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EXCLUSIVE: ‘She tried to kill us!’ Indiana mother who adopted 6-year-old Ukranian girl with dwarfism has been charged with abandonment but claims her ‘daughter’ was found to be a 22-year old 'sociopath' masquerading as a child
PUBLISHED: 14:00 EDT, 23 September 2019 | UPDATED: 17:55 EDT, 23 September 2019
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It has all the elements of a horror movie: an unsuspecting Christian couple adopts an adorable little girl only to discover she is an adult sociopath masquerading as a child.
If the premise sounds familiar that's because it’s virtually the exact plot of 2009 big screen chiller 'Orphan', where a pig-tailed 'youngster' tries to murder her family when it's revealed she is 33.
But as far-fetched as it sounds, this is the astonishing defense put forward by a mom-of-three and parenting author shockingly accused of felony neglect for abandoning her adopted daughter.
Kristine Barnett, 45, and her ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43, are alleged to have dumped Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace at an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 before moving to Canada one month later and breaking off contact.
Kristine Barnett, 45, (pictured) and ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43 have been charged with abandoning their daughter, then 9, in Lafayette, Indiana, and fleeing to Canada in 2013. But Kristine denies the claims and says she and Michael were victims of a fraud, stating the girl they adopted was an adult con artist who tried to kill her
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Kristine and Michael agreed to the emergency adoption of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace (above) in May 2010. This photos shows Natalia in September 2012. Her original birth certificate made her 9 but a court would later determine she was in fact 23 when this picture was taken
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Natalia, pictured days after being collected from her Florida adoption center in May 2010 by the Barnetts, soon had her new parents suspicious as Natalia had her period and an adult vocabulary for a seven-year-old
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Natalia pictured being home schooled in December 2010. Kristine Barnett claims Natalia tried pushing her onto an electric fence, poured bleach into her coffee and threatened to stab the Barnetts in their sleep
Family adopt 22-year-old sociopath masquerading as a child
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Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.
But in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV at an undisclosed location, Kristine insists there's a major flaw in their case: Natalia was not a nine year old - as charging documents claim - she was actually 22.
Barnett claims the true victims are her and her family who were terrorized for years by the mysterious impostor who threatened to stab them in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence and poured bleach in her coffee.
'The movie 'Orphan' is exactly what happened.
‘She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard,’ she told DailyMailTV.
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Michael Barnett surrendered to authorities on September 18 and was released on $5,000 bail. A hearing has been set for September 2. Kristine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond.
‘She was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn't go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects.
‘I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, what are you doing? She said, "I am trying to poison you."
‘The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here,’ said Barnett.
‘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.
‘She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing.’
Before criminal charges were leveled at them on September 11, Barnett and ex-husband Michael were hailed as exemplary parents who raised child 'genius' Jake Barnett.
Diagnosed with autism at age two, Jake nonetheless had his first academic paper published at 12 and by 15 was studying at a prestigious physics institute.
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Mom-of-three Kristine Barnett says her family's experience with Natalie is akin to the 2009 horror movie 'Orphan' where Isabelle Fuhrman plays a 33-year-old woman who appears to be a child due to a growth condition and tries to murder her adopted family
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‘She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard', said Kristine Barnett of her adopted daughter Natalia (pictured)
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To welcome Natalia to her new home in May 2010, the Barnetts staged a party. Kristine, pictured far right, says Natalia (center) wanted to have her face painted
His story was featured in a 2012 episode of CBS 60 Minutes - but it was the shy girl who sat to his left at the family dinner table that would one day prompt altogether more sinister headlines.
The Barnetts, experienced foster parents who ran a children's day care from their Westfield, Indiana home, collected the curly-haired youngster from Florida in May 2010.
While living with the Barnetts, Natalia's adoption was completed in November that year.
In a frank and tearful interview with DailyMailTV, Kristine Barnett insisted she treated the new addition to her family as if she were her biological child.
She had no hesitation in accepting Natalia despite learning she had a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision.
‘I always wanted to have a larger family and I had very severe complications in my pregnancies and was unable to have more children,’ Barnett explained.
‘I also at that time had a very privileged life. I felt that if I had the ability to help another person in the world then I wanted to do it.’
Given just 24-hours to complete an emergency adoption, the couple raced to an adoption center in Florida to sign the paperwork and meet their ‘six-year-old’ daughter.
They gleaned precious few details of her background: Natalia had been in the US for two years, had a Ukrainian birth certificate reading September 4, 2003 and needed a home immediately because her previous adoptive parents suddenly gave her up - for undisclosed reasons.
‘Out of compassion for their situation I didn’t want to press them for information on what had gone wrong,’ the mom went on.
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Tearful Kristine described how Natalia was treated by mental health specialists who determined Natalia was an adult and pressed for the courts to have her birth certificate changed
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Michael Barnett is pictured holding his new daughter Natalia in May 2010 in Florida just days after collecting her from the adoption center
In 2012, Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana determined Natalia was born in 1989, rather than agreeing with her Ukrainian birth certificate which claimed she was born on September 4, 2003. The photo on the
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- Kristine Barnett, 45, and ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43 have been charged with abandoning their daughter when she was 9 in Lafayette, Indiana, and fleeing to Canada
- In an exclusive interview with DailyMail TV, Kristine denies the claims and says she and Michael were victims of a fraud, claiming the girl they adopted was an adult con artist who tried to kill her
- Kristine and Michael agreed to the emergency adoption of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace in May 2010 from Florida and were told she was 6
- Within a year, Kristine claims Natalia tried pushing her onto an electric fence, poured bleach into her coffee and threatened to stab the Barnetts in their sleep
- Natalia was treated by mental health specialists who determined she was an adult and pressed for the courts to have her birth certificate changed
- In 2012, Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis decided Natalia was born in 1989, based upon medical evidence
- The Barnetts moved to Canada and left Natalia in an apartment in Lafayette
- A September 11 affidavit of probable cause obtained by DailyMailTV states that experts carried out bone density tests on Natalia in June 2010 and concluded she was eight year old
- Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department allege that Natalia was a child when they 'abandoned her in 2013
- Arrest warrant were issued -= both Michael and Katherine surrendered to authorities and have been released on bail
PUBLISHED: 14:00 EDT, 23 September 2019 | UPDATED: 17:55 EDT, 23 September 2019
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726
View comments
It has all the elements of a horror movie: an unsuspecting Christian couple adopts an adorable little girl only to discover she is an adult sociopath masquerading as a child.
If the premise sounds familiar that's because it’s virtually the exact plot of 2009 big screen chiller 'Orphan', where a pig-tailed 'youngster' tries to murder her family when it's revealed she is 33.
But as far-fetched as it sounds, this is the astonishing defense put forward by a mom-of-three and parenting author shockingly accused of felony neglect for abandoning her adopted daughter.
Kristine Barnett, 45, and her ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43, are alleged to have dumped Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace at an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 before moving to Canada one month later and breaking off contact.
Kristine Barnett, 45, (pictured) and ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43 have been charged with abandoning their daughter, then 9, in Lafayette, Indiana, and fleeing to Canada in 2013. But Kristine denies the claims and says she and Michael were victims of a fraud, stating the girl they adopted was an adult con artist who tried to kill her
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Kristine and Michael agreed to the emergency adoption of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace (above) in May 2010. This photos shows Natalia in September 2012. Her original birth certificate made her 9 but a court would later determine she was in fact 23 when this picture was taken
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Natalia, pictured days after being collected from her Florida adoption center in May 2010 by the Barnetts, soon had her new parents suspicious as Natalia had her period and an adult vocabulary for a seven-year-old
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Natalia pictured being home schooled in December 2010. Kristine Barnett claims Natalia tried pushing her onto an electric fence, poured bleach into her coffee and threatened to stab the Barnetts in their sleep
Family adopt 22-year-old sociopath masquerading as a child
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Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.
But in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV at an undisclosed location, Kristine insists there's a major flaw in their case: Natalia was not a nine year old - as charging documents claim - she was actually 22.
Barnett claims the true victims are her and her family who were terrorized for years by the mysterious impostor who threatened to stab them in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence and poured bleach in her coffee.
'The movie 'Orphan' is exactly what happened.
‘She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard,’ she told DailyMailTV.
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Michael Barnett surrendered to authorities on September 18 and was released on $5,000 bail. A hearing has been set for September 2. Kristine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond.
‘She was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn't go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects.
‘I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, what are you doing? She said, "I am trying to poison you."
‘The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here,’ said Barnett.
‘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.
‘She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing.’
Before criminal charges were leveled at them on September 11, Barnett and ex-husband Michael were hailed as exemplary parents who raised child 'genius' Jake Barnett.
Diagnosed with autism at age two, Jake nonetheless had his first academic paper published at 12 and by 15 was studying at a prestigious physics institute.
+22
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Mom-of-three Kristine Barnett says her family's experience with Natalie is akin to the 2009 horror movie 'Orphan' where Isabelle Fuhrman plays a 33-year-old woman who appears to be a child due to a growth condition and tries to murder her adopted family
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‘She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard', said Kristine Barnett of her adopted daughter Natalia (pictured)
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To welcome Natalia to her new home in May 2010, the Barnetts staged a party. Kristine, pictured far right, says Natalia (center) wanted to have her face painted
His story was featured in a 2012 episode of CBS 60 Minutes - but it was the shy girl who sat to his left at the family dinner table that would one day prompt altogether more sinister headlines.
The Barnetts, experienced foster parents who ran a children's day care from their Westfield, Indiana home, collected the curly-haired youngster from Florida in May 2010.
While living with the Barnetts, Natalia's adoption was completed in November that year.
In a frank and tearful interview with DailyMailTV, Kristine Barnett insisted she treated the new addition to her family as if she were her biological child.
She had no hesitation in accepting Natalia despite learning she had a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision.
‘I always wanted to have a larger family and I had very severe complications in my pregnancies and was unable to have more children,’ Barnett explained.
‘I also at that time had a very privileged life. I felt that if I had the ability to help another person in the world then I wanted to do it.’
Given just 24-hours to complete an emergency adoption, the couple raced to an adoption center in Florida to sign the paperwork and meet their ‘six-year-old’ daughter.
They gleaned precious few details of her background: Natalia had been in the US for two years, had a Ukrainian birth certificate reading September 4, 2003 and needed a home immediately because her previous adoptive parents suddenly gave her up - for undisclosed reasons.
‘Out of compassion for their situation I didn’t want to press them for information on what had gone wrong,’ the mom went on.
+22
Tearful Kristine described how Natalia was treated by mental health specialists who determined Natalia was an adult and pressed for the courts to have her birth certificate changed
+22
Michael Barnett is pictured holding his new daughter Natalia in May 2010 in Florida just days after collecting her from the adoption center
In 2012, Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana determined Natalia was born in 1989, rather than agreeing with her Ukrainian birth certificate which claimed she was born on September 4, 2003. The photo on the
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