Former neighbors of a Ukrainian midget who has been accused of impersonating a child have revealed the creepy conversations that led them to believe she was “like a serial killer”.
Natalia Barnett was placed in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, by her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristina Barnett, in 2011 after they suspected she was much older than she claimed.
The Barnetts adopted Natalia in 2010 and were both recently cleared of neglect after they left her alone in the apartment during their move to Canada.
The couple, who split in 2014, claim she is a scammer who was actually an adult and wormed her way into her family, threatening to stab them in their sleep and poisoning their coffee.
Neighbors who lived next door to Natalia’s Lafayette apartment opened up about how she was unaffected by her disturbing behavior in the new documentary The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, which premiered Monday night.
“[She was]like a serial killer or something like how casually they would throw attempted murder into a conversation,” said Toby Miles, a former neighbor.
The family claimed Natalia (pictured) “was told her new date of birth at the orphanage in Ukraine” and “threatened to stab her children”. The building in Lafayette, Indiana, where Kristine and Michael Barnett rented an apartment for Natalia after they left For Canada: Neighbor Toby Miles (pictured) revealed the harrowing conversations he had with Natalia Grace Barnett led him to believe she was “like a serial killer”.
“[She said]I stood over them with a knife, so they took all the knives away,” Toby Miles’ wife, Melanie Miles, recalled. “And then I tried to poison her, so I had to live in the garage for a while.”
Sue McCallum, another Lafayette resident, said Natalia had a “so what” attitude when discussing her alleged attacks on the life of her adoptive family.
“Oh man, I pointed a knife at my parents, big deal,” she said. “That’s the attitude you took from her.”
The former neighbors all shared similar accounts of Natalia’s bizarre take on her allegedly disturbing behavior, leading them to rack their brains over how to handle the disturbing revelations.
“What do we do with this information? “We’re not social workers, we’re not therapists,” Toby said.
Natalia, who will be homeschooled in December 2010, is the subject of a bombastic new documentary detailing her adoption ordeal. Sue McCallum, another Lafayette resident, said Natalia had a “so what?” attitude when discussing her alleged attacks on the life of her adoptive family
Natalia moved into the Lafayette apartment after the Barnetts moved to Canada and after a judge legally changed her age to 22. However, questions still remain about her real date of birth.
“It was hard for us to understand why she was just left alone in that apartment,” said Melanie Miles.
“If I thought she was just a kid who didn’t know how to take care of herself, that would be a different conversation,” added her husband, who feared that cutting ties with Natalia might prove difficult due to her apparent moodiness Temperament could endanger.
“It’s like a bad breakup,” he said. “For example, if I break up with you, will you go crazy?”
The Barnett adoption saga made headlines in recent years when her former adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, were arrested.
The couple were taken into custody in 2019 on charges of child neglect. Michael was acquitted of the charges in October, while the case against Kristine was dismissed in March, just three weeks before her trial.
This came after they adopted Natalia in April 2010, believing they were taking home a six-year-old child.
But their dream adoption quickly turned into a nightmare when they realized she might not be who she said she was and they suspected she was a menacing adult posing as a child.
“She tried to poison and kill my wife,” Michael claimed. “[And]one night I opened my eyes and Natalia was standing at the foot of the bed with a knife in her hand.”
Kristina, who is accused of molesting Natalia in the bombshell documentary, told DailyMail.com in 2019 her family was terrorized by the Ukrainian in the months after she was adopted.
She claimed Natalia threatened to stab the family while they slept, pushed them to an electric fence and spilled bleach in their coffee.
“She made statements and drew pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, rolled them in a blanket and put them in the backyard,” she told DailyMailTV.
“She stood over people in the middle of the night. You couldn’t fall asleep. We had to hide all sharp objects.
“I saw her put chemicals, bleach, windex or something in my coffee and I asked her, ‘What are you doing?’ She said, ‘I’m trying to poison you.’
“The media paints me as a child molester, but there is no child here,” Barnett said.
The Barnetts have been accused of neglecting their child after leaving Natalia in the early 2010s and moving to Canada after petitioning a court to move her birth year back 14 years, which was granted. In March 2023, the charges against Kristine were dropped. In October 2022, the charges against Michael were dropped. Questions remain about Natalia’s true age after it was changed by law from eight to 22 in 2012
Michael revealed in the documentary that the couple presumed she wasn’t a child after a trip to Disney World, where Kristine discovered she had “full pubic hair” while taking a bath.
In the months that followed, there was “a strong escalation,” the couple claims. This included discovering that she had kept her period a secret from them for months.
When Natalia once met another six-year-old who suffered from a rare bone condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, the huge age difference seemed undeniable.
Natalia, who did not speak with a Ukrainian accent, towered over her playmate while her bone structure and vocabulary were far more advanced.
Over the months, Michael claimed it had become apparent that they were living with a threat, to the point that she threatened to stab her new siblings.
The documentary features unprecedented footage of Natalia’s suspicious behavior in her adopted country, including sitting at a table and reading the Bible. When asked why she read it, she replies, “To get rid of those evil thoughts.”
“She would do as much as possible to cause harm or psychological distress to the entire family,” Michael said.
After taking the child to a psychiatrist several months later, Michael said he was baffled by the diagnosis. Instead of the expected result of schizophrenia or Natalia hearing voices, the expert told them something worse — she was a “sociopath.”
The numerous red flags led the family to seek legal advice, and in 2012 an application by the family to the probate court was granted and a judge legally changed her date of birth on her Ukrainian birth certificate from 2003 to 1989.
After the couple’s petition was granted, they decided to move her to an apartment in Lafayette — three counties from where she lives — while also relocating to Canada.
Later in court, Natalia testified that her diet consisted primarily of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ramen noodles, and the occasional pizza. She said she had limited use of her hands and arms and had trouble opening canned goods.
However, a year after the move, Natalia was evicted from the apartment due to complaints about her disruptive behavior. Neighbors reported that she had trouble taking care of herself and reported in the documentary that she wore dirty clothes and scuffed shoes and reeked of body odor.
Natalia, pictured just days after she was picked up by the Barnetts from her Florida adoption center in May 2010, soon made her new parents suspicious as she was on her period and had adult vocabulary for a six-year-old
Locals added that they were surprised that Michael occasionally sat outside the apartment in sports cars, while Natalia was left in a run-down apartment.
Those close to her also labeled her a “pest” to the community as she entered homes uninvited and was even accused of inappropriate behavior towards local children. She denied the claims.
Michael said the family left her in Indiana and moved to Canada to support his 15-year-old prodigy’s college years. However, some critics of the family claim the move was motivated by a desire to get rid of Natalia.
The move led to authorities charging the couple with child neglect despite insisting Natalia was an adult woman whose age had been legally changed by a judge.
Although child neglect charges against the Barnetts were dropped due to Natalia’s changing legal age, other neglect charges remained due to her dwarfism, which made her dependent on the couple.
The charges of neglecting a dependent, neglecting a dependent leading to bodily harm, neglecting a dependent leading to serious bodily harm, and conspiring to neglect a dependent hung on the couple for years.
Michael was acquitted in October 2022, while Kristine’s case was dismissed in March, just three weeks before her own trial.