Polish woman claims she is Madeleine McCann who went missing 15 years ago, but cops suspicious
Julia Faustyna (R) claiming to be Madeleine McCann. Photo: Instagram/iammadeleinemccan
A 21-year-old Polish woman has claimed that she is Madeleine McCann, the 3-year-old girl who went missing in Portugal 15 years ago. However, investigators are suspicious.
Madeleine McCann went missing from the apartment her family was vacationing in at the seaside resort town of Praia da Luz in Portugal in 2007. Kate and Gerry McCann, residents of Leicestershire in the UK, were in the Portugal town along with their three kids, when one night, Madeleine, the eldest of the three children, went missing. Madeleine has been missing since then.
What
Julia Faustyna, a 21-year-old Polish woman, posted on social media that she is Madeleine McCann. Faustyna, who is also known as Julia Wendell and Julia Wandelt, created an Instagram account called “@iammadeleinemccann”.
But even though Madeleine would be 19 years old now, the 21-year-old Julia says that her current age is incorrect and that she in fact is not 21.
Julia Wendell posted several posts of her doing a side-by-side comparison of her physical features with that of Madeleine McCann to showcase the similarity in physical characteristics between herself and the young Madeleine.
However, in the light of all these claims, there has been a growing concern over the mental health of Julia Faustyna.
A spokesperson for Faustyna, Dr Fia Johansson, claimed that “Julia’s mental health is not good”. She also said that the Polish girl “needs help” and Faustyna’s background is “challenging and messy”.
Investigators react
- Scotland Yard, who have been investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann for years now, do not believe Julia Wendell to be Madeleine McCann.
- Scotland Yard said that they have noticed several discrepancies in Faustyna's claims.
- Investigators created a robot portrait of how Madeleine would look now, and it shows no physical similarities with that of Julia Wendell.
- Private Detective Francisco Marco, who worked on the Madeleine McCann case, is also doubtful of Julia Wendell's claims and told The Independent "without knowing the in-depth details, it doesn't fit. I don't think it's her."
More recently, Gerry and Kate McCann, Madeleine's parents, have agreed to conduct a DNA test on Julia Wendell to see if her claim is legitimate.
It is difficult for me to see how this could be Madeleine McCann, but I suppose anything is possible. The McCann family has agreed to a DNA test. Julia Wendell seems rather convinced. #MissingChild pic.twitter.com/xfcZdsX9V0
— Rose (@901Lulu) February 19, 2023
The timeline of the Madeleine McCann disappearance case
- 3-year-old British toddler Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007.
- Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, were on a holiday in Portugal with their three kids: Madeleine, who at the time was 3 years old, and twins Sean and Amelie who were 2.
- Madeleine disappeared when her parents were having dinner at a tapas bar near their apartment, while their children were in the apartment.
- When Kate McCann returned to the apartment around 10 pm, she realised that her daughter had gone missing.
- The case remains unsolved till date.
In March 2019, Netflix released a docuseries on the case, called The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
The McCanns were not part of the docu-series.
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