New update derails Madeleine McCann claim
Polish woman Julia Faustyna, also known online as Julia Wendell and Julia Wandelt, took the internet by storm this week with her claims to be the missing Madeleine McCann.
“I think I can be Madeleine,” Julia initially wrote in a post on Facebook, where she hoped to gain the attention of the authorities and secure a DNA test to prove her theories.
Julia noted the similarities in their appearances as her most compelling piece of evidence, particularly their eye defects - though Julia said in the post that hers had “faded more and more every year.”
She also spoke of a conversation she’d had with her kindergarten teacher, explaining how she had “been in kindergarten since my last group, from September 2007 to July 2008” but that she was told by her family that she was “there all kindergarten.”
On her Instagram account, Julia has been providing her audience with updates, pleas for help, and further “evidence” to support her claims. Most notably, she has referenced those absences from her childhood, noting that she has “asked for pictures of when my mum was pregnant with me, other medical records and any pictures from my childhood and she never shows them, she just always tells me I’m crazy.”
This claim, that she has been unable to secure pictures from her childhood, has been blown open by none other than Julia’s own grandmother.
In a video uploaded to her account, a distraught Julia shared that she had received a phone call from her grandmother.
“She said that I’m a very bad person,” she said, “that she doesn’t want to meet me anymore. She started to shout at me.
“I asked her for a DNA test with her or with my parents and she will not take a DNA test with me and I can’t say she has to do it.”
In another story, uploaded the same day, Julia shared a baby picture from her grandmother - one that she has trouble accepting as legitimate.
“She sent me two pics,” Julia captioned the picture. “but, well, I don’t see faces clearly.”
Julia went on to explain that she had asked for a DNA test but that her grandmother was unsure that Julia’s parents would agree to the test. Later, she stated that it was because “they don’t agree.”
In a conversation with a fellow social media personality, Julia also spoke of her family’s belief that she is “horrible” giving “hope to the McCanns”. That same user noted that Julia’s family were “concerning” for refusing to give her the information she requires.
Although Julia has claimed numerous times that she isn’t doing any of it for fame, many around the world remain skeptical. And with no firm evidence to back her, that doesn’t look likely to change.
Images: Instagram