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A suspected stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was ruled out after a covert DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, aged 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, 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, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Investigation Details

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, explained he had gone against procedure to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be the abducted child but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA off an individual quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been highly distressing and hard for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was not the same age than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He said: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt under arrest and told her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The court learned 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 Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There was a possibility she would refuse to acknowledge she cannot be Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”

Family Impact

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the relatives were left terrified and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to demand a DNA test.

Jurors heard how the defendants made progressively odd plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

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