Where Is Asha Degree?

A note on this post: this case contains a fair about of conflicting information from different sources. I have tried to use what seems to be the most accurate information. Links and further reading are at the bottom of the post. 

There was a heavy rainstorm in the early hours of the morning of 14 February, 2000, in Shelby, North Carolina. There was also a power-cut that night, apparently unrelated to the storm.

By the time Harold Degree had finished work late that night, the power was back on. Harold lived with his wife of twelve years, Iquilla, and their two children, nine year-old Asha and ten year-old O’Bryant.   

When Harold got home, Asha was still up, fully dressed and lying on the sofa.  

Asha went to bed in the room she shared with O’Bryant not long after her father got home. Harold checked in on the children twice before he went to bed at about 2.30am. 

Iquilla got up at around 5.45am the next morning. It was her and Harold’s wedding anniversary, but the kids had school and needed a bath as they had missed theirs the night before because of the power cut.  Their alarm was set for 6.30pm, but Iquilla went to wake them up before the alarm went off.

 Iquilla found Asha’s bed empty. Iquilla searched the house and the cars on the driveway.  She then phoned Asha’s grandmother, who lived across the street, but her sister-in-law, who picked up, said Asha wasn’t there. 

O’Bryant said that sometime in the night, he had heard his sister’s bed squeak, but thought it was just her moving around in her sleep.

Police arrived with scent dogs at the Degree house an hour later, at 6.40am. The dogs were not able to track Asha at all. Further information of scent dog ability can be found in previous posts about Elisa Lam (Every Contact Leaves A Trace) which will dispute the theory that the dogs weren’t able to track her because of inclement weather. 

Asha had left her home before dawn, taking a bag that contained changes of her favourite clothes, (a pair of blue jeans with a red stripe, black trainers, a red vest with black trim, black overalls with Tweety Pie on them, a long sleeved white t-shirt with purple lettering and a long sleeved black and white shirt.) her Tweety-Pie purse, her clean basketball kit, photos of her family and some sweets.

Asha kept her house key in her backpack, and she had locked the front door behind her.

She was last seen at around 3.30 – 4.15am, walking south along North Carolina Highway 18, just over a mile from her home, by several passing motorists. It was raining heavily, but Asha, who was dressed all in white, wasn’t wearing a coat. A truck driver went past her three times, but on the third time he circled round and drove past her, she ran off the road and into the woods. He said that he had turned around because he thought it was "strange such a small child would be out by herself at that hour,”

On 17 February, some sweet wrappers were found in a shed belonging to Turner’s Upholstery, located along the stretch of highway where Asha had last been seen running into the woods. With the wrappers were a pencil, a green marker pen and a Mickey Mouse shaped hair clip. The items were identified as belonging to Asha. It’s not known if these had been there since the morning of 14, or were planted there later.

The initial search for Asha covered a 2 -3 mile radius of where she had last been seen, taking 9,000 man hours of following the 300 something leads that ranged from possible sightings to tips about what places to search. After a week, the search was called off. There were no clues as to what had happened to Asha, or where she had gone.

In August 2001, construction workers on a site at Highway 18 in Burke County, 26 miles north of Shelby - the opposite direction from when Asha had last been seen - dug up her bag, which had her name and telephone number written inside it.

The bag had been wrapped in plastic rubbish sacks. The FBI took the bag for testing, but the results have never been made public. In October that year, similar rubbish sacks were found and taken for testing.

In May 2016, the FBI announced that they had a possible new lead in the case and revealed that Asha may have been seen getting into either a dark green, early 70s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird with rusted wheel arches the night she disappeared from Highway 18. This was actually a tip that been given back in 2000, and was revealed when new investigators took over the case. To date, it is the only other piece in the puzzle of what might have happened to Asha.

Background

Asha (pronounced Ay-sha) Jaquilla Degree was born on 5 August, 1990.

The Degrees were what some people might consider over protective of their children. There was no computer in the house, and Asha and O’Bryant’s lives centred around church, school, and family. As both Harold and Iquilla worked, the children let themselves in after school and were expected to have their homework finished by the time their mum and dad got home.

Asha was the starred point guard on her school’s basketball team. For those not familiar with basketball, this is a specialised position. The point guard players are expected to run the team's offense by controlling the ball and making sure that it gets to the right players at the right time. Above all, the point guard must totally understand and accept their coach's game plan. While the guard must understand and accept the coach's game plan, he must also be able to adapt to what the defence is allowing, and he also must control the pace of the game. (from Wikipedia)

The team played its first game of the season on 12 February, but it didn’t go well for Asha. She fouled out (Basketball foul) and they lost the game. Her parents recalled her being very upset about this, and crying with her teammates.  She seemed to recover quickly though, and watched her brother’s game.

Asha’s class were reading  ‘The Whipping Boy’ by Sid Fleischman. The story is about two boys, a prince and his servant, that run away.

Asha is African-American, and at the time of her disappearance was 9 years old,  4’6 in height, and weighed 60lbs (about 4 stone) she has brown eyes and black hair. She was last seen wearing a long sleeved white t-shirt, white jeans and white trainers. She was afraid of storms and dogs.

Timeline

Friday 11 February

School is closed for lessons because of the three day President’s Day holiday weekend.  Harold and Iquilla have to work, so the children spend the day at an aunt’s house and at basketball practice at the school. 

Saturday 12 February

Asha and her brother play in the first basketball matches of the seasons. Asha is upset when her team loses and she fouls out, but she seems to recover and watches her brother’s game.

Sunday 13 February

The children spend the day with family, going to church. Harold works a split shift, his second shift starts in the afternoon.

8pm – 9pm some reports say this is the time Asha and O’Bryant went to bed, missing their bath because of the power cut.

11.30pm: Harold comes back from work. Some reports say Asha was still up when he got home, possibly because she was cold after the power went out. It’s unclear as to whether Asha DID go to bed at 8pm and then got up again to wait for her dad to get home, or if she didn’t go to bed at all until Harold got home.

Monday 14 February

12.30: Harold leaves the house again to buy Valentine’s Day chocolates.

2.30pm: Harold checks on his children before going to bed. Both of them are sleeping.

3.30 – 4.15am: Asha is seen by several drivers walking south along Highway 18, approximately a mile from her home. The weather is very bad; it’s cold and raining heavily but Asha is not wearing a coat, hat, scarf or gloves. One concerned driver turns to go past her three times, but it seems Asha gets spooked before he can approach her and she runs into the wooded area that lines the highway.

17 February

Sweet wrappers, a pencil, a marker and a Mickey Mouse hairclip identified as belonging to Asha are found in a shed along the highway at about the same location where Asha was seen running into the woods by the driver.

August 2001

Asha’s backpack is found by construction workers on a site 26 miles north of where she had last been seen. The bag is wrapped in rubbish sacks and has her name and telephone number written inside it.

October 2001

Rubbish bags similar to the ones that were used to wrap Asha’s bag are found and sent for analysis.

2004

Acting on a tip off from a man in prison, investigators conduct an excavation search at the corner of Shelby and Rube Spangler Roads near Lawndale, South Carolina. They found bones, which turned out to belong to an animal. They also find a pair of men’s khaki trousers.

2016

New investigators looking into Asha’s case find a tip given back in 2000, a sighting of Asha getting into a 1970’s Lincoln Mark IV or a Ford Thunderbird. There were two other people in the car.

Lincoln Mark IV

Ford Thunderbird

Questions and Notes

Why was Asha dressed all in white? So she could be seen easily in the dark?

None of the drivers called the police after they saw Asha. The driver that turned round 3 times only called them after he saw news reports that she was missing.

She was seen by the drivers walking SOUTH, her bag was found NORTH, 26 miles in the opposite direction.

When and why was her bag buried in that particular location?

Theories:

Grooming for various purposes and problems with this theory

Some people have tried to discredit this theory, saying that Asha’s family didn’t have a computer, so she could not have been vulnerable to grooming. This doesn’t mean that she wasn’t groomed. Was it someone she knew through school? Through basketball? Did someone convince her to run away, or say they were going to take her somewhere special, like Disney Land/World? Was this place somewhere warm, which was the reason why she didn’t take a coat with her? Did they use her parent’s anniversary as a ruse? Or ‘romantic’ Valentine’s Day?

Why did she leave house at 3am but was seen over an hour later? Was someone supposed to pick her up? Had she walked to meet someone, realised something was wrong and run away from them, which was when the drivers saw her? If this was the case, perhaps she was scared anyone driving past might be the person she was running away from.  This would explain why she ran into the woods. But what happened to her after that?

Were the items planted in the shed? How come her bag was found so neatly wrapped, as if preserved? Did someone want it to be found? Was it buried on the site knowing someone would soon find it? Why have test results not been made public? Because there are clues as to what happened to Asha that the police can’t make public in case it jepodises the investigation?

Runaway and problems with this theory

Had Asha been inspired by The Whipping Boy and decided to run away to have adventures?  If so, why would she choose a night of terrible weather to go when she was afraid of storms? Why would she leave without a coat?  Children aged ten and under are not considered ‘runaways’ by law enforcement, and children  only truly run away when things are very bad at home, where abuse, violence and neglect are present.  It didn’t seem like any of these things were happening in the Degree home. Asha’s parents may have been protective and strict, but she seemed happy and enjoyed sports and hanging out with her family.

Sleepwalking 

There’s no real evidence for this theory. Asha did not have a history of sleepwalking, and it seems like her bag was pre-packed (before she went to sleep that night) so she was prepared to leave the house.

Hit and Run

If Asha had been struck by a car walking along the highway, there would be evidence of this; marks on the road, someone who had taken a dented car to be repaired. There were other drivers along that road on the morning of 14^th who would have witnessed a hit and run.

Asha is alive but can’t get home

It’s possible Asha was taken and has been held captive somewhere, like Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Lee Dugard and Natascha Kampusch. There’s no evidence to suggest this happened, other than a girl matching her description was seen getting into the 1970s green car.

Hypothermia 

After Asha ran into the woods, did she try and hide, but succumb to hypothermia? If this is the case, wouldn’t the scent dogs have been able to track her? Wouldn’t she have been found? 

2017

Harold and Iquilla hold a walk every year along the North Carolina Highway 18, travelling Asha’s last known route. A billboard stands at the spot where she was last seen running into the woods.  Her parents still live in the same house, and have the same telephone number in case their daughter ever comes home.

Asha's walk

Anyone with information on Asha’s case can contact the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office on 704 4844822.

Further reading and information:

The Charley Project

Dark Matters (Cayleigh Elise Youtube video)

Brainscratch Searchlight (LordanARTS youtube video)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Asha_Degree

Shelby Star

https://findingashadegree.wordpress.com/  (this is a very indepth website, but Asha's parents have said that not all the information on it is accurate)

Reddit Unresolved  One of many Reddit threads discussing what may have happened to Asha.

Who Killed Dorothy Jane Scott?

The man had called thirty-two year old Dorothy Jane Scott’s workplace before and she had told her mother, Vera, that she thought she recognised his voice. The caller would tell her that he loved her and that he would kill her, that he would get her alone and cut her up into pieces and that no-one would ever find her. He told her that he knew what she was doing day-to-day, and he was right, accurately recounting her activities and whereabouts.  On this day he called to tell Dorothy she should go outside, because there was something there for her. Dorothy went outside and found a dead, red rose on the windshield of her car.

Dorothy started taking karate lessons.

She was a single mother, living in Anaheim, California, with her four-year old son and her aunt. She worked two jobs as a secretary for jointly owned stores that sold things like lava lamps, hippie jewellery and weed paraphernalia. Her parents looked after her son while she was at work. Dorothy was a devout Christian, and her friends and colleagues said she preferred quiet nights in to going out, and that she did not drink alcohol or take drugs. She didn’t have a steady boyfriend that any of them knew about, though her father Jacob said she dated occasionally. She was a person that stuck to her well-worn routine; going to work, going home and looking after her son. She was even described by some who knew her as dull and boring as the phone book.

On May 28^th, 1980, Dorothy had a late meeting at work. During the meeting, she noticed that her colleague Conrad Bostron didn’t look well, and had a red mark on his arm. Dorothy and another colleague, Pam Head, took Conrad to the A & E department (ER) at UC Irvine Medical Centre. On the way to the hospital, they stopped at Dorothy’s house so she could check in on her son and tell her parents she was taking Conrad to the hospital.

Dorothy and Pam stayed with Conrad while he waited to be seen, and then Dorothy and Pam waited while he was being examined. Pam said that she was with Dorothy for this whole period, and that they read magazines and chatted to other people in the waiting room to pass the time. At 11pm, Conrad was discharged. He had been treated for black widow spider bite, and was given a prescription.  

Dorothy went to use the toilet before they left, and said she would bring the car round to the front as she didn’t feel that Conrad was well enough to walk the distance to the car park.

While Dorothy went to get the car, Pam went with Conrad to collect the prescription and complete his medical insurance forms. They then returned to the entrance to wait for Dorothy. They were just starting to wonder where she was when Pam saw Dorothy’s 1973 white Toyota station wagon (an estate type car to British readers) driving towards the hospital at speed. It’s unclear if Pam was already outside the hospital by this point, or if she went outside when she saw the car, but it had its full beams on and she couldn’t see who was driving. Pam waved, trying to attract Dorothy’s attention, but the car went past her, and drove out of the hospital grounds, exiting right.

Pam and Conrad assumed that Dorothy had driven off because there was an emergency with her son, and waited at the hospital for another two hours. When Dorothy didn’t come back, they alerted hospital security and Dorothy was reported as missing to the police.

Dorothy’s burning car was found in an alleyway in the early hours of 29^th May, about 10 miles away from the hospital.

On 12 June, 1980, a man called the Orange County Register newspaper. The editor told the police that the man had said he’d killed Dorothy because she was his love and she’d been unfaithful. The caller knew about Conrad’s spider bite, and that Dorothy had swapped a black scarf for a red one after the team meeting. The caller said that Dorothy had phoned him from the hospital on the night of 28^th May. Pam said this wasn’t true. She had been with Dorothy the whole time, and she had never left her to make a phone call. There’s no mention of Dorothy potentially making the call before she went to get the car, but it seems unlikely she would have called anyone that night apart from perhaps her parents to let them know she was leaving the hospital.

✴✴✴✴

‘Are you related to Dorothy Scott?’ the caller asked. 

‘Yes,’ Vera replied.

‘I’ve got her,’ the man said.

These calls to Dorothy’s parent’s house would continue until the spring of 1984, every Wednesday for four years. They would usually come when Vera was in the house alone. The caller would say different things; that he had Dorothy and she was alive; that he had killed her, asking if she was there. He was obviously disguising his voice, and despite police installing call monitoring equipment, the calls were too short to be traced. One day Jacob answered the phone. The calls stopped for a while after that.

On 14 August, 1984, a pelvis, two arms, two thighs and skull were found on the Santa Ana Canyon Road (approximately 7 miles from UC Irvine) by a construction worker. With the bones were a watch, a turquoise ring, and canine bones.

An autopsy (post mortem) confirmed that the remains were those of Dorothy, but it wasn’t possible to determine a cause of death.  Her mother Vera later said that the watch had stopped at 12.30am, about an hour after Pam and Conrad had last seen Dorothy’s car.

When the local paper ran the story that Dorothy’s remains had been found, the man called Vera and Jacob again.

He asked them, ‘Is Dorothy home?’

Questions and Notes:

1)      Dorothy’s remains were found about 7 miles from the hospital, and her car ten miles away, meaning the killer had dumped her body and then the car. Where did he go after that, and how did he get there? Did he live close to where he ditched the car? If this is the case, how did he get to the hospital in the first place? Had he taken a taxi, or a bus? Was this ever explored by the police? Where was she killed?

Map showing the approximate distance between UC Irvine and the road where Dorothy's remains were found

2) We have to assume the car was burnt to destroy any contact evidence left by the killer, but the first use of DNA in a criminal case in the States didn’t happen until 1987, 7 years after Dorothy was murdered and 3 years after her remains were found. Despite this, it seems like the killer knew he could be traced to Dorothy’s car, and burnt it to destroy evidence. Was she killed in the car? If so, how? Was the interior of the car covered in her blood? His fingerprints would have been left on the car, were his fingerprints on file?

3)      Where did the dog bones come from? Dorothy didn’t have a dog.  Was the dog used in some way to entice or coerce Dorothy?

4)      Not all of her remains were recovered. Had her killer taken trophies, or did wild animals carry some of the remains away?  

5)      Did the change in Dorothy’s routine give the killer the chance he needed to get her alone? He told the newspaper he’d killed her because she was with another man – was he talking about Conrad? Did the stalker see Dorothy with Conrad and assume that he was her boyfriend? Did this push him over the line of threatening violence to actually carrying it out?

6)      Was Dorothy this killer’s only victim?

Conclusion:

US department of justice homicide trends more here

I don't think a stranger murdered Dorothy. Women are more likely than men to be murdered by someone they know; a husband, an ex, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour. I believe that Dorothy knew her killer. She recognised the voice of the man that called her at work. I think it was someone she had met briefly before, had perhaps dated and then rejected or didn’t want to see again. He became obsessed with her, and stalked her.

Perhaps it was someone that had come into one of the shops while she had been there.  it is possible it was someone she knew from church?

I think he either followed her from the team meeting to the hospital and took the chance of her being on her own (the car park was some distance from the hospital building) to abduct her, or had been waiting outside her house when he saw her stop by with Pam and Conrad.

 As no one around the hospital heard her scream, I am guessing that he was either already in her car when she got there, or he subdued her in some way. Either that or the car park was too far away and isolated for anyone to have heard her. There’s no mention of a blunt force injury to her skull, so perhaps he punched her, rendering her unconscious, and then put her in the car. Pam and Conrad couldn’t tell who was driving the car, because the full beams were on. I am going to assume that it was either Dorothy’s killer behind the wheel, or that she was driving with perhaps a gun to her head.

What happened to Dorothy after that is something I’d rather not know. She must have been terrified. I can’t imagine how she would have felt if she was conscious when they drove past her friends, and she was unable to ask them for help.

 Her son would be in his early 40s now, and grew up without his mother, who sounded like a caring, gentle person. 

Jacob died in 1994 and Vera in 2002.

 Thirty-seven years after her death, it is unlikely that Dorothy’s killer will ever be brought to justice. 

What Happened to Brandon Lawson?

Brandon Lawson has been missing since the early hours of 8 August 2013.

The 26 year-old father of three left his home in San Angelo, Texas at approximately midnight after having an argument with his long-term girlfriend, Ladessa. Brandon had planned to drive to his father’s house to cool off from the row.

On highway 277, near Bronte, Texas, Brandon’s car ran out of petrol. He phoned his brother Kyle for help. After calling Ladessa, Kyle and his girlfriend Audrey set off to find Brandon, stopping to collect an empty petrol from Brandon’s front porch. Kyle had no money in his bank account to pay for the petrol, so he intended to pick Brandon up and drive him to the petrol station then drive him back to his truck.

 When Kyle and Audrey arrived at Brandon’s truck at approximately 1.10am it was empty, with the front bumper slightly pointing out onto the carriageway. There was no damage to the truck, and Brandon, his keys and mobile phone were missing. A Deputy Sheriff’s truck arrived at the same time as Kyle and Audrey.

It seems that Kyle and Brandon spoke a further two times that night; once when Brandon told his brother that he was ten minutes up the road and bleeding, and a second time where he said he was ‘in a field’.

Audrey also texted Brandon at 1.18 to tell him, ‘a cop is at your truck.’ Earlier that week, Brandon had learned of a two-year-old outstanding warrant for possession of controlled substances and this is possibly why Audrey had texted him to the presence of the officer at his truck.

At around one am, Brandon called 911. Kyle, and the deputy who arrived at his empty truck, were unaware of this call.  The call is garbled, and difficult to understand; Brandon sounds out of breath and his words run into each other.

You can listen to it here:

Below I have transcribed what I think I hear, the text in brackets is only what I think is said.

Dispatcher: 911 emergency.

Brandon: Yes, I’m in the middle of a field [a stooper /staper]  ****‘stooper’ is a blend of ‘State Trooper’ and is commonly used in parts of Texas*** just pulled some guys over going towards Abilene on [both/ Bronte] sides [unintelligible] my truck ran out of gas. [There’s one car here. got chased into the woods.] Please hurry.  **Stooper**

D: Ok, now, run that [by me]

B: [I don’t want to talk to them, I ran into them]

D: Ah, ok, you ran into him, ok

B: Yes, [the first guy]

D: Do you need an ambulance?                                     

[voice in background says. ‘yeah’]

B: No, I need the cops

D: DOk, is anybody hurt?

B……… (sounds of traffic / wind)

D: Hello?

B………

D: Hello?

B……..

D: Hello?

At the time of Brandon’s disappearance, 911 calls were routed not to a call centre manned by trained call handlers, but to a local nursing home. The dispatcher does not ask Brandon his name, or where he is. This has since changed, and dispatchers are given training.

The Local Newspaper, The Sheriff and His Wife

The local newspaper, The Observer Enterprise, is owned by the sheriff (who was away the night Brandon went missing) and his wife.

From the ‘Missing Brandon Lawson’ blog:

From all media reports written by The Observer Enterprise, owned by the Sheriff and his wife, that the 911 call was only reported as " a stranded motorist who ran out of gas." No mention of the urgency nor any mention of "I ran into them"( as understood by the dispatcher)  The Deputy put emergency flashers on , locked the truck and proceeded to "leave the scene" and arranged for a tow in the morning.  According to reports the Deputy drove up and down the roadway to see if he could spot Brandon walking.  Kyle and his girlfriend left the empty gas can in the bed of the truck thinking if Brandon came back he would have the can and could retrieve gas. They began to go look for him. When morning came, and still no sign of Brandon, Kyle's money was available in his account and he went back to the truck and filled the can and returned it to the truck. At this point he was now starting to become concerned and felt that Brandon may not have been hiding and may be in trouble. In talking with Investigators he now gave them the full account of Brandon being on the phone at the time the Deputy was at the truck.

Brandon’s family would later tell the Brainscratch YouTube channel that their requests for the police to involve the press in Brandon’s case were blocked and that Ladessa was told, ‘we’re not going to have a three-ring circus in this town,’

The family claim that the only news source given any police information was the one owned by the Sheriff and his wife.

Privately Owned Land Not Searched

This Buzzfeed map shows just how large Texas is:

 The area Brandon vanished in was vast, and very remote. It’s dry, scrubby land, with little or no trees, just miles and miles of highway and desert punctuated by buildings and bridges. When I first heard the 911 call, I imagined Brandon running off the road and into a densely wooded area. If he had been trying to hide, he would have failed miserably; there wasn’t anywhere for him to conceal himself out there. 

Large areas of the land are apparently privately owned, and requests by Brandon’s family to search the land have been refused. Allegedly, land owners have said they will allow searches if the sheriff issues a warrant. The sheriff has yet to issue any search warrants.

Theories

1)      Brandon encountered illegal activity – possibly perpetrated by State Troopers, with the local sheriff’s knowledge. Bronte is 736 miles (a 12 hour car drive) from the Mexican border, but Texas is a common people trafficking route. Did Brandon see ‘coyotes’ trafficking people into the USA?  Or had he stumbled across a drug deal?

2)     Did the sheriff know about these activities, and did he cover them up because he was taking a cut?

3)     Was Brandon shot trespassing on private land? It seems unlikely – though Brandon was a large, physically fit man, he was also unarmed, and by his own account, bleeding.  It would be usual for a landowner defending their property to issue a warning for Brandon to leave before shooting to defend their property. The ‘stand your ground’(Castle Doctrine) law does not apply if someone is trespassing on land. The owner of the land may use reasonable – but not deadly – force t remove somebody from their land.

4)     Brandon was attacked by wild boars – again unlikely. Boars will generally not deliberately attack humans, though it may be that they were used to help ‘dispose’ of human remains. 

What do you think happened to Brandon?

Photos and links

Brandon's truck (Missing Brandon Lawson)

Highway 277 Near Bronte (Google Maps)

Texas / Mexico border map

Missing poster (Missing Brandon Lawson)

Brainscratch -Episode one

Brainscratch - Episode Two

Missing Brandon Lawson Website

Understanding Castle Doctrine

 Thanks: J McCabe

I'll Be Right Back....

Apologies to readers who have come looking for further Dust Spank (FSOG) posts or more strange true tales and have found nothing new for the last couple of months. Please be assured they are on their way soon.....stay tuned.

Where is.....Lars Mittank?

Lars Mittank has been missing since 8 July 2014, when he vanished from Bulgaria’s Varna airport.

The 28 year old German and his friends had travelled to Bulgaria on 30 June.  They checked into the Viva Hotel, in the seaside town of Golden Sands.  The town is 17km along the coast from the large port city of Varna and is popular with young European tourists who come to enjoy the nightlife, beaches and cheap booze.

Lars apparently got into two fights during the holiday; one during a day at the beach and one outside a McDonalds after a night out. One of these fights was with rival Bayern Munich fans (Lars supported Werder Bremen) and during one of the altercations, he damaged an eardrum.

Lars saw a doctor, was prescribed the antibiotic Cefuroxime 500, and was advised not to fly home on the scheduled date. His friends flew home as planned, and Lars checked into Kolor, a cheap hostel in the centre of Varna.

That night he phoned his mother, telling her he believed that he was being followed by four men who wanted to know ‘what the tablets were’. He asked her to cancel his credit cards, and said he was afraid because there was something strange about the hostel. He later texted her, asking ‘What is Cefuroxime 500?’

His mother booked him plane tickets home for the following day, 8 July.

The next morning, Lars made his way by taxi to the airport. He walked into the terminal with his holdall and back pack, and after a brief exchange with a woman (who looks like she might be airport staff) made his way to the doctor’s office.

CCTV captured Lars sprinting out of the doctor’s office approximately 46 minutes later; this sudden dash was apparently prompted by the appearance of  a mysterious ‘maintenance man’. It’s unclear if the maintenance man had accessed the consultation room or just the reception area, but either way, his presence was enough to spook Lars into running away.

 The CCTV shows Lars running back out into the terminal, before it picks him up running around outside, where he slows to a jog, pauses,  then runs towards the perimeter fence. Here, he scales the fence and disappears into the woodland. You can view the CCTV here: 

In Easter 2015, a truck driver told police that some months ago, he had given a man matching Lars’ description a lift. Where he taken him to is unknown, and  it has never been verified that this was Lars. 

Questions:

1)      Where is Lars’ passport and mobile phone?

2)     Was his room at the hostel searched?

3)     Were the bags he left in the doctor’s office searched?

4)     Who did he get into a fight/fights with?

5)     Who were the 4 men he told his mother about?

6)     Did Lars suffer a head injury during either the beach or McDonalds altercations?

7)     Who was the maintenance man, and why was he in the doctor’s office the same time as Lars?

8)     Why was Lars in with the doctor for so long? Was the doctor persuading him not to fly?

Some Theories

• The most popular theory is that Lars ran into either some members of an organised crime gang, or someone in the organ trafficking business, or possibly both. Once a doctor had established that Lars was alone in the country, and was staying in a dodgy part of town, he was able to have someone follow him (the 4 men that Lars told his mother about in his last phone call) How likely is it that Lars was targeted for the organ black market? I thought it sounded improbable that a German tourist, someone who would be missed, would be a viable target. But then during my research for this post, there was really very little media coverage of the case outside of Germany. Lars’ disappearance seems to be mainly the focus of Reddit threads, with there being little information elsewhere. A report published earlier this year found that there was a perception that Bulgaria had the highest level of corruption out of all the EU countries.      When Lars got to the airport, either the doctor there, or the maintenance man, (both also possibly in on the business) spooked him. This doesn’t explain why he slows to a jog once he’s outside the airport, but does explain why he might have been fearful enough to escape into the woods. From there, he was either caught by the people chasing him, or got lost and succumbed to the elements or to whatever was in the woods - wolves still live in rural Bulgaria
• Lars was a drugs mule. He had swallowed the drugs and was worried the bags would rupture
• Another theory is that during his stay in the hostel, Lars was witness to something he shouldn’t have been. Again, this would explain his odd phone calls to his mother – where he told her he was very freaked out, but couldn’t say by what, other than he was being followed by 4 men
• The next theory is that during one of the fights, Lars suffered a head injury and was experiencing a form of psychosis (where have we heard that one before?) resulting in paranoid delusions. This may account for the belief that he was being followed, and then, when he got to the doctor’s office, that he was going to be harmed
• A last theory is that he had an adverse reaction to the antibiotics, but a bit of reading suggests that temporary psychosis is not a side effect of Cefuroxime 500.  You can read about the side effects here, and judge for yourself:

cefuroxime 500

 So, what do you think happened to Lars?