Orphan Abandoned By Adoptive Parents Who Say She’s An ‘Adult Sociopath’ Gives First Interview

Nov 13, 2019 by apost team

Natalia Grace Barnett made headlines earlier this year after her former adoptive-family came forward claiming she is a 30-year-old scam artist that tried to kill them. 

Natalia, who has a rare form of dwarfism, has now come forward to shut down those claims and give her own side of the story. Speaking to Dr. Phil, she said she is, in fact, 16 years old as her birth certificate states and claims her alleged violent behavior towards the Barnett family is completely fabricated. 

Kristine and Michael Barnett, from Indiana, adopted Natalia in 2010 in Florida after her previous adoptive family suddenly gave her up after two years for undisclosed reasons. The Barnetts had little information about Natalia and had 24 hours to decide on whether they would adopt her or not. Up until then, the only facts they knew about Natalia was that she was born in Ukraine in 2003, and had been in the United States since 2008. 

“Out of compassion for their situation I didn’t want to press [the previous family] for information on what had gone wrong,” Kristine Barnett told the Daily Mail. 

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The Barnetts started growing suspicious of Natalia when they noticed many things that seemed to be out of the ordinary for a girl of her alleged age.

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

Furthermore, Kristine claims Natalia seemed disinterested in playing with dolls and would instead prefer to hang around teenage girls. She would also allegedly use vocabulary deemed “too sophisticated” for a child her age. 

Eventually, after realizing Natalia was menstruating and trying to conceal it, the family ordered a bone density test to determine her real age, which estimated to be 14 at the time by the doctor. As the Barnetts started questioning Natalia’s story, Kristine claims her behavior started to deteriorate. 

Natalia started acting violently, with her family claiming she tried to kill them on multiple occasions. According to Kristine, Natalia even tried to poison her once by adding bleach to her beverage and showed no remorse when confronted. As more evidence emerged suggesting Natalia was much older than she claimed, the Barnetts decided to get her age legally changed and declare her an emancipated adult. They rented her an apartment of her own with the first years rent paid, arranged for her to receive food stamps from the government and fled to Canada. 

The Barnetts have since been charged with child abandonment and are currently being investigated. Earlier this week, Natalia came forward and conducted her very first interview with Dr. Phil accompanied by her new adoptive family. 

"I actually thought I'd found the right family after bouncing around a lot of families," Natalia told Dr. Phil about the Barnetts. "I thought I'd found the right family for me."

Additionally, Natalia said all claims she acted violently against her family were completely fabricated. She even revealed Kristine had added bleach into her own beverage and framed Natalia for the act in order to get a photo. 

Do you think Natalia is really 16 years old? Do you think the Barnetts should be charged with abandoning a minor? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!