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Parents Who 'Abandoned Their Nine-Year-Old' Claim She Was A Fully-Grown, Mentally Unwell Adult

Mr. Banooka

Mr. Banooka

Abominable Snowman
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Apologies if this should be posted elsewhere. I had a search around and couldn't find anywhere I thought was relevant.

This has to be one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read! Couple adopt little girl who may or may not be a grown adult with dwarfism. I genuinely don't know what to make of it.

Here are a couple of links...

https://jezebel.com/parents-accused-of-abandoning-their-9-year-old-child-sa-1838383474
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...s-girl-was-actually-scamming-adult-sociopath/
 
It strikes me that the biggest missing piece of this convoluted puzzle concerns the circumstances under which Natalia became available for the "emergency adoption" the Barnetts had to decide and execute in only about 24 hours.

Presumably it was her prior adoptive parents who'd been involved in her original adoption from Ukraine. I find it strange that none of the news accounts (I've seen) mention anything about checking with the prior adoptive parents or delving into their original adoption of the girl(?).

There are mentions of Natalia's Ukrainian documents being reviewed and evaluated as questionable, but no mention of investigating the previous adoption and / or Natalia's behavior during that earlier period.
 
EnolaGaia said:
It strikes me that the biggest missing piece of this convoluted puzzle concerns the circumstances under which Natalia became available for the "emergency adoption" the Barnetts had to decide and execute in only about 24 hours.

Presumably it was her prior adoptive parents who'd been involved in her original adoption from Ukraine. I find it strange that none of the news accounts (I've seen) mention anything about checking with the prior adoptive parents or delving into their original adoption of the girl(?).

There are mentions of Natalia's Ukrainian documents being reviewed and evaluated as questionable, but no mention of investigating the previous adoption and / or Natalia's behavior during that earlier period.
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I found it interesting that in one of the reports it was stated that Natalia didn't have any Ukrainian language. But then realised she could have been originally adopted as a baby from the Ukraine.

As an adopter myself I have learned a lot about the trauma facing adopted children over the last few years. The way Natalia's adoptive parents appear to have treated her isn't the way to help her with any mental health issues she may have had, whether a younger child or teenager. Them having a previous child with severe autism would have led me to think they would have known what they were doing. However, we aren't getting the full story here so it's difficult to come up with a sensible hypothesis.
 
It's a very odd case indeed. She does look older than 9, I think.
 
Mythopoeika said:
It's a very odd case indeed. She does look older than 9, I think.
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Bit the bullet and read the Daily Mail article in order to see some more pictures. I would say she definitely looks older than 9 in some of the pictures, likely mid teens.
 
What a weird & confusing story. Hard to get a handle with the conflicting details. Mind you, this is from the Mail..

They adopted her in 2010

Her age is pronounced to be [now] anywhere between 17 - 30

They rented her a flat in 2013 & last contact [with the wife] was on the phone when 'she was cooking spaghetti for her new family' - Who, & where did they come from?

There's then a missing 3 years with no information at all, to 2016, when the husband attends a court hearing as another couple apply to become her guardians, which they subsequently drop after the court finds she's not a minor.

As for Natalia, neither the Barnetts, their attorneys, nor seemingly anyone else involved in this baffling case, appears to know her whereabouts.
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There's too much missing detail to make any sense of it. I think we have to hope for a more coherent report from somewhere.
 
marksourbutts said:
Bit the bullet and read the Daily Mail article in order to see some more pictures. I would say she definitely looks older than 9 in some of the pictures, likely mid teens.
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I have to say there are definite indications of dwarfism visible in some of the photos I've seen. This is consistent with the claim Natalia has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED). An SED diagnosis doesn't prove her relative age one way or the other.

The only thing I'm sure about is that at least one of the principal characters is deluded or a deceiver. I can't tell which one(s) it may be.
 
Kristine Barnett and ex-husband Michael Barnett were charged with neglect after leaving Ukraine-born Natalie Grace in an apartment shortly before the family moved to Canada in 2013.

The family paid Natalie’s rent after they left the United States but otherwise broke off contact, Michael Barnett reportedly told police.

TELEMMGLPICT000210687366_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq8M9DfW3--bPajd6mUcMQ8GU4H2ofZNAhiEtdD9fL83M.jpeg


Natalie is 3ft tall and has trouble walking.

In a defence echoing the 2009 horror film ‘The Orphan’, Ms Barnett, 45, says Natalie was 22-years-old when they left her behind - not nine, as court documents claim.

According to a letter from the family doctor, which Ms Barnett provided to a local TV station, Natalie’s date of birth at the time of adoption was 'clearly inaccurate'.

The letter, which Indiana University Health have not confirmed as genuine, states that she had adult teeth and had begun menstruating.

It also states that the girl had made a ‘career of perpetuating her age facade’, and was diagnosed with sociopathic personality disorder.

The Barnetts had the girl’s age legally changed from eight to 22 in 2012, making her legal date of birth September, 4 1989. Ms Barnett has told Daily Mail TV that the she had attempted to harm other members of the family whilst she was under their care.

“She was hiding knives in our couches. She was talking about [how] she was going to kill family members. She put chemicals in the coffee,” Ms Barnett said. ‘She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing.’​
“She would stand over people in their sleep. She would be standing in the middle of the room and say ‘I’m waiting for the right time’.”
Natalie was in and out of mental health facilities, but was left in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 when the Barnetts moved to Canada.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/24/woman-accused-abandoning-adopted-daughter-says-adult-suffering/

maximus otter
 
More on the Natalia Grace Barnett story

'I'm 16, not a 33-year-old scam artist'

She's appeared on her first interview on tv with her new adoptive mother.

According to the Barnetts

Natalia spoke more like a teenager than a child, didn't want to play with toys and wanted to spend time with older girls.

She also says there were physical signs that she might be older than the family believed.

"I was giving her a bath and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked," she said.

"I had just been told she was a six year old and it was very apparent she wasn't.

"Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism."

Kristine claims bone tests proved that Natalia was 14 or older at the time of her adoption, and says that Natalia confessed to being older than she pretended to be during a long-term stay in a psychiatric unit - where she was placed in 2012 by the Barnetts.
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They left her in a flat where she lived for a year 2013 - 14 & have been charged with neglect.

Curiously, according to the article,

Natalia also said that while she lived alone for a year as an eight-year-old, she lived on canned food left for her by the Barnetts.
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Would an 8 year old survive for a year on their own, and supposing she was 9 by 2014, that would make her 14 now.

Trial is in Jan 2020 so probably going to have to wait til then for more.
 
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