WEBVTT - The Disappearance of Lars Mittank 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.520 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.360 and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant over there, and there's 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.640 Jerry And this is Stuff you Should Know. That another 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:28.000 true life mystery addition, a true life mystery. Yeah, Okay, 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.360 I don't I don't want to say crime because I'm 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:34.280 not sure crime was involved. I'm sure it still falls 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.760 under the umbrella of true crime, but it's it's a 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:41.479 mystery of disappearance, how about that? Yeah? And this one is, uh, 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:44.479 this can be frustrating to research, and this is our 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.760 caveat and that. Um, this situation, as you will learn, 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.760 happened in Bulgaria to a German Man and that's part 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.000 of the reason it's hard to get great information. Um, 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.080 there are plenty of people on the internet telling this 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.080 story with different details, and uh, it's just sort of 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.400 one of those cases where like we can't get our 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.080 hands on Bulgarian case files from the cops right and 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.640 read it ourselves. So, um, we did find a redditor 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.680 who did something last year who claims that he got 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:22.360 information from Lars's mother who you're gonna meet, Sandra not. 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:24.280 She's not gonna be on the show. You're not gonna 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.240 really meet her meet through our words. But you know 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.160 who knows this is someone on Reddit, and um, all 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.360 his uh sources were in German, so I couldn't double 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.400 check those either, right, Yeah, no, I mean that's that's 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:41.480 a caveat that works for just about any true crime 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.559 or disappearance case these days, just because there's so many 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.840 people who you know, take a story and run it 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.320 through their own grinder, and you know, like you said, 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:53.760 little details, little facts get changed here, and then somebody 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:55.920 else picks up the same fact without double checking it, 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:57.680 and now all of a sudden, it's all over the place, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.200 and you can't tell if that's because it's real or 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.880 because a bunch of people just repeated the same incorrect facts. So, um, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.080 we're gonna definitely do our best. But one of the 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.320 things about this story is there are enough, you know, 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:16.600 totally verified facts to it that that you know, you 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:21.120 don't really need to get completely lost in the details. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.000 People have gotten completely lost in the details, um, but 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.239 they've still not solved the case. That hasn't helped anybody yet. 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.280 So just the facts that are known are kind of 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.959 strange enough. Yeah, and I think it's it's always more 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:38.080 comfortable for us when it's like when there's a book 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.639 that's been written about it, published by like a real 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:46.560 publisher like Beverly. Clearly it's not just internet dudes. Uh, 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.000 But you know a lot of times these more recent 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.080 sort of missing person cases, it is just internet dude. 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.400 So you know, yeah, that's what it is. And the 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.079 dude that we're talking about, uh is named Lars Matonk 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:00.880 and he's known as the most famous missing person on 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:06.359 YouTube because he is. It is pretty bad almost. It 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.560 should have probably just scared us off of this episode 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:14.440 to begin with, um, the the because you know, you remember, um, 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:17.560 what was the name of that con the YouTube convention? 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.880 We went to that one time. Oh it was like 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:25.960 Internet com but it wasn't that. It was close to that. 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.680 I can't remember. That almost put me off of YouTube forever. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.079 We blocked our memory bank as we did our our 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.160 biggest show ever there in front of about twelve people. Yeah, 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.440 it was pretty bad, but I don't think of it. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.640 But by the way, we should think Dave Meischner, who 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.200 was who's a listener who turned me onto this quite 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:46.840 a while ago. So sorry it took so long to 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.240 get to Dave Um. So we're talking again. We're talking 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.520 about Lars ma Tonk and he uh vanished from the 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.080 face of the earth. As his mom put it, it 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.040 was like the earth just swallowed him up. Back in 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.400 July eighth, two thousand and fourteen, in a town, a 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.880 resort town in Bulgaria on the Black Sea called Golden Sands, 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:08.960 which looking at pictures of it, it looks like a 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:14.520 pretty charming little place. Uh, big con, that's it. It 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.440 might as well have been called Internet Con. Yeah, but 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.760 did you look at pictures of Golden Sands is to 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.480 get a feel for the place? Yeah, you know, looks 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.360 like any lovely seaside hamlet. Yeah. And I couldn't get 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.320 the impression of whether it's more like Destined or more 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.440 like Panama City beach. I just couldn't. It seems like 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.800 a big party spot, if that's what you're wondering, Okay, 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:39.039 But like it also looked like it. It was fairly 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.400 like clean and well run and not just like you know, 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.359 just whatever kind of thing. I don't know. I place 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.359 it between the two from what I can tell. But 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.800 that's where that that's where this event took place where 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.520 the disappearance took place. There's actually Varna, Bulgaria, which is 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.599 the main town that Golden Sands Resort beach town is 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:02.560 right outside of Yeah. So as far as Lars Uh 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:04.679 the young man who would go missing, he was born 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.360 in February nineties six in northern Germany. He was an 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:14.000 only child. He was handsome kid, very popular, He was athletic, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.760 he was smart. He did well in school. Um after 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.760 he ended up. After he graduated, he ended up getting 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.320 a job at the g d S who has power 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.880 plant about a hundred miles from where he grew up, 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.800 fixing um small electrical machines. He was an engineer and 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.440 it seemed like he had a really good life and 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.400 he enjoyed his job. He loved and this will figure 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.760 in so put a pin in this. His one big 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.760 love was his UH football club, his soccer team that 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.640 he followed, which is in you know this is not 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.599 how they would pronounce it, but the Verder Bremen football Club. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.080 Oh really, how would they pronounce it? Well, it's always 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:57.960 just a little more German. Like the guy the Reditor. 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:00.680 He narrates his own document Henry, and he said it 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.400 in a way that I'm not even gonna attempt. Oh okay, 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:07.520 all right, fine, So, UM, that whole football club thing 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.800 actually plays a role in this because, um it may 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.359 be at the center of his disappearance. We're not a 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.320 hard percent sure, but UM, to kind of give you 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.680 an idea of what kind of guy Lars Metank was. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.760 Matank was. His dad had a stroke a couple of 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.600 years before he disappeared, Um, and his mom had to 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.520 take care of his dad full time. Lars was an 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.080 only child, and he would come home, UM I guess 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.000 about a hundred miles from where he lived and worked 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:37.320 almost every weekend to help take care of his dad, 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.360 which is not every guy in their late twenties would 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.400 do that, you know. Um, And apparently he was dedicated 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.200 enough that his mom had to kind of encourage him 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.279 to go along with five other friends of his two 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.680 a week long vacation at Golden Sands in Bulgaria in July, 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:59.279 the end of June beginning of July. Um, he wasn't 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:00.880 going to go. In his IM said no, you should 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.480 should totally go. You you deserve a week off like this. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.719 So he went. Yeah. So the um, it's a big 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.400 party scene Like I said, it is well known for 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:16.240 young people from all over Europe going to take advantage 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:20.480 of the resort deals, all inclusive places, the cheap booze, 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:24.000 plenty of drugs to be had. Um Lars was the 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.160 life of the party, according to his friends. Um as 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:29.880 I saw it anywhere from three to five friends. I 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:32.480 know for sure, two guys, and I think these were 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.520 his high school mates who were most prominent, named Tim 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:39.440 Schultz and Paul Roman Um. But they were hanging out, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.640 going to the beach playing soccer. Uh. The one weird 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.480 thing that I think people may have made too much 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.680 about online as far as internet sleuthing goes is his 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:51.280 friends remarked that he didn't have much of an appetite 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:54.360 on the trip, was eating like soup and salad and fruit, 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:57.239 whereas they were, you know as an all inclusive resort, 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.760 so they were just like feasting on everything, and I 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:01.680 think they thought it was odd that he wasn't. But 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.120 I don't make a whole lot about that. Yeah, neither 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.560 did that one Redator slash documentary and who said that 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.840 he apparently had kind of gotten he had been on 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.160 a health kick, so he was kind of watching what 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.360 he ate a little more. Um. Yeah, some people have 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.240 been like, there's your there's your answer right there, that 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.640 that explains it all. Yeah, basically. Um So, I mean 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.480 the week went by pretty uneventfully. I think one of 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.840 his friends later said on TV or in an interview that, um, 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.839 it went by really quick. Um. On one of they 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:36.880 think the second to last day, they went to watch 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.520 a World Cup match. The World Cup in Brazil was 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:42.760 going on at the time, and UM, you may not 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.360 know this about Europe, but they're really crazy about soccer. 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:47.840 Uh so much so that they have their own word 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.000 for it football, which is goofy. But that's the way 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.839 it goes. And so they went to um this bar 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.160 rock bar or okay, b a r um which sounds 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.520 like a cool place, and they watched the match, I 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.840 think Costa Rica and the Netherlands. And while they were there, UM, 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:07.960 there were a bunch of soccer fans. They're watching this 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:12.640 from all different clubs and countries, and there were some kids, 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.800 I guess who were recent high school graduates and we're 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:20.600 fans of FC Byron, which is the rival to UH 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.320 Verder Bremen. And I guess they kind of got into 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:29.760 it verbally only with um with Lars and his friends. Yeah, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.280 and I also saw places that there was actual physical confrontation. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.240 We don't know for sure, but we do know that 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.760 it wasn't the biggest deal and it wasn't the big 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:45.000 fight that happened later on. Um, after this night out, 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.040 the guys apparently go to this McDonald's which is kind 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:51.280 of an open air um order than open air window 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.960 kind of thing, and Lars didn't want to eat because 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.280 I guess he was on that health kick, and he 0:09:56.400 --> 0:10:00.800 sort of just stood nearby while his two buddies were ordering. Um, 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.200 they got their food, they turned around, he wasn't there. 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:05.480 They don't see him for the rest of the night. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.400 But like I said, it's sort of like, you know, 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:11.839 spring break party central. So if one of your friends 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.520 disappears for the night, and you're a bunch of dudes, 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.240 you might just think like, all right, well, you know, 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.160 maybe he ended up meeting somebody, or maybe he just 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.640 went out and partied some more. But it didn't send 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:27.720 up these huge alarms that he didn't come back that night. Yeah. So, um, 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.400 when he did show up again, I don't know if 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.320 it was later that night or the next morning. Um, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.080 he said that he had been beaten up, actually jumped 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:40.960 by three or four Bulgarian guys, um, and that he 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.720 had gone to duck when one of them threw a 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.439 punch and it acts actually taken a punch in his ear, 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.320 which is a terrible place to get punched. And he 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.600 said that he was quite convinced that it was those kids, 0:10:53.600 --> 0:10:56.960 those high school kids, um, who were fans of Byron 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.840 FC Byron, that they've gotten into it with at the 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:04.600 are earlier that night, UM, because apparently they had said 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.000 this is just I only saw this in one place 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.040 that they had said that. Um, they had shouted that 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.640 it's easy to get to pay somebody to beat other 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.480 people up in Bulgaria. And so this happened close enough 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:19.440 and close enough proximity to that other altercation that he 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:23.400 just assumed that's why those guys jumped him. I mean, 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.679 there's apparently there was no other explanation for it. So 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.000 that was his story. He showed up with an injured 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.480 ear in the story that he had been jumped by 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:37.319 some local bar Bulgarians. Yeah, and his friends apparently didn't 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.480 necessarily believe that story because he wasn't you know, he 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.960 didn't have black eyes or bloody knows or anything. He 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.920 looked fine and he was acting fine, so they weren't 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.840 too sure about that story. Um Again, with the internet, sluice, 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.080 I've seen people saying that, like he totally made up 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.560 the story about the fight. But that is all just 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.960 people speculating online. I know if you ever want to 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.640 see people just take a piece of information and then 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:07.520 spin it to the ant due the most extreme possible 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.439 interpretation of it, that you could do worse than hang 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.800 out on the internet. Uh. So he goes to a doctor, 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:19.599 he gets the diagnosis of a ruptured ear drum. Apparently 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.840 went and saw a specialist at a hospital who confirmed it. 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.040 Said you should get surgery, and Large is like, great, 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:27.920 but I'm not getting that here. I'm gonna go back 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.720 come to Germany if I'm gonna get surgery. Uh. And 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.400 then this is sort of one of the keys is 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:38.000 he was given uh an antibiotic name uh seff rock Sime, 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.480 and he was given the strongest possible dosage, which was 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.400 about I think it was five yes, and that's a 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:51.040 just a general I think a cephlexin based antibiotic um 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.040 that doesn't really usually have many side effects, and if 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.439 it does, have side effects. It's typically something like an 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:00.040 upset stomach. I saw that there's a condition where it 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.959 turns huge patches of your skin very dark all over 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.960 the place, almost like your highlights have been shaded. Um, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:13.120 it's really interesting to look at. But that's that's has 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:17.280 nothing to do with any other anything that that Lars exhibited, 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.520 any behavior he exhibited. Um, the it's just antibiotics. I mean, 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.160 if you've ever taken antibiotics, you know that there's not 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:29.959 really usually many side effects to it. Right, So uh, 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:36.160 Lars catches um, well again, different information. I saw that 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.920 his friends we're gonna stay with him, he insisted they leave. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.280 So his friends eventually do catch that original flight out 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.720 and large stays behind. Um, you know, because of his ear. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.240 He was a little concerned about obviously, with changes in 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:54.839 the atmosphere on pressurization on a plane. He didn't think 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:57.400 it was a good idea. And I'm not sure if 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:00.240 that original doctor told him that might have been a problem, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.000 but he knew it was going to be a problem. 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.600 So a little bit about that original doctor. I saw 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.360 that from the rehdator who said that he spoke to 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.000 the guys to his mother that his mother said that 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:15.360 that Lars said that the doctor didn't really treat him. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.520 The first one did and said you should go to 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.520 a specialist. But then when he went to the specialist, 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.600 a specialist said like, wouldn't speak to him in English, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.400 and and Lars felt he had mocked him, and that 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.080 apparently Sandra thought that that was really significant because that 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.960 was not a word that Lars typically used. But he 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.520 still managed to get the antibiotic from the doctor. The 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.320 thing about the perforated or ruptured ear drum is I 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.760 was looking on the internet, it turns out, and the 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.120 National Health Service says that if you have a perforated 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.760 ear drum, it would probably actually make flying more comfortable, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.240 not more dangerous. So I can understand Laws being worried 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.160 about that, not being a trained medical professional, but if 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.800 he's encountering at least three other medical professionals in Bulgaria, 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:04.600 you would think one of them would be like, actually, no, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.400 that's you're you're actually better offline like this, or or 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.200 would at the very least be like, you don't have 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.440 to worry about that at all. It's not that's not 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:15.240 a thing interesting. Yeah, so too, All right, well, let's 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.440 take a break and we will come back and talk 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.880 about what happened after his friends left Lars alone in Bulgaria. 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:55.240 Right after this, all right, so large as buddies go 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.240 back home to Germany, Lars has left there by himself, 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.080 which is at the key as far as understanding that 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.760 they weren't worried about him. He wasn't behaving weird. He 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.960 seemed fine. He seemed like Lars. Otherwise one of them 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.720 probably would have raised some sort of alarm bells and 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:14.880 been like, hey, maybe we should stay here, but they 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:16.680 said he seemed relaxed, he was in a good mood, 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:21.240 and so they took off. Um, being summer, Lars had 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:25.680 a hard time getting a hotel room because everything was 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.440 booked up and he was staying on extra. So he 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:33.080 ends up having to check into the Hotel Color Varna, 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.840 which was a really seedy place that this cab driver 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.560 takes him to. Apparently a lot of drug dealers, a 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.520 lot of sex workers, but that was kind of the 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:45.160 only place available. And um, we don't know a lot 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.760 about what happened that night other than these phone calls 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.360 and texts that he exchanges with his mom. So one 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.560 thing though about the Hotel Color I looked at it. 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.760 Trip Advisor gives it a four out of five, and 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.000 booking dot Com has it at seven point eight out 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:01.320 of ten. And it is definitely cheap. I think rooms 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.639 are like twenty five American dollars a night, which is 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:09.560 suspiciously cheap. And that yeah, there is like probably some 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.000 criminal activity there, but that it's not like it's not 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.359 like a trap house hotel or anything like that. But 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.840 it was the fact that it was his only option 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.600 I think kind of tells you quite a bit too 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.880 about it. Sure, so um he goes to this hotel, 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.560 he checks in. Apparently the person behind the counter made 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.359 a copy of photo copy of his credit card, and 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.720 according to his mother, that did not sit very well 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.200 with lars Um. And at eleven PM, after he's checked 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.680 into the hotel, he calls his mom. I think it's 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.000 the first phone first of many phone calls that evening, 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.960 and he tells her that he wants her to block 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.520 his credit card because he's kind of sketched out by 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.640 this hotelier who has made a photo copy of his card. 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:56.520 He's worried that they're going to use it for fraud 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:58.960 and he can just unfreeze it when he gets back. 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:02.399 That's the first phone call all he makes. Yeah, there 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.320 ends up being another call where he has left the hotel. 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.640 He said that he was hiding on a hill. Uh, 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.399 and I think he even said that he was at 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:14.720 risk of falling, So it must have been sort of 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:19.400 some sort of a really steep type of situation, I guess, um. 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.680 But he said that there were four men after him, 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:23.840 that we're trying to kill him, or that intended to 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:26.359 kill him at least, And he said, don't call me 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.640 back because my phone I don't want my phone to ring. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:32.480 I'm not sure I knew he didn't have a smartphone 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.880 with him. He left that at home and brought sort 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:36.320 of a cheaper phone, so I don't know if it 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.320 didn't have a way to turn the ringer off or not, 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:40.840 or if he was just not thinking clearly, but he 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.480 said not to call him back. He eventually texts his 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:50.160 mom what is Sarah? Fam five hundred, which was at antibiotic, which, um, 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.879 you might think means like he's feeling weird and like, 0:18:53.960 --> 0:18:57.639 what is this? I've taken that to me says that 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:02.960 that if he was behaving weirdly or experiencing some different behavior, 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.119 that he guessed that that's what it was. That's the 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.879 only explanation for that, because they found that he had 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:13.240 taken three of them. So, Um, he knew that he 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.600 had that in his system, which I guess if he 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.919 was acting weird, maybe that's what he thought it was. 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.120 That's what sticks out to me. Yeah, And I think 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:24.879 was that it was either that night or the following morning. 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.760 When he asks, I think it was the following morning. Um, 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.280 you know, she had booked a flight home for him. 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.120 He doesn't get back in touch with her, which really 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.720 worries her. But the next morning he does get back 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.880 in touch. There's two days after this bar fight. She's relieved. 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.520 He says, he's going to go to the airport and uh, 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:49.680 can he get five euros? Uh wired, you know, moneygrammed 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.640 or whatever? Western What did they have Western Union over there? Yeah? 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:56.359 Supposedly there's a real detail in there, and that it 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:00.480 was Western Union. Well what's the what makes Western Union important? 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.399 So his mother had never heard of Western Union and 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.520 laws hadn't either, But apparently he talked to another German 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:08.879 tourist at the airport who had told him to use it, 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:12.000 and he was able to describe to his mom how 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.840 to use Western Union in a way that she understood 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.639 how to use Western Union after he explained it, which 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.480 said to his mom that he had his wits about him. 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.000 He wasn't out of his mind, He wasn't um wasted 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.320 on drugs or anything like that. He was very much 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:32.640 with it mentally, alright. So he um and I saw 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.960 two different things here. Either his mom urged him to 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:37.440 go to the airport doctor just to make sure he's 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.359 good to fly, or there was some requirement that he 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:44.320 do so. But either way, he goes to the airport 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:51.200 medical center. And this is where things get a little confusing, because, uh, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:53.199 it's really all over the place whether or not he 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.359 goes in right away or whether he goes in later. 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.520 But he apparently calls his mom tells her, hey, they 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.719 said I shouldn't fly or drive. But he hadn't even 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.439 gone to see the doctor at that point. Uh. And 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.400 then once he does see the doctor, the doctor ends 0:21:08.440 --> 0:21:11.440 up giving a few different versions of what happened while 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.080 he was in there, which is, either, you know, some 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.680 people think that looks really shady. I think it could 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:19.560 have just been like at the time, this doctor, you know, 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.280 you're not making some really big mental notes about the 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.680 random patient that comes in, like this guy is going 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.160 to be an international mystery in an hour. Yeah. So 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:31.240 you know, it could have been innocent that heads his 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.080 story changed, or it could be sad. It could be 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.280 so for from uh, from what I saw that the 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.600 doctor UM changed the story three times and that airline 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.199 employee came in, uh. And then later it was an 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.840 airport employee came in, which I think kind of across 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.280 the internet became a construction worker because that the airport 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:55.840 had recently undergone or was undergoing renovations. And then I 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:58.320 guess the third story was that the doctor said that 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.320 no one had come in uh, and that Lars had 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:03.919 excused himself to go to the toilet and did not 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:06.119 come back. The doctor was expecting to come back. He 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.840 just never came back with the doctor didn't know uh 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.000 if that was in fact what happened was that Lars 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.440 wasn't coming back because he was sprinting through the airport 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:21.560 and running out of the airport and into the surrounding countryside. Yeah. 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.560 And in the version where someone does come in, UM, 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.040 what that means is is that literally a human being 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.879 another person walks into the examination room and apparently really 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:36.720 freaked out if if that version is correct, really freaked 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:40.119 out Lars, who was already obviously feeling a little bit 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.200 paranoid and was like, what is this person doing in here? 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:45.800 In the one version of the story, the doctor tries 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:49.480 to explain, Hey, it's just a construction guy, or no, 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:52.720