Secret DNA Analysis Verified Alleged Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, States Investigator

An alleged stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was ruled out after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.

Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, is accused of a stalking campaign against the parents of Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday destination in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.

The Polish citizen bombarded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with numerous phone calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and turned up at their home insisting on a DNA test, the court was earlier informed.

Official Statements

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Madeleine's disappearance, said he had acted outside normal guidelines to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cramwell said over a dozen persons had in the past insisted to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I wished to avoid setting a precedent.

“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from a person most likely not to be Madeleine, I was worried I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I genuinely have major concerns about approaching the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have given them false hope. It could have been highly distressing and challenging for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said the police had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine on account of dissimilar appearance and that she was not the same age than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “decided that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.

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

Jury Hearings

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, Cranwell visited Wandelt in custody and told her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the samples did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

Testimony indicated that during their conversation, Wandelt inquired: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said despite the test, he believed Wandelt “would suggest we have interfered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Family Impact

During previous hearings, jurors learned how the relatives were left frightened and distressed by their “disturbing” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to insist on a DNA test.

Jurors heard how the defendants made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Wandelt and Spragg both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.