Woman claiming to be Maddie McCann apologises to toddler’s parents

The Polish woman who has made repeated claims that she is missing toddler Maddie McCann has offered an apology to the missing toddler’s parents after DNA results disproved her assertions.

With photos and childhood memories to support her beliefs, Julia Faustyna recently surfaced on social media, claiming to be the missing toddler.

In one of her initial posts to Facebook, Faustyna claimed, “I think I can be Madeleine.”

“I don’t remember my childhood practically at all, but I do have a few memories,” she said.

“The earliest of these are vacations – I remember baby turtles (turtles hatch in May/June just from what I’ve read) and white apartment blocks, a bar where there was a performance by some ladies in costumes (folk costumes, I think, I don’t know), but I completely don’t recall my mother being there, for example, or my stepfather, much less my dad.

“I have a defect in my eye, in the same eye, the kind of defect Madeleine had.

“What I really need is the truth.”

After her claims were challenged by investigators, her family, and the general public, the 21-year-old provided samples for DNA testing which found that “she is absolutely 100 percent from Poland.”

“She is a small percentage of Lithuanian and Russian but the test results show she is Polish.” Faustyna’s spokesperson Dr Fia Johansson told RadarOnline.com.

After receiving the results, Faustyna issued a statement in which she apologised to Kate and Gerry McCann while explaining her intentions.

“It wasn’t my intention to bring sadness or any other negative emotion to anyone, especially to McCann’s family,” she said.

“I don’t remember most of my memories, but I can remember some things and I never said that I am Madeleine McCann.

“I used this sentence to create a nickname for my old Instagram account, it was my mistake and I know it and I apologise for that because I should use words ”Am I Madeleine McCann?” not ”I Am”.

“So, it was my fault…. My main purpose was always to find out who I am and what exactly happened in my very hurtful past.”

Although the DNA results seemingly shut down any possibility that Faustyna is Maddie McCann, the 21-year-old stated that she still believes she could be the missing toddler.

“I still believe that it’s a possibility that I could be Madeleine,” she said.

Maddie went missing from her bed at a resort while holidaying with her parents in Portugal on May 3, 2007. The case of the then three-year-old’s disappearance attracted considerable global attention. Despite a long-running investigation, Maddie’s whereabouts remain unknown to this day.