A Polish woman who believed she might have been Madeleine McCann, a British toddler who vanished nearly 15 years ago, recently received DNA results confirming that she is not the missing girl.
Julia Faustyna, who also goes by Julia Wendell, rocked the internet earlier this year when she started posting under the Instagram handle @iammadeleinemccann. In one clip, she pointed out the physical similarities she shares with Madeleine, including a distinctive spot on her right iris.
In another viral post, she explained that while she does not remember most of her childhood, she still has memories of a holiday on the beach, with white or very light-colored buildings and apartments — a description matching the last place Madeleine was last seen alive.
The toddler was on a vacation with her family when she was snatched from Praia de Luz, a resort in Portugal’s Algarve region on May 3, 2007.
Madeleine’s parents had left her and their two other children sleeping in the apartment that night while they went to a restaurant nearby. They returned regularly throughout the meal to check on the kids — but when their mom stopped in around 10 p.m., she discovered the door wide open and Madeleine nowhere to be found.
Authorities have spent the past decade and a half searching for the missing girl to no avail.
When Faustyna appeared online earlier this year, she offered a glimmer of hope after years of unsuccessful investigation. That hope was dashed on Tuesday when her spokeswoman, Dr. Fia Johansson, revealed DNA tests showed Faustyna was 100% Polish — not British, like missing Madeleine.
“We finally know the reality,” Johansson wrote. “Although it is impossible to tell for sure without the parent’s DNA results on either side, the test results speak to the origins of Julia’s root. The test results revealed that she is 100 percent of Polish heart, with negligible influence from Lithuania, and Russia.”
Faustyna has since deleted her @iammadeleinemccann Instagram account and authorities’ search for the missing toddler continues.