- Daily Mail TV found a woman claiming to be the birth mother of Natalia Barnett, an orphan at the center of an adoption scandal in Indiana.
- Anna Volodymyrivna Gava told Daily Mail TV that she was forced to give up Natalia 16 years ago, when the girl was an infant. Daily Mail TV also saw orphanage documents from 2003 that suggest Natalia was an infant at the time.
- Kristine and Michael Barnett, the adoptive parents of Natalia – who has a rare form of dwarfism that makes it difficult to gauge her age – have claimed the girl is a mentally disturbed adult who terrorized their family.
- Natalia’s story went viral in September when the Barnetts were charged with with neglect after fleeing to Canada.
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A Ukrainian woman claiming to be the birth mother of an orphan at the center of an adoption scandal in Indiana says her daughter is definitely a child, despite her adoptive parents claiming she is a mentally disturbed adult who terrorized their family.
Natalia’s story went viral in September when her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, were charged with with neglect.
Natalia, who has a rare form of dwarfism that makes it difficult to gauge her age, was thought to be somewhere between 6 and 8 when Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted her in 2010. The Barnetts are accused of legally changing Natalia’s age to from 8 to 22 in 2012, and moving to Canada without her. Prosecutors say she was a child at the time.
Kristine Barnett told Daily Mail Online that Natalia terrorized her family. Natalia is now living with another family in Indiana.
Daily Mail reporters Will Stewart, Svetlana Skarbo, and Ben Ashford found a woman claiming to be Natalia's birth mother in Ukraine, who told the site that her daughter is a child, and that she was forced to put her up for adoption because of the girl's physical disabilities.
The woman claiming to be Natalia's birth mother says Natalia is 16 years old
The woman, Anna Volodymyrivna Gava, told Daily Mail TV that she was forced to give up Natalia 16 years ago, when the girl was an infant. Gava said that she had divorced Natalia's father, and she couldn't care for Natalia at the time.
"Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you," she told Daily Mail TV. "We are waiting for you. You have two sisters and two brothers."
Daily Mail TV saw documents from the orphanage that took Natalia in, showing she was admitted in October 2003. The document, and Gava's comments, would suggest that Natalia is in fact a child, despite the Barnetts' claims.
Gava told Daily Mail TV that she was told 'good people' in America were adopting Natalia
Gava said Natalia remained in an orphanage for 5 years until an American couple adopted her in 2008.
'[They told me] there are good people in America, they will pay for everything, the child will be normal," she told Daily Mail TV. "I was told that they would do her a surgery which I wouldn't be able to afford. They said the surgery was some $80,000."
The American family who initially adopted Natalia gave her up in 2010, and Kristine and Michael Barnett took her in. Three years later, prosecutors said they left her behind when they moved to Canada.
Natalia's now living with another family in Indiana, where she is treated like a teenager
The Barnetts, who are now divorced, have told prosecutors that Natalia was left in an apartment when the rest of the the family moved to Canada to help their son, a child prodigy with mild autism, pursue a graduate degree in theoretical physics.
Kristine Barnett told Daily Mail Online that the adoption was a scam and that the girl was not who they thought she was.
Michael Barnett told officers that he and Kristine Barnett paid rent on the apartment but did not provide Natalia extra funds, The Washington Post reported.
Natalia now lives with a pastor's family in Indiana. The family treats Natalia like a teenager.
The Barnetts, meanwhile, are out on bond on charges of neglecting a dependent.
- Read more:
- The Ukrainian orphan accused of being an adult was found living with another family in Indiana
- A Ukrainian orphan at the center of an adoption scandal might be an adult. Here are 8 adults who were caught posing as children.
- The Ukrainian orphan accused of being an adult hung out at a drug recovery house and took adult education classes after her adopted parents moved to Canada