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

Stalking Allegations Targeting McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is accused of a campaign of harassment against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish citizen flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and appeared at their home insisting on a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Investigation Details

Testifying on Tuesday, the lead detective on Operation Grange, stated he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her behavior towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said thirteen individuals had earlier asserted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it became known 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 reaching out to 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 difficult 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 not the same age than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

He declared: “Analysis occurred. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is definitely not Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

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

Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have interfered with the sample”, remarking: “It was possible she would refuse to acknowledge she is not Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”

Family Impact

Earlier in the trial, testimony revealed how the McCanns were left frightened and upset by their “creepy” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to demand a DNA test.

The court learned how the pair made “increasingly bizarre plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that the McCanns dined at.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.