Some families believe with all their heart and soul that there is a child out there waiting for them, a child they could adopt whose life they just might brighten and whose smile could warm their own world.
Michael and Kristine Barnett wanted a little girl to complete their family of five and jumped at the chance to adopt an eight-year-old girl. The Florida couple was told the little girl named Natalia Grace suffered from a rare form of dwarfism, but that didn’t deter them from expanding their family to include the little girl from Ukraine.
But now, their world has been torn apart all because of the mystery swirling around little Natalia.
The Barnetts have each been charged with felony neglect of a dependent. The couple allegedly abandoned Natalia in Indiana where they lived before the couple relocated to Canada in 2013.
How could they leave their little girl behind?
It turns out their adopted daughter actually is believed to be a 30-year-old woman. The couple, who is now divorced, claims they were scammed into adopting Natalia.
The Barnetts told investigators that not long after Natalia came to their home, things seemed off. Natalia possessed a vocabulary well beyond a young child’s grasp of the English language and she had been menstruating. Kristine told Insider that a dental checkup revealed the supposed little girl didn’t have children’s teeth.
“Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.”
Frighteningly, Natalia tried to kill Kristine twice, Michael told authorities. The “little girl” shoved her into an electric fence and another time, Natalia poured cleaning fluid into Kristine’s coffee.
She had admitted to others that she wanted her new parents to die and she envisioned stabbing them to death while they slept.
“It was a plain and simple, matter-of-fact answer. A very thought-out adult answer. ‘I’m trying to kill you.'”
“While at the stress center, she was documenting, she was telling doctors, she was telling therapists, she was writing down on her notepad. Not only am I trying to kill Kristine, but I’m going to kill the brothers, too. Here’s how I’m going to do it. Here’s what I’m going to do with their bodies.”
The hospital conducted a skeletal survey in 2012 and estimated her to be 11 years old, which led the couple to legally change her age. That also allowed them to seek help for mental illness, he told Dr. Oz.
While living on her own, Natalia enrolled in school at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy (LARA) to work on her GED, something a young child would not do. In order to attend there, students must take a placement test to determine their knowledge of math, English, history and science. If they don’t demonstrate a junior high level of knowledge, they are asked to work with a tutor to be at that level or they cannot take classes.
Michael Barnett claimed there were other red flags, too, including developmental changes, having a detectable Ukrainian accent, not recognizing Ukrainian words and not remembering her life there.
Now, Michael and Kristine face charges but both claim they are innocent. They have a trial date of Jan. 28, 2020. Natalia currently is living with Antwon Mans, 36, a recently ordained pastor, and his wife, Cynthia, 39, in Indiana.
They tried to officially become her legal guardians in 2016 but later withdrew their petition after the court upheld a ruling that she was born in 1989 and not 2003. Learn more about this bizarre adoption case and whether or not Natalia really is a child or a woman in the video below.
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