The latest images of the world’s “most famous missing tourist” continue to baffle onlookers a decade after the disappearance of 28-year-old Lars Mittank.
Lars, a tourist from Germany, disappeared in July 2014 while on holiday in Varna, Bulgaria, on his first foreign trip away from home.
Bizarre CCTV footage of his last sighting provides the final clues to what happened, as Lars casually walks through Varna airport.
But shortly afterwards you would see him turn and sprint in the other direction for the last time.
‘I don’t want to die here! I have to get out of here!’ were the eerie last words he is said to have said to a doctor at the airport when he was told he could go home.
The final footage showed him climbing a two-metre high fence, leaving his bag and phone behind him, diving into a field of sunflowers before running off into the distance, never to be seen consciously again.
Little is known about what happened to Lars in the days before his disappearance, although friends say he was involved in a row with rival football fans, suffered injuries and was on strong medication before returning home.
But after a decade and lengthy investigation, the search for Lars Mittank still raises more questions than answers.
Lars Mittank was seen running away from the airport in Varna after speaking to a doctor in July 2014
Lars is said to be a normal 28 year old with no history of drug use or mental illness
Lars is seen for the last time on July 8, 2014, leaving the airport
In the years since his disappearance, videos of Lars’ last movements have generated widespread interest and tens of millions of views on YouTube.
When a police investigation turned up nothing, online commentators began sharing their explanations of why and how the 28-year-old could have disappeared in an instant.
But to this day, no one has solved the mystery. Lars’ mother continues to hope that she will find a new clue in ten years.
Lars, from Berlin, had reportedly never been on holiday outside Germany before.
He grew up in Itzehoe and had lived there all his life, working in a power plant. He had friends and a girlfriend.
Lars’ week-long holiday with friends in Bulgaria had also not raised any eyebrows until a few days before he was due to leave.
He had flown with friends to stay at the Viva Club Hotel in the seaside resort of Golden Sands, but was injured towards the end of their trip, apparently in a fight at McDonald’s, leaving him with a perforated eardrum and possible concussion.
Mittank, a Werder Bremen supporter, had returned to the hotel one evening to tell friends that he had gotten into a fight with a group of Bayern Munich fans and been beaten up, just two days before they were due to go home.
Testimonies about what exactly happened that night vary, with allegations that the fans even hired men to attack Mittank.
It is not clear who the men were or why they attacked him.
But he told friends his ear hurt and he was having trouble hearing.
After seeing a local doctor, Mittank was given a course of antibiotics called Cefuroxime 500 and was forced to stay behind when his friends flew home on July 7 because the air pressure changes on board the plane would hurt his ear.
He assured his friends that everything would be fine, told them to carry on without him and checked himself into a nearby hotel to wait and recover before flying home.
Lars stayed at Hotel Color in Varna after telling his friends to carry on without him
Lars, from Berlin, had never been on holiday outside Germany before
An overhead view of the Viva Club Hotel in Varna, Bulgaria
It was high season and Lars struggled to find a hotel, eventually choosing the budget Hotel Color in a run-down area of Varna.
Lars made a terrifying, panicked phone call to his mother from his hotel room asking him to cancel his bank cards, fearing the details had been copied when he checked in, and suggesting he was being followed by four men trying to kill him.
Sandra Mittank told German television: ‘I thought: God, my son is in danger. I heard his heart pounding through the phone. He said people were trying to rob or kill him.”
She said he insisted on whispering in case anyone heard him, warning her that the hotel was “strange” and that he did not feel safe in Bulgaria.
He also texted his mother asking about the antibiotics he had been prescribed.
CCTV footage showed him walking up and down the hotel foyer, looking out windows and hiding in an elevator.
But the only person seen on CCTV footage behaving unusually was Lars.
On the last night he was seen, Lars is believed to have left the hotel at 1am before returning about an hour later. It is not known where he went.
He had been in contact with his mother before he disappeared and feared he was being followed
In the photo, Lars arrives at Varna airport on July 8 with luggage he left behind later
The next morning, July 8, his mother’s fears eased when he texted her to say he had reached the airport terminal. He said he would try to leave.
She bought him a bus ticket and sent him 500 euros, which he never took.
Lars went to the airport on his own by taxi and was seen on surveillance images.
But the situation became even worse when he visited an airport doctor.
He still needed permission to fly from a medic, who reportedly described him as “nervous and erratic,” and suspicious of the drug he was prescribed.
But Dr. Kosta Kostov reportedly thought Lars should fly just fine.
Even though everything was clear to leave Bulgaria, Lars was still visibly upset and started shaking when a construction worker entered the room.
The doctor remembered shouting, ‘I don’t want to die here. I have to get out of here.’
Those would be the last words the 28-year-old heard.
Some speculated that antibiotics for his injuries could have caused a psychotic reaction, or that he may still have a concussion.
But Kostov later ruled out the first suggestion, saying Lars never filled his prescription.
At this point Lars jumped to his feet and fled the airport on foot.
In his haste, he left behind a backpack and suitcase containing his wallet, passport and phone.
Seen on camera, Lars ran outside and climbed over a two-metre fence before running into a meadow and disappearing into a field of sunflowers along the A2 motorway.
It was the last time he was ever seen.
Some speculated that antibiotics for his injuries could have caused a psychotic reaction, or that he may still have a concussion.
Lars’ week-long holiday with friends in Bulgaria had also not raised any eyebrows until a few days before he was due to leave
The police have found no concrete clues and a private detective hired by his family could not find any trace of Lars.
It was never determined what caused his paranoia: drugs, a reaction to his medication, a head injury from the fight, an undiagnosed mental illness, or a real threat from unknown assailants.
Theories have been steadily debunked over the years; his family says there was no history of mental health problems that they were aware of.
Family and friends emphasized that he never used drugs.
A glimmer of hope for Lars’ family came in December 2016 when police in Brazil tweeted a photo of a bearded, shabbily dressed man they had found barefoot along a highway.
But he was later identified as a missing Canadian aid worker.
A German truck driver also claimed to have given Mittank a lift, but an investigation into the claims led to nothing.
Lars’ fate is unknown. Conspiracy theories continue to circulate online about what could have happened and what prompted Lars to run away. But to this day no one can say for sure.