Julia Wandelt says she 'never said' she was Madeleine McCann while apologizing to missing tot's parents
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The Polish woman, who claimed she was the missing toddler Madeleine McCann and even appeared on 'Dr. Phil', has now issued a long clarification after a DNA test proved her wrong. Julia Wandelt, who also uses the surnames Wendell and Faustyna, apologized to McCann's parents, Kate and Gerry, now claiming that she never said she was their daughter in the first place.
Private investigator and self-professed psychic, Fia Johansson, tried to prove that 21-year-old Wandelt was the missing British girl, who went missing during a family vacation in Portugal in 2007. She also said a number of physical attributes such as a defect in her iris and a dimple on her face proved she was the missing child. However, the DNA test put an end to her claims, according to LADBible.
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Wandelt, who showered praises on Johansson just a few days back on social media platforms, has now blamed her, claiming that she was "coerced" to go to the US. The Polish woman also set up a fundraiser to help her get "back on her feet".
What did the DNA tests reveal?
“She is absolutely 100 percent from Poland. She is a small percentage of Lithuanian and Russian, but the test results show she is Polish," Johansson told RadarOnline, adding, "We learned a few things, one being that Julia’s mum is in fact now believed to be her mum, so she is not Madeleine McCann."
Julia Wandelt's long Facebook statement
Wandelt posted a long statement to her Facebook account claiming that she never said she was Madeleine McCann. "I don’t remember most of my memories but I can remember some things and I never said that I am Madeleine McCann," she wrote, adding, "I used this sentence to create a [name] for my old instagram account, it was my mistake and I know it and I apologize for that because I should use [the] words ‘Am I Madeleine McCann’, not ‘I am’. So it was my fault and it wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or another negative emotions to anyone, especially to McCann family. My main purpose was always to find out who I am and what exactly happened in my very hurtful past.”
Wandelt also detailed why she decided to go public to prove she was McCann. “The reason that I came out with all my thoughts and I asked for help with DNA is because nobody helped me with finding the truth earlier. I gave many questions to my family (not only mother and father). They didn’t want to answer me," she wrote, adding, “Since I’ve started believing that my mother can’t be my mother, I’ve started to research missing children. And then I found [a] picture of Madeleine and I tried to find out more about her abduction, that’s why I joined many Facebook groups about her unsolved case.”
Julia Wandelt still thinks she could be Madeleine McCann
“I believe that my birth certificate could be forged. I still believe that it’s a possibility that I could be Madeleine and don’t be bad I will tell you why," Wandelt said, adding, “When I was doing [the] dna test in USA it was DNA kit from company called Ancestry. Fia didn’t want to give me results over one week me asking for it. When she finally gave me access to my results I was so shocked because it was on another company’s website. Tell me please, how [is it] possible that my results came to [the] website of competitive company?”
Wandelt ended her post stating that she hired another private investigator, who is working on her claims and promised another "important update" tomorrow.