A mum charged with abandoning her adopted 10-year-old daughter claims the girl was a 22-year-old sociopath who tried to kill her family.
Kristine Barnett, 45, and Michael Barnett, 43, allegedly dumped their Ukrainian-born daughter Natalia Grace, who has dwarfism, in a flat in the US and moved to Canada.
A doctor who examined Natalia in 2010 – the year she was adopted – determined that she was eight-years-old, but in 2012 the Barnetts – now divorced – legally changed her age to 22.
After being charged with neglect, Kristine has bizarrely claimed Natalia was an impostor pretending to be a child and tried to kill her in a plot mirroring the horror film The Orphan.
Kristine claims 3-ft tall Natalia threatened to stab her and her then-husband in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence and poured bleach in her coffee.
Kristine told DailyMailTV: “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 was standing over people in the middle of the night. You couldn’t go to sleep. We had to hide all the sharp objects.
I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, ‘what are you doing?’ She said, ‘I am trying to poison you’.”
In an interview with WISH-TV, Kristine claimed Natalia was diagnosed as both a psychopath and sociopath.
Kristine denied accusations that she neglected Natalia, and claims that Natalia is an adult and was not a child when she was adopted.
She claims Natalia – initially said to be as young as six when she was adopted – had already started her period and was trying to cover it up, had adult teeth and full pubic hair.
She also claims doctors examined Natalia and concluded she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.
Kristine alleges the illness led to Natalia jumping from moving cars and smearing blood over mirrors.
She claims the couple had Natalia’s age “corrected” after a physician told them Natalia’s 2003 birth date was wrong and the daughter had made a career out of pretending to be a young child.
Natalia suffers from a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.
Because of her condition it has been difficult for doctors to determine her age.
When she was adopted it was claimed she was six.
In 2010 a doctor said she was about eight, and an evaluation in 2012 showed that she was a minor aged about 10 or 11, according to a police affidavit.
The Barnetts had Natalia’s age changed to 22 and later rented an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, in 2013 and left her there alone, according to police.
The foster parents moved to Canada with their two sons, where one of them was attending a prestigious physics school west of Toronto.
Police have now charged the Barnetts with neglect, claiming Natalia was abandoned.
According to the affidavit, Michael admitted to police that he and Kristine had Natalia’s age changed to 22 even though doctors had determined she was a minor.
The document states: “Michael Barnett admitted Kristine Barnett told Natalia to tell others Natalia looked young but was actually 22.”