This week a Polish woman named Julia Wendell shocked the world with claims that she could be a missing girl, Madeleine McCann. It is alleged that Maddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry have agreed to a DNA test for the Madeleine McCann lookalike but it is not known if this has taken place yet.
Meanwhile, a new theory has emerged that Julia isn’t Madeleine, but instead, she could be another missing girl named Livia Schepp.
Not Madeleine, but Livia
Livia Schepp was six years old when she and her twin sister, Alessia, went missing in Switzerland in 2011.
A side-by-side comparison photograph of Livia and Julia shows that they do share quite a few similarities, even more than Julia and Madeleine.
One Facebook user went searching for missing children over the past several years and stumbled across twins, Livia and Alessia.
“I got super curious and went on an internet hunt. This is what I found,” one poster wrote above a composite photograph of Livia and Julia. “Please tell me I’m not imagining this.”
“This gives me chills. I wonder if it is her?” one commented.
“That definitely looks more like her than Maddie!” another wrote.
What happened to Madeleine McCann?
Madeleine McCann is perhaps one of the most famous missing person cases in the world. The then-three-year-old went missing from her bed in a holiday apartment in Portugal on 3 May 2007 while her parents were at a restaurant just outside the villa.
Since her disappearance, there have been several theories as to what happened and claims from people who believe they are the missing girl.
German investigators now believe that Maddie was killed by sex predator Christian Brueckner, who is in prison on rape and sexual abuse counts. He has not been charged with any offence in relation to Maddie’s disappearance.
Despite extensive searches and numerous police investigations, Maddie’s body has never been found. It’s estimated the probe for Maddie has cost £13 million (approximately $23 million) to date.
What happened to Livia Schepp?
Alessia and Livia Schepp disappeared on January 30, 2011, from the suburb of Saint-Sulpice in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland. Their father, Matthias Schepp had picked his girls up from his ex-wife’s house to spend the weekend with him.
When the girls didn’t return home, their mother called the police. Authorities searched across Switzerland, France and Italy for the girls but they were never found.
Matthias, however, was located in Naples, Italy, four days after picking his daughters up. He was alone. That night, police recovered his body after it was discovered that he had taken his own life.
It’s been assumed that Mattias murdered his daughters before taking his own life, but their bodies were never discovered.
Livia and Alesisa, if alive today, would be turning 19. Madeleine, if alive, would be 19.
Who is Julia Wendell?
Julia is a 21-year-old Polish girl. Over the past few months, she has come to believe that she could be Madeleine McCann.
Julia recently shared her story through her Instagram account, @IamMadeleineMcCann, asking the media for help to figure out if she could be her.
Julia’s ‘evidence’ to support her claim that she is Madeleine McCann is quite convincing.
1. Madeleine McCann lookalike. Julia and Madeleine share a lot of facial similarities including birthmarks on their faces and an eye defect.
2. She also looks a lot like Kate and Gerry, especially Gerry.
3. Julia has no baby pics or medical records. She also states her kindergarten teacher told her she started school later in the year than the rest of the kids.
4. Julia has no childhood memories. However, she has experienced post-traumatic stress amnesia due to childhood abuse. She has been in a psychiatric ward in the past where she started to reflect on her childhood and felt like something wasn’t right.
5. Julia was abused by a German name named Ney. He is her grandmother’s second husband. This happens to be the same last name as the German man who was arrested for Maddie’s kidnapping several years ago – Marvin Ney. Julia is suggesting that Marvin Ney – the German man accused of kidnapping Maddie/Julia, is the son of her abuser.
6. Julia was in Wroclaw at the same time as one of Madeleine’s sightings. There have been several claimed sightings of Maddie over the past years including one made by a medical student a few days after Maddie’s abduction. The medical student claimed he saw Madeleine in Wroclaw, Poland, which was where Julia lived at the time.
The evidence is quite convincing but many believe that Madeleine is still missing and Julia is not her. A DNA test should be able to clear things up.
While Julia may not be Maddie, it would appear she does have some holes in her childhood that could suggest she is not who she’s been told she was.
She could very well be a child that was kidnapped and she does look a lot like Livia.
We hope everyone involved will have some concrete answers and closure soon.
