Innocent child or HOMICIDAL MANIAC?
A couple stand accused of abandoning a young girl after claiming she was an adult dwarf who wanted to kill their family
It is a case so bizarre it defies belief, and has resulted in a highly respected US couple being charged with child neglect after their adoption of a six-year-old girl with a rare form of dwarfism went horribly wrong.
And just last week there was a new twist when Natalia Grace’s Ukrainian birth mother was tracked down by the Daily Mail. She insisted to the paper her daughter was indeed an innocent child, born in 2003, and not in 1989, as adoptive parents Kristine, 45, and Michael Barnett, 43, claim.
ONE BIG LIE
“Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago,” begged heartbroken biological mum Anna Volodymyrivna Gava, after finding out that the Barnetts abandoned Natalia and fled to Canada in 2013, leaving the then-nine-year-old to fend for herself in Indiana, US.
But the Barnetts claim it’s all one big lie – a bone density test done on Natalia suggested she was at least 14 years old around the time she was adopted in 2010. They insist Natalia was 22 when they left her and cruelly masquerading as a young child at that time.
Not surprisingly, the story has caused sensational international headlines, with some seeing the couple as cruel and callous monsters, and others seeing them as victims of an unstable and manipulative con woman.
Kristine says she’s being depicted as a child abuser, “but there is no child here”.
“Natalia was a woman,” she still insists. “She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism.”
LIVING IN FEAR
Police charged the Barnetts with child neglect last month, alleging Natalia was left to fend for herself for three years, an act made more sinister by the fact that, at less than a metre tall and with a rare form of dwarfism, it was hard for her to even walk.
But the couple, who have three sons, including an adopted boy genius, claim they were living in fear of Natalia, who had threatened to kill Kristine and their sons after an emergency court hearing decided she was an adult and legally changed her birth date to 1989.
“She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members,” says Kristine.
“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.’”
In a recent interview on
The Dr Oz Show, Michael claimed they had sent Natalia to a stress centre to be evaluated after the poisoning attempt.
“While at the stress centre, 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,” he said.
Michael claimed there were other signs Natalia was not who she reported to be, such as not having a detectable Ukrainian accent or understanding her native language.
The Barnetts, who are now divorced, will appear in court again later this year, while Natalia is now living with a Christian couple and their five children.
‘She said she wanted to kill family members’