Parents abandoned adopted daughter believing she was a dwarf adult woman trying to kill them

Kristine Barnett (45) and her ex-husband, Michael Barnett (43), decided in May 2010 to adopt a 6-year-old Ukrainian girl known as Natalia Grace who had a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision. What they could not imagine is that the supposed girl was actually an adult woman of almost 19 years with dwarfism.

According to the story told by the mother to the Daily Mail, tranquility reigned for several months at the girl's new home, but things soon changed. Natalia began to make her adoptive parent's life impossible and even tried to kill them. 

Kristine claims she tried to push her against an electric fence, intoxicate her by throwing bleach in her coffee and even threatened to stab her and her husband. "She wanted to kill us", the mother said.

The Barnett family says they tried to take their adopted daughter to a mental health center in order to help her. But once there, the specialists assured those that the age of the 'girl' was "clearly inaccurate". The teeth and sexual development of the person before them were inappropriate for a child, they explained.

With the family until 2013

Despite this, little Natalia continued to live with the family until 2013, when they decided to abandon her after discovering she was born in the 1990s.

‘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 told DailyMailTV.

‘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 2012, the Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis concluded that Natalia was actually born in 1989, based on medical evidence.

A year later, the couple moved to Canada with their biological children and left the adopted daughter in an apartment in Lafayette. They paid her rent, but not the rest of her expenses.

In 2014, when the police went to evict the tenant from the house for lack of payment found the girl inside, who assured she was nine years old and her adoptive parents had abandoned her. 

As incredible as it may seem, the United States justice accused the couple of abandoning the 'girl' to move to Canada with their biological children. 

"The state of Indiana is accusing me of crimes against a girl even though it was determined several times that Natalia is an adult", Kristine explained.

Like the movie 'Orphan'

Kristine Barnett turned herself in to the authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after paying a bail of 5,500 US dollars. Her ex-husband, Michael, did the same on September 18 and was immediately released.

After the news of this case has been known around the world, many people compared this story with that of  the horror movie 'Orphan'.

'Orphan' official trailer in English. Video published by hugob00s100 

The film, directed by the Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, shows the story of a couple who adopts a girl who hides a dark secret. It turns out that, as happened with the case of Natalia Grace, she is actually an adult woman who terrifies her family and schoolmates.