Lars Joachim Mittank — Disappearance Profile

Lars Joachim Mittank was born February 9, 1986, in Berlin, West Germany, and grew up in Itzehoe, Schleswig-Holstein. He worked at a power plant. Friends and family described him as a stable, dependable person with no known history of mental illness, no history of substance abuse, and no unusual behaviour prior to this trip. He had a girlfriend and visited his parents regularly, having taken on additional duties at his parents' home after his father suffered a stroke.

On June 30, 2014, Mittank travelled with five friends to Golden Sands, a popular coastal resort outside Varna, Bulgaria. It was his first trip outside Germany. By all accounts, the week proceeded normally: the group relaxed on the beach, swam, played football, and went out in the evenings. His friends reported no unusual behaviour by Mittank until the final days of the trip.

On the evening of July 6, 2014 — the day before the group was scheduled to return to Germany — Mittank and his companions were at a bar in town. Mittank, a supporter of the football club SV Werder Bremen, had an argument with supporters of FC Bayern Munich. He became separated from his friends outside a restaurant later that night and disappeared for several hours. He returned to the resort the following morning (July 7) and told his friends he had been beaten by four men he believed had been hired to attack him. The assault had left him with an injured jaw and a ruptured eardrum.

On medical advice, Mittank was told not to fly due to his ear injury. He was prescribed the antibiotic Cefprozil (500 mg), a cephalosporin. His friends offered to stay with him, but he insisted he was fine and told them to fly home as planned. They did so on July 7.

Mittank checked out of the resort the same day as his friends and checked into the Hotel Color Varna, a cheap hotel near the airport, for one night. However, within hours, his behaviour changed markedly. Hotel CCTV recorded him pacing the corridors, peering out windows, and hiding in a lift. He made a late-night departure from the hotel around 1:00 a.m. and returned approximately an hour later; what he did during this period is unknown.

He telephoned his mother, Sandra Mittank, in a whisper, telling her that people were trying to kill or rob him and asking her to cancel his credit cards. On a second call the following morning (July 8), he told her the people pursuing him were getting closer.

On July 8, 2014, Mittank arrived at Varna Airport and texted his mother to say he had arrived. He went to consult the airport doctor, Dr Kosta Kostov. Kostov later described Mittank as "nervous and erratic." According to Kostov, he told Mittank he was medically fit to fly home. Mittank did not leave the office, instead expressing doubt about his medication.

At that point, a construction worker entered the medical office — the airport was undergoing renovation at the time. Kostov stated that Mittank then began to tremble. He said: "I don't want to die here! I have to get out of here!" He stood up and fled the room, leaving behind all of his luggage, including his wallet, mobile phone, and passport.

Airport security cameras recorded the subsequent sequence. Mittank can be seen on the footage running through the terminal, exiting the building, jogging across the car park, scaling a two-metre fence, and running into an adjacent meadow. He runs out of frame in the direction of a forested area adjacent to the Bulgarian national highway A2.

This CCTV footage is the last confirmed record of Mittank.

Bulgarian authorities initiated a search immediately following Mittank's disappearance. Search and rescue teams, police, helicopters, and tracking dogs combed the area surrounding Varna Airport. The adjacent terrain consists of meadow, scrubland, and woodland. No footprints, clothing, belongings, or physical evidence were found. No signs of a struggle were discovered.

Mittank's mother, Sandra Mittank, subsequently hired a private investigator, Andreas Gütig. Gütig checked hospital records in the area for unidentified patients, but found nothing corresponding to Mittank.

German authorities, through the BKA, issued a formal international appeal for information and listed Mittank as a missing person. Interpol was also notified.

Reported sightings have occurred in multiple countries over the years since the disappearance:

• Approximately one year after the disappearance, a truck driver reported seeing someone matching Mittank's description hitchhiking in Varna.
• In 2019, a German truck driver stated he had given a lift from Dresden to Schildow (Oberhavel, Brandenburg) to a hitchhiker who resembled Mittank — describing the man as having long hair, a beard, tired eyes, and prominent cheekbones.

None of these sightings has been confirmed by investigators.

The following explanations have been formally discussed by investigators, medical experts, and Mittank's family.

1. Acute psychiatric episode (psychosis or severe paranoia from undetermined cause). This is the most widely discussed explanation among investigators and medical commentators. Mittank had no prior history of mental illness, but acute psychotic episodes can occur in individuals without prior history, triggered by factors including severe stress, sleep deprivation, trauma, or underlying neurological conditions that had not previously manifested. His behaviour — whispering on the phone, hiding, the escalating belief that he was being hunted — is consistent with paranoid psychosis, regardless of whether an external threat existed. If this explanation is correct, Mittank may have run into the forest believing he was fleeing mortal danger and become lost, injured, or may have died from exposure, dehydration, or accident in the surrounding terrain.

2. Medication-induced adverse reaction. Mittank's mother, alongside Bulgarian and German medical sources, raised the possibility that the prescribed antibiotic Cefprozil caused a psychotic side effect. Cefprozil is a cephalosporin antibiotic; cephalosporins have documented (though rare) capacity to induce psychotic symptoms including paranoia and hallucinations, as established in peer-reviewed literature. However, airport doctor Kosta Kostov stated that Mittank had not filled his prescription and had not been taking the medication: "He didn't take those antibiotics. He didn't even fill out his prescription." If Kostov's account is accurate, this explanation cannot account for Mittank's behaviour.

3. Head injury or ear injury sequelae. The ruptured eardrum and possible head trauma from the altercation on July 6 may have contributed to disorientation, vertigo, or neurological effects. This has not been ruled out but is considered insufficient on its own to explain the degree of paranoia described.

4. Real threat and rational response. Some investigators and Mittank's family have not dismissed the possibility that the men who attacked him on July 6 were, in fact, a genuine threat, and that his fear was grounded in reality. If this is the case, Mittank's flight was a rational attempt to evade harm. However, there is no evidence that anyone pursued him after he left the airport, and the police found no evidence of criminal activity directed at him.

5. Accidental death from exposure or injury after fleeing. Even setting aside the question of what triggered his flight, the area he ran into is difficult terrain in summer heat. Without water, food, money, or a phone, a person in a distressed psychological state would face real survival risks. Mittank had some experience with hunting, fishing, and trapping, which his family considered evidence he might be able to survive outdoors. However, investigators noted the intense summer heat, lack of food and water, and the psychological state he was in as factors working against survival.

6. Accidental drowning. The area adjacent to Varna Airport includes drainage channels and the proximity of the Black Sea coast. This has been considered but not specifically advanced as a probable explanation.

The complete absence of any physical trace after his departure from the airport fence — despite a prompt search with dogs — has not been satisfactorily explained. Normally, a person moving through open terrain leaves trackable evidence. The failure of the search could reflect search area limitations, terrain difficulty, or rapid movement beyond the search perimeter.

The trigger for Mittank's extreme reaction inside the airport medical office — specifically, his reaction to the entry of an ordinary construction worker — has not been satisfactorily explained. Dr Kostov stated he had "no idea" why Mittank fled in that moment.

His complete disappearance from all digital systems — no bank withdrawals, no identity document use, no mobile phone activity, no confirmed sightings — since July 8, 2014, is consistent with either death (in which case remains have not been found) or extreme deliberate concealment over an extended period. The former is considered more probable by most investigators, given the conditions.

No cause of death, location, or definitive explanation has been established.

• Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) missing persons appeal
• Wikipedia, "Disappearance of Lars Mittank" (sourced to BKA, Spiegel Online, Mirror, MEL Magazine, Berlin Spectator; current to May 2026)
• Interpol notification issued (year of disappearance)

Status as of June 2026: Missing. Listed by the BKA as a missing person. No remains recovered. No confirmed sightings. Case officially open.