A suspected stalker who asserted to be the missing girl was eliminated after a covert DNA test established beyond doubt she was not Madeleine McCann, investigators stated in court.
Julia Wandelt, 24, is alleged to have conducted a pattern of threatening behavior against the relatives of Madeleine, who vanished from a Portuguese resort in Portugal in 2007 at the age of three.
The Polish citizen overwhelmed Kate and Gerry McCann and their adult children, Sean and Amelie, with countless communications, messages, voicemails and letters over a period spanning 2022 to this year, and appeared at their home demanding a DNA test, Leicester crown court previously heard.
Providing testimony on Tuesday, the senior investigating officer on Operation Grange, explained he had deviated from protocol to test Wandelt “intending she may stop her conduct towards the McCann family”.
DCI Mark Cramwell said 13 people had earlier asserted 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 was revealed in the media I had taken DNA from someone quite likely not to be Madeleine, I was concerned I would have had a lot of people coming forward saying ‘I’m Madeleine’.
“I sincerely hold major concerns about contacting the family to say I plan to take DNA from an individual – that could have raised their hopes. It could have been very traumatic and challenging for the family.”
He said investigators had previously assessed Wandelt not to be Madeleine due to no physical similarity and that she was older by two years than the missing girl. But, he said, after learning Leicester police planned to arrest Wandelt on harassment allegations, he “determined that the DNA would be taken when she was apprehended”.
He said: “Testing was conducted. It definitively established that Julia Wandelt is not Madeleine McCann.”
The court heard that in April this year, the detective met with Wandelt while detained and informed her that her DNA had been compared to Madeleine’s and that the genetic markers did not match. The court learned he told Wandelt at that meeting: “You are not Madeleine McCann.”
Testimony indicated that throughout their discussion, Wandelt said: “Do you sincerely wish to find Madeleine?”, and the detective told the jury he responded: “Yes.”
He said even with the results, he believed Wandelt “might claim we have tampered with the sample”, adding: “There was a possibility she would never accept she isn't Madeleine despite being given scientific proof.”
In prior court sessions, jurors learned how the relatives were left frightened and upset by their “unnerving” and “deeply disturbing” interactions with Wandelt and her alleged accomplice Karen Spragg, 61, from Cardiff, as the pair attempted to demand a DNA test.
The court learned how both women made progressively odd plans” to collect Kate McCann’s DNA, which included going through the McCanns’ bins and removing cutlery from restaurants that the family visited.
Wandelt and Spragg both contest one count of stalking. The case remains active.
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