Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #571

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They Thought They Were Adopting a 6-Year-Old. Now They Say She Was Adult 'Sociopath' With Dwarfism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzyCtQjw4pg
by Christine Pelisek
Michael and Kristine
Barnett and their family were at an Indiana dairy farm to celebrate the birthday of one of their sons. The family was walk- ing near an elec- tric fence on the property — but their adopted daughter Natalia Grace said she needed to stop.
Kristine stayed back with Natalia while Michael and their three sons continued to walk
ahead.
A short time later Barnett and his sons heard sirens.
“The second I heard the sirens, I thought, 'Kristine is dead,'” Barnett said. He added: "Natalia had been trying to pull Kristine into the fence."
The bizarre tale of Natalia's adop- tion-gone-wrong is featured in the new ID docuseries, The Curious Case of Natalia
Grace, which will
debut across three consecutive nights on ID beginning Monday, May 29, airing nightly from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT.
At the dairy farm, said Barnett, “[Natalia] had been screaming out loud. You f----- - b---- I am going to kill you...You are going to die."
Barnett said he and his wife want- ed Natalia arrest- ed, but instead law enforcement brought her to a psychiatric facility for evaluation.
“She admittedly, to their face, when they came to the 911 call said, 'I am trying to kill her,'” Barnett said. “They made the distinction that their visual told them, ‘Hey that is a little girl she is not really trying to kill anybody. She is sick. We are going to take her to the hospital instead.'”
The story of Natalia, an orphan from the Ukraine who was adopted by the Barnetts, made headlines around the world.
The couple claimed when they adopted Natalia in 2010 they believed they were adopt- ing a 6-year-old girl. Soon after, they claimed they became suspi- cious of her age, leading to a bombshell claim: that Natalia, who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphy- seal, was merely posing as a child — was really an
adult woman with sinister intentions.
The Barnetts alleged Natalia tried to harm them and their biological chil- dren. The couple claimed that Natalia not only tried to electro- cute Kristine but attempted to poi- son Kristine's cof- fee and placed clear thumb tacks on the stairs face up so that they would step on them.
In 2012, two years after Natalia was adopted by the Barnetts, the cou- ple petitioned Marion County Probate Court to have her age legally changed to 22, changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989.
The following year, the couple moved with their three sons to Canada without her, leaving her alone in an apart- ment in Lafayette.
The Barnetts, who later divorced, were
charged with neg- lect of a depend- ent. Prosecutors couldn't charge the couple with neglect of a child because of Natalia's court- ordered age change.
Natalia testified during Michael’s trial saying that she didn’t want to live in Lafayette.
“I wanted to be with the Barnetts,” she said,
the Lafayette Journal & Courier reported. “I wanted to live with them.”
Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and con- spiracy to commit neglect of a dependent in 2022, the Associated
Press reported.
In March, charges against Kristina, the author of "The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius" about her prodigy son, were dropped, accord- ing to WTHR.
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