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A family in Indiana that adopted a young girl from Ukraine but later alleged she was an "adult masquerading as a child with intent to harm their family" are speaking out about the ordeal 13 years later.
"We were all abused," father Michael Barnett screams in the trailer for an upcoming documentary on Investigation Discovery. "I hate this."
Michael Barnett and his then-wife, Kristine Barnett, adopted in April 2010 someone whom they believed to be a 6-year-old girl named Natalia, who suffers from a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita. But the family soon questioned her age after dealing with allegedly violent behavior.
"She tried to poison and kill my wife," Michael Barnett said in the trailer for the documentary, "The Curious Case Of Natalia Grace." "One night, I opened my eyes and Natalia is standing at the foot of the bed with a knife in her hand."
Archival photo of Natalia Barnett, who is accused of pretending to be a young girl at the time of her adoption but was an adult. (Courtesy Investigation Discovery)
In 2012, the parents petitioned a court to legally change Natalia’s birth year from 2003 to 1989, which was granted and changed her age from 8 years old to 22. The family then moved to Canada with their biological children, where their oldest son was slated to start college.
The parents of the alleged girl landed in hot water in 2013 when it was discovered Natalia was living alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, leading to an investigation and their arrests. In 2019, the couple, who have since divorced, were charged with neglect of a dependent.
Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted a young girl from Ukraine but soon questioned her real age after a series of alleged violent outbursts. (Courtesy Investigation Discovery)
"The media is painting me to be a child abuser, but there is no child here," Kristine Barnett told the Daily Mail in 2019.
"Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth," she added in the interview. "She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults."
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Michael Barnett was ultimately found not guilty by a jury in 2022, and Kristine Barnett had all of her charges dismissed in March of this year. Both parents had previously spoken out that the charges were bogus, citing Natalia was an adult and not a neglected child.
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The three-part series will reportedly feature "bombshell interviews with members of Natalia’s adoptive family," such as Michael Barnett and his son, Jacob Barnett, as well as legal experts, friends and neighbors.
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