Family of woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann say they are ‘devastated’

The distraught family of a woman who claims she is missing British girl Madeleine McCann have broken their silence.

The distraught family of a Polish woman who claims she is missing British girl Madeleine McCann have broken their silence to deny that their daughter is her.

Julia Faustyna caused an internet sensation in recent days by claiming she is McCann who vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007 and if alive would be 19.

The 21-year-old Polish woman said Kate and Gerry McCann have agreed to do a DNA test to confirm if she is their daughter, who was three when she vanished from their Portugal holiday apartment.

Julia Faustyna has claimed on Instagram she is missing British girl Madeleine McCann.

Madeleine McCann went missing from her family’s holiday apartment while her parents were out to dinner.

But Julia’s family — who are understood to have refused to take a DNA test to confirm Julia’s identity — have rejected their daughter’s claims.

“For us as a family it is obvious that Julia is our daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousin and step niece,” the family said in a statement issued to a Polish missing persons website.

“We have memories, we have pictures. Julia also has these photos, because she took them from the family home with the birth certificate, as well as numerous hospital discharges.”

They insisted they had tried to help Julia “get back on her feet” after she left home.

“Julia once wanted to be a singer, a model. She always wanted to be popular,” the family said.

“What’s happening now is she has got 1 million followers. The internet won’t forget, and it’s obvious that Julia isn’t Maddie. We are devastated at this current situation.”

Kate and Gerry have never given up searching for their daughter. Picture: AFP

Earlier, Julia’s representative, psychic medium and private investigator Dr Fia Johansson, announced Julia’s plans to take her parents to court to force them to undergo a DNA test.

“When I’m talking to her ... she’s crying and saying, ‘I just need to understand the truth, all I want is for my mum and dad to do the DNA test with me’,” Dr Johansson told 7 News.

“But basically her father said, ‘no, we are not going to’. If they are not going to do it (of their own) free will, then we have to go to court.”

“We want to be very respectful to the McCann family, and respect the privacy of them and their kids while we don’t know exactly who Julia is.

“My feeling is that we need to force the mother or a member of Julia’s family to take the DNA test rather than disrupt the peace of Kate and Garry, which is not necessary.

“If a current family member will take a DNA test we could solve this. But they are refusing to.

“I have been personally talking to Julia’s mother and told her we will make her safe and secure in any way she needs but she is still refusing to take the test. She claims she has Julia’s birth certificate but our worry is that you can easily forge this.”

WHAT IS JULIA FAUSTYNA’S BACKGROUND?

Polish woman Julia Faustyna is a 21-year-old aspiring musician and model who lives in Germany and has claimed on Instagram she is missing girl Madeleine McCann.

In some reports Ms Faustyna is listed under the name Julia Wendell or Julia Wandelt.

Ms Faustyna alleges she has few memories of her early childhood and has never seen her birth certificate.

In one post, she claimed: “I don’t remember most of my childhood but my earliest memory is very strong and it’s about holidays in hot place where there was a beach and white or very light-coloured buildings with apartments.

“I don’t see my family in this memory.”

WHAT IS SHE CLAIMING?

Ms Faustyna has claimed she was preyed on by a “German paedophile,” without elaborating. She has very little evidence to back her claims and has said she was told by her grandmother that she was in fact the missing child.

She has also shared the infamous police sketch of a man who witnesses reported seeing carrying a sleeping child in the Portugal resort the night Madeleine disappeared.

“I recognise this person — it looks very similar to my abbuser [sic],” Ms Fausyyna wrote.

In a more recent video update, she said her family labelled her “horrible” for giving “hope to the McCanns”.

The apartment hotel at the resort where Madeleine McCann was abducted.

A haunting image released by Kate and Gerry McCann three years after their daughter’s disappearance.

WHAT ABOUT PHYSICAL SIMILARITIES?

The Polish woman has documented apparent physical similarities between herself and Madeleine — including a distinct brown smudge on each girl’s right iris.

“I have similar eyes, shape of face, ears, lips, I had the gap between the teeth [as Madeleine],” she wrote in one post, with side-by-side photos of herself and the kidnapped child.

WHAT HAVE MADELEINE’S PARENTS SAID ABOUT FAUSTYNA’S CLAIMS?

The missing girl’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, have reportedly agreed to take a DNA test to determine if they are truly related to Ms Faustyna, sources told the Daily Beast.

Madeleine McCann’s abduction sparked a media frenzy and an unprecedented international manhunt. Picture: AFP

A devastated Kate and Gerry McCann shortly after their child went missing.

This report has not been confirmed by the McCann family.

Kate, a former GP who now works for children’s charities and Gerry, now a professor of cardiology, still live in Rothley in Leicestershire, in the same house where their daughter lived before she disappeared.

The couple left their three children sleeping in their Praia de Luz holiday apartment while they went to dinner with friends.

The group of parents regularly checked on the children but when Kate McCann went to the apartment around 10pm, she found the bedroom door and window open and Madeleine gone.

WHAT IS THE REACTION?

Francisco Marco, a private detective linked to the McCann case, has cast doubt on the woman’s claims.

He told Spanish newspaper El Independiente: “It does not add up to me.”