Orlando announces Pulse tours for survivors, families before demolition

Silas Morgan, Orlando Sentinel on Apr 11, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

ORLANDO, Fla. — Survivors of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre and the families of those killed must now decide if they want to tour the property before it is demolished, leaving them a “hard” and “painful” choice about whether to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the shootings with a look inside the shuttered building.

Orlando plans to offer the visits from June 12 to 14, when it holds annual remembrance events to honor the 49 people killed. This will be the only opportunity for families and survivors to see the interior of the Pulse site before the demolition, which will be done to make way for a permanent memorial to the tragedy, the city said.

Those who want to see inside will be given small-group tours expected to last about 30 minutes.

Mayra Alvear Benabe, whose daughter Amanda was killed, said she intends to take a tour.

“Some families, they may still not be ready to go inside, some they may be now,” she said. The decision will be “a hard one to make.”

Alvear Benabe has been inside the club before, but she said it would be difficult knowing the June visit will be the last before demolition.

“I would like to see it one more time before (it) is demolished,” she said. “…To me (it) is painful, knowing that it will be demolished. I would have rather kept the building because is part of our tragedy, part of history…you don’t erase history.”

Alvear Benabe was one of the members of the city’s advisory committee, which approved a design for the memorial. Despite stating at committee meetings that she would have liked to see all or some of the nightclub remain standing, she said she knows the final memorial, which she voted to support, will be beautiful.

Christine Leinonen, whose son Christopher was killed in the attack, said she also intends to visit, despite her vocal criticism of the city’s past efforts to build a memorial.

“I still want to be able to see where my son took his last breath,” she said.

For the tours, families of the 49 people killed will get priority.

The city will have mental health professionals available to accompany visitors inside the club, though they can also ask clergy or other people in their “support network” to join them, said Donna Wyche, who previously served as head of Orange County’s mental health and homelessness division and will take part in the tours.

She said city officials, in planning the tours, spoke to groups that had done similar work in other communities, such as Parkland. Tours were also organized of the building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that was the site of a shooting massacre in 2018.

The tours, she added, could be important for those who want to take part.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a matter of closure, because once you’ve been through something like that, there’s no such thing, right?” she said. “You live with that forever. But it is a part of a process of grief and loss, and it’s a part of healing.”

The city wants families and survivors to RSVP for a tour by May 8.