Police reportedly fear that sex traffickers are hunting for the Polish woman who thinks she might be Madeleine McCann in a bid to silence her.
Julia Wendell, 21, was whisked from her home country to a safehouse in California, US, after receiving a number of death threats.
Some of the threats even put a price on her head after she posted supposed evidence on Instagram suggesting she could be Madeleine, the Leicestershire girl who went missing aged three while on a family holiday in Portugal in may 2007.
READ MORE: American family think woman claiming to be Madeleine McCann may be 'missing daughter'
Private detective and self-professed medium Dr Fia Johansson, who previously aided police in the US on missing persons cases, helped Julia get Stateside and is probing her claims.
She previously confirmed the death threats were reported to US authorities, who she said were taking Julia's case "seriously".
According to RadarOnline, authorities in California have officially launched an investigation with fears growing that sex traffickers are looking for Julia.
It is thought crime bosses may want to silence her before the investigation into her childhood uncovers their operation.
"We went to the police here and they conducted a long interview with Julia," Dr Johansson told RadarOnline.
"We gave them everything because they think sex traffickers are likely the ones targeting her. They take it very very seriously when it comes to traffickers.
"They received so many links they are starting an investigation and told us the threats originated from the UK and some from the United States."
Although she may not be Madeleine, Dr Johansson is convinced Julia was trafficked into Poland as a child.
The private detective and her team have been in Wroclaw (the city Julia supposedly grew up in) where they found no hospital records for Julia relating to the first five years of her life.
Her team also found that men posing as friends of Kate and Gerry McCann had tried to lure Julia to hotels when she first went viral.
Julia has claimed she does not remember large parts of her childhood, and that she was never treated as part of the family by her parents or siblings.
She also said she was abused by a German paedophile who resembled a one-time suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. She supposedly found a family photo of that man in an older relative's house.
Other "evidence" she has put forward includes a speck in her eye like Madeleine and her allegedly overhearing her mum admit to "taking" her.
Julia's family in Poland have denied her claims. According to Dr Johansson, her mum and dad have also blocked Julia's number and are refusing to take a DNA test.
The investigative team are awaiting results on three samples of Julia's DNA as well as a genetic test to establish her ancestry (something akin to 23andMe).
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