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Secret DNA Test Proved Accused Stalker Was Not Madeleine McCann, Reports Detective
A suspected stalker who claimed to be the missing girl was excluded after a covert DNA test definitively confirmed she was not Madeleine McCann, authorities disclosed in court.
Stalking Allegations Towards McCann Family
Julia Wandelt, twenty-four, is accused of a stalking campaign against the parents of Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007 as a three-year-old.
The Polish citizen flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their grown-up kids, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters between 2022 and earlier this year, and visited their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.
Official Statements
Providing testimony on Tuesday, the lead detective on Operation Grange, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “with the aim she may stop her actions towards the McCann family”.
The senior officer said over a dozen persons had previously claimed to be Madeleine McCann but that: “We would not take DNA unless we believed that person was Madeleine because I did not want setting a precedent.
“If it got out in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite 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 aim 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 investigators had already judged Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of dissimilar appearance and that she was not the same age than Madeleine. But, he said, after learning Leicester police intended to detain Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “made the decision that the DNA would be taken during detention”.
He said: “Analysis occurred. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
Court Proceedings
The court heard that in April this year, Cranwell met with Wandelt under arrest and told her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the profiles did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt during the visit: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
Evidence showed that throughout their discussion, Wandelt asked: “Do you truly desire to find Madeleine?”, and the officer told the jury he answered: “Yes.”
He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have interfered with the sample”, stating: “There was a possibility she would never accept she is not Madeleine notwithstanding scientific proof.”
Psychological Toll
In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left scared and traumatized by their “creepy” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and the other accused Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to push for a DNA test.
The court learned how the pair made ever more strange plans” to acquire Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and stealing utensils from restaurants that the family visited.
Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The case remains active.
Shane Waters
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