Confidential DNA Test Proved Suspected Stalker Was Not Madeleine McCann, Says Officer
An alleged stalker who insisted to be the abducted child was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not the long-lost child, investigators stated in court.
Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, aged 24, is alleged to have conducted a pattern of threatening behavior against the family of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.
The woman from Poland flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and visited their home requesting a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.
Police Testimony
Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on the missing person’s case, said he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.
The senior officer said over a dozen persons had earlier asserted to be the missing girl but that: “We would not take DNA without strong belief that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.
“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA off an individual most likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had many persons coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.
“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been highly distressing and hard for the family.”
Forensic Analysis
He said authorities had earlier determined Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.
He said: “A comparison took place. It conclusively proved that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Court Proceedings
Proceedings revealed that in April this year, Cranwell visited Wandelt while detained and told her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The jury heard he told Wandelt while speaking with her: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
Testimony indicated that throughout their discussion, Wandelt asked: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he responded: “Yes.”
He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would refuse to acknowledge she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”
Emotional Distress
Earlier in the trial, testimony revealed how the family were left terrified and upset by their “disturbing” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as both defendants attempted to push for a DNA test.
The court learned how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to obtain Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.
Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. Proceedings are ongoing.
