Covert DNA Analysis Verified Suspected Stalker Could Not Be Madeleine McCann, States Officer

An accused stalker who claimed to be the abducted child was excluded after a secret DNA test proved conclusively she was not the long-lost child, police have revealed in court.

Targeted Behavior Towards McCann Family

Julia Wandelt, 24, faces charges for a stalking campaign against the relatives of Madeleine, who went missing from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.

The Polish citizen flooded Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with hundreds of calls, messages, voicemails and letters from 2022 until recently, and turned up at their home demanding a DNA test, jurors learned during proceedings.

Police Testimony

Giving evidence on Tuesday, the lead detective on Operation Grange, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “in the hope she may stop her actions 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 only if convinced that person was Madeleine because I aimed to prevent setting a precedent.

“If it was revealed in the media I had taken DNA off an individual probably not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had numerous individuals coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.

“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I intend to take DNA from an individual – that could have built up their expectations. It could have been very traumatic and challenging for the family.”

Genetic Testing

He said authorities had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine because of no physical similarity and that she was two years older than the missing girl. But, he said, after discovering Leicester police were going to take into custody Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken upon arrest”.

He stated: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt cannot be Madeleine McCann.”

Court Proceedings

Proceedings revealed that in April this year, the officer visited Wandelt in custody and informed her that her DNA had been tested alongside Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. Jurors were told he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”

The court heard that while they spoke, Wandelt asked: “Do you really want to find Madeleine?”, and Cranwell told the jury he answered: “Yes.”

He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have manipulated the sample”, remarking: “There was a possibility she would not believe she cannot be Madeleine even when provided with scientific proof.”

Psychological Toll

In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the family were left terrified and traumatized by their “unnerving” and “extremely troubling” interactions with Wandelt and her co-defendant Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the two women attempted to push for a DNA test.

Jurors heard how both women made progressively odd plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included rummaging in the McCanns’ bins and taking forks from restaurants that they had eaten in.

Both defendants both refute one count of stalking. The trial continues.