Lars Matang, a 20-year-old man from Germany, disappeared on July 7, 2014, after a vacation in Bulgaria with his friends. During their trip, Lars got into an altercation at a bar over a soccer game, which led to a bizarre series of events. After being examined by a doctor for a perforated eardrum, Lars became increasingly paranoid and erratic, eventually fleeing the airport and disappearing into the woods.
Theories about his disappearance include a possible side effect from an antibiotic he was prescribed, a traumatic brain injury from the altercation, a psychotic break, or the possibility that he wanted to start a new life and ran off into the woods.
Despite an investigation and a private investigator hired by his family, Lars' whereabouts remain unknown, leaving his family with no closure.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Lars Matang, a man in his 20s from Northern Germany, went on a vacation with four friends to Bulgaria in 2014.
2. On July 6, 2014, Lars got into an altercation with locals at a bar over a soccer game.
3. The altercation did not result in physical violence, and Lars' friends pulled him out of the bar.
4. Later that night, Lars and his friends went to a McDonald's, where Lars stayed outside while his friends went in to get food.
5. When his friends came out, Lars was gone, and they could not find him anywhere.
6. Lars returned to his friends and told them a bizarre story about being attacked by a group of men who were sent after him by the people he had been fighting with in the bar.
7. Lars' friends were skeptical of his story, but they decided to drop it and focus on leaving Bulgaria the next day.
8. Before leaving, Lars went to see a doctor about his ear, which had been hurt during the altercation.
9. The doctor diagnosed Lars with a perforated eardrum and prescribed him an antibiotic, but Lars refused to take it.
10. On July 7, 2014, Lars' friends flew back to Germany, but Lars stayed behind, citing his ear injury.
11. Lars' mother received two strange phone calls from Lars, one at midnight and one at 3:00 a.m., in which he told her that he was being attacked and that she should turn off his bank cards.
12. Lars then went to the airport, where he was seen on CCTV cameras, and saw a doctor about his ear.
13. After the doctor's appointment, Lars suddenly became agitated and ran out of the airport, scaling a barbed-wire fence and disappearing into the woods.
14. Lars' family has been searching for him ever since, but there have been no confirmed sightings or evidence of his whereabouts.
15. An unvalidated sighting of Lars was reported by a truck driver a year after his disappearance, but this has not been confirmed.
16. Various theories have been proposed to explain Lars' disappearance, including a traumatic brain injury, a psychotic break, and the possibility that he wanted to start a new life.