In 2010, Michael and Kristine adopted 7-year-old Natalia. They believe she was actually 22.

A young girl born in the Baltic region gets adopted by an American couple. At first, everything goes really well. But then the young girl exhibits violent behaviour and tries to kill her adoptive parents and siblings. And, as it turns out, the young girl isn't so young after all - she's an adult pretending to be a child.

No, this isn't a story about the 2009 thriller Orphan (although that is the premise for the film); this is the extraordinarily true story about Natalia, a Ukrainian-born orphan who was adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett, of Indiana in the United States, in 2010.

[And if you're wondering how the 2009 film Orphan came to be, it was actually based on the true story of Babora Skrlová, an Estonian woman who was found living in Norway in 2007, posing as a 13-year-old boy named Adam - she was actually 33 at the time.]

So, how did Natalia come to live with the Barnetts?

Despite having three biological children (sons Jake, Wes, and Evan), Michael and Kristine had always envisaged having an even larger family. Kristine was unable to have more children naturally due to severe complications during her pregnancies, so the Barnetts were very open to adoption.

In May 2010, the couple flew to Florida from their home in Lafayette, Indiana, to meet Natalia Grace. Natalia had arrived in the US from Ukraine in 2008 and had been adopted almost immediately, but the adoption had not "worked out". No reason has ever been disclosed about why her first adoptive parents decided to return her to the orphanage.

When Michael and Kristine met Natalia in 2010, they were told she was six years old, just shy of seven. Her birth date was listed as September 4, 2003, on her Ukrainian birth certificate. Natalia suffered from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism, and while this might cause hesitation in some adoptive parents, there was no such hesitation from Michael and Kristine. One of their sons, Jake, was autistic, and considered a child prodigy. The couple had also run a children's daycare previously. They were well-versed and equipped to handle kids with special needs.

In November 2010, when Natalia was seven, Michael and Kristine officially adopted her.

Yet, according to Kristine, it became obvious their daughter was not who she appeared to be.

"I was giving her a bath, and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six-year-old, and it was very apparent she wasn't," Kristine told DailyMail TV. 

She also noticed that Natalia had a "sophisticated" vocabulary, that she liked to spend time with teenagers rather than people her own age, and that she did not speak Ukrainian. Kristine also found bloody clothing in their rubbish bins and believed it was Natalia trying to hide her periods.

Natalia Barnett. Image: DailyMailTV.

Bone density tests were done to try to determine Natalia's age. The results showed that she was likely 14 years or older.

By 2011, Natalia had grown increasingly violent. According to Kristine, she threatened to stab the family in their sleep, poured bleach in Kristine’s coffee and tried to push her into an electric fence. She had also attacked a baby and admitted to hearing voices.

"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," Kristine said.

"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. 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."

Michael and Kristine sought professional help for their daughter. A clinical therapist who worked with Natalia claimed she told her that she was really 18 years old and enjoyed terrorising the Barnetts. In March 2012, physician Andrew McLaren told the couple that Natalia was clearly not a child and that she had made a career out of pretending to be one.

This was the final nail in the coffin for Michael and Kristine, who were by then convinced that Natalia was not only an adult, but a dangerous psychopath. They applied to Marion County Superior Court to have her age changed, and the judge agreed to revise Natalia's birth date to September 4, 1989. That meant she was 22 years old when she was adopted, not seven.

Michael and Kristine then rented an apartment for Natalia to live on her own, and moved to Canada so that their gifted son Jake could attend university. Kristine said the rent was paid for a year before the family left the country.

In 2014, Natalia was evicted from the apartment, and neighbours took her in. Michael and Kristine, who were divorced that same year, were charged with felony neglect in 2019 for abandoning their daughter. They have both protested their innocence.

Kristine and Michael Barnett arrest photos. Image: County Police.

"I have been cooperative the whole time. I have been truthful with people the whole time," Kristine said. "I am being charged by the state of Indiana for crimes against a child when the state of Indiana has determined multiple times that Natalia was an adult.

"From day one this was a mission of love. But when you bring a child into your home, you expect them to be a child. To be accused of this is unconscionable to me. It’s just horrifying."

Kristine was released on September 19, 2019, after posting a $5,500 bond, while Michael was released after posting $5,000 bail.

Natalia disputes age claims on Dr Phil.

In November 2019, Natalia appeared on the popular talk show Dr Phil to assure people she was who she said she was: a (then) 16-year-old teenager, born in 2003. Natalia has since been adopted by Antwon and Cynthia Mans, who believe she is a child and are trying to get her birth certificate reverted back to its original date. This has been contested by the Barnetts.

"It’s not true at all," Natalia told Dr Phil of the claims by her adoptive parents that she is an adult woman. "I'm 16. I was six years old when I came to the United States."

"So at eight years old, you're living alone in an apartment?" Dr Phil asked Natalia.

"Yes... I actually didn't even go grocery shopping," she said. "My landlord took me to a gas station or something just to pick up a couple of things. The Barnetts had given me food that they didn't eat. Like canned food and stuff like that."

Natalia with Dr Phil on his show. Image: Dr Phil.

DailyMail TV claimed to have found Natalia's birth mother in Ukraine in October 2019. Anna Volodymyrivna Gava said she was forced to give up her daughter after her birth, and that Natalia was definitely born in 2003.

"I know exactly how old she is. This girl is my daughter who was born 16 years ago. Doctors told me to leave the baby: 'Leave her, don’t ruin your life,' they said. Both them and my mum told me to leave her. They said the baby would never be good, that she would never be able to move, that she would be chained to a chair or to a bed," Anna said.

"She now lives in America with adoptive parents who want to ditch her. I thought everything was okay with her and it turned out that it’s not all okay."

She also pleaded to Natalia, "Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you. We are waiting for you. You have two sisters and two brothers."

After Natalia appeared on Dr Phil, and Kristine spoke with DailyMail TV, a judge filed a gag order to silence them both.

Michael found not guilty in his trial.

Last month, Michael began to quietly weep in court as he was found not guilty of neglecting his adopted daughter, causing bodily injury, or conspiring with his ex-wife Kristina to neglect Natalia. He walked out of the courtroom a free man, and his wife (he has since remarried) told him, "It's over."

It took the jury just two hours to deliberate on his case. Kristine's case will be trialled in February next year, and the gag order remains in place.

Natalia, who was present in the courtroom, left as soon as the verdicts were read. 

According to Lafayette's Journal & Courier publication, the jury were not told that Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted Natalia in 2010 and that they believed she was an adult and that the adoption was therefore a fraud.

"What do you do when your daughter wants nothing to do with you? When your daughter wants an independent life," Michael's lawyer said in his closing arguments. "It’s true she’s a little person. Don't allow your empathy or sympathy for her sway your judgment.

"She’s old enough to make her own independent decisions. She wanted nothing to do with the Barnetts. She's moved on. That’s her independent choice."

In an interview after the verdict, Michael said, "I can breathe. I haven't been able to breathe in a very long time."

As for Kristine, she has said, "The media is painting me to be a child abuser. But there is no child here."

At this point, it's impossible to say who is right or wrong. It's likely we won't ever know. Who is the real victim - Natalia or the Barnetts? Who is telling the truth? No one can say for sure.

Feature Image: Dr Phil.