The Madeleine McCann Lookalike's Story Is In Doubt & Here's What Police Have Found
Police have shared new info casting doubt on the woman claiming she may be Madeleine McCann, the British girl who went missing years ago.
Julia Wendell, who has also been identified as Julia Wandelt and Julia Faustyna in various news stories, began getting a lot of media attention last week after she posted photos comparing herself to McCann. The 21-year-old Polish woman also suggested in those posts that she may actually be the missing British tourist who disappeared in 2007 while she was on vacation in Portugal with her family.
Wendell said she shared several similarities to McCann, the biggest one being the same rare eye disorder in her right eye that the three-year-old girl had.
However, authorities recently told Polish news outlet Gazeta that there is no evidence backing Wendell's claims.
Paweł Noga, a spokesperson for the provincial police in Wrocław, says the facts that police have uncovered currently "contradict the version presented by this woman."
Noga also said the investigation is ongoing, but it can "already be ruled out that this version is true" he said, according to a Google translation of the polish article.
Last week, Wendell said on her Instagram account @iammadeleinemccan that Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, had agreed to a DNA test.
However, that has not been confirmed publicly by the family.
In a statement to FOX News, a spokesperson for the Official Find Madeleine Campaign said Gerry and Kate McCann would not be issuing any statements or giving interviews unless requested by The Metropolitan Police, due to the active police investigation.
A missing person charity on Facebook shared a message claiming to be from Wendell's family, in which they say they are "devastated by the current situation" and that "it's obvious that Julia isn't Maddie."
The statement signed by "Julia W's family" also claims that the 21-year-old woman has received help from numerous psychologists and psychiatrists but that she has moved out of the house and refuses treatment.
McCann went missing from an apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007.
The U.K. girl was sleeping in the apartment at the time while her parents were having dinner at a nearby restaurant.
The case remains unsolved.
Who is the main suspect in the Madeleine McCann case?
In April 2022, Portuguese prosecutors announced that Christian Brueckner from Germany was an official suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, according to BBC.
German police say Brueckner's phone was close to the Portuguese apartment where McCann went missing when it received a phone call in May 2007, The Independent reports. Brueckner said he was elsewhere at the time.
The German man has been linked to other missing children's cases in the past and in April 2022 was arrested in Germany for the rape and murder of a 72-year-old woman in the same resort where Madeleine went missing, as reported by The Independent.
Narcity previously reached out to Wendell's media contact Dr. Fia Johansson, who is also listed as a private detective and psychic. Johansson said Wendell was not available for an interview at the time.
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Betty Bruno and her daughter Abyanna.Calgary Police
Jarrell Harris.Halton Regional Police Service