Who is Julia Wandelt? Woman comes forward claiming to be missing Madeleine McCann
There are very few people who havenât heard of the Madeleine McCann case. Having gone missing in Portugal in 2007 when she was only three-years-old, McCannâs disappearance has become one of the most heavily investigated and reported cases of all time. And now, 16 years later, an Instagram page created by 21-year-old Polish woman ââJulia Wandelt under the handle @iammadeleinemccan has entered into the ether and sent us all into a wild frenzy.
With an account bio reading âHelp me, I need to talk with Kate and Gerry McCann,â and a page full of pictures comparing her own face to Madeleineâs, Wandelt has accumulated 610,000 eagle-eyed followersâeach and every one of them hooked on whether or not this could truly be the girl everyone has been looking for.
The Madeleine McCann case
Having been deemed one of the most puzzling child disappearances of the 21st century, the McCann story gripped the British media for the better part of a decade. Public forums and publications tirelessly spewed out theories and possible explanationsâmany of which assigned guilt to McCannâs parents, Kate and Gerry.
And on top of that, itâs been reported that the Met Police, who took over the investigation after the Portuguese authorities failed to make any headway, received approximately ÂŁ11.75 million in funding for Operation Grange (the McCann case). The case was officially closed in late 2022 after all suspect possibilities were exhausted.
It should be noted that this amount of funding is extremely abnormal for a missing childâs case. And in fact, a number of charities and members of the public have previously criticised the sheer amount of resources that was poured into this one investigation. Particularly when there are approximately 112,853 children reported missing in the UK each year.
There is also something to be said about the fact that McCann was a white female child with blonde hairâa visual image of a victim thatâs deemed âmore valuableâ in Western culture. A number of academic publications, for example Arnout van de Rijtâs Racial and gender differences in missing childrenâs recovery chances, have verified that black children on average remain missing longer and are more likely to still be missing by the end of an observation period than non-black children.
Who is Julia Wandelt?
What can be immediately ascertained from Wandeltâs Instagram page claiming that she is McCann is that she suffered a very traumatic childhood and is trying to piece together her life now sheâs an adult.
In one of her posts, the 21-year-old details how she was abused by a German paedophile, who she believes to have striking resemblance with a sketch of a potential suspect that was shared on the official find Madeleine website.
Wandelt wrote in a post underneath the sketch: âI need you to help me because police ignore me. I need the police to make a DNA test for me and compare it with Madeleineâs DNA. I need to talk with Kate and Gerry McCann.â
There are also a number of posts where Wandelt points out similarities between herself and McCann, including freckle placement, the details of her eyes and how her teeth looked when she was a child.
While the McCann family have not yet released a statement regarding Wandelt and whether or not they might believe her to be their daughter, they have agreed to pursue a DNA testâan update which Wandelt has shown off within her Instagram accountâs bio.
Netizens online are incredibly divided over this alleged discovery. Some are convinced that Wandelt is definitely telling the truth, in fact some are even celebrating the fact that McCann has been found. Others of course are more sceptical, both of Wandelt, and the pernicious nature of social media.
However, there is a resounding feeling that Wandelt is in need of support and help. One user wrote on Twitter: âWhether the girl on Instagram is Madeleine McCann or not, it is clear she needs help. She is clearly a victim of abduction or child trafficking, and her story needs to be heard.â
Itâs definitely true that, whoever Wandelt is, she has a story that she would like to share, and she deserves to be listened toâwhatever the outcome.
SCREENSHOT reached out to Julia Wandelt for a comment.
