Confidential DNA Examination Proved Alleged Stalker Is Not Madeleine McCann, States Investigator

A suspected stalker who claimed to be Madeleine McCann was excluded after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is alleged to have conducted a pattern of threatening behavior against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home demanding a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Investigation Details

Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, stated he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had in the past insisted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been very traumatic and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said authorities had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was two years older than the child. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He said: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, remarking: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the McCanns were left frightened and distressed by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.

Jurors heard how both women made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Both defendants both deny one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.