The Mysterious Disappearance of Lars Mittank: Unraveling the Varna Airport Enigma
On July 8th, 2014 (Tuesday), Lars Joachim Mittank, a 28-year-old German tourist, vanished under bizarre circumstances near Varna Airport in Bulgaria. He left behind a mystery that continues to captivate and confound.
However, I think this is a case where some sense can be made. My explanation of what I think happened to Lars Mittank will involve an analysis of both known facts regarding the case and some assumptions that I will bring into the mix.
Lars Mittank: German on Vacation in Bulgaria
Lars Mittank was on vacation. I think that is very relevant to this missing persons case, a point that I will return to later.
But what began as a typical vacation with friends at the Golden Sands resort turned into one of the most perplexing missing persons cases of the modern era. This is thanks to enigmatic behavior that was caught on security footage that captured his final known moments. In a way, that makes this case similar to the Elisa Lam mystery from Los Angeles, another strange missing persons case from the 2nd decade of the current century.
Before Lars disappeared, he had been enjoying a week-long trip. This trip took a turn for the worse when he had one of those altercations at the bar involving a sports team debate. Reportedly, a football rivalry in a barroom setting led to a beating, and this beating was bad enough that it left him with a ruptured eardrum.
Personally, I had a major ear clog at one point in my life, one that lasted three weeks. I was advised not to swim and not to hike to a significantly high elevation until it cleared up. This was because diving underwater or going to high elevation causes changes in air pressure.
The ears are a major point in the body where changes in air pressure matter. If Lars had a ruptured eardrum, then flying was off the table for him, surely because the changes in pressure might have made his injury worse.
Advised against flying, he stayed behind as his friends returned to Germany. On Monday, July 7th, he checked into a hotel near the airport, where his behavior took a troubling turn.
He paced the halls, hid in an elevator, and made panic-driven phone calls to his mother. During these calls, he whispered that he felt threatened and unsafe.
His paranoia peaked on the morning of Tuesday, July 8th (the day he was set to fly home). At the airport, he visited a doctor for clearance but fled mid-appointment, abandoning his belongings. CCTV footage shows him sprinting across the grounds, scaling a fence, and disappearing into a field of sunflowers. To this day, he has never been seen again.
Below is the actual security footage capturing Lars Mittank’s final known moments as he flees Varna Airport:
The Infographics Show: Lars Mittank's Case Profiled
On April 9th, 2025, The Infographics Show published a list of haunting disappearances. They include the Lars Mittank disappearance. I embed the video below with starting points and stopping points that isolate only the Mittank disappearance (they covered multiple).
The footage of Lars was widely circulated online. This has made his case a focal point for amateur sleuths and true crime enthusiasts. The theories focus on mental health, medication side effects, foul play, and psychosis.
Despite extensive searches, no trace of him has surfaced. A reported sighting by a truck driver in Germany on an unspecified day in 2019 offered fleeting hope, but it led nowhere. That sighting would be about five years after the disappearance date, making it a really strange tip.
As of April 9th, 2025 (Wednesday), Lars remains missing, his fate a haunting enigma.
Detail
Information
Full Name
Lars Joachim Mittank
Date of Birth
February 9th, 1986
Age at Disappearance
28
Nationality
German
Last Seen
July 8th, 2014 (Tuesday), Varna Airport, Bulgaria
Key Event
Fled the airport on foot, captured on CCTV
Physical Description
Approx. 5'11", slim build, short brown hair, male, caucasian, wearing yellow shirt and blue shorts.
Speculation on What Happened to Lars Mittank
I think the best explanation of what happened to Lars is simply that he suffered brain damage in the beating, which produced erratic behavior. It's known for sure he suffered a ruptured eardrum, so we aren't talking about a minor altercation. Furthermore, brain injuries are thought to cause paranoia, according to some medical experts. This refers to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), damage from a blow to the head—like the beating Lars endured—which can disrupt brain function and trigger symptoms like paranoia or hallucinations, especially if areas near the ears, such as the temporal lobe, are affected.
Beatings between sports fans can be significant. There was a fan at a Major League Baseball game in 2011, Bryan Stow, who suffered brain damage over one of these affairs. His case has stayed in the news over the years, including an article for 2023. I think this ties in because simple sports-fan fights can still produce massive injuries.
Lars was not thought to be on drugs. Meanwhile, his medications, according to The Infographics Show, were not the kind that would commonly cause mental problems. I think that leaves the probabilities of what caused his behavior squarely having to do with the beating he suffered. The YouTube video does delve into this possibility a little bit.
Why Lars Mittank Has Not Been Found
The next question is one that I think most readers will remain perplexed by. Why has he not been found?
On that matter, I will return to the fact that he was a vacationer. Lars Mittank was not a Bulgarian but a German in Bulgaria.
In general, I think countries are less likely to spend public funds searching for missing tourists than their own nationals. I think this could happen in any country.
For example, I suspect something like this may have deflated the Elisa Lam case a little, as she was a Canadian who went missing in the USA. Furthermore, the case of Duncan MacPherson, a Canadian who went missing in Austria, is a striking example. The evidence basically showed that he was in a small area, but it would be over a decade before he would be found. With the MacPherson case, a cover-up, the exact opposite of an investigation, from the authorities has been suggested.
I don't think the police are overly motivated on most days. I think they will be less motivated looking for someone from a country that's not their own. Any excuse to deprioritize will look good to someone who has a budget to think of -- and all police forces have budgets to think of.
Furthermore, police searches fail quite a lot: plain and simple. I don't mean that they fail because the person isn't in the target area. Police searches fail quite a lot, even when they search the right area. If the search starts to get expensive, it gets called off -- it's that simple. Lots of missing people have been found after many years in an area that was supposedly scoured by searchers.
Most Likely Explanation: A Summary
Lars suffered a beating in the days before his disappearance. If he had some kind of hallucination or paranoia due to brain damage, then he probably had a desire to hide. Keeping in mind that he was fit and that mental problems don't limit you physically, he could, in fact, put himself in a really good hiding spot. He could also move quite a long distance on foot.
Quite frankly, he's likely in one of the wooded areas near where he was last seen, with the search complicated by police budgeting, animal scattering, and, presumably, the MP's own brain damage in the time frame leading up to his disappearance. This last point can't be ignored: someone who is suffering mentally but not physically could hide himself quite well.
Paraphrased details from government source**: Winifred Long, the mother of two small boys, was last seen on June 10th, 1962, at the Greyhound Bus Station in Marysville, California. She was at the Greyhound Station after an argument with her estranged husband.
Missing Person: Winifred Corrine Long Last-contact date: June 10th, 1962 (Sunday) The area where the MP was last seen: Not necessarily the Greyhound Bus Station as NamUs indicates. She was last seen in Marysville, California at the ranch of her estranged husband near Beale Air Force Base Link to government source: NamUs MP#54111
Family members: Alvin Long (b. in or about 1928; her husband; may go by Alfred L. Long Jr), Raymon Connett (her father), Lorin or Loring (b. about 1961; her son) and Keith (b. about 1959; her son).
VITAL DETAILS
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian Sex: Female Age at time of disappearance: 30 years old according to NamUs, 29 years old according to the newspaper journalism at the time of her disappearance Birthdate: Winifred Corrine Long was born between June 11th, 1931, and June 10th, 1932 based on her reported age at the last date of reported contact. Hair: Brown Eyes: Hazel, also called blue/grey Scar: none known Height/weight: 68 inches and 140 pounds BMI*: Winifred Corrine Long was in the normal range for BMI. Tattoos: Winifred Corrine Long did not have any tattoos associated with her profiles.
Clothing: Capri-styled pants with red, blue, and green checks; she was wearing a white blouse and white shoes
Glasses: Yes, according to pictures I found (see below) but she had resorted to contact lenses.
23 Jun 1962, Sat The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) Newspapers.com
Winifred Corrine Long has not been seen since June 10th, 1962 when she was 30 years old.
This individual has now been missing for about 59 years as of the original publication date of this blog post.
The early journalism on this case stated that her husband, Alvin Long, claimed that he took her to the bus station. He claimed that this happened on Monday, which would have been June 11th (The Fresno Bee/June 23rd, 1962/Page 2-A). Other sources claim the date of the trip to the bus station was Sunday evening. He claimed that the transmission on Winifred's car had broken down. In one news article I read, the husband is described as "estranged." Another source said that Winifred was suing for a divorce (Daily Independent Journal/June 22nd, 1962/Page 4).
13 Nov 1962, Tue Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, California) Newspapers.com
The ranch that Alvin owned was the target of an intensive search. This was considered to be an area where there were plenty of hiding spots. It was described as 320 acres in size.
The husband, in this case, took a lie-detector test. This was reported as inconclusive in the June 27th, 1962 issue of The Press Democrat. He was a double amputee from a grenade blast in the Korean War. Despite this serious injury, he was not an invalid. The sheriff described him as "immensely strong" as he built the acreage "without assistance, despite his handicap" (Oakland Tribune/June 24th, 1962/Page 18).
Winifred, reportedly, was anxious about going to her estranged husband's home. The clerks at the Greyhound Station claimed that they did not sell a ticket on the day in question to Mill Valley, the place where Winifred lived and worked.
Thank you for reading. If have any information about this case, consider contacting the authorities.
Author:S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer)
All articles are subject to editing after the original posting.
S.K. Lambert (Blogger Hobbyist and Freelance Writer) is not a Private Investigator.
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Website hashtag: #MPCSL
*For BMI values, I use the UPPER or HIGHER ranges that are given for height and weight. **Might not be the exact meaning that NamUs or Canada's Missing conveys. I improve upon their descriptions with my research.
Disclaimer: To determine whether a person is missing or not, this site relies heavily on government sources. If you are described as missing when you are not, I recommend simply having your missing person report updated or removed. When that happens, updates at this site can follow.
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