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A suspected stalker who asserted to be the abducted child was excluded after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, faces charges for a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on the missing person’s case, stated he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had earlier asserted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA off an individual most 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 contacting the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said investigators had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than the missing girl. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He stated: “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 while detained 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.”

Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would never accept she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the family were left frightened and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The jury were told how the pair made “increasingly bizarre plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.