Victim or fraudster: Ukrainian adopted in the USA was suspected of being an adult dwarf

The famous couple from the United States was at the center of the scandal. The police believe that six years ago they left a ten-year-old orphan from Ukraine without help. The girl survived in a strange city without money and adults. The defendants claim that the orphan turned out to be an adult fraudulent psychopath who suffered from dwarfism and pretended to be a child. Writes about it Lenta.ru report.

In 2012, Natasha Barnett "matured" 13 years before the law thanks to her adoptive parents Michael and Christine. The couple went to probate court and convinced the judge that Natasha was an adult woman pretending to be a nine-year-old girl. How old Natasha really is is still not clear.

The Barnetts adopted Natasha in 2010. The girl was born in Ukraine and was a disabled orphan. She had problems with stunted growth due to a bone development disorder called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, which causes dwarfism. English actor Warwick Davis, who starred in Star Wars and the Harry Potter films, suffers from this disease.

In 2008, Natasha moved from Ukraine to the United States. First, she was adopted by a family from Florida, who abandoned Natasha after 2 years. There are almost no details about this period of her life, but court documents mention that the guardians could not cope with the child. After that, the adoption agency began to look for a new family for the girl. The Barnetts were worthy parents and did not give up even in those cases when doctors dropped their hands.

A few years ago, Jacob, one of the three sons of Michael and Christine, was diagnosed with autism. Experts believed that he would never learn to speak and shut himself up. Mother did not want to believe in it, she began to deal with him on her own and saved the boy. Thanks to her efforts, Jacob grew up as a child prodigy. The Barnetts had no doubt that they would be able to go out and Natasha. They agreed to take her under their care, but regretted it.

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According to the Ukrainian birth certificate, in 2010, the girl was seven years old. This fact was in doubt from the very beginning. Kristin Barnett claims that Natasha looked and behaved differently from other seven-year-olds. According to Christine, the girl skillfully manipulated others, was confused in stories about the past and had a non-childish vocabulary.

Foster parents found that the orphan deliberately concealed signs of puberty, which went further than you might expect. This made them wary.

“It became obvious that the patient was older than she said,” stated doctor Andrew McLaren, who monitored Natasha’s health from 2010 to 2012.

Puberty is not the most reliable criterion, but there are others. First, milk teeth. The first permanent teeth begin to change from the age of six, and by the age of 13, adolescents, as a rule, do not have a single deciduous tooth. Four wisdom teeth usually appear after 18 years. Secondly, bone age. To determine it, X-rays of the hand and wrist are taken. In young children, cartilaginous growth zones, the so-called epiphyseal plates, are noticeable on them. Each year, the cartilage becomes thinner until it finally disappears. According to their thickness and other features, specialists are able to determine the age of the child with good accuracy.

The girl was examined twice at the Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. In 2010, the doctor concluded that Natasha was about eight years old. Measurement of bone age in the 2012 year showed that it is one year different from that indicated in the documents. This did not reassure the adoptive parents. They believed that experts do not take into account the disease that the girl suffers. Since spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia affects bone development, Natasha’s bone age could lag significantly behind the true one.

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Christine claims that in 2011 the fears were confirmed. Both the dentist and the psychologist came to the conclusion that their adopted daughter is an adult woman; the conclusion was made on the development of teeth and the degree of puberty. In 2012, Natasha was admitted to a psychiatric clinic where she was diagnosed with a sociopathic personality disorder. This disease manifests itself not earlier than 16 years, and the girl, according to the documents, was only nine.

Maclaren writes that after returning from the hospital, Natasha admitted that she is older than 18 years. By that time, he was inclined to believe that she was at least 22. The social worker who dealt with the orphan believed the same. Both suspected that they had encountered an adult fraudster who also suffers from a mental illness.

“Natalia Barnett has made a career out of maintaining her feigned age,” McLaren’s letter said. “She fooled people who had the best intentions time and time again.” Including their previous and current guardians, doctors and adoptive parents.”

Michael and Christine were seriously afraid that they sheltered a monster, from which one should not expect anything good. They decided to go to the inheritance court and achieve an official change in the age of the adopted daughter. They managed to get the help of a lawyer Michelle Jackson, who is considered an expert in this field.

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According to Jackson, the Indiana courts where the Barnetts lived were considering at least one petition to change age per year. As a rule, they concern children who come from other countries and look younger than their age due to poor health or malnutrition. When considering such cases, the court is guided by data on bone age and tooth development, as well as the testimony of psychologists and other specialists. Michael and Christine presented all the necessary evidence and got their way.

Almost all information about Natasha’s behavior in childhood, the results of medical examinations and hospitalization in a psychiatric clinic comes from Christine Barnett and may well be a lie. Law enforcement agencies, trying to figure this story out since the 2014 year, have a different version. The investigation believes that the family cheated on the official age of a nine-year-old girl in order to get rid of her.

This is confirmed by the testimony of Michael Barnett. At the police interrogation, he admitted that he did not believe that Natasha was actually older. According to Michael, Christine herself taught the girl to say that she is 22 years old, and she looks younger than her years.

Why was this needed? In 2012, fame came to Jacob, the son of Christine and Michael, who suffers from autism. The child prodigy, who has been attending mathematics lectures at the university since the age of eight, was featured in newspapers and television programs. In a year, Christine will write a book about the struggle for her son; in Russia, its translation was published under the title “The Spark of God, or How to Raise a Genius.”

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“Today, Jacob has an IQ higher than Einstein, a photographic memory and incredible aptitude for the sciences,” her description states. “At the age of twelve, he began working on an original theory about astrophysics, which, according to experts, could earn him a Nobel Prize in the future.”

In 2013, 15-year-old Jacob was accepted into the prestigious Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics in the Canadian province of Ontario. Following him, his parents and brothers moved there.

“This is a big step for our family, but we knew it was inevitable,” Kristin explained in an interview with USA Today. “It was clear that one day Jacob would utilize the continuing education opportunities available in Indiana and would need a new facility.”

Before leaving, the adoptive parents sold the house, rented an apartment in the city of Lafayette (Louisiana) and settled Natasha there. A few days later, the orphan was left alone in a foreign city, where she had neither relatives nor acquaintances. Since then, she has never seen the Barnett. They did not come, did not call or even send her money.

According to the documents, Natasha was 23 of the year, so she could no longer study in a regular school. Since September, she began to go to school for adults who want to finish secondary education. Her neighbor told reporters that an orphan made acquaintance with people from a neighboring apartment building. She did not have money, so she had to rely on their help.
Nine months later, Natasha was evicted from the apartment for non-payment.

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“I can’t imagine where she went later,” says the neighbor. - I didn’t see her again. She stopped going to class and we didn't know what happened to her."

In September 2014, the school principal reported the student’s disappearance to the county sheriff’s office. An orphan was quickly found, interrogated, and initiated a case of neglect of parental responsibilities - this is what the story of the abandoned adopted daughter looked from the point of view of the police.

The court documents did not disclose what Natasha was doing over the next five years. It is known that in February 2016 of the year she left Lafayette, and two weeks later, another couple submitted a petition for adoption. The Barnetts were opposed. In January 2018, Natasha’s potential guardians changed their minds and recalled the petition.

11 September 2019 years Michael and Kristin Barnett were indicted. They are suspected of abandoning a dependent without help and endangering her life. Both that, and another threatens them with criminal punishment. Michael voluntarily surrendered to the police, made a bail and an hour later was released pending trial. Christine, apparently, is still in Canada.

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The woman claims that she learned about the persecution only after journalists began to call her. According to her, the charges shocked her. She insists that her family was the victim of a scam, and Natasha was an adult from the first day they met. Michael also changed his testimony and now, according to his lawyer, adheres to the same version.

Whose side is right will be determined by the trial, which will begin no earlier than next year. Even the police themselves don’t know who to believe. “It will end up being a TV series about this,” one of them admitted to a local TV channel.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• In 2010, Michael and Kristin Barnett adopted an eight-year-old girl from Ukraine, suffering from congenital spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia - a violation of bone development that causes dwarfism. The age of the adopted daughter from the very beginning aroused doubts among the Barnetts. They concluded that an orphan is an adult female psycho and through the court made a change in her age in official documents.

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