Through the years I have covered a lot of different stories about disappearances in my bulgarian blog. Missing people, ships, places (Restaurant X) and even whole settlements (The Mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke), I have them all. Apart from this the so called "lost civilizations" are a whole separate topic.
If we talk only about people some of the missing were never found, others were found alive or dead but the events connected to their disappearances were never revealed (The Bizarre Case of Claudette Souchon).
If we talk only about people some of the missing were never found, others were found alive or dead but the events connected to their disappearances were never revealed (The Bizarre Case of Claudette Souchon).
For some stories it is not clear if they ever happened (David Lang's Walk). Others are true for sure and they are full with paranormal theories (Farmer may hold UFO clue to 36-year Valentich plane mystery). Some are eerie and mysterious even without a supernatural connection (How could a woman just vanish?).
I have never really thought that one day Bulgaria (where I live) will be a scene for one of the strangest cases of missing people. But as they say - anything may happen anywhere.
This is the story of Lars Mittank who disappeared in 2014 while on holiday in Bulgaria. I used several sources for this article. Unfortunately some of the details from the different sources are contradictory and this leads to some confusion. The police knows all the exact details for sure. They are known as well to Mittank's relatives and to the private detective that searched for him. But I am not from that group of people so I can only trust news articles.
So let's begin.
Lars Mittank arrived in Bulgaria on 30 June 2014 together with a tourist group sent by german company TUI. He was 28 years old at that time. The group stayed in "Viva" hotel in Golden Sands complex and as many other westeners they participated in so called "drinking tours" in the local bars.
One day while he was in a bar Mittank got caught in a fight between rival football fans. This is the first thing that is not very clear to me. Some articles suggests that Mittank had nothing to do with the fight. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least one articles claims Mittank as a fan of "Werder Bremen" was fighting with fans of FC "Bayern Munich". If this is true then who were those fans? It is logical to suggest that they were germans too. Lars suffered an injury in his ear as a result from the brawl.
One day while he was in a bar Mittank got caught in a fight between rival football fans. This is the first thing that is not very clear to me. Some articles suggests that Mittank had nothing to do with the fight. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least one articles claims Mittank as a fan of "Werder Bremen" was fighting with fans of FC "Bayern Munich". If this is true then who were those fans? It is logical to suggest that they were germans too. Lars suffered an injury in his ear as a result from the brawl.
After the injury Mittank visited a doctor who prescribed him the antibiotic "Cefuroxime 500" and warned him that it was not save to fly with an airplane because of the trauma. This is why Mittank did not return with others to Germany on June 7. At that moment Mittank was left alone. Around 6:00 am that day Lars left "Viva" hotel and took a taxi to Varna where he visited another doctor. The doctor prescribed him "CEFZIL". It is not clear to me if this is the same visit to a doctor that is mentioned above. Some details (like the medice prescribed) are different. Is this a second visit?
Later that day Mittank returned to "Viva", probably to take his luggage. After that he took another taxi and asked the driver to take him to a cheap hotel in Varna city. He booked in "Kolor" in the central part of the town. Mittank spent some part of the night there. Things got more and more strange from here. In the midle of the night Mittank called his mother (another article claims he texted her). On the phone he sounded very constrained. Once again there are some differences in the news sources. Some claim he told his mother that his credit card is blocked and four unknown men are following him. They even asked him what are these pills he was taking. His mother Sandra Mittank made an attempt to deblock his card so Lars can buy tickets.
Lars left "Kolor" around 1:00 a.m. on June 8 as if he was frightened by something. Soon after that he called his mother once again. He told her that he was followed by four fans of "Bayern" who called him "Bremen's pig" and "nazi".
"He was not talking loud and he said that he is in a hideout in a high place. He must be very cautious not to fall" - this is what Sandra Mittank told the police.
Lars Mittank also said to his mother that he would try to reach the airport in Varna and to visit the doctor there (for the second or third time?). He wanted to ask what is this medice that previous doctor(s) prescribed to him.
A very important question - were those four unknown men that asked Mittank about his pills in the hotel the same four "football fans" that followed him after he left? Even more important question - were they the same fans of "Bayern Munich" that Lars fought with? If so how did they find him again? Were they searching for Lars?
It is not known where Lars spent the rest of the night and where is this "high place". At 5:00 a.m. in the morning he managed to reach the airport with a taxi. He can be seen on the cameras how he enters in the airport. Lars Mittank looks calm at that point.
Once again Lars made a telephon call to his mother and told her he has no money.
"It was strange" - Sandra Mittank explains - "he told me that he has enough money the last time he called."
Meanwhile Sandra Mittank managed to buy two online tickets for her son. One was for a flight from Varna to Germany (the exact destination is not mentioned) and one for a bus to Hamburg. Lars Mittank was supposed to leave Bulgaria in 16:20 on June 8 and to arrive in Germany on 21:45 the same day.
Lars Mittank looked normal while he was in the doctor's office though somehow uneasy. He insisted to travel despite ear injury. This is why the doctor gave him to sign a declaration that Mittank would fly on his own responsibility. At that moment Lars suddenly ran out from the office leaving all his luggage, ID papers and his cell phone. What was it that terrified him? Was it the declaraion they gave him to sign? What did he think? Did he think that the doctor wanted to involve him in a dirty deal? Another web site points out that Mittank ran out when he noticed a man dressed like a "construction worker" to approach the doctor's office.
This video is captured by security cameras on Varna airport. We can see that Mittank was calm when he entered the building. He left running.
Eye witnesses claimed that they have seen Mittank to jump over airport's fence and to run toward nearby forest. This was the last time he was ever seen.
For this story I used mostly this news articles:
Изгубен ли случаят "Намери Ларс Митанк"
The Mystery Disappearance of Lars Mittank
People who mysteriously vanished from airports
This is how Lars Mittank was looking at the time of his disappearance and how he possibly looks a year later:
More pictures of him:
The mystery of Lars Mittank disappeance can be separated in two parts, there are two questions. Why did he acted so strange? And what have happened to him after he left the airport?
Here are some possibilities about the first question.
1) Everything that Mittank told his mother on the phone was true. Unknown men did follow him.
Velislav Bonev, menager of "BSA Bodyguard & Security Association" has a similar version about the disappearance. While on drinking tour Mittank may has consumed syntethic drugs with prolonged effect, probably without even noticing.
"This is no exception", said Bonev. "According the information he have, Lars didn't use drugs before. He was not addicted to alchohol too. He had a good job in an electricity station and a normal behavior for his age. But in such cases when a syntetic drug is used a nasty effect known as "frying" may happen. The drug triggers paranoid reactions and leads to prolonged depression and anxiety".
3) The third possibility is least probable. There are no facts that support it but still we must not dismiss it so easily. Mittank might has not been under influence of a drug and might has not been suffering from paranoia and still he might has told false thing on the phone - about "four unknown men following him" and so on. This means one thing - he lied. I can think of only one reason why he might did this - he wanted to "disappear" and to send those who would search for him in a wrong direction.
Now let's see what might have happened to Lars after he left Varna airport.
Soon after Lars went missing Sandra Mittank anounced a reward for any information that can help to find her son. As far as I know the reward is 40 000 euro. In 2015 people from Sofia (capital of Bulgaria) called and claimed that Lars was living as a homeless man in a park. This relates to the first version mentioned above - that Mittank has suffered psychological breakdown and he might has lost his memory (because of drugs or some other reason). The homeless man was photographed and the picture was sent to Germany. Although only an ear and part of his face were visible, experts said that with 80 percent probability this was Lars Mittank. Sandra Mittank and the private detective Guetig flew to Sofia and went to the park. It turned out the homeless man is a complete counterpart (doppelganger) of Lars but he was a bulgarian. This was a srange coincidence itself but it did not help to solve Mittank's mystery.
Заради наградата от 40 000 евро намериха клошар-двойник на изчезналия във Варна Ларс (English: Homeless doppleganger of missing Lars found bacause of the 40 000 euro reward)
Another version is that because of ear trauma and the danger of flying (or the fear that he was followed), Mittank decided to hitchhike to Germany. It would be quite hard - let's not forget that he left all his money and IDs in doctor's office at the airport. But this is not totally impossible - just ask trafficants and refugees that are roaming Eaurope right now. There was even info that Lars Mittank has been seen in Romania.
Ларс Митанк видян в Румъния (English: Lars Mittank seen in Romania)
Let's say it was true. It is oblvious now that Mittank failed to reach Germany hitchhiking. What may have happened? Did criminals attack him? They did not find any money in Lars so they killed him in a rage. He might be buried somewhere where no one will ever find his body. Or probably wild animals attacked him? Never underestimate wolves of Transilvania. Or did human trafficants kill Mittank? Things may have happened this way - somehow Lars made contact with those who smuggle refugees to Western Europe. He had no money so he promised them to pay when he riches Germany. This can explain how eventually Lars managed to leave Bulgaria without ID papers. At some point trafficants got anxious. Lars was not the typical refugee, he was a german. What if they get in trouble because of him? So trafficants decided to kill him and get rid of the body. Does this version sound plausible? Maybe this is what have happaned to Lars Mittank. Or maybe not...
Next article about Mittank is so "yellow news" that I will not even discuss it, I'll just give the title:
Германецът Ларс отвлечен от перничанка? (English: Lars abducted by a woman from Pernik*)
*Pernik - well known "wild west" bulgarian city.
Next article can be connected to the third version - Lars Mittank might have acted so strange in order to fool those who may search for him. Maybe he wanted to hide his traces so he can go to Syria or Ukraine.
Изчезналият германец отишъл да се бие в Украйна? (Eng: The missing german went to fight in Ukraine?)
There are a lot of foreigners in both conflicts and they are fighting on every side. In Ukraine some support ukrainian forces while others support so called pro-russian separatists. In Syria there are foreigners fighting for Daesh, Assad, Al Queda, syrian rebels, kurds.... The dead foreigners are buried in unnamed graves in most of the cases. If this is the fate of Mittank he may never be found.
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Intrigued by this case I decide to look deeper into disappearances in Bulgaria. It may sounds strange but almost every week someone disappear here. In the first day when I was preparing this article I found two such news stories:
Мъж се е изгубил в Лозенска планина (English: A man got lost in Lozenska mountain, Update: later they found him alive)
МВР продължава издирването на 39-годишен мъж от София (English: Autorities keep searching for a 39 years old man from Sofia, missing since 8 November 2015)
There is even one twitter profile that tweets only about missing bulgarians, it posts very often:
Безследно изчезнали
It is terrifying, too often people disappear! Some of them are found alive and well (children often run away from home). Others are never found. And some are found dead. Some cases are shrouded in mystery. Few examples:
Изчезването на студента от Пловдив остава мистерия (English: Disappeance of the student from Plovdiv still a mystery)
He was later found dead but it did not solve the mystery.
Откриха мъртъв изчезналия студент от Пловдив (English: Missing student from Plovdiv found dead)
Мистерия! Изчезнал в Перник - изплува удавен в Сарафово (English: Mystery! Disappeared in Pernik found drown in Sarafovo)
Мистерията с художника, който подпали картините си и изчезна, продължава (English: Mystery with the artist who put his paintings on fire and disappeared contunues)
Probably none of this cases has any connection with Lars Mittank but who knows - maybe we can find something common or at least understand why so many people disappear. Experts know this better. It is no coincidence that when bulgarian movie director Zahari Paunov disappeared, the german detective Guetig (looking for Mittank) was interested in the case.
Не е ясно къде е засечен последният разговор на изчезналия режисьор Паунов (English: It is not clear where the last call from missing director Paunov was detected)
Later Paunov was found dead.
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So what can we do?
First and most important - do not disappear! Do not go alone to suspicious locations and always tell someone where are you going.
Second, keep your eyes open. I know that a lot of bulgarian readers of my blog "Misterika" are doing this even without telling them. A lot of them (especially the young) love to search for mysteries. I have received some pictures from spooky places through the years. Usually I warn them to be careful and not to go alone (especially in the night) but some do not listen to me :) I myself go to "searching expeditions" from time to time. Well, next time we go out we may look not only for UFOs, ghosts and strange creatures but for strange people too. Who knows - we may stumble upon a blonde bum with empty look in his eyes who speaks only german. Maybe Lars Mittank indeed lost his memory and maybe he indeed lives somewhere in Bulgaria as a forest hermit now...
At the end - some eerie or at least strange pictures that I have received through the years:
