Madeleine McCann’s Parents Agree to DNA Test After Woman Claims To Be Their Daughter
More than 15 years after her disappearance, the parents of Madeleine McCann have reportedly agreed to a Polish woman’s request for a DNA test. Julia Faustyna, 21, claims that she is the missing daughter of Gerry and Kate McCann, who disappeared while on a family vacation in Portugal in May 2007. Faustyna began posting on Instagram under the handle @iammadeleinemccann earlier this month, creating quite a buzz.
Through a series of social media posts, Faustyna tells the story of her past, shares her memories, and explains why she believes that she could be Madeleine McCann. She’s posted several pH๏τos comparing herself to the missing child and pleading with the McCann family to contact her. According to the New York Post, the family has agreed to the test, but many fear the woman is in a fragile mental state and this could all be a figment of her imagination.
In early April, DNA test results confirmed that Julia Faustyna, aka Julia Wandelt, is not Madeleine McCann. Several days later, she issued an apology to the McCann family, according to the Post. “It wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or any other negative emotion to anyone, especially to McCann’s family,” she said in a social media post.
The investigation into her true idenтιтy, however, is ongoing. Multiple news outlets have reported that police in California seized a phone believed to belong to Faustyna, according to Radar Online. The phone was turned in voluntarily, but police have declined to provide additional details.
“We are not going to make any comments about the case,” department representative Sgt. Mike Woodroof told Radar Online. “Our investigation is taking a deep look into it and we’re going to let them do their investigative duties and then from that point let the judicial system take over – if it needs to.”
For more details about the case, see our original report that follows.
Faustyna has few memories of her childhood.
In one of her first Instagram posts, Faustyna claims she believes she is Madeleine McCann because of a vacation memory.
“First reason..I don’t remember most of my childhood but my earliest memory is very strong and It’s about holidays in H๏τ place where was beach and White or very light couloured buildings with apartaments,” she wrote. “I remember that I saw turttles on the beach it was little Bay as I can remember I saw turttles then and there were another children and they tried to touch small turttles. I don’t see my family in this memory.”
Her next post is of a police sketch she identifies as a suspect in the missing person’s case. She claims to know the man in the drawing and pleads for help getting in touch with Gerry and Kate McCann.
Faustyna posted several images of herself as a child compared to pH๏τos of Madeleine McCann. She believes she could be the missing girl based on physical similarities in the pH๏τos. She also compares herself to pH๏τos of Gerry and Kate McCann and points out what she believes are likenesses.
Many followers commented that they do not think she is the missing child based on her physical appearance.
Faustyna thinks her birth certificate is fake.
In an Instagram video with 866,000 views, Faustyna claims her birth certificate is forged. She says it isn’t uncommon for someone abducted to have falsified documentation to create a new idenтιтy. She claims she asked her parents in Poland for a DNA test, but they refused, stating that her ideas were “crazy.”
She also explains that she is unsure if she is Madeleine McCann, but because she has only “single memories” from birth to 13 years old, she needs the DNA test to figure out who she is.
Experts warn that Faustyna’s background is ‘challenging and messy.’
