This is one of the most disturbing and bizarre adoption stories I have ever come across.
This couple believes that the 6-year-old child they adopted from Ukraine is actually a 22-year-old sociopath.
Kristine and Michael Barnett adopted Natalia Grace at the (alleged) age of six. Three years later, the now-divorced couple left her alone in Lafayette, Indiana and fled to Canada. Authorities accused them of abandoning their child—but they claim that she’s not actually a child at all, and in fact is a dangerous adult sociopath.
Kristine explained how her suspicions of Natalia’s true age began to arise.
“She had periods,” she told the Daily Mail. “She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism.”
Kristine added that Natalia had full pubic hair and an adult vocabulary.
“I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six-year-old, and it was very apparent she wasn’t.”
The adoptive parents grew to be terrified of the girl. Kristine claims that Natalia poured bleach into her coffee, pushed her towards an electric fence and threatened to stab them in their sleep.
“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 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.”
The entire experience is creepily similar to the 2009 horror movie Orphan.
https://twitter.com/geekylonglegs/status/1174725985960415232?s=20
So what is Natalia’s true age?
It’s still a mystery. Kristine once ordered bone density tests, which found that the girl was at least 14. Other tests, however, found that Natalia was 8 or 11 years old.
In 2012, while being treated at a psychiatric institution, Natalia reportedly told a clinical therapist that she was 18. That same year, a court in Indiana determined that she was born in 1989—not 2003 as her Ukrainian birth certificate claimed—and changed her legal age to 22, based on evidence provided by the Barnetts.
After Natalia was treated for various mental disorders, Kristine and Michael set her up in an apartment for an independent life, then left her alone and went to Canada.
Now, however, Indiana state is accusing them of abandoning their child and lying about her age to others. Both parents went to jail and have been released on bond.
This story really seems like it’s only going to get weirder.
