The final footage of a man that disappeared from an airport before vanishing forever still baffles viewers, 10 years on.
Back in June 2014, German tourist Lars Mittank travelled to Golden Sands resort in Varna, Bulgaria, with some mates, his first trip out of his home country.
What transpired following this simple trip has earned Mittank the title of 'the world's most famous missing tourist', as nobody has found him since the puzzling incident, remaining a mystery to this day.
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He arrived at the destination on 30 June that year, and was drinking in a bar with his friends a week later on the Black Sea Coast before getting into an altercation with four Bayern Munich football fans.
Mittank , a fan of Werder Bremen, a rival Bundesliga club, got into an altercation with the fans on their penultimate day on holiday, later splitting off from his friends in the evening.
They didn't see him for the rest of the night, as he returned to the hotel the next morning and told them that he'd been beaten up by the rival fans, though any clear indication on what happened exactly are blurry.
Some friends said the fans themselves beat him up, while others said they had hired men to attack Mittank - either way, the German was left with an injured jaw and ruptured eardrum, and was prescribed antibiotics.
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A local doctor advised him to remain in Bulgaria while he recovered instead of getting on his pre-booked flight, which is where things unfortunately went downhill for Mittank.
Assuring his friends that he would be fine, he checked into a nearby hotel when they left and this is where his odd mannerisms began.
CCTV from the hotel near the airport would show him exhibiting strange behaviour in corridors, including signs of paranoia as well as calls to his mother, telling her that the fans were trying to kill him.
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But on 8 July 2014, he travelled to Varna Airport, hoping to fly back home, but before boarding, he would have to be cleared by the airport doctor as fit to fly.
Footage of Mittank running from the airport, across a car park, over a fence and into a field of tall sunflowers has gone viral on YouTube in the years since his disappearance, as he can be seen in a t-shirt and shorts.
During his conversation with the doctor, they were interrupted by a construction worker at the airport, seemingly startling Mittank and causing him to leave the bag he had brought with him, behind.
The mysterious case is still unsolved, as several conspiracy theories typically arose from the situation, including Mittank developing psychosis from the antibiotics he was taking, or a concussion, though the airport doctor wrote the former off, as the 28-year-old never filled his prescription.
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Outlandish claims involving crime couldn't be backed up by any evidence, while a German trucker claiming to give him a lift led to nothing following an investigation.
With no concrete evidence, the most likely theory about what happened to Lars is psychotic illness - as his symptoms were consistent with that of a psychotic episode. The injuries suffered in the attack may also have triggered a pre-existing condition such as schizophrenia.
There is no trace of the German, as his mother still looks for leads around her son's disappearance after years of investigation from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office leading to nothing.
Topics: Travel, Mental Health, Community, Weird, Conspiracy Theory
Joshua Nair