In 2010, Kristine and Michael Barnett, who lived in Florida, adopted a Ukrainian six-year-old girl named Natalia, who has a form of dwarfism.
However, it didn’t take long for the adoptive parents to question their new daughter’s age, for a number of reasons. For example, Kristine Barnett remembers giving Natalia a bath for the first time and noticing the girl had pubic hair. She also had periods, they claim, and adult teeth – uncommon bodily developments for a girl of her age.
“I had just been told she was a six-year-old and it was very apparent she wasn’t,” Kristine told the Daily Mail recently.
Kristine and Michael believed her to be close to 22-years-old, alleging she was actually born in 1989. In 2012, they had her age legally changed.
"The movie Orphan is exactly what happened," Kristine said, referencing the 2009 thriller that sees two parents adopt a murderous woman masquerading as a child.
Indeed, just like that movie, Kristine and Michael claim Natalia tried to kill them. They say Natalia tried to drag Kristine into an electric fence, poisoned their coffee and stood above them while they slept. According to them, Natalia is a "sociopath" and a "con artist".
So they moved to Canada and left Natalia behind, paying for her to live in an apartment by herself.
In September this year, they were charged with neglect and will now stand trial in early 2020 for their apparent abandonment.
Last week, Natalia, who claims she is now 16-years-old, went on US talk show Dr Phil and denied the claims she is an adult woman. She has since been adopted by Antwon and Cynthia Mans, who believe she is a child.
"It’s not true at all," Natalia said as tears streamed down her cheeks after Dr Phil asked about the Barnett's claims. "I’m 16. I was six years old when I came to the United States."
Dr Phil pointed out that it was hard to believe that an eight-year-old girl could function perfectly well in an apartment by herself, which Natalia did.
"So at eight-years-old, you're living alone in an apartment?" Dr Phil asks Natalia.
"Yes... I actually didn't even go grocery shopping. 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 explained.
Natalia also denied she had periods while living with the Barnetts.
The facts are yet to be confirmed and Natalia's real age remains unclear. Kristine and Michael Barnett, who are now divorced, will face court in January 2020.
Top Comments
The Barnetts' story has more holes than Swiss cheese. In the original Daily Mail story, Kristibne said that Natalia poisoned her coffee with "bleach, Windex, something like that." For one, bleach and Windex have two completely different odors, and for another, she can't remember what *someone tried to poison her with*? She also stated that Natalia tried to drag her to an electric fence. So we're expected to believe that Natalia, who doesn't even come up to Dr. Phil's waist, had the physical strength to drag a woman at least two feet taller than she is anywhere? And then when Michael Barnett talked to the media, the substance for the poisoning became Pine-Sol and "dragged her to an electric fence" was changed to "shoved her toward an electric fence." So this is now a third cleaning product for this one poisoning and there is still no way Natalia had the strength to shove a person two feet taller than she is.
But all the evidence I needed is in the Barnetts' own photographs that Kristine released to the Daily Mail. In these pictures, Natalia clearly has baby teeth, refuting Kristine's claims *in the same article* that Natalia had adult teeth. Comparing Kristine's pictures to Natalia's current appearance, it's clear that her faced has matured and lost the little-kid look, which it wouldn't have done if she was 22 in 2013 as the Barnetts claimed.
She doesn’t claim she’s 16, she is 16. That’s what her birth certificate said before her ‘parents’ convinced a judge to change it, and that’s what every doctor who examined her said. Bone density tests confirmed she was between 6 and 8 when they adopted her. It’s hideous that the media are treating her like a potential con artist when she’s literally an abandoned child.
These two horrible people left her behind because they wanted to move to Canada with their gifted child, who was starting a PhD, and because the mother wanted to write a book and give talks about raising a genius. This poor little girl didn’t fit her perfect family narrative so they abandoned her.