UPDATE: US police officers have seized a mobile phone in relation to a case that involves Julia Wendell – the Polish woman who claimed to be missing toddler Madeleine McCann.
Sergeant Mike Woodroof of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, based in California, confirmed to The New York Post that a phone tied to Julia’s case had been recently taken but refused to comment further.
Private investigator and self-proclaimed psychic, Dr Fia Johansson – who’s been working closely with Julia – told Radar Online that the phone was voluntarily handed over to the authorities during a search and seizure.
The nature of this investigation involving Julia has not yet been made public.
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Julia – who also goes by Julia Wandelt and Julia Faustyna – went viral earlier this year on TikTok. She claimed that she was the long-lost British toddler Madeleine McCann in February, but in early April, DNA tests proved her claims false.
As first reported by Radar Online, the test showed that Julia has predominantly Polish ancestry. Dr Johansson revealed the news and said:
“She is absolutely 100 percent from Poland. She is a small percentage of Lithuanian and Russian but the test results show she is Polish.”
“This story is much more complicated than a simple girl from a small town in Poland making a claim to get attention,” Dr Johansson continued.
“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.”
It’s been a mystery that’s enthralled the world for over 15 years, with everyone wanting the answer to this one question: where is Madeleine McCann?
Therefore, it was no suprise that Julia gained worldwide attention by simply creating an Instagram account with the handle @iammadeleinemccan and a bio that read, “Help me, I need to talk with Kate and Gerry McCann.”
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Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry, have never stopped looking for their eldest child, and their persistence to be reunited with Maddie has resulted in ‘Madeleine McCann’ being a household name, with no other missing child case being as widely known or reported on.
But this hasn’t lead to results, sadly, as Maddie has never been found – dead or alive – and no tangible leads have ever been discovered. If she is alive, she would be 19 years old today.
Julia is 21-years-old but believed her age could be wrong as other clues linked up to her true identity being that of the Madeleine.
Julia said she became suspicious after hearing “something” from her grandmother. That with other ‘evidence’ including the same freckle on her leg and a speck in her eye in the same place as Madeleine, led her to believe she was the missing toddler.
Julia originally took to Instagram and pleaded to get a DNA test done with the McCann family after local authorities refused to act.
“I called my local police, Capital city police, the MET police, Portugal police and Crimestoppers. A few months ago I talked with Operation Grange, too,” Julia told The Tab.
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Julia also said that she attempted to make contact with the McCann family.
No formal statement about Julia’s claims have been ever made by the family, but they have previously stated that they’re willing to explore all leads in the search for Madeleine.
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