27 February 2023 , 20:54
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Claims by a woman in Poland who insisted she was Madeleine McCann have been thrown out by police.
Madeleine went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal's Algarve in 2007 at the age of three.
Despite several extensive police investigations, very little information has been recovered about what happened to her after her abduction.
Recently Julia Wendell, 21, from Poland, set social media ablaze after claiming to have evidence supporting her claim to be the missing child.
However Pawel Noga of the Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw Polish says they have now ruled it out after meeting her family.
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Earlier Polish charity Missing Years Ago released a statement on behalf of Julia's family and discredited their own daughter’s claims.
Julia's Instagram page went viral when she first made the claims
Maddie has been missing since 2007 (METROPOLITAN POLICE/AFP via Gett)The family said: "For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and step niece. We have memories, we have pictures.
"Julia also has these photos, because she took them from the family home with the birth certificate, as well as numerous hospital discharges.
"We always tried to understand all situations that happened with Julia.
"Threats to our address from Julia, her lies and manipulations, activity on the internet. We've seen it all and we've tried to prevent it, to explain, we've asked her to stop.
The family earlier put out a statement dismissing her claims (@iammadeleinemccan/Instagram)
Julia demanded a DNA test be made to prove she was the missing Brit (REX/Shutterstock)"We always tried to help her get back on her feet. Julia has been of age for several years. She has moved out of the house.
"Julia once wanted to be a singer, a model. She always wanted to be popular. What's happening now she got one million followers.
We're afraid Julia will carry the inevitable. The internet won't forget, and it's obvious that Julia isn't Maddie.
"We are devastated at this current situation."
After Julia's posts went viral, a source close to Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann called for the 21-year-old to undergo a DNA test because they're "willing to look at all leads".
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Francisco Marco - a private detective who led the hunt for Maddie after her disappearance - says he has carried out analysis which rules out the possibility of Ms Wendell being the girl.
He told Spanish network : "I have done a biometric search and there is no resemblance to Madeleine's features."
The former director of the Metodo 3 detective agency said it was strange that Ms Wendell posted the unsubstantiated claims to social media first, before reaching out to Maddie's family.
He added: "I can think it's a fraud, but I can't say without evidence.
"This girl contacted the police and no one paid attention to her, and she later opened the Instagram account where she now has thousands of followers when she had very few before."