Bloody Mary New Orleans Haunted Museum features the kitchen stove where a former resident once cooked the head and limbs of his dismembered girlfriend
A "haunted history" museum tour of the murder scene where a troubled soldier strangled and dismembered his girlfriend has been slammed as "exploitative."
Bloody Mary New Orleans Haunted Museum features the kitchen stove where a former resident once cooked the head and limbs of his dismembered girlfriend as well as a refrigerator where he kept other parts of her body.
This isn't a scene from an historic horror, but the remnants of a notorious murder-suicide that happened just 12 years ago.
In October 2006 28-year-old Zachery Bowen killed girlfriend Addie Hall before jumping to his own death several days later from the roof of a hotel.
In his back pocket police found a note that led them to the horrific murder scene in New Orleans, Florida.
It said: “This is not accidental. I had to take my own life to pay for the one I took.
"If you send a patrol to 826 N. Rampart you will find the dismembered corpse of my girlfriend Addie in the oven, on the stove, and in the fridge along with full documentation on the both of us and a full signed confession from myself.
"The keys in my right front pocket are for the gates. Call Leo Watermeier to let you in.
"Zack Bowen.”
Police rushed to the scene and were horrified by what they found.
Addie's remains had been placed in pots, pans, and the oven.
The air conditioner was on full blast and messages were spray painted on the walls by Zachery that included his wife’s phone number, “I love her,” and “I’m a failure.”
They also found diary entries that explained how he dismembered Addie's corpse to help get rid of it.
One note read:
“Halfway through the task, I stopped and thought about what I was doing. The decision to halt the first idea and move to Plan B (the crime scene you are now in) came after awhile. I scared myself not only by the action of calmly strangling the woman I’ve loved for one and a half years, but by my entire lack of remorse. I’ve known forever how horrible a person I am (ask anyone).”
Friends and family of the couple have been horrified to learn that the apartment has become part of a tourist attraction - with Addie's pals saying it is glorifying a sickening crime born from domestic violence.
“It’s pretty despicable and atrociously exploitative,” Capricho DeVellas, who was close to Hall and Bowen and described their deaths as “genuinely a troubling chapter in my life.”
Visitor Jonathan Bailey said he, his girlfriend and two friends were shocked by what they found during the tour, reports The Advocate .
He called the whole experience “terrible" after seeing bride-and-groom Chucky dolls there and being told by the guide that "orbs" from the couple’s spirits have been known to appear in photographs taken in the apartment.
The company's owner "Bloody" Mary Millan has defended the decision to hold tours in the home saying she thinks it 'educates' visitors about the couple, who faced the same troubles as many others navigating one of the darkest periods in New Orleans' 300-year history.
She also said she's organised a festival with proceeds being partially donated to the New Orleans Family Justice Center’s efforts to combat domestic violence as a tribute to Addie.
She added: “Katrina was an important chapter. And they’re an important part of that chapter.”
“It’d be stupid to pretend (the couple) weren’t here.
“(Detractors) are jealous they didn’t do this first.”
What led to the horrifying murder-suicide?
Zachery and Addie met at Matassa'a Market bar after Zachery broke up with his wife and mother of his two children - when he was sent to war.
The couple has a passionate and tumultuous relationship where they would regularly argue.
Addie also reportedly had bipolar and Zachery had severe post-traumatic stress from the horrors he saw as as a soldier.
Bowen struggled with abusing drugs and alcohol after serving in the U.S. military in Kosovo as well as Iraq and riding out Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.
The apparent final straw came after Addie signed over their flat in North Rampert Road solely to herself - meaning she could kick Zachery out whenever she wanted.
On October 5, 2016 Zachery strangled Addie to death before dismembering her body and then jumping to his death from the Omni Royal Orleans hotel in the French Quarter.
