Woman Who Claims To Be Madeleine McCann, Who Disappeared At Age Of 3, Arrested For Stalking McCann Family

Baila Eve ZismanFebruary 22, 2025, 11:20 pmNews >

Julia Wandelt, a Polish woman who claimed to be the missing Madeleine McCann, was arrested on Feb. 19, for suspicion of stalking and harassing the real McCann’s parents.

In May 2007, McCann, then three, disappeared while on a family vacation in Portugal after being snatched by an intruder who broke into the family’s holiday villa.

Police gave an official statement, “Last night two women were arrested at Bristol Airport as part of an ongoing investigation. A 23-year-old woman from Poland and a 60-year-old woman from Wales were arrested on suspicion of stalking involving serious alarm/distress. They both remain in custody and inquiries are continuing.”

A representative for Wandelt denounced the accusations of stalking, deeming them “nonsense” and saying “I can confirm the arrest took place…on an allegation of stalking the McCanns, which isn’t true.”

McCann’s disappearance has been under investigation for years. In an Instagram post in February 2023, Wandelt asserted she was the previously missing McCann, but her family denied her claims, stating “It’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie.” A few months later in April, a DNA test proved that Wandelt was not Madeleine.

Early last year, Wandelt appeared on the podcast Why Do You Hate Me? to discuss why she suspected she was the missing McCann. Wandelt said that her suspicions began when she was 20 and her family was unable to connect gaps she had in her memory. Confused, She researched missing person cases on the internet and found McCann’s case. Fueled by the physical similarities between the two, and the fact that both McCann and Wandelt share the same rare eye abnormality (which gives the iris a keyhole-esque shape) and history of abuse, Wandelt concluded she must have been the missing child.

Despite the negative DNA test in 2023, Wandelt recently declared on social media that she had taken another DNA test that connected her to the McCanns. She informed that McCann’s family had refused to participate in the study, but she had her DNA sample examined by an expert who supposedly concluded that Wandelt had the same eyes, voice and teeth as McCann. Wandelt said her expert source believes there to be strong genetic evidence supporting the theory that McCann’s father is her own.

On Dec. 31, 2024, McCann’s parents posted an update to her website Find Madeleine: “2024 like the year before it, seems to have passed by so quickly and whilst we still don’t have any major news to report in the search for Madeleine, work continues behind the scenes. We have to believe that one day we will know.”