Suspected Stalker Questioned: 'However Suppose I Could Be Madeleine?'
A woman charged with harassing Kate McCann reportedly deposited her a recorded message which questioned: "what if I am Madeleine?"
The defendant, twenty-four, who witnesses stated has repeatedly declared she was the vanished Madeleine McCann, and Karen Spragg are facing charges accused with stalking Kate and Gerry McCann from June 2022 and February the current year.
On Monday, Leicester Crown Court heard communication data and information obtained from phones logged Ms Wandelt consistently requesting Madeleine's mother for a genetic test throughout that period.
Madeleine's vanishing in 2007 - when she was three years old during a vacation in Portugal - is among the most publicized missing child cases and continues to be unsolved.
'I Am Not Seeking Money'
One voicemail, played in court, documented Ms Wandelt saying: "I realize I'm fat and not pretty like Madeleine used to be, but I believe what I know."
While one recording of Ms Wandelt's monologues with Mrs McCann's voicemail said: "Suppose there is a slight possibility that I am she? What then? Isn't that significant for you?"
"I do not need money, I possess a life here in Poland, I only wish to discover," she added.
The panel was informed that by means of emails, mobile messages and communications, Ms Wandelt demanded a DNA test, forwarded childhood photos to her phone in a bid to display a resemblance to Mrs McCann's disappeared daughter, and asserted to have "memories" from a early life with the McCanns.
An intelligence analyst, an intelligence analyst with Leicestershire Police who compiled the data, advised the court there "seemed to lack any replies" from Mrs McCann.
Ms Wandelt also reached out to family friends of the McCanns, as per the communication logs.
On October 9th, 2024, Gerry McCann answered a phone call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, declaring she had "a wrong number."
That day Ms Wandelt deposited a recording on Mrs McCann's answerphone stating "I will persist and I plan to establish my point."
The court heard the co-defendant struck up a association online with Ms Wandelt before accompanying her on a visit to the McCanns' property in Leicestershire in December 2024.
Phone records revealed Mrs Spragg had communicated through WhatsApp to Mrs McCann to state the media had characterized Ms Wandelt as "mentally unstable" but that she deserved to be treated respectfully in the time leading up to the visit to Rothley, that area, in December 2024.
The court was told message exchanges between the two accused, in that autumn, planning endeavoring to get Mrs McCann's genetic material from her garbage or from silverware at a dining venue.
"We must assert ourselves," Mrs Spragg informed Ms Wandelt.
On the night of the appearance to their house, Mrs Spragg sent a message which said: "We find ourselves sitting adjacent to the McCanns' house with our vehicle dark similar to investigators. I wanted to do this with someone else I hadn't anticipated I would be doing that with the McCanns."
The trial proceeds.
