There has been a lot of talks recently about a Polish woman who says she is Madeleine McCann. Now, a private detective who helped search for Madeleine has done some research and says he has found a clear answer to whether the woman is Madeleine.
A 21-year-old woman named Julia Wendell gained a lot of attention on social media this week when she created an Instagram account where she claimed to be Madeleine.
Madeleine is a girl who went missing from a vacation home in Portugal in 2007, and her disappearance led to a worldwide search for her. The case remains unsolved, which is why Wendell’s claim has become popular online.
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Wendell shared photos and videos on her Instagram account to support her claim, including evidence such as physical similarities and her inability to remember much of her childhood. She also pointed out a freckle on her leg in the same place as Madeleine’s and a rare marking in her eye as proof of her identity.
Wendell said she started to think she might be Maddie a few months ago. She heard something from her grandmother that made her wonder. Maddie was born in May 2003, so she would be 19 now. The woman is not sure about her own age, and she wants to take a DNA test to prove that she is Kate and Gerry McCann’s missing daughter once and for all.
The parents have not said anything officially about this, but people are guessing that they might agree to the test because they want to explore all possibilities.
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As reported by the Daily Mirror, a private investigator named Francisco Marco, who worked on the case of missing person Maddie, has disputed the claims made by Wendell. Marco said in an interview with Spanish network RAC1 that he conducted a search based on physical characteristics, and found no similarity between Wendell and Madeleine.
Marco, who used to lead the Metodo 3 detective agency, was surprised that Wendell didn’t contact Madeleine’s family directly before making her claims public.
“I can think it’s a fraud, but I can’t say without evidence,” he said.
“This girl contacted the police and no one paid attention to her, and she later opened the Instagram account where she now has thousands of followers when she had very few before.”
Wendell shared a new update on her Instagram, which has quickly gained over 1.1 million followers. She mentioned that she had spoken with a member of Madeleine’s family and is scheduled to meet with her parents the next day. Additionally, a DNA test will be conducted soon. Wendell also stated that she does not remember much of her childhood.
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“I have lived a very hard life and suffered a lot of trauma, my abuser was a German paedophile who was a suspect in the Madeleine McCann investigation,” Wendell told Daily Star. “I had not heard of this case until I started asking my parents questions about my childhood as I have little to no memory of it. The memories are all very blurry and when I have had conversations with my parents, things don’t seem to add up and they always try to change the subject.”
According to reports, Wendell’s family has rejected her and called her “horrible” for giving false hope to the parents of Madeleine McCann.
The search for Madeleine gained renewed attention when a German prisoner named Christian Brueckner was named as a potential suspect in her disappearance in 2020, and this was later confirmed in 2022. Brueckner is a known burglar who has been convicted of sex crimes against young girls in the past. He is currently in prison for the rape of a 72-year-old woman and has also been charged with several sexual offenses that are alleged to have occurred between 2000 and 2007.
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