Covert DNA Test Confirmed Accused Stalker Is Not Madeleine McCann, Reports Detective
An accused stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was ruled out after a confidential DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, police have revealed in court.
Harassment Campaign Targeting McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.
The Polish national flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.
Official Statements
Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on the missing person’s case, stated 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 abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed 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 most likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.
“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been very traumatic and hard for the family.”
Forensic Analysis
He said authorities had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of a lack of resemblance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.
He declared: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”
Legal Testimony
The court heard that in April this year, the detective visited Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside 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 said: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he replied: “Yes.”
He said notwithstanding the evidence, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would never accept she is not Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”
Emotional Distress
During previous hearings, jurors learned how the McCanns were left terrified and upset by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.
The jury were told how the pair made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the family visited.
Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.