According to reports, Polish police deny a young woman’s assertions that she might be Madeleine McCann.
When Julia Wendell, also known as Julia Faustyna or Julia Wendlet, posted videos on social media this week claiming to be the missing three-year-old who went missing in 2007 while on vacation with her British family in Portugal, she garnered a lot of media attention.
The main focus of Wendell’s “evidence” of physical similarity was on McCann’s uncommon eye ailment, which Wendell asserted to have. A coloboma anomaly in McCann’s right eye was used as a key identifier after she vanished. (A coloboma is a hole in the eye’s anatomy that frequently results in a tear or hole that is visible.)
A simple, as well as various moles and freckles, were also mentioned as having similarities.
But, according to a translation confirmed by Global News, Piotr Noga from the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw told Polish publication Gazeta late last week that they have “ruled out” the connection.
Although they could not explain how they came to their conclusion, they did say that their research is still ongoing.
Wendell, who asserts that she is of sound mind, has stated that she is unsure of who she is and that she does not have many childhood memories.
“I don’t remember most of my childhood but my earliest recollection is really powerful and It’s about holidays in hot place where was beach [sic] and White or very light (coloured) buildings with (apartments),” Wendell stated in an Instagram post from her account, @iammadeleinemccan.
Wendell’s family responded by issuing a statement last week in which they described themselves as “devastated” by the allegations and the resulting global media attention.
They claimed in a statement posted on the “Lost Years Ago” Facebook page that it was “clear that Julia isn’t Maddie” and that their daughter had previously had therapy from doctors and psychiatrists, but that it may have lately ceased.
She rejects medical attention and skips doses of her medications. We are heartbroken by the current circumstances.
Wendell stated this week that Kate and Gerry McCann had consented to a DNA test, but a family representative declined to confirm the statement to Fox News Digital.
According to a statement sent to Fox by a representative of the Official Find Madeleine Campaign, “Gerry and Kate are not issuing any remarks or giving interviews unless requested by The Metropolitan Police” because there is an ongoing police investigation.
Madeleine would be 19 if she were still alive. She is 21 years old, but she thinks her age might not be accurate.
The debate over Wendell’s statements has been incredibly divisive. Several are urging the Metropolitan Police in London to look into Wendell’s claims, while others are charging Wendell with being a malicious con artist.
Three-year-old Madeleine was on vacation with her parents when she vanished from a hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. On the night Madeleine vanished, her parents went out to dinner with friends at a nearby tapas bar, leaving Madeleine and her two siblings in bed.
Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search and caused a media frenzy on a global scale.
Police from Portugal, England, and Germany have been working together for more than ten years to find McCann and her kidnapper.
Authorities in Germany said that “new evidence” linked German national Christian Brückner to the death of McCann last year. Despite being a known rapist, Brückner has not yet been charged in this incident. From 1995 to 2007, he resided in the Praia da Luz region.
For raping a 72-year-old lady in 2005 in the same area where Madeleine vanished, Brückner was given a seven-year prison sentence. He was also found guilty of drug-related offenses.
When Madeleine’s parents were identified as suspects in the McCann case in 2007, an official suspect had not yet been designated. They were later found not to be guilty in 2008.
German police declared Madeleine to be presumed dead in June 2020, while British authorities still consider her disappearance to be a missing person case.
