An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was ruled out after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not the missing girl, investigators stated in court.
Harassment Campaign Against McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, 24, is alleged to have conducted a campaign of harassment against the parents of Madeleine, who went missing from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.
The Polish national flooded 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 visited their home insisting on a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.
Police Testimony
Providing testimony on Tuesday, the chief investigator on the missing person’s case, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.
DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had previously claimed to be the missing girl 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 sincerely hold major concerns about approaching the family to say I aim to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been quite emotionally damaging and hard for the family.”
Genetic Testing
He said the police had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of dissimilar appearance and that she was older by two years than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on stalking charges, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.
He said: “Analysis occurred. It absolutely confirmed that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Jury Hearings
Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt while detained and stated to her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
Evidence showed that during their conversation, Wandelt said: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he responded: “Yes.”
He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would not believe she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”
Psychological Toll
Earlier in the trial, jurors learned how the family were left terrified and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.
Jurors heard how both women made progressively odd plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.
Wandelt and Spragg both contest one count of stalking. The case remains active.
