Nearly eighteen years after Madeleine McCann vanished, a second woman has come forward to identify herself as the missing toddler.
The disappearance of McCann from a luxury resort in Lagos, Portugal in 2007 attracted international attention and is frequently considered the largest missing-persons case in contemporary history. Though attention has never waned, the case is still unsolved nearly twenty years later.
Madeline vanished while on a family vacation when she was only three years old. Authorities have never been able to explain with certainty what happened to her, even after several high-profile hunts.
Most people believe that the girl was kidnapped, but other people are holding out hope that she might still be alive today. Many young ladies have come forward over the years to claim to be the missing Madeleine; Julia Wandelt, a Polish woman, has gained particular attention recently.
Wandelt, 22, was detained last week on suspicion of stalking Madeleine’s parents in the UK after claiming that a fresh batch of DNA test results “strongly supported” her belief that she is connected to Madeleine’s father, Gerry McCann.
According to reports, a second woman has now come forward to say she is Madeleine. She told the MailOnline that she initially became dubious of her origins after experiencing difficulties obtaining identification.
Eugenea Collins, a 22-year-old American from Arkansas, stated: “I can’t get any sort of identification.” Due to my lack of identification, I was unable to receive any assistance from the Red Cross after my house was destroyed by fire.
“An original birth certificate is something I have also never seen. The only item I could see had another person’s name written on it, so they pointed it out and put mine over it.
It goes without saying that Collins’ allegations have sparked an internet debate, with those who are skeptical pointing out that she does not have coloboma, the distinctive birth abnormality of Madeleine.
In a Reddit thread, someone commented, “She has pictures that appear to be from when Maddie was younger than she was when she went missing, and she doesn’t have a mark on her eye.”
A second person concurred, saying, “She has displayed photos of herself when she was one or two years old, and she doesn’t seem to have an eye mark at all.”
Collins also disclosed her DNA findings, which show that she is primarily of British and Northwestern European ancestry. Naturally, this does not establish a direct connection between her and the McCanns.
According to reports, the 22-year-old also expressed her conviction that Christian Brueckner, a German who is the sole suspect in Madeleine’s abduction, is her biological father.
