Police in Poland said they ruled out the possibility that Julia Wendel is missing toddler Madeleine McCann, they told Polish news outlet Gazeta on Thursday a day after Wendel's family put out a statement denying her claims and saying they were "devastated at this current situation."
The police said that they have not yet completed their investigation but they had already managed to rule out the possibility that Wendel is McCann although they did not share how they had reached this conclusion.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that Wendel's family was refusing to take a DNA test to prove they are genetically related to her, and her mother told the Post that she can prove Wendel is her daughter through photos and a birth certificate.
Julia claims to be Madeleine McCann
Wendel went viral on social media in the last week after she made videos in which she claimed to be McCann, who disappeared at the age of three when on holiday with her British family in Portugal. In her videos, Wendel said that she thinks she is McCann because they have the same eye defect as well as other evidence she claimed to have.
According to Wendel, her parents avoided talking to her about her childhood memories, parts of which she is missing and are blurry to her. She also said that while her parents told her she had attended the same primary school the whole time, her teacher had told her this wasn't true.
She also added that when she was young, she was abused by a German pedophile and said he could be the same man who was arrested last year in connection with the McCann case.
Wendel said that the McCanns had reached out to her through a representative and asked her to take a DNA test to prove that she is their daughter.
Wendel's family says they know Julia is their daughter
"It is obvious to us as a family that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and stepdaughter," said Wendel's family in a statement posted on the Polish Missing for Years Facebook page. "We have memories, we have pictures."
"It is obvious to us as a family that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and stepdaughter."
The Wendels
The statement added that Wendel took the photos and her birth certificate from the family home and that the family had tried to stop the situation but had failed.
"We always tried to help her get back on her feet," they said. "Julia has been of age for several years. She moved out of the house. She refuses treatment, does not take medication regularly. She also did not take advantage of the possibility of treatment at a very good center in Poland, which agreed to accept her."
Wendel's family claimed that she had always wanted to be a celebrity and insinuated that she had made her claims so that she could become famous and gain an internet following.