Woman who claims to be Madeleine McCann releases latest DNA test results

A Polish ‘fantasist’ who claims to be missing toddler Madeleine McCann has released her latest DNA test results – which she claims show she is biologically related to Gerry McCann.

Julia Wandelt, also known as Julia Wendell, was thrust into the spotlight in 2023 after creating social media profiles with the handle @IamMadeleineMcCann.

The 23-year-old even appeared on US talk show Dr Phil to discuss the possibility – though last year she apologised to Kate and Gerry and said she ‘regretted’ the entire ordeal after receiving death threats.

She has undergone several DNA tests trying to prove she is the missing toddler, who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007.

Those results confirmed Julia is from Poland, ruling out the chance of her being Kate and Gerry’s daughter. The McCanns have refused to provide their DNA to compare against hers.

But now Julia says she’s taken a new DNA test, claiming a ‘world expert’ has compared her DNA to the crime scene following Madeleine’s disappearance.

She claims her source, who she hasn’t named, believes the genetic evidence ‘strongly supports that Gerry McCann could be Julia Wandelt’s biological father’.

And the source reportedly said her DNA is a ‘perfect match’ to samples taken from the scene of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The source claimed to have analysed ‘hair obtained from the floor of the crime scene in Portugal’ and ‘saliva obtained from the bed quilt at the scene’, resulting in a 69.23% match which ‘suggests a biological connection between the two individuals’.

Posting part of the results on social media, she says ‘expert’ analysts have looked at the DNA and concluded she is ‘part British and part Irish’, rather than 100% Polish as previous tests found.

Other parts of the results were analysed by the ‘highly respected and recognised world expert’ Dr Monte Miller, who has a PhD in Biochemistry from Loma Linda University in California.

Dr Miller said: ‘The simple answer is that the suspect is not the source of the DNA on the evidence, because their DNA is not fully established everywhere.

‘However, they do match fairly well, more than I would expect at random, and a specific pattern emerges that look like an almost certain family connection’.

Julia previously told the BBC she had been sexually abused as a young child, and first started believing she was Madeleine McCann after seeing resemblances between suspects in the case and her abuser.

She says she has gaps in her memory from her childhood, leading her to become suspicious about her upbringing including whether she had been adopted.

However Julia’s parents have dismissed these claims, providing her with childhood photographs and her birth certificate.

Speaking to MailOnline, Julia’s media representative Surjit Singh Clair said she wants her both her Polish parents and the McCanns to take a DNA test – something they’ve both declined.

He said: ‘Despite indicators she is related to Gerry McCann, neither he nor Kate will take a DNA test.

‘Police have denied organising a DNA test after hearing Julia was Polish on the BBC, but even if she was just “a random Polish person” how can they possibly explain her DNA being linked to the crime scene.

‘They have spent £20million on this investigation and now won’t spend £60 on a DNA test, even though she offered to pay for it.’

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