Secret DNA Test Verified Accused Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, Reports Detective

An accused stalker who insisted to be Madeleine McCann was ruled out after a confidential DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Targeted Behavior Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish national bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home requesting a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Official Statements

Testifying on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals 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 off an individual most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been very traumatic and hard for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said authorities 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 intended to detain Wandelt on stalking charges, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Court Proceedings

The court heard that in April this year, Cranwell visited Wandelt in custody and stated to her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he responded: “Yes.”

He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, stating: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, jurors learned how the family were left scared and upset by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to insist on a DNA test.

The court learned how the pair made progressively odd plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

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