A 21-year-old Polish woman has gone viral after claiming to be Madeleine McCann, the victim of one of the most infamous child abduction cases of all time.
The woman, referred to as Julia Faustyna and Julia Wendell interchangeably, has posted a series of videos to TikTok and Instagram, explaining why she believes she is McCann – and she is willing to take a DNA test to prove it.
Madeleine was nearly four years old when she disappeared from the Portuguese holiday resort, Praia da Luz, in 2007. Her parents, doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, have been looking for her ever since.
Julia claims to not remember much from her childhood and that her parents avoided answering her questions. It was only after she began doing her own research and discovered Madeleine’s case that she “connected the dots.”
@iammadeleinemccannc
I think that I can be Madeleine McCann because… #madeleinemccann #iammadeleinemccann #fyp #featureme #goviral
♬ Get You The Moon – Kina
According to her social media, Julia believes she is Madeleine because she has a similar mark on her right eye and shares facial resemblances with Madeleine and her parents. Julia also claims to have been a victim of a German pedophile, Peter Ney, who shares the same last name as one of the German suspects in Madeleine’s case, Martin Ney.
Having gone viral on social media, the McCanns agreed to Julia’s pleas to take a DNA test to see whether or not she is their daughter. The McCanns are known to investigate every possible avenue in search of Madeleine.
“We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again,” her parents said in a statement released before what would have been her 18th birthday. “As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.”
For the last 15 years, the McCanns, with the help of donors and law enforcement, have unsuccessfully campaigned for the return of their daughter and have been looking for any leads as to what may have happened or where she may be.
In April 2022, the Portuguese authorities named Christian Brückner, a convicted sex offender, as a murder suspect in the McCann investigation.
