The Polish woman who believes she is Madeleine McCann has had her claims debunked by facial analysis.
Julia Wandel, 21, hit the headlines recently after claiming to be Madeleine on social media, drawing attention to their physical similarities and urging for a DNA test to take place.
Then-three-year-old Madeleine went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 while on vacation with her family, and her case still remains unsolved almost 16 years later.
Julia is awaiting results from three DNA samples and a genetic test after she drew similarities between her face and Madeleine’s.
Wendell claimed to have similar freckles and beauty marks, as well as sharing the same distinct mark on her eye as Madeleine.
Alongside this, to back up her theory, she posted side by side photos of her similarities to Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, breaking down their shared traits into sections such as ‘mouth,’ ‘eyes’, ‘teeth’ etc.
However, Swiss company Ava-X have disputed the claims. They did this by using technology that helps police officers identify missing people and unite them with their families.
They used their technology to compare old photographs of Madeleine McCann to young Wandel, and when it did, they found a match.
It did not find a match when it compared the contemporary Julia with a photograph of Madeleine.
Christian Fehrlin, boss of Ava-X, has said that “It’s practically impossible for the young Pole to be Maddie.”
He also said he was 90 per cent that Madeleine and Julia are different people.
This isn’t the first time her claims have been debunked over facial similarities: Expert Simone Malik showed what Madeleine McCann would most likely ‘look[s] like now,’ in comparison to the woman who is claiming to be her.
Malik has offered her expertise to the Daily Star, saying “I believe that this isn’t Madeleine McCann – obviously DNA is the only thing that would prove it.”
“For me what really gave it away is her jawline. In my earlier drawing of Madeleine McCann, I really emphasized that jawline.”
“Even as a youngster when you look at her, at those pictures, I imagine [she] would grow up to have a jawline [that’s] sharp and chiseled, an angular jawline very much like her mother Kate McCann.”
”So, if you look at Julia, she has a very prominent chin, a long prominent chin, a rounded jawline which in earlier pictures you can actually see the jawline is very rounded and it goes up, it’s quite long. There are no angles to her jawline whatsoever.”
