WEBVTT - Season 08 Episode 42: Reality Bites 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.800 we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.280 be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November, 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.600 joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.800 world of true crime and the paranormal four nights in 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.960 the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left, 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:24.400 Scared to Death and many more live shows, meet and greets, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.960 creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.960 but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:36.360 Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.400 fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:55.000 see you on board. It was a searingly hot July 0:00:55.080 --> 0:01:00.560 afternoon at Varna International Airport in Bulgaria, and the terminal packed. 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.560 It was peak tourist season and the first full week 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:08.920 of operations since the start of the school holidays. Inside 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:14.200 the on site medical clinic, however, things were quiet. Doctor Kostoff, 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:18.000 the physician on duty, had only seen two patients that day, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.480 a six year old boy with a twisted ankle and 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.920 a nervous woman looking for something to ease her fear 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:29.679 of flying. Doctor Kostoff sat at his desk watching the clock. 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:32.960 He wondered if he had enough time to nip out 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:35.880 and grab a cup of coffee before his next patient. 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.280 When there was a knock at the door. It was 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.840 the clinic receptionist asking if the doctor was free to 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.360 see another patient. It was a young man, she said, 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:49.480 who just walked in, looking a little worse for wear. 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.600 As the receptionist explained, he wanted to see a doctor 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:58.040 to confirm if he was well enough to fly. A 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.560 little confused by the request, doctor Kostov told the receptionist 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.520 to send him in. Moments later, the young man appeared 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.240 at the door. The doctor beckoned him in and told 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.280 him to take a seat. He looked to be in 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.600 his late twenties, tall and broad, and by all accounts 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.440 he appeared to have had a very long night and 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:25.799 maybe hadn't even been to bed. Doctor Kostov suspected he 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:29.720 knew exactly what the problem was. Farna was a popular 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.040 destination for stagdoos and large groups of young men looking 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.880 to let off steam. Clearly, this young man, with his 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.880 ghostly pale skin and deep dark circles under his eyes, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.200 had gone a little too hard. Once he was sat down, 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.160 the young man introduced himself as Lars. It was then 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.280 that doctor Kostov noticed something else about his appearance, an 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.760 ugly purple bruise modeling the left side of his jaw. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.160 Lars explained little sheepishly that he'd been in a bar 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.320 fight two nights ago, and that he'd ruptured his ear 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.320 drum in the process. He'd already seen one doctor about 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.080 it back in the city, who'd advised him not to 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.639 fly again until the ear drum had healed. But, as 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.840 Lars said then, this simply wasn't an option. He had 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.760 to get back to Germany immediately, and he wanted to 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.480 know just how detrimental it would be if he did 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:30.040 fly back today. Lars was clearly anxious about something and 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.840 begged Dr Kostoff to be as quick as he could. 0:03:34.200 --> 0:03:37.200 Costoff agreed to take a look and asked Lars to 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:41.480 be still as he placed an otoscope in his ear well. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:47.400 Doctor Lars demanded impatiently. Doctor Kostoff sat back, noting with 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.920 concern the way that Lars seemed unable to sit still. 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.560 He kept glancing around, his eyes darting back and forth 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.720 across the room as if scanning for threats. The doctor 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:04.200 asked Las if he was on any medication. Lars confirmed 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.480 that he'd been given some antibiotics by the first doctor, 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.280 although now he was beginning to suspect that drugs had 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.200 been laced by some kind of poison. Alarmed by this 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:20.600 possibly delusional response, doctor Kostov asked Lars to explain exactly 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.000 what he meant by that, but before Lars could say anything, 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.799 they were interrupted by a loud knock at the office door. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.640 As doctor Kostov got to his feet to answer it, 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.039 he noticed that Lars had now frozen completely still, his 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.080 face screwed up in terror, as though that door was 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:44.200 the only thing standing between him and the devil itself. 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:49.520 Then Lars suddenly sprang to his feet with wild eyes. 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.640 He screamed, I don't want to die here, Please, I 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:58.400 have to get out of here. You're listening to unexplained 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:10.320 and I'm Richard McLean Smith. At twenty eight years old, 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:15.320 Lars Mittank had never traveled outside of Germany before. Born 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.880 and raised in Berlin. In his early twenties, he settled 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.040 in the town of Itsu, who he seemed to have 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.600 everything a young man could want, a close knit family, 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.960 a loving girlfriend, and a steady job at the local 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.440 power plant. So despite being a sociable and outgoing young man, 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.920 Lars had never had much reason to venture far from home. 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.680 But in the summer of twenty fourteen, he decided to 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:44.640 change all that. One of Lars's old friends from high 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.719 school was organizing a week long group holiday to Golden Sands, 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.640 a beach resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:57.360 Lars wanted to go. The itinerary would involve flying out 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.560 of Hamburg and landing in Varna, the closest Bulgarian city 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.799 to the resort. It was a two and a half 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.840 hour flight, not long by most standards, but the longest 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.560 Lars had ever been on. As the holiday approached, Lars 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.840 couldn't help but feel a little anxious at the prospect 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.000 of leaving his home country for the first time. But 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.200 when he met up with his friends at the airport 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.719 and started talking about all the fun they'd have that week, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:30.800 his nerves faded quickly. This, he said to himself, was 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.840 going to be the trip of a lifetime. Once at 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:38.360 the resort, time flew by for Lars and his five 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.279 friends in a whirl of drink, sunshine and good vibes. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.960 There was always something to do, be it swimming in 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:50.200 the resorts pool, playing football, or simply some bathing on 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.640 the beach, just looking out at the gleaming surface of 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:58.240 the ocean. And then there was the night life. In 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:02.680 the evenings, Lars and his friendsans bar hopped along the beach. Then, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.440 as things livened up, they ventured inland in search of 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.560 the clubs. The trip was everything they'd hoped it would be, 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:14.400 and everyone was in good spirits throughout. That was at 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.960 least until the final night of the holiday, when everything changed. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.440 On the evening of July sixth, Lars and his friends 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.120 headed out for their final dinner. The group was a 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.960 little more subdued than usual, having been partying every night 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.760 since they'd arrived. Most of them wanted to take things 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.640 easy and get an early night ahead of their flight 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:42.000 back to Germany. In the morning, after feasting on the seafood, 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.960 they headed to a local bar for one last drink 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:49.240 before heading to bed. By eleven pm, most of the 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.640 group was ready to leave, but Lars wanted to stay out. 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.040 Emboldened by his new sense of adventure, he was determined 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:01.800 to make the most of his last night at Golden Sand. Eventually, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.800 Lars's friends headed back to the hotel, leaving him alone 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:08.920 at the bar. They didn't think it was such a 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:12.480 big deal, since Lars was an extrovert and more than 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:26.360 happy to strike up conversations with strangers. Now alone in 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.240 the bar, Lars soon got talking to another group of 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:35.240 German tourists. The conversation was friendly at first, but then 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.560 the subject turned to football. Lars was a devoted fan 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:43.600 of Ferder Bremen, while the tourists, supported by an muncheon 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.840 a rival team. The men started arguing about an upcoming 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.679 match between the two teams, and somewhere between the alcohol 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:58.920 and the testosterone, things escalated quickly. Despite being clearly outnumbered, 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.920 Lars was the kind of guy to back down from 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:06.480 a fight. Much to his detriment, the other men dragged 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.080 Lars into an alleyway behind the bar and beat him up. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.720 After one hit to the jaw, Lars staggered back before 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.479 another punch cracked him on the side of the head. Eventually, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.440 Lars dropped to the fore and the men ran off, 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:26.240 leaving him bleeding on the ground. As Lars staggered back 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.400 along the beach toward his hotel, he felt a searing 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.400 pain inside his ear and realized that he could no 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.360 longer hear properly on that side. Having made it to 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.760 the hotel room, he collapsed into bed, hoping that a 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.520 few hours of sleep would be enough to cure him, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.440 but he could barely get any rest at all. The 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:50.080 searing pain in his ear sharpened every time he moved 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.000 his head, and before long it began to ring and 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.480 wouldn't let up. It felt like if he let it, 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:03.080 the sound would eventually drive him. The rest of Lars's 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.240 group were up early on the morning of July seventh, 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.080 packing their bags before their afternoon flight back to Germany, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.400 but Lars was sluggish, barely responding when his friends tried 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:19.160 to wake him up. Finally, when he rolled over, with horror, 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.679 they saw the state of his face. It was an 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:27.480 alarming sight, his jaw covered in reddish purple bruises and 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.520 a thin line of dried blood coming from his ear. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:35.640 Still slurring a little, Lars told them what had happened. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.040 One friend insisted that he see a doctor before getting 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.920 on a plane, in case the flying might cause his 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.959 ear some long term damage. It was reasonable to assume 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.760 he might well be suffering from concussion too, and he 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.280 had to do it soon or he'd miss his flight. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.040 Lars was in luck since there was a medical center 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.239 just around the corner from their hotel well that provided 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:05.960 walk in appointments to resort guests. Lars was promptly examined 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.720 by the doctor, who confirmed that he had ruptured his 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:13.880 ear drum, but thankfully had no concussion. The doctor prescribed 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.200 him an antibiotic to prevent infection, then gave him the 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.520 bad news that he should avoid flying for at least 0:11:21.559 --> 0:11:26.360 forty eight hours. Lars was angry. He had a job 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.200 and a girlfriend to get home to. He couldn't just 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.199 hang around in Bulgaria on his own for another two days, 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.120 but the doctor was adamant that the changes in atmospheric 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.760 pressure during a flight could cause a reparable damage to 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:45.040 his ear drum. A despondent Lars went back to the 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.400 hotel and watched forlornly as his friends left for the airport. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.480 With little else for it, he went to the front 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.240 desk and asked if he could extend his stay. The 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.600 receptionist eyed him suspiciously, king the dark bruises on his 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:06.520 jaw sadly, she said the hotel was fully booked for 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.400 the next few days, but more to the point, Lars 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:20.440 was supposed to have checked out thirty minutes ago. A 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.240 dejected Lance went back to his hotel room and packed 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.480 up his things as quickly as he could. He was 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.400 still in a lot of pain, and moving slowly and 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.840 not being able to hear out of one ear was 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:37.920 starting to make him feel disorientated. Having checked out, he 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.400 rolled his suitcase out onto the pavement and stood in 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.600 the blazing sun, trying to figure out what to do. 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.640 Traveling abroad for the first time had seemed exciting when 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.160 he was with his friends, but now he was hung over, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:59.040 bruised and battered, and completely on his own. On the 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:04.040 evening of July seventh, back in Itzahoe, Germany, Sandra Mittank 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.280 was getting ready for bed when she heard her mobile 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.079 phone ringing. She was excited to see that the call 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.480 was from her son, Lars. Sandra picked it up and 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.920 cheerfully asked Lars how his flight home had been, but 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.200 all she heard on the other end of the line 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:28.680 was silence. Lars, She said, again, are you there? Sandra 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.800 could hear breathing on the other end of the line, 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.480 But just when she thought it was an accidental call, 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:40.360 Lars finally began to speak. He didn't sound like himself 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.200 for a start. He was whispering and his voice was 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:48.520 shaking so much that Sandra could barely understand him, and 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.600 when she finally did hear his words, she couldn't make 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:56.080 sense of them. Lars was saying something about still being 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.839 in Bulgaria and that he was scared. There were people 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.480 following him, he said, four men who wanted to hurt him. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.560 At first, she thought he was playing some kind of 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.880 practical joke. He had to be, after all, his flight 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.600 had been due back that day, but her son had 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.240 never been one for pranks, which could only mean that 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:24.560 the fear in his voice was completely genuine. Terrified, Sandra 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.240 asked if there was anything she could do. Lars asked 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.240 her to cancel his bank hearts because he was afraid 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:35.000 that somebody had access to them. He also told her 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.320 that he'd been attacked the previous evening and now his 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:42.320 attackers were chasing him through the city. But where are 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.880 you now, asked his mother, As Lars explained he'd left 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.200 the resort and moved to a hotel closer to the airport, 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:53.800 hoping to throw off his assailants, but now he was 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:59.800 convinced they'd found him alarmed and utterly helpless. Sandra begged 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:02.920 him to call the police if he really felt in danger, 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.680 but it was no good, said Lars. He couldn't trust 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:10.320 the authorities. Then he asked his mother if she knew 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:15.040 anything about seth priscil, the antibiotic he'd been given. He'd 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:18.400 taken it as prescribed, but now he wondered if the 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.800 doctor who'd prescribed it was secretly working with his attackers. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:28.080 The drug was making him feel weird, he said. Before 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:33.000 Sandra could get any more information, Lars abruptly ended the call. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.320 Sandra tried desperately to call her son back, growing increasingly 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.120 frantic as her cause went straight to voicemail. Back in Varna. 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.760 Throughout the call to his mother, Lars had been hunkered 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:56.120 down in a corner of his hotel room. He'd pulled 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:59.400 all the blind shut, worried that somebody in a nearby 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:03.200 building might be spying on him. But his mother's mention 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.800 of the police seemed to trigger something in him, a 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:11.840 realization that he wasn't safe anywhere. He abruptly left his 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.480 room and started pacing the hallways of the hotel. It 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.600 was a somewhat dingy and run down place, and the 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.920 more time he spent there, the more agitated he became. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.320 But at the same time he knew it wasn't safe 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.560 to leave. He looked through every window he passed, peering 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.240 out to see if anyone was watching him from a 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:37.080 nearby rooftop. He went down to the foyer and walked 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:41.320 back and forth, eyeing everybody who came and went. For 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.440 a while, Lars took refuge in the hotel's lift. The 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:51.080 enclosed space with its bright fluorescent bulb made him feel safe. Certainly, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.600 there was no way anybody could be lying in wait 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.040 to attack him there. But then the doors opened to 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.280 reveal a confused looking man hoping to get in. But 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.760 was it just another hotel guest, thought Lars, or an 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:10.200 assassin sent to kill him. Terrified, Lars fled as fast 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.359 as he could, sprinting through the hotel lobby and out 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.960 onto the street. By then it had gone one a 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:21.399 m and the streets were deserted. Lars had no idea 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.560 where he was going. All he knew was that he 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.640 had to keep moving. Back in Germany. Lars's mother, Sandra 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.119 hadn't slept a wink. All she could think about was 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.000 her son, all alone in a foreign country and seemingly 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.560 in danger. At a complete loss of what to do, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:43.919 she was just contemplating trying to get in touch with 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:49.119 the Bulgarian police herself when her phone rang again. The 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.400 relief at seeing Lars's name flash up on the screen 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.600 didn't last long. He sounded even worse than he had 0:17:56.600 --> 0:18:00.760 in their last conversation. Rather than whispering, now he was 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:05.680 talking so fast she could barely understand him. Sandra tried 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:08.880 to force him to slow down. She asked if he'd 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.560 been able to get any sleep, and Lars laughed out loud. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.639 Of course he hadn't, he said. Didn't she understand what 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.119 he'd been going through. He'd been up all night trying 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.840 to evade his pursuers, but now he said they were 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:30.080 closing in. In that moment, a chilling realization dawned over Sandra. 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:35.040 Lars wasn't in physical peril. There were no shadowy men 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.040 chasing him across the city. It was something much worse 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:55.680 than that. Lars had become untethered from reality. Sandra mittank 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.720 made her son promise her that he would go straight 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.000 to the airport at the first opportunity and get on 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.440 the first flight back to Hamburg. They'd figure the rest 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:10.520 out from there come home, she pleaded, and, much to 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:17.240 her relief, eventually Lars agreed. Back in Varna, Lars collected 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.040 his suitcase and checked out at the hotel. Then he 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:24.720 took the short taxi ride to the airport. He spent 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.040 the entire journey watching the driver's face in the rear 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:33.440 view mirror, monitoring him for any signs of possible danger. Thankfully, 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.560 Lars arrived at the airport without incident. Once there, however, 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:43.040 the large crowds and brightly lit terminal seemed to disorientate 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.240 him even further, and though the pain in his ear 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.920 had diminished, it seemed then to come roaring back. It 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.920 was then that he remembered the doctor had advised him 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.119 not to fly. He knew that he didn't trust that 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.639 doctor and that he was just trying to keep him 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.800 from a s but he still wanted a second opinion 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.760 to make sure, and that's how he ended up at 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:11.840 the airport clinic of doctor Kostov. Costov confirmed that Lars's 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.920 ear drum was indeed ruptured, but the flying wasn't likely 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:20.080 to make the damage any worse. At first, Lars was 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.280 relieved by the news, only for another panic to grip him. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.480 So it was all true, he thought the other doctor 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:30.440 really had been lying to him and trying to keep 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:36.280 him from leaving Bulgaria. Lars began glancing nervously around the room, 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.679 appearing to be looking for cameras or monitoring devices. He 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:45.719 then asked doctor Kostov about the antibiotic, now absolutely convinced 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.600 that the doctor who prescribed it had been trying to 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:53.600 poison him. By now, doctor Kostov was picking up the 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:57.840 clear signs of paranoia. He wasn't going to clear Lars 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.760 to fly anywhere until he'd had a full psychiatric evaluation. 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.760 But before he could figure out the next steps, they 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:11.000 were interrupted by that loud knock on the door. Lars 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:15.440 sprang to his feet like he'd just been electrocuted. Trembling, 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:18.560 he eyed the door, convinced that the men who were 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:23.679 pursuing him had finally tracked him down. He looked around frantically, 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.680 but there was no way out. I don't want to die, 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.600 he screamed. I have to get out of here, just 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:36.320 then the door swung open. On the other side of 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.359 it was a construction worker in a high viz vest 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:44.720 looking confused, and with that Lars bolted out of the room. 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.000 He pushed past the man in the high viz vest 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.720 and ran for his life back into the terminal building, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:57.320 leaving behind his passport, his wallet, his phone, and all 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:09.760 of his luggage. Thanks to the extensive CCTV surrounding Varna Airport, 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.359 the last known sighting of Lars Mitank was captured on video. 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:19.000 Footage shows him sprinting out of the airport building and 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:23.919 climbing over an eight foot barbed wire fence. After making 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.840 it onto the ground on the other side, Lars proceeded 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:31.000 to run across a field of sunflowers in the direction 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:35.720 of a nearby forest. At this point, he dropped off 0:22:35.760 --> 0:22:41.639 the edge of the surveillance camera's range and vanished. Doctor 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:46.119 Kostoff reported what had happened to airport security, who in 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:52.199 turn informed the Bulgarian police. For weeks, investigators combed to 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.040 the forests and fields surrounding the airport, confident they would 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:00.000 soon find Lars. Surely he couldn't get far without his work, 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:04.320 wallet or passport, they thought. But despite the extensive search, 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:11.480 no trace of Lars was ever found. In desperation, his mother, Sandra, 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:15.399 hired a private investigator to try and figure out what 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:19.560 exactly had happened to her son, but it came to nothing, 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:26.000 and although the footage of Lars's final moments circulated widely online, 0:23:26.680 --> 0:23:33.359 its infamy failed to produce any viable leads. The most 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:37.000 likely explanation for what happened is that during his last 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:40.960 twenty four hours in Varna, Lars experienced some kind of 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:46.399 psychotic episode. He became paranoid and delusional, convinced that he 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:51.200 was being followed and persecuted. What isn't clear is why. 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.200 It's possible that his descent into madness was caused by 0:23:56.240 --> 0:24:00.240 the head trauma sustained during the bar fight, or perhaps, 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:03.879 as others have suggested, it was an extreme response to 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:09.280 stress and sleep deprivation. A more unlikely possibility is that 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:13.080 he had a bad reaction to the antibiotic. In very 0:24:13.160 --> 0:24:17.320 rare cases, this kind of drug can cause psychosis as 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:22.440 a side effect. There are some, however, who've speculated that 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.960 Lars wasn't paranoid at all, that he really was being pursued, 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:32.320 and that he disappeared because his attackers caught up to him. 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:35.800 Local police claim to have found no evidence of this. 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.120 In a spooky echo of the unexplained death of Eliza 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:45.320 lamp who died mysteriously in a hotel in Los Angeles 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:49.439 in twenty thirteen, footage captured at his hotel and at 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:55.800 the airport shows Lars quite literally running from nothing. Lars 0:24:55.920 --> 0:24:59.760 Mittank has now been missing for more than eleven years. 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:04.080 His mother, Sandra, has never given up on finding him, 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:08.240 and still runs an active Facebook group dedicated to the case. 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:13.440 There have been plenty of supposed sightings over the years 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:17.000 in locations all across the globe, from as far away 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:22.160 from Bulgaria as Brazil. The only verified sighting of Lars's 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:27.119 last known whereabouts, however, was in that remote, desolate field 0:25:27.800 --> 0:25:32.359 where he ran for his life before seemingly vanishing into 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:43.720 thin air. When I reflect on Lars's story, I'm haunted 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:47.000 not only by the mystery of his disappearance, but perhaps 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:51.120 by something darker still, the idea that the mind can, 0:25:51.160 --> 0:25:54.960 at any given time fracture to a point from which 0:25:55.000 --> 0:25:58.720 there is no coming back, If indeed that is what 0:25:58.840 --> 0:26:02.840 happened to Lars. To imagine what he endured that sense 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:07.360 of being hunted by invisible forces, that terrifying conviction that 0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:10.639 the familiar world has been replaced by a cruel imitation. 0:26:11.400 --> 0:26:14.840 Is to glimpse the most fragile boundary of all, the 0:26:14.880 --> 0:26:18.480 border between reality as we hope it to be and 0:26:18.600 --> 0:26:21.919 the one that emerges if we allow all those latent 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:26.080 fears in our heads to take over and completely cloud 0:26:26.119 --> 0:26:30.199 our judgment. And maybe that's why his story feels so 0:26:30.359 --> 0:26:34.239 unsettling to day, because in our own way, we are 0:26:34.280 --> 0:26:38.240 all perhaps stumbling into a world where reality has never 0:26:38.320 --> 0:26:42.080 been less certain, Where every face we see on a 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:46.000 screen is a fake, a polished and filtered version of 0:26:46.080 --> 0:26:50.040 the real thing. Where voices we might have once felt 0:26:50.080 --> 0:26:56.320 were reliable, governments, institutions, and the media feels suspect to 0:26:56.400 --> 0:27:01.440 so many. Even our own family photograp are touched up 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:06.000 and manipulated to create the perfect picture postcard, so that 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:08.760 even in years to come, should we want to look 0:27:08.840 --> 0:27:13.320 back nostalgically to our own personal pasts, we will no 0:27:13.400 --> 0:27:16.879 longer find the truth of them, but simply a sweetened 0:27:16.960 --> 0:27:21.880 and sanitized version of it. Reality, it seems, is being 0:27:21.960 --> 0:27:26.520 closed off at both ends. We are the descendants of 0:27:26.560 --> 0:27:30.479 the false advert, the sales gimmick, and the spin doctor. 0:27:31.359 --> 0:27:34.320 By all accounts, we should be better experts at spotting 0:27:34.359 --> 0:27:38.280 the unreal by now. But that's the problem with reality. 0:27:39.000 --> 0:27:42.280 It has always been a slippery thing, whether by our 0:27:42.400 --> 0:27:45.679 design or not, and we each of us live in 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:49.720 our own version of it. So if reality is always 0:27:49.760 --> 0:27:53.679 a little distorted, the question then, really, if we have 0:27:53.800 --> 0:27:57.800 the luxury to choose is through just what filter would 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:01.840 we prefer to have it distorted? Through fear and hate 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:07.600 or love and empathy? What lens would we prefer others 0:28:07.640 --> 0:28:15.920 to apply when they look at us. That concludes our 0:28:15.960 --> 0:28:19.679 final episode of season eight. As we step away for 0:28:19.720 --> 0:28:22.680 a little while, I want to thank you the listener 0:28:23.160 --> 0:28:28.880