Madeleine McCann's Family Testifies Against 'Disturbing' Stalker Claiming to Be Missing Girl By Chris Spargo

It has been 18 years since Madeleine McCann went missing from a hotel room in Portugal while her family was on vacation.

Her family has remained in the spotlight ever since that day, and this week they are testifying against a Polish woman accused of stalking the missing girl’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, and claiming to be their long lost daughter.

Julia Wandelt has claimed for years to be Madeleine, and during that time gradually escalated her efforts to engage with the McCann family.

In 2022, she managed to get the contact information for Madeleine’s mother, but after no response she continued her efforts. She finally succeeded in January 2024 when Madeleine’s younger sister, Amelie McCann, responded to a message Wandelt sent her on social media.

Amelie, who was in the room with Madeleine on the night she went missing, testified in court that she thought responding to Wandelt was her best — and in many ways only — option at the time.

“I didn’t think it was a criminal offense or know it would be considered stalking. I just thought I could deal with it myself and to ignore it,” Amelia said in court while appearing via video feed, according to the BBC. “I didn’t want to add any additional stress to my parents or my family, so I just left it with myself.”

In those messages, Wandelt attempted to convince Amelie that she was her sister, and even went so far as to share memories she had of the time she had spent with her sister before her disappearance.

“It’s disturbing she is coming up with these supposed memories when she is not Madeleine,” Amelie testified.

Amelie was just 2 years old when Madeleine, who was 3 years old at the time, disappeared.

Her twin brother Sean, who was the other person in the hotel room that night in Portugal, chose to have a statement read in court on his behalf. Unlike his sister, he did not engage with Wandelt and instead blocked her on social media after she first messaged him with her claims.

He called her actions “strange and upsetting” while at the same time admitting he also feels “guilty for feeling upset” because he believes Wandelt might suffer from a mental health condition, the BBC reports.

The testimony of the two siblings followed that of their mother Kate McCann.

Amelie said that their mother was affected the most by Wandelt’s actions, saying “it took a toll on her well-being.”

On the stand, but covered by a curtain so she would not have to see Wandelt, Kate testified that Wandelt first contacted her approximately three years ago and would leave voice messages in which she claimed to be Madeleine.

Some days she would call more than 50 times, according to Kate.

Much like her daughter, Kate attempted to deal with the messages and try to downplay the situation, until she came to learn that Wandelt had also been reaching out to Amelie.

Everything then came to a head on Dec. 7, 2024, when Wandelt flew from Poland to England and drove to Madeleine’s parents’ home where she demanded the missing girl’s father submit to a DNA test.

The next day, Wandelt returned to the home and left a letter on their door that she addressed to Kate and signed as Madeleine.

That letter was read in court, according to the BBC, and said in part: “I think you are scared, but whatever makes you scared, just remember that you are stronger than that.”

She then wrote: “Yesterday, I heard a lot of care and love in your voice. I hope you will find a way to contact me.”

Wandelt was arrested two months later alongside Karen Spragg, a 61-year-old Welsh woman who became a fervent supporter of the accused stalker after hearing her story and accompanied her to the McCann’s home on the day in question.

The two are both charged with a single count of stalking, which they deny.

Wandelt continues to claim that she is Madeleine on her social media account, where she posts DNA tests and facial analysis that appear to support her claims but are not vetted in any way.

She wanted the family’s DNA to support her claim that she is Madeleine after a DNA test showed that she was not the missing girl, who was born two years after her.

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Madeleine was on vacation in Portugal with her physician parents and younger twin siblings when she went missing from the resort where the family had been staying in Praia da Luz.

The McCann family had planned the vacation with other families and were eating dinner just 150 feet away from their hotel room when Madeleine went missing, despite the two checking on their three children throughout the night.

After an initial investigation, Portuguese authorities named the parents as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance.

Kate and Gerry were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing the following year, but none of the subsequent suspects in the case have ever been charged with the young girl’s disappearance.

It is also still not known if Madeleine was kidnapped and killed or if she is still alive.

Madeleine would now be 22 years old.