Topics: Crime, Social Media, TikTok, UK News, US News, World News, Madeleine McCann
An American woman is making some wild claims that she's Madeleine McCann, who went missing almost two decades ago, with DNA 'proof'.
The disappearance of the British three-year-old girl sparked international attention when she vanished from her bed while on vacation in Portugal with her parents in 2007.
While what happened to Madeleine remains a mystery 18 years on, Eugenea Collins says she has the answers - claiming that she is actually the missing girl all these years later.
The Arkansas woman has been incessantly posting on social media that she is the real Maddy, even going to far to say she has 'DNA proof'.
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The blonde-haired and blue-eyed 22-year-old was born on October 23, 2002, which puts her around the same age as Madeline, though the Leicestershire girl's birthday is recorded five months later on May 12, 2003.
Still, Collins is adamant she is Madeline, and told the Daily Mail that she first grew suspicious of her own identity after seeing Polish woman Julia Wandelt on Dr. Phil's talk show.
Wandelt had made claims she was Kate and Gerry McCann's missing daughter until a DNA test proved her claims were bogus.
The woman has since been charged with stalking the family in the UK, which allegedly includes sending a flurry of messages, a letter and turning up at their home, reports the BBC.
Collins said: "If it wasn't for me seeing her on the Dr. Phil show I would've never known. In a way her stupidity actually helped me find my family."
"I saw the age progressions and it was like I was looking in a mirror. I just know I saw pictures of myself online and it says I'm missing," she added.
Documenting her apparent likeness to the missing girl on TikTok, Collins also revealed her ancestry DNA results that pinpoint her as 68 percent English and Northwestern European, which she claims is 'proof'.
Collins also claims she can't get any formal ID and has 'never seen an original birth certificate,' adding: "The only thing I saw had someone else's name wrote on it and they marked that out and wrote mine above it."
Her social media documents a complicated family tree, with Collins claiming she doesn't have a relationship with her biological dad who, according to her, looks like a German convicted pedophile identified as Christian B.
He was a main suspect in the case of Madeleine's disappearance, but was later acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
Collins said she met her father roughly three times, adding: "I was always told he was a little off in the head. We were never allowed to go around him. I never knew why.
"When I first saw the photos of Christina B I instantly recognized that man. Christian B is the man I was told my whole life was my biological father."
Many are sceptical about her belief and have pointed out some key differences in comparison pics - including the mark in Madeleine's eye and their differently shaped ears.
Collins has an answer for this though, saying she discovered 'scars' at the back of her ears.
Among her comments on social media, Collins penned: "I felt like something was missing from my life and I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. The emptiness was just one of the worst things. The feeling of not belonging wasn't just in my head it was because I actually didn't belong here."
She said after 'figuring it out', it feels 'like this weight has been lifted off my chest.'
"This isn't just another false alarm. I really am Madeleine McCann," she reiterates.
