaria, which has led to an international search. It was later discovered that his partner at the time of his disappearance was British murderer Dena Thompson.<ref>{{cite news|last=Walker|first=Emily|title=Interpol hunt for missing lover of Sussex's black widow |url=https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/5060737.interpol-hunt-for-missing-lover-of-sussexs-black-widow/ |access-date=22 April 2022 |work=The Argus |date=15 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=De Luca |first1=Ruben |title=Serial killer |date=2 September 2021 |publisher=Newton Compton |location=Italy |isbn=978-8822752949 |page=390 |language=Italian |chapter=25: La donna serial killer}}</ref> * List of people who disappeared
== References == {{Reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mittank, Lars}} Category:2014 in Bulgaria Category:July 2014 in Europe Category:2010s missing person cases Category:Bulgaria–Germany relations Category:German expatriates in Bulgaria Category:Missing person cases in Europe