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A suspected stalker who asserted to be the abducted child was excluded after a secret DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, police have revealed in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is alleged to have conducted a campaign of harassment against the relatives of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the chief investigator on the missing person’s case, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced 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 probably not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about contacting the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and challenging for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said authorities had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, testimony revealed how the relatives were left frightened and distressed by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The court learned how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the family visited.

Wandelt and Spragg both contest one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.