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

Harassment Campaign Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is alleged to have conducted a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who disappeared from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their older offspring, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the chief investigator on Operation Grange, stated he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

The senior officer said 13 people had earlier asserted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it became known in the media I had taken DNA from a person probably not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I truly possess 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 highly distressing and hard for the family.”

DNA Comparison

He said authorities had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of a lack of resemblance and that she was not the same age than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

The court heard that in April this year, Cranwell saw Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been matched against Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that throughout their discussion, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, stating: “There existed a chance she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Emotional Distress

During previous hearings, testimony revealed how the family were left scared and traumatized by their “creepy” 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 obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.