The Barnetts claim that they were duped by a Ukrainian woman posing as a child and that they did their best to care for her given the circumstances. Kristine has not responded since.) What are the Barnetts claiming? (Kristine Barnett directed BuzzFeed News to her attorney Philip Hayes, whose office said he is not commenting on the case. The family then moved to Canada, leaving Natalia behind. In 2013, the Barnetts put Natalia up in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, and paid for her rent. (This is relevant for later, I promise.)Ībout two years after the adoption, the Barnetts filed a motion with the Marion County Superior Court regarding Natalia’s age, and a judge ordered her birth year changed from 2003 to 1989 on her birth certificate, putting her at age 22 instead of 9. The Barnetts have three other children, one of who is the physics genius Jacob Barnett, whose achievements propelled him - and his parents - to relative fame in the early 2010s.

The condition, which affects the bones in one’s spine, can result in difficulty breathing, early-onset arthritis, and weak joint mobility. There are few details that either party doesn’t dispute.īoth the Barnetts and the probable cause affidavit charging the couple agree that in 2010, Kristine and her then-husband Michael adopted the girl after her previous adoptive parents gave her up, believing her to be a 6-year-old from Ukraine with a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal.

Here’s everything we know, and don’t know, about this wildly gripping story. Natalia’s story may be far more complicated than that. The Barnetts were charged last month for allegedly leaving her to fend for herself in an Indiana apartment when they moved to Canada.Ī Daily Mail article about the case drew eerie comparisons to the horror movie Orphan, in which a 33-year-old mentally ill woman pretends to be a 9-year-old who gets adopted by a couple, then proceeds to torment and manipulate the family until they collapse under the weight of her deceit. The second is about Ukrainian adoptee Natalia Grace Barnett, the baffling question of whether she’s a teenager or a 30-year-old woman, and the allegations about her relationship with her adoptive US parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett. The first, a call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has sparked an impeachment inquiry.

There are two big news stories currently consuming America, both involving Ukraine.

Orphan horror movie