Suspected Stalker Asked: 'However What If I Am Madeleine?'
A woman indicted with stalking Kate McCann apparently recorded her a recorded message which questioned: "suppose I am Madeleine?"
Julia Wandelt, 24, who court testimony revealed has persistently claimed she was the missing Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are standing trial accused with pursuing Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February this year.
On Monday, the court learned communication data and data obtained from phones logged Ms Wandelt repeatedly asking Madeleine's mother for a genetic test during 2023 and 2024.
Madeleine's disappearance in 2007 - when she was three years old during a family holiday in Portugal - is one of the most widely reported child disappearance cases and continues to be unsolved.
'I Don't Want Money'
A separate voicemail, played in court, captured Ms Wandelt declaring: "I know I'm fat and not pretty like Madeleine was, but I know what I feel."
While one recording of Ms Wandelt's one-way conversations with Mrs McCann's answerphone stated: "Suppose there is a tiny probability that I am she? What happens next? Is that not significant for you?"
"I am not seeking money, I possess a living here in Poland, I only wish to discover," the message continued.
The jury was advised that through electronic messages, mobile messages and phone calls, Ms Wandelt requested a DNA test, sent early photographs to her phone in a attempt to display a similarity to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and stated to have "memories" from a youth with the McCanns.
Robert Jones, a data specialist with Leicestershire Police who gathered the data, told the court there "didn't appear to be any responses" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt additionally contacted acquaintances of the McCanns, according to the call data.
On 9 October 2024, the father picked up a communication from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, stating she had "the wrong phone."
During that incident Ms Wandelt left a recording on Mrs McCann's recording saying "I won't give up and I intend to demonstrate my claim."
The court was informed Mrs Spragg established a association online with Ms Wandelt prior to joining her on a trip to the McCanns' home in Leicestershire in December 2024.
Communication data demonstrated Mrs Spragg had reached out through WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to state the news outlets had depicted Ms Wandelt as "emotionally disturbed" but that she ought to be taken seriously in the period before the visit to Rothley, Leicestershire, in last December.
The court learned communications between the two accused, in that autumn, discussing trying to obtain Mrs McCann's genetic material from her trash or from silverware at a restaurant.
"We must assert ourselves," Mrs Spragg informed Ms Wandelt.
On the evening of the trip to their residence, the defendant transmitted a communication which expressed: "We are sat adjacent to the McCanns' residence with our headlights off resembling investigators. I had hoped to accomplish this with Peter Andrew I didn't imagine I would be involved in this with the McCanns."
The trial ongoing.
