According to the unidentified individual’s blog, three tours have already been carried out since March this year and a fourth is in the planning, with options for wet and dry weather.
Locations that can be visited on the tailored tours include Ocean Club apartment 5A, from where Madeleine McCann vanished on the night of her disappearance, the Tapas restaurant area, the spots of reported sightings of children being carried, Luz beachfront, the Bravura dam, and the scrubland where Operation Grange police digs took place in 2014.
Tour number four will, according to the blog, “start from a smallish, well kept Portuguese home in the centre of Burgau” with the possibility of visiting “one of the local hostelries.”
A report in The Mirror published this past weekend broke news of the tours and claimed the “gruesome” visits are organised by a “British grandfather in his 60s” with an “obsession with Madeleine McCann.”
According to the tabloid, the parents of missing Madeleine, Kate and Gerry McCann, are said to be “distressed” at the free tour.
News of the tours has been received with a barrage of criticism and a backlash against the “appalling” idea.
According to The Mirror, an expat who lives in the area told them: “This is in appalling taste. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.
“This is totally uncalled for. A little girl going missing should not be made into a game or a challenge.”
In comments to the tabloid, another of the Mirror’s sources described the anonymous guide as being “hung up” on the case; “The guide is obsessed with Maddie. He’s written thousands of words about the case and pored over maps, photographs and police transcripts”, they elaborated.
Speaking to The Portugal News, David Thomas, founder of crime prevention and awareness association, Safe Communities Portugal, commented: “Unfortunately for some people the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has become an uncontrollable addiction (...) Of all the twists and turns in this case, this is undoubtedly the most sickening and the ultimate in bad taste.
“Whoever the person is should reflect on how distasteful his actions are, and the lack of respect to the family, friends as well as the community in Praia da Luz. I am not surprised that he acts under a cloak of anonymity - at least at present!”
In response, writing on his blog, the organiser has dismissed The Mirror’s piece, deeming it “sloppy” and “pathetically cheap journalism.”
Regarding an “obsession with the case” and choice to remain anonymous, in the recent blog post the unnamed guide states “anyone can read my blog and make up their own mind as to whether I am putting myself before Madeleine or whether Madeleine is the priority. Those who know me well will also know that I publish on one of the more popular forums devoted to finding out what happened to her. Between my blog and that forum, a considerable amount of progress has been made. That progress would increase if these findings were read by the McCanns, serious UK media reporters, and Operation Grange.”
Madeleine McCann went missing from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Lagos, on 3 May, 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday.