Polish Julia Wandelt, 24, is in prison after harassing her British family for more than two and a half years, writing and calling them on several occasions claiming to be their daughter
A woman who, for years, claimed to be the British girl who disappeared in 2007, “cannot be the biological daughter” of the McCann couple, a scientist declared this Monday (20) in a British court, based on a DNA test. Julia Wandelt, a 24-year-old Polish woman, has been on trial for two weeks for harassing the McCann family for more than two and a half years, writing and calling them on several occasions claiming to be their daughter Maddie.
After her arrest in February 2025, police performed a DNA test on Wandelt and compared it with samples from Maddie, collected from her pillow by investigators just days after her disappearance. “There is no compatibility” between her DNA and that of the girl, declared scientific expert Rosalyn Hammond at the court in Leicester, England. “Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann,” he added.
“Julia Wandelt’s DNA profile shows that she is not the biological daughter of Kate and Gerry McCann, nor of either of them separately,” said the expert. Wandelt had presented some results that, according to her, established a 70% match between her DNA and Maddie’s.
Three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in May 2007 from a holiday complex in the Algarve when her parents were having dinner at a nearby restaurant. His disappearance, which was never clarified, had a worldwide impact and the investigation recorded multiple twists and turns.
Since the beginning of Wandelt’s trial, the McCann couple, as well as Maddie’s brother and sister, 20-year-old twins, have reported the “anguish” and stress caused by the allegations and the accused’s “intrusion” into their private lives.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
