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A suspected stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was ruled out after a covert DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.

Targeted Behavior Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who went missing from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The woman from Poland overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, said he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said 13 people had previously claimed to be Madeleine McCann 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 probably not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and difficult for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Legal Testimony

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

Testimony indicated that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would not believe she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Family Impact

Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the McCanns were left scared and upset by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.

The jury were told how the pair made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

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