Polish Woman Who Claimed to Be Madeleine McCann Is Not Missing Toddler, DNA Test Reveals

The Polish woman who made headlines earlier this year after claiming to be Madeleine McCann is not, in fact, the girl who disappeared on a family vacation in 2007 at 3 years old.

Julia Wendell, 21, thought there was a chance that she was McCann — who was kidnapped from a vacation rental nearly 16 years ago. However, a DNA test showed that Wendell is not McCann, Wendell's spokeswoman, Dr. Fia Johansson, confirmed on Instagram.

"We finally know the reality," Johansson wrote. "Although it is impossible to tell for sure without the parent's DNA results on either side, the test results speak to the origins of Julia's root. The test results revealed that she is 100 percent of Polish heart, with negligible influence from Lithuania, and Russia."

Later in the lengthy post, Johansson wrote, "This story is much more complicated than a simple girl from a small town in Poland making a claim to get attention. She truly believed what she was saying, and with so many questions about her childhood it is easy to understand where she was coming [from]."

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According to The Jerusalem Post, Wendell's parents released a statement after their daughter's initial claims and said they were her parents and her claims were false.

Three-year-old Madeleine went missing while on vacation with her family in Portugal in 2007. Her parents left her and her 2-year-old twin siblings in an unlocked rental while they ate at a restaurant 130 feet away. When Madeleine's mother Kate went to check on the children, Madeleine was missing. Initially her parents were suspects in her disappearance, but they were cleared by authorities the following year.

In mid-2020, German authorities identified Christian Brueckner as a suspect, but he was never charged. Then in 2022, Portuguese prosecutors said there was an official suspect in the case in a statement, according to Reuters. It is still unclear who that suspect is. The search for Madeleine continues.