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An alleged stalker who insisted to be the missing girl was eliminated after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, authorities disclosed in court.

Stalking Allegations Against McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is accused of a stalking campaign against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Official Statements

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had earlier asserted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed 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 concerned I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess major concerns about reaching out to the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and challenging for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

The court heard that in April this year, the detective visited Wandelt in custody and informed her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Evidence showed that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, remarking: “There was a possibility she would not believe she is not Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, jurors learned how the relatives were left frightened and distressed by their “disturbing” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

The jury were told how both women made ever more strange plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the family visited.

The accused women both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.