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Dad who adopted Ukrainian posing as ‘child’ claims she threatened to ‘bury his two sons’
A dad who adopted a Ukrainian scammer with dwarfism who posed as a six-year-old girl claims she threatened to kill and bury his two sons while living under their roof.
Michael Barnett, the Indiana dad who adopted someone he believed to be a young girl from Ukraine, claims that the girl, Natalia Grace, told him: “I promise you within five years someone is dead.”
He said that this was not a one off incident, and that Natalia had a history of abusing the family.
“[Natalia is an] adult sociopath masquerading as a child,” he said, MailOnline reports.
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Natalia, who is believed to have some form of dwarfism, would allegedly threaten to stab the family in their sleep, push Michael’s wife Kristine towards an electric fence and pour bleach in her coffee.
He also made claims she threatened to bury their two sons under their deck.
“She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was doing things you could never imagine a little child doing,” he added.
Michael said he, his wife and sons, were forced to flee to Canada out of fear for their safety, after they put her up in a flat in Indiana.
The family originally adopted Natalia in 2010, believing that she was a six-year-old girl from Ukraine with a rare bone disease.
But as her behaviour changed and became more violent, they began thinking that they were the victims of fraud and that Natalia was not who she said she was.
Michael said that there was plenty of evidence that Natalia was not who she said she was.
He said: “Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth. She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism.
“The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults.”
The family eventually petitioned a probate court to change her birth year back 14 years, which was granted in 2012, legally changing the Ukrainian-born dwarf’s age from nine to 23.
But despite this, Kristine and Michael were both charged with neglect after they left her behind as authorities said she was dependent on the Barnetts because of her dwarfism.
The charges against both Kristine and Michael were dropped.
The Barnetts’ case is being covered in a documentary called “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace”, the first episode of which airs on Investigation Discovery on May 29.
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