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An accused stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is alleged to have conducted a pattern of threatening behavior against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished 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 countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Official Statements

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, said 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 over a dozen persons had previously claimed to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from a person probably not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been highly distressing and difficult for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to a lack of resemblance and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Jurors learned that in April this year, the detective saw Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “There was a possibility she would not believe she isn't Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Family Impact

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left terrified and distressed by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

Jurors heard how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.

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