Woman who claims to be Madeleine McCann releases bombshell new DNA test results
17 February 2025, 15:15
A Polish woman who says she is Madeleine McCann has released her latest set of DNA test results - which she claims show she is biologically related to the toddler's father Gerry.
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Julia Wandelt, 23, became an internet sensation in February 2023 after posting under the account name '@IAmMadeleineMcCann' claiming to be the missing daughter of Kate and Gerry McCann.
Wandelt, who is also known as Julia Wendell, took several DNA tests trying to prove she is Madeleine and even appeared on US talk show Dr Phil to discuss the possibility
She later apologised and said she "regretted" the entire ordeal.
Now Ms Wandelt 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 alleges they also compared eyes, teeth and voice with the toddler, who went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, aged just three. .
Ms Wandelt 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, Ms Wandelt says "expert" analysts have looked at the DNA and concluded she is "part British and part Irish", rather than 100 per cent 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".
Ms Wandelt previously said how she was sexually abused as a young child, and said she first started believing she was Madeleine after seeing resemblances between sketches of suspects 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.
Ms Wandelt'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."
According to the Met Police, the Home Office continues to fund Operation Grange, which was launched on May 12, 2011, to bring the force's "particular expertise to the Madeleine McCann case".
The Met continue to work with law enforcement in Portugal and Germany on the case.
