Confidential DNA Examination Proved Suspected Stalker Was Not Madeleine McCann, States Officer
An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was eliminated after a secret DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, authorities disclosed in court.
Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is alleged to have conducted a campaign of harassment against the parents of Madeleine, who went missing from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.
The woman from Poland bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and turned up at their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.
Investigation Details
Providing testimony on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.
The senior officer said 13 people had in the past insisted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced 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 many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.
“I sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been very traumatic and challenging for the family.”
Genetic Testing
He said investigators had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on stalking charges, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.
He stated: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Legal Testimony
Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer saw Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”
He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have tampered with the sample”, remarking: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”
Emotional Distress
In prior court sessions, testimony revealed how the family were left frightened and upset by their “disturbing” and “profoundly unsettling” 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 pair made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that the family visited.
Wandelt and Spragg both deny one count of stalking. The case remains active.
