The despairing parents of a Polish woman who claims to be Madeleine McCann are ‘at their wits’ end’ and have fled their home and gone into hiding after their fantasist daughter was arrested in England.
Julia Wandelt, 24, appeared in court yesterday after being arrested at Bristol airport on suspicion of stalking involving serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann and their two other children.
Wandelt’s mother, fashion boutique owner Dorota Wandelt-Cholewinski and her stepfather Piotr Cholewinski are understood to have felt compelled to flee the public attention resulting from Julia’s misadventures.
A source close to the couple in the city of Wroclaw, southern Poland, for several days, told MailOnline: ‘This has been going on for almost two years and every time the daughter gets publicity around the world her parents’ distress deepens.
‘This time they just could not bear the public attention that they knew they were in for because they know people will be coming to their house and watching them.
‘They have tried for years to get Julia to have proper medical help but she just won’t listen, she is convinced she is Madeleine McCann but clearly she isn’t.
‘Dorota has tried all she can to help her daughter and when she found out she had been to the McCann family home in England and called them she was mortified.
‘I last saw Dorota a few days ago and she just said “It’s happening again, we have to go” and that was it. I know that the last time all this happened they had weird messages and even death threats.’
The parents of Julia Wandelt, 24, who claims to be Madeleine McCann are ‘at their wits’ end’ and have fled their home and gone into hiding after their fantasist daughter was arrested
Ms Wandelt appeared in court yesterday after being arrested at Bristol airport on suspicion of stalking involving serious alarm and distress to Kate and Gerry McCann and their two other children
The source added: ‘She is not Madeleine. She is two years older and her name is Julia Wandelt. She is Polish.’
When MailOnline visited the registry office at Wroclaw an official confirmed a birth certificate for Julia Wandelt with the date of birth she had given Leicester Magistrates.
MailOnline also visited the apartment block in Lubin, around 70 miles from Wroclaw, where Wandelt lives with her boyfriend and several cats and dogs.
Publicly available Polish records equivalent to the UK’s Companies House confirm Wandelt is the director of an ‘animal breeding firm’ with the registered address being the first floor flat in Lubin, which she gave to Leicester Magistrates.
Another family friend said: ‘Dorota is just beside herself with anxiety, she can’t believe how this has snowballed.
‘Julia is not well and Dorata just wants her to get the help she needs.
‘Dorota is mortified that all this publicity has caused fresh grief for the McCann family.’
Certainly nothing in her upbringing seems to explain her behaviour, friends insist.
Having split from Julia’s father, who moved to Germany, Dorota and young Julia settled into a smart house in a wealthy suburb of the city with her new partner Piotr who is involved in finance and she had a conventional and apparently stable upbringing.
Dorota is a successful businesswoman of her own and runs a chain of clothes shops and with her new husband’s salary they were able to provide Julia with a private school education.
Dorota and young Julia settled into a smart house in a wealthy suburb of the city with her new partner Piotr who is involved in financeÂ
Pictured: Nick Pisa at the Lubin, Poland home of Julia Wandel, also known as Julia Wandelt, who is charged and in custody in the UK for stalking Madeleine McCann’s family
A former school friend said: ‘Julia was around seven when she moved to Wroclaw with her mum and she started at the private school but she then switched to the local primary school as she couldn’t settle down.
‘She was increasingly mixed up as she went through school.
‘She decided she wanted to be a singer and then later a model but none of this happened and as she got into her later teens she became increasingly depressed and even angry.
‘What is happening now isn’t exactly new.
‘When she was in her mid-teens she started to say that Dorota wasn’t her mother and that she was really a child who had gone missing in Poland a few years earlier.
‘It was so sad to see as you could tell Dorota loved her and she just wanted the best for her – she rebelled and left home and that obviously made it harder for her mother to intervene.
‘I hadn’t seen her for a year or so and then a few months back I heard from friends that Julia was back at it again and saying that she was really Madeleine McCann which everyone knew was ridiculous.’
Posting online that she was Madeleine – who vanished aged three from the Algarve holiday apartment she was staying in at Praia da Luz in May 2007 – Julia claimed she couldn’t remember early parts of her childhood and had no birth certificate.
She wrote: I don’t remember most of my childhood but my earliest memory is very strong and it’s about holidays in a hot place where there is a beach and white or very light coloured buildings with apartments. I don’t see my family in this memory.’
Eyebrows were raised at her claims and it was quickly pointed out that she was two years older than Madeleine would have been but she continued to insist – much to the frustration of her family she was the missing toddler from Rothley, Leicestershire.
Pictured: The Wroclaw home on a private gated community of Dorota Wandelt the mother of Julia Wandel
Dorota and her new husband were able to provide Julia with a private school education
Another long standing friend of Dorota told us: ‘The family couldn’t believe what she was saying as they had given her so much love and support when she was younger – even though she had pushed them away and rejected them.
‘Her mother was telling everyone her daughter had mental health issues, and she asked her to stop lying and spreading these claims but Julia just said she didn’t believe Dorota was her mother.
‘Julia says she doesn’t have a birth certificate or photos, but she took them with her from the family home in Wroclaw – she has all the documents that prove who she is and she most certainly is not Madeleine McCann.
‘She has had issues for many years, she needs serious help.’
There was no answer at the home in Wroclaw where the family live and staff at the shops Dorota owns would only say that she had ‘gone away for a few days’ because of the hype surrounding Julia.
The friend added: ‘Dorota loves her daughter with all her heart even after all this and she just wants her daughter to get treatment as quickly as possible.’
MailOnline has also discovered Julia, who also uses the surname Faustyna, once previously contacted a Polish charity to say she was a German missing schoolgirl and an American toddler.
She sent officials photos of herself initially claiming to be Inga Gehricke, five, who went missing from Stendal in Germany in 2015 and has not been seen since.
Pictured: The shop owned by Dorota Wandelt in Olesnica;Â Dorota is a successful businesswoman of her own and runs a chain of clothes shops
Her claims were dismissed as the age gap was eight years.
She then contacted the charity again to say she was Acacia Bishop, who went missing as a 19-month-old in 2003 in Utah and who has not been seen since but her claims were dismissed.
A spokesperson for the charity, Zaginieni przed Laty, said: ’Julia has messaged us twice to say she is a missing person once to say she was German and once to say she was American.
‘Neither claim was correct, and we have been helping Julia’s family as best we can because it’s quite clear she is not very well and is constantly claiming to be people she isn’t.
‘Her family just want the best for her and for this to be resolved with her returning to therapy. For Julia’s family she is a much-loved daughter, sister, niece, cousin and granddaughter.
‘They don’t understand why she is claiming to be someone else.’
The Polish missing persons charity added: ’Situations like this cause problems, because a person who may have suspicions that they may be missing may be afraid to reveal themselves.
‘They may do this so as not to be badly received and treated by people.’
During her brief appearance at Leicester Magistrates court under the name Julia Wandel, it was alleged that she went to the McCann’s home at nearby Rothley, twice on 2 May and 7 December, as well as sending Whatsapp messages to Kate and Gerry and Instagram messages to Madeleine’s siblings.
She is also said to have turned up at the family home between 3 January 2024 and 15 February 2025.
Wandelt was remanded in custody until 7 April when she will stand in the city’s Crown Court.
