Covert DNA Examination Confirmed Suspected Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, Reports Investigator

A suspected stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was eliminated after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.

Harassment Campaign Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a campaign of harassment against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 when she was three.

The Polish national overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, 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 demanding a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Police Testimony

Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on Madeleine's disappearance, explained he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had in the past insisted 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 from a person quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was anxious I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have 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 highly distressing and challenging for the family.”

Forensic Analysis

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was older by two years than the child. But, he said, after finding out Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on criminal accusations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken during detention”.

He declared: “A comparison took place. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Legal Testimony

Jurors learned that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt under arrest and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt said: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he replied: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “could allege we have tampered with the sample”, remarking: “There existed a chance she would never accept she isn't Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

During previous hearings, jurors learned how the relatives were left scared and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “profoundly unsettling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to demand a DNA test.

The jury were told how both women made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included searching the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

The accused women both deny one count of stalking. The case remains active.