A zombie-themed Halloween event held at the site where a serial killer left the bodies of two women was blown up by a friend of one of the victims.

Epidemic Nottingham Scarefest is being held at the city’s abandoned James Alexander Warehouse and promises ‘a truly chilling interactive adventure featuring live actors’.

Next door is another disused warehouse where killer Mark Martin, known as the Sneinton Strangler after the area of ​​Nottingham where he operated, left 18-year-old Katie Baxter and 26-year-old Zoe Pennick as victims in 2005.

Martin, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, killed 25-year-old Ellen Firth and left her body in a burning empty flat.

All three women were members of Nottingham’s homeless community and were strangled to death.

Katie’s friend Marcus McKenzie condemned the decision to hold Scarefest in the area and said news of the event ‘brings back painful memories’.

The body of 18-year-old Katie Baxter was found in a disused warehouse in 2005, buried and partially decomposed.

Serial killer Mark Martin convicted of murdering three women and sentenced to life in prison

The body of 26-year-old Zoe Pennick was later found in the same warehouse in Nottingham.

The 41-year-old added: ‘If they had demolished the warehouses and completely redeveloped the area I wouldn’t mind whatever they did.

‘It feels like the dead are being desecrated while these buildings are still there.

‘I actually thought the buildings had collapsed, but I was driving through that area recently and saw a lot of lights on in the warehouses.

‘I was wondering what they were for and it was a shock to see them do something like this 20 years later.’

The Great Northern Depository, where the women’s bodies were found beneath adjacent piles of rubble, was built in 1857 but remained unused for many years until it was partially destroyed by a fire in 1998.

She attracted the sleepers, including Martin, now 45, who murdered Katie after luring her to his tent with the promise of 2,000 cigarettes.

He was arrested after calling the police to say ‘I think you want me for murder’.

Martin, who was described at his trial as a ‘violent, quick-tempered and aggressive bully’, went on to boast that he carried out the murders because he wanted to be ‘Nottingham’s first serial killer’.

One witness also said Martin told him: ‘If I killed one, I could kill 21.’

Jailing Martin for life without the possibility of parole, the judge said he had “positively enjoyed” the “senseless, brutal and callous murders”.

Scarefest, run by organizer Outbreak, claims that ‘thrill seekers will be transported to the scene of a chemical outbreak in a secret scientific testing facility’.

A poster for the Outbreak event at James Alexander Warehouse

The waste site next to the derelict Great Northern Warehouse buildings off London Road was taken in 2006.

The event’s website adds: ‘There, they will race against the clock to make their way through the ‘horror maze’ where live actors transform into frightening inhabitants and await visitors around every corner.’

The warehouses now belong to The Island Quarter project, which already creates restaurants and a large events hall and will also include a large student accommodation campus.

The developers previously developed the James Alexander repository and World War II. He had confirmed that they had ‘ambitious designs’ to restore the Grade I-listed Great Northern Warehouse to ‘create a range of cultural and creative venues for Nottingham’.

A spokesman for The Island Quarter said: ‘We are aware of the history of The Island Quarter and events occurring on the surrounding grounds, right down to the warehouses.

‘As we invest in the future of the site, we are keen to transform all areas, including the warehouses, giving them a new identity as a cultural hub and a positive creative space for the community.

‘We want to focus on regenerating the space to support both local talent and our local economy, and part of that plan is to partner with external providers to host events, the first of which is Scarefest.’