A Polish woman who claimed to be missing Madeleine McCann was arrested upon landing in the UK.
Julia Wandelt, who also goes by Julia Wendell and Julia Faustyna, was taken into custody upon suspicion of stalking and harassing Kate and Gerry McCann—the parents of Madeleine, who disappeared from her bed during a family holiday in Portugal in May, 2007.
23-year-old Julia’s arrest took place moments after her plane landed at Bristol Airport on Wednesday, February 19.
Julia Wandelt, who claimed to be missing Madeleine McCann, was arrested on Wednesday, February 19
Image credits: amijuliawandelt
The self-proclaimed missing child reportedly flew to the UK from Wroclaw, Poland, to meet a friend living in Cardiff.
Fellow travelers were stunned to watch law enforcement officials swoop in and surround Julia inside the airport.
Officers also detained her friend, who is believed to be in her 60s, according to the Daily Mail.
Image credits: Netflix
“I'm trying to find out what's happened but it appears Julia has been arrested at Bristol Airport this evening just after she got off the plane,” Julia’s representative Surjit Singh Clair told the outlet.
“The police have reportedly arrested her on an allegation of stalking and harassing the McCanns,” he added.
Julia spurred headlines earlier this week when she dropped a fresh set of DNA results to support her claims of being the McCann couple’s missing daughter.
The Polish woman was arrested upon landing in the UK upon suspicion of stalking and harassing Kate and Gerry McCann
Image credits: Rex Features/VidaPress
It was back in February 2023 when she first claimed to the world that she was Madeleine through an Instagram account, @iammadeleinemccann, which no longer exists.
She discussed her claims on Dr. Phil and underwent several DNA tests to prove them.
However, the test results at the time confirmed that she was Polish, with some Lithuanian and Romanian roots. This ruled out any possibility of her being born to British parents Kate and Gerry.
Both the McCanns as well as Julia’s Polish parents refused to provide their DNA for a comparison.
Julia claimed this week that she had fresh DNA results linking her with Gerry McCann
Image credits: _amijuliawandelt
Julia later expressed regret over declaring on Instagram that she was Madeleine McCann and went on to apologize to the McCanns for possibly adding to their misery.
However, that was not the end of it.
Julia once again revived the mystery this week by sharing what she said were new DNA test results.
In a series of Instagram posts shared from the @amijuliawandelt Instagram account, the young woman claimed her “actual DNA results” showed that she is “part British, part Irish.”
Kate and Gerry McCann refused to provide their DNA for a comparison with Julia
Image credits: Netflix
She further claimed that her DNA results were compared to the DNA found at the Madeleine McCann crime scene nearly two decades ago.
The analyzed DNA samples included hair obtained from the floor of the crime scene and saliva obtained from the bed quilt, according to Julia’s ambiguous revelations.
In what Julia touted as a new report of the latest DNA results, there was a 69.23% match, which she said suggested a biological connection between her and Gerry.
Image credits: Netflix
The “conclusion” was that the genetic evidence “strongly supports” that “McCann could be Julia Wandelt’s biological father, as the data aligns perfectly with a parent-child relationship,” according to one Instagram post.
However, Suzanna Ryan from Ryan Forensic, DNA Consulting & Advanced Serology Lab, was skeptical about Julia’s latest claims.
“I would not trust the results that Ms. Wandelt has posted online as there is no laboratory letterhead or accreditation information and clearly some information has been redacted,” she told Bored Panda earlier this week.
“There is no way to tell if these alleged results are accurate based on the limited portion of the report that has been released,” added the expert, who has over two decades of experience in the field of forensic serology and DNA analysis.
“I would not trust the results that Ms. Wandelt has posted online,” expert Suzanna Ryan told Bored Panda
Image credits: amijuliawandelt
One of the biggest questions surrounding Julia’s claims is how she allegedly obtained DNA from the crime scene in the first place.
“Even if she had somehow obtained DNA results or profiles from the crime scene it is unlikely that genealogical testing had been performed on these crime scene samples since it is a newer analysis technique not available at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance,” Suzanna noted.
After a closer look at the “results,” Suzanna believes the 69.23% DNA match likely refers to the amount of genetic material shared between the two crime scene samples and not between Julia and the McCanns.
“This is a high amount of DNA sharing and does indicate a close biological relationship like a parent-child or sibling relationship. However, once again these results appear to be comparing two crime scene samples,” the DNA analyst said.
Image credits: Netflix
Last year, Kate and Gerry released a statement on the 17th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance.
“The absence still aches,” they said.
The case of Madeleine’s disappearance remains one of the world’s most infamous missing person mysteries. It was also one of the most heavily reported missing cases in modern history.
Madeleine was days away from celebrating her 4th birthday when she vanished from her family's vacation apartment in Praia da Luz.
She was left with her 2-year-old twin siblings in the family’s unlocked rental apartment while her parents were having dinner about 100 yards away with some friends.
Madeleine McCann's disappearance was one of the most heavily reported missing cases in modern history
Image credits: Netflix
When Kate came to check on the kids at some point in the night, she found a window open and the toddler missing.
Authorities now believe she may be dead.
Christian Brueckner was identified as the prime suspect in the child’s disappearance. He currently remains in prison for a previous conviction of sexual assault in another case.
The German national was acquitted last year of sexual offense charges related to crimes he was accused of committing in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. These charges were not related to Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Imagine it was her and they’re getting her arrested for harassment,” one social media user commented
