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Madeleine McCann’s Parents Agree to DNA Test Polish Woman Who Claims to Be Their Missing Daughter

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Madeleine McCann’s Parents Agree to DNA Test Polish Woman Who Claims to Be Their Missing Daughter
Parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann, Kate (L) and Gerry McCann (R) pose with an artist's impression of how their daughter might look now at the age of nine ahead of a press conference in central London on May 2, 2012, five years after Madeleine's disappearance while on a family holiday in Portugal. (Leon Neal/AFP/GettyImages)
2/24/2023
Updated:
2/27/2023
0:00

A Polish woman who believes she may be missing British girl Madeleine McCann claims the family has agreed to do a DNA test.

Kate and Gerry McCann have approached Julia Faustyna to take a DNA test to see if her genes match that of their missing daughter, who was three years old when she was abducted from a Portugal apartment bedroom in 2007, a source told The Daily Beast this week.

Faustyna, who has also been referred to as Julia Wandelt and Julia Wendell, has recently become an internet sensation after claiming that she has evidence that she “could be Madeleine.”

Many of Faustyna’s Instagram posts document side-by-side comparisons between herself and the McCanns.

“I have similar eyes, shape of face, ears, lips, I had the gap between the teeth,” she wrote in a post. “I need to know the truth. I need dna test and I need to talk with Madeleine’s parents. Help me!”
Faustyna showed pictures of herself with the same eye imperfection that McCann had in photos of her. When McCann went missing, a coloboma abnormality in her right eye was used as a major identifying feature.
Faustyna has also shared a police sketch of the man witnesses saw carrying a child on the resort the night Madeleine disappeared.

“I recognize this person..it looks very similar to my abuser [sic],” she wrote.

The 21-year-old did not elaborate on what kind of abuse she may have suffered in reference to being preyed on by a “German pedophile.”

Faustyna says she learned about McCann’s case from her grandmother a few months ago.

She also claims that she does not remember most of her early life except holidays in hot places with white-colored apartments.

Though Faustyna is legally 21, she is not sure about her age and has never seen her birth certificate. If alive, Madeleine would be 19 years old.

Francisco Marco, a private detective linked to the Madeleine McCann case, has broken his silence over Faustyna’s claims.

He told Spanish newspaper El Independiente: “Without knowing the details in depth, it doesn’t add up to me. I don’t think it’s her.”

Neither London’s Metropolitan Police nor the McCann family has commented publicly on Faustyna’s claims.

Madeleine McCann’s Disappearance

On May 3, 2007, three-year-old McCann went missing from a hotel room in Praia de Luz, Portugal, while on vacation with her parents.
Madeleine McCann in a file photo. (AP Photo)
Madeleine McCann in a file photo. (AP Photo)

At the time of her disappearance, the young girl and her two siblings were sleeping in their bedroom while her parents were dining at a nearby restaurant.

When her mother checked on her later that evening, she found the bedroom door and window open and the young McCann missing.

Police immediately suspected her parents were involved in her disappearance, but investigators later surmised that Madeleine was possibly kidnapped by German sex offender Christian Brückner.

German authorities, how do not have enough evidence to prove he is responsible for her disappearance.

Despite extensive searches over the years, McCann’s body has never been found.

Kate and Gerry McCann publicly addressed the search for their daughter in a January 2023 statement which said they would not forget nor give up, but will be heading “into the new year with continued determination.”