(PatriotWise.com) — An Indiana father who adopted a child from Ukraine later discovered she was not a child but allegedly a sociopath who allegedly threatened to kill his family members. A new Netflix documentary entitled “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace” covers the story in detail.
Michael Barnett and his wife Kristine adopted what they thought was a young Ukrainian girl in 2010. They believed she was six years old and an orphan. The girl, Natalia, arrived at the Barnett’s home in Lafayette on April 26th, 2010. According to the couple, things in their home rapidly spiraled downward.
The family says Natalia threatened violence against their other children, and Michael said he woke up one night to find her holding a knife at the foot of his bed. In a case filled with twists and turns, Natalia denies any violent threats but acknowledges that a family fostered her before her adoption, and this family would not keep her because they said she had tried to hurt their son.
The Barnetts say they were so scared of Natalia that they fled the US for Canada, bringing their three biological sons with them. They paid rent on their home for a year so Natalia could live there. They claimed she was a fully grown adult who had scammed them.
Dr. Phil interviewed Natalia in 2019 and she denied the Barnett’s allegations. She claimed to be 16 at the time and to have come to the US at 6. After stating she’d been left alone by the family when she was 8, the Barnetts were charged with child neglect.
The family petitioned the courts in Marion County to change Natalia’s birth date. The request was granted following medical and psychological tests and Natalia was instantly transformed from an 8-year-old girl to a 22-year-old woman. The Barnetts could not therefore be charged with child neglect.
The story is similar to that of the smash hit horror movie Orphan, released in 2009.
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