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Would You Go On Macabre Madeleine McCann Tour In Portugal?

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 07:49 PST, Oct 4, 2016

Madeleine McCann vanished from Praia da Luz, Portugal, nearly a decade ago, but her case remains a topic of intense worldwide interest. The Huffington Post reports that the latest in this notorious case has both the missing child’s parents and members of the public, in a state of total outrage.

Reports say that a tour is being offered in Praia da Luz, which takes holidayers through the areas that became famously known for Maddie’s disappearance. Tourists are not only shown the tapas bar where Kate and Gerry McCann dined on the night of the disappearance, but they are given a walk-through of the apartment where Madeleine supposedly vanished. The tour also reportedly takes people on a trek of areas of interest in the search for Madeleine McCann.

The unsolved nature of this case, paired with the divisiveness that surrounds it, has attracted an obsessive following. U.K. media reports are blaming that obsession on the existence of this tour program in Portugal. Reports are saying that the “twisted tour” is managed by a man who has been obsessed with the case since 2007. Customers who are interested in these tours are also being called “warped,” by reports in U.K.’s mainstream media, but this isn’t the only case to attract novelty interest. In fact, interest in true crime tourism and memorabilia isn’t entirely uncommon.

For starters, the city of London has offered a “Jack the Ripper” tour for many, many years — taking tourists on a spooky, and historical, tour of the notorious serial killer’s hunting grounds. Even though the murders were committed by the mysterious phantom more than a hundred years ago, this was still a series of unsolved murders that shocked and terrorized an area.

In the United States, tours are offered of the area where famed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer once lived. The Jeffrey Dahmer Walking Tour takes fans of true crime on a journey through Milwaukee, where the cannibalistic killer preyed on homosexual men and teens. It should be noted, however, that media reports have claimed that this tour has attracted more protesters than customers.

Also in the United States, it’s not abnormal for the government to auction off items that once belonged to notorious criminals. The New York Daily News reported in 2011, that the U.S. Marshals successfully auctioned off items that belonged to the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.

Three-year-old Maddie vanished in 2007, while she was vacationing in Portugal with her family. On the night of her disappearance, Maddie’s parents left her alone with her two infant siblings, while they enjoyed food and drinks at a tapas bar. Sometime during the night, the toddler vanished, but her two siblings were left behind. Over the course of the past several years, the search for the little girl has come up with nothing but dead-ends, and people are at odds about their ideas on what may have happened to her. While many people believe that someone abducted her from her family’s holiday apartment, a large number of people believe that her parents had something to do with her disappearance.

Will Madeleine McCann ever be found? That question remains unanswered almost 10 years after she vanished, but the interest in her case continues to persist. This bizarre tour in Portugal is proof-positive of that. Would you be interested in a tour surrounding the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, or do you think the concept is in poor taste?

[Featured Image by Shutterstock]

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