It has all the elements of a horror movie: an unsuspecting Christian couple adopts an adorable little girl only to discover she is an adult sociopath masquerading as a child.

If the premise sounds familiar that's because it’s virtually the exact plot of 2009 big screen chiller 'Orphan', where a pig-tailed 'youngster' tries to murder her family when it's revealed she is 33.

But as far-fetched as it sounds, this is the astonishing defense put forward by a mom-of-three and parenting author shockingly accused of felony neglect for abandoning her adopted daughter.

Kristine Barnett, 45, and her ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43, are alleged to have dumped Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace at an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 before moving to Canada one month later and breaking off contact.

Kristine Barnett, 45, (pictured) and ex-husband Michael Barnett, 43 have been charged with abandoning their daughter, then 9, in Lafayette, Indiana, and fleeing to Canada in 2013. But Kristine denies the claims and says she and Michael were victims of a fraud, stating the girl they adopted was an adult con artist who tried to kill her

Kristine and Michael agreed to the emergency adoption of Ukrainian-born Natalia Grace (above) in May 2010. This photos shows Natalia in September 2012. Her original birth certificate made her 9 but a court would later determine she was in fact 23 when this picture was taken

Natalia, pictured days after being collected from her Florida adoption center in May 2010 by the Barnetts, soon had her new parents suspicious as Natalia had her period and an adult vocabulary for a seven-year-old

Natalia pictured being home schooled in December 2010. Kristine Barnett claims Natalia tried pushing her onto an electric fence, poured bleach into her coffee and threatened to stab the Barnetts in their sleep

Police say the girl was left to fend for herself for three years despite having a rare form of dwarfism that means she is 3ft tall and has problems walking.

But in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV at an undisclosed location, Kristine insists there's a major flaw in their case: Natalia was not a nine year old - as charging documents claim - she was actually 22.

Barnett claims the true victims are her and her family who were terrorized for years by the mysterious impostor who threatened to stab them in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence and poured bleach in her coffee.

'The movie 'Orphan' is exactly what happened.

‘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.

Michael Barnett surrendered to authorities on September 18 and was released on $5,000 bail. A hearing has been set for September 2. Kristine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond.

‘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."

‘The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here,’ said Barnett.

‘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.

‘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.’

Before criminal charges were leveled at them on September 11, Barnett and ex-husband Michael were hailed as exemplary parents who raised child 'genius' Jake Barnett.

Diagnosed with autism at age two, Jake nonetheless had his first academic paper published at 12 and by 15 was studying at a prestigious physics institute.

Mom-of-three Kristine Barnett says her family's experience with Natalie is akin to the 2009 horror movie 'Orphan' where Isabelle Fuhrman plays a 33-year-old woman who appears to be a child due to a growth condition and tries to murder her adopted family

‘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', said Kristine Barnett of her adopted daughter Natalia (pictured)

To welcome Natalia to her new home in May 2010, the Barnetts staged a party. Kristine, pictured far right, says Natalia (center) wanted to have her face painted

His story was featured in a 2012 episode of CBS 60 Minutes - but it was the shy girl who sat to his left at the family dinner table that would one day prompt altogether more sinister headlines.

The Barnetts, experienced foster parents who ran a children's day care from their Westfield, Indiana home, collected the curly-haired youngster from Florida in May 2010.

While living with the Barnetts, Natalia's adoption was completed in November that year.

In a frank and tearful interview with DailyMailTV, Kristine Barnett insisted she treated the new addition to her family as if she were her biological child.

She had no hesitation in accepting Natalia despite learning she had a bone growth disorder named spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, which causes short stature, skeletal abnormalities and problems with vision.

‘I always wanted to have a larger family and I had very severe complications in my pregnancies and was unable to have more children,’ Barnett explained.

‘I also at that time had a very privileged life. I felt that if I had the ability to help another person in the world then I wanted to do it.’

Given just 24-hours to complete an emergency adoption, the couple raced to an adoption center in Florida to sign the paperwork and meet their ‘six-year-old’ daughter.

They gleaned precious few details of her background: Natalia had been in the US for two years, had a Ukrainian birth certificate reading September 4, 2003 and needed a home immediately because her previous adoptive parents suddenly gave her up - for undisclosed reasons.

‘Out of compassion for their situation I didn’t want to press them for information on what had gone wrong,’ the mom went on.

Tearful Kristine described how Natalia was treated by mental health specialists who determined Natalia was an adult and pressed for the courts to have her birth certificate changed

Michael Barnett is pictured holding his new daughter Natalia in May 2010 in Florida just days after collecting her from the adoption center

In 2012, Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana determined Natalia was born in 1989, rather than agreeing with her Ukrainian birth certificate which claimed she was born on September 4, 2003

The couple showered Natalia with attention, taking her to Disney World, enjoying ice creams, treats and playful pillow fights with her three brothers to slowly bring her out of her shell

‘Natalia was extremely nervous. You could see she was going to need a lot of support and care. We did notice immediately in the parking lot that she couldn't walk. There was nothing in the paperwork stating that.’

Over the next few days the couple showered Natalia with attention, taking her to Disney World, enjoying ice creams, treats and playful pillow fights with her three brothers to slowly bring her out of her shell.

When they took Natalia to a beach for the first time, she did something that would leave the couple speechless.

‘The boys rushed into the water and Natalia wanted to be carried into the ocean. Michael and myself were physically exhausted so we asked her to wait just a few minutes,’ she said.

‘With that she just got up and ran into the ocean. I remember looking at Mike and thinking, what’s going on? She couldn’t walk a second ago and now she just got up and ran.’

Barnett grew more alarmed when she saw the little girl naked for the first time.

‘I was giving her a bath and I noticed that she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six year old and it was very apparent she wasn't,’ she added.

There were further clues to an apparent deception: Natalia shunned dolls and toys, sought the company of teenage girls and appeared to use sophisticated vocabulary way beyond someone her age.

She didn't have any trace of a foreign accent and when the family asked a Ukrainian friend to speak in their native language Natalia couldn't understand or describe her homeland.

Michael and Kristine Barnett appeared on 60 Minutes in 2012 to talk about their then 13-year-old autistic son, Jacob, who was a physics prodigy

This shot from the show 60 Minutes shows the couple's adopted daughter Natalia at the dinner table (pictured next to Kristine)

Kristine Barnett wrote 'The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism' about her experience with helping son Jacob, now 21, nurture his abilities as a physics genius

‘At the time I ran a little school and I remember she said to me, these children are exhausting, I don't know how you do it,’ Barnett went on.

‘I was like, you're supposed to be a child yourself. It was like something another mom would say as she dropped her kids off.

‘It's very hard to decipher how old she is because she has such a unique look. But at that time I started to believe she was probably a teenager.

‘But I didn’t have any regrets. This was what I wanted to do. I felt overwhelming love for her.’

Barnett says she soon began finding bloody clothing in the trash suggesting Natalia was having her period and trying to conceal the evidence.

She sought out the help of her family physician who ordered bone density tests to establish Natalia's age.

When the results suggested the little girl was indeed at least 14 or older, Barnett says she switched the princess outfits and pink dresses for more appropriate clothes.

But as questions swirled around her age and true identity, Natalia's behavior begun to deteriorate.

Pictured in December 2010, Natalia had an adult vocabulary. Kristine Barnett said, ‘At the time I ran a little school and I remember she said to me, these children are exhausting, I don't know how you do it.'

Barnett recalls watching aghast on a baby monitor as Natalia attacked a baby boy when she was out the room.

When they attended therapy together Natalia scoffed at the 'childish' bonding exercises.

By 2011 Barnett says that Natalia was smearing bodily fluid on walls, making death threats and hearing voices as her mental health broke down.

Natalia would spend the next year or so being treated for various psychiatric disorders, spending days to weeks at a time at the St Vincent Indianapolis Stress Center.

When Barnett claims she tried to drag her on to an electric fence during a 2012 birthday outing, Natalia was placed long-term at a state-run psychiatric unit because she allegedly posed a risk to others.

It was during treatment that Barnett insists that Natalia confessed to being far older than she appeared.

Barnett presented DailyMailTV with a trove of paperwork that appears to confirm her version of events – and that health care professionals shared her grave concerns.

One clinical therapist in January 2012 said Natalia claimed to them that she was 18.

Then, at Larue Carter Hospital in Indianapolis, in June 2012, staff said she had described how she had tried to kill family members and had no remorse about it, with Natalia going as far as to describe it as fun to staff.

Michael Barnett's primary physician, Dr Andrew McLaren said in March 2012 that Natalia's 2003 Ukrainian birth date was inaccurate and she had made a career out of pretending to be a young child. He said Natalia fooled him, her parents and other physicians.

Most revealing of all is perhaps a letter from the Barnetts' primary care physician Andrew McLaren MD, dated March 2012, in which he says Natalia's 2003 birth date was clearly inaccurate and that Natalia had made a career out of pretending to be a young child. He said Natalia fooled him, her parents and other physicians.

It was also in 2012 that police first began asking questions, although correspondence reviewed by DailyMailTV suggests they were trying to establish whether an immigration fraud took place before the Barnetts had any involvement with Natalia.

Detective Scott Clouse of the Westfield City Police Department told them via email that he had referred the case to the FBI and ICE because he suspected there was 'false age reporting' prior to Natalia leaving Ukraine.

Clouse died of cancer four years ago but Captain James Lilly, a former colleague, told DailyMailTV that, while he vaguely remembered the case, he did not think the FBI pursued it further.

In June of 2012 the Barnetts successfully applied to Marion County Superior Court in Indianapolis, Indiana to have Natalia's age 'corrected' so she could receive the appropriate psychiatric treatment for an adult.

In documents seen by DailyMailTV, Judge Gerald S. Zore accepted the couple's allegations were 'true' and revised Natalia's date of birth to September 4, 1989 - changing her age from eight to 22.

At this stage, Barnett points out, Natalia was considered an adult by the state of Indiana and was legally responsible for herself.

Even so, Barnett says she and her husband rented an apartment for Natalia when she was discharged from secure psychiatric care in August 2012 and placed under the supervision of state healthcare provider, Aspire Indiana.

They further helped her get a social security number, apply for benefits, food stamps and an ID.

When Natalia caused problems at the property and was evicted they stepped in again to prevent her from being homeless, renting a new apartment for her in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County.

Barnett said she was communicating daily with Natalia and even came up with a plan for Natalia to enroll in college to get her high school diploma and study cosmetology.

The building in Lafayette, Indiana which Natalia's apartment was based in. The Barnetts paid a year's rent for Natalia to live there

'I said I've been taking care of you here as an adult, I will do one more year of financial aid, the exact same thing I am doing for all of my children,' she said.

'I co-signed the lease and paid for the rent up front for a year. I did everything you would do when you send your child off to college, I helped her with groceries and bought furniture at Target for her.

'I was optimistic, she had a concrete plan for her life. She had food stamps. She had social security income for the rest of her things. She had demonstrated she was able to live.’

By 2013 Barnett had published a memoir about Jacob, now aged 21, entitled 'The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism'.

That same year they moved to Canada so Jacob could attend the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, leaving Natalia behind at her rented apartment.

By then, however, Barnett says Natalia had vanished and stopped returning her calls.

Barnett told DailyMailTV she feared Natalia had stopped taking her medication and was probably posing as a child again for another unsuspecting family.

‘I had found a little pink dress in her closet and a little pink bicycle parked beside her house,’ she said.

‘I would have forced her back into treatment but I couldn’t do that any longer because she was an adult.

‘She discontinued communication with me. What I did get was a letter in the mail stating that she had changed Michael from the beneficiary of her social security income to someone else.

Michael Barnett's attorney Terrence denies Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department allegations that Michael admitted knowing Natalia was a child when he and Kristine housed her

‘The last time we spoke on the phone, she told me she was cooking spaghetti for her new family.

‘I did not abandon anyone. I went to Canada to further my son's education. These accusations are absolutely devastating.’

The Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Department meanwhile presents a very different version of events.

A September 11 affidavit of probable cause obtained by DailyMailTV states that an expert at the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital named Dr. Riggs carried out bone density tests on Natalia in June 2010.

It concluded she was aged approximately eight years old.

A further skeletal test carried out two years later at the same facility concluded she was around 11 years old.

The affidavit reveals that it was Natalia herself who told police in 2014 that she had been 'left alone' when her adoptive parents moved to Canada, with cops concluding she was a 'reliable and credible' witness.

It does not explain, however, why detectives waited five years to put the allegations to Michael Barnett, who divorced Kristine in 2014, remarried and has settled back in Indiana.

The document says that when an officer spoke with Michael on September 5 he admitted he knew all along that Natalia was a minor child when she was allegedly abandoned.

Furthermore the affidavit adds: 'Michael Barnett admitted Kristine Barnett told Natalia to tell others Natalia looks young but was actually 22.’

However his Indianapolis-based attorney, Terrance Kinnard, denied that his client made any such admission of guilt.

'The police affidavit is not true. Michael never said he knew Natalia was a child,' he told DailyMailTV.

Michael Barnett and Kristine, pictured in October 2011. Michael divorced Kristine in 2014 and remarried

‘Police knocked on Michael’s door and he spoke to them, for three hours, without an attorney present. The statements he gave were clearly taken out of context.

'My client and I have absolutely no idea why the district attorney has chosen to level these accusations against my client and Kristine. The affidavit has been very selective in the medical reports it has chosen to cite.'

As for Natalia, neither the Barnetts, their attorneys, nor seemingly anyone else involved in this baffling case, appears to know her whereabouts.

And despite the possibility she is now 30 years old, Natalia's full court records will remain sealed until a court decides otherwise because adoption cases are treated as confidential.

She last saw her adoptive father was when the final chapter in their painful, confusing relationship played out at Tippecanoe Circuit Court in 2016.

There, a couple named Antwon and Cynthia Mans unexpectedly applied to become Natalia's guardians which meant proving she was a minor and restoring her original birth date.

The Barnetts filed an objection, claiming Natalia was an adult.

Records are not publicly available but DailyMailTV has established that a judge ordered a fresh hearing to establish Natalia's age, with Michael Barnett and a number of experts giving evidence.

‘Natalia was living on her own and a couple wanted to become her guardians. Thinking she was still a child, the couple tried to overturn the 2012 result,' explained Michael's attorney Kinnard.

Kristine plans to fight the allegations made against her. ‘I am being charged by the state of Indiana for crimes against a child when the state of Indiana has determined multiple times that Natalia was an adult,' she said

'This time the hearing was even more in depth, not only did the judge look at medical reports and other documents, but witnesses came before the court to explain why they were certain Natalia had been 22.

'The judge upheld the original results and the couple dropped the guardianship petition.

'The most-disturbing thing about this is Michael has told me the police investigator who is heading the latest allegations against them was actually present.'

DailyMailTV asked the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office in Lafayette for comment.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jason J. Biss responded: 'Pursuant to Rule 3.6 and Rule 3.8 of the Indiana Rules of Professional Conduct, a Prosecutor is prohibited from making extrajudicial or out-of-court statements, including public comments, which would have a prejudicial impact on a case and/or defendant.

'I would defer you to the contents of the public court record, namely the filed Probable Cause Affidavit.'

With Kristine and Michael Barnett both vociferously proclaiming their innocence, it's a question that will likely not go away.

‘I have been cooperative the whole time. I have been truthful with people the whole time,’ said Kristine, choking back tears.

‘I am being charged by the state of Indiana for crimes against a child when the state of Indiana has determined multiple times that Natalia was an adult,’ added Kristine, who asked for her location to remain confidential over threats her family have received.

‘From day one this was a mission of love. But when you bring a child into your home, you expect them to be a child. ‘To be accused of this is a unconscionable to me. It’s just horrifying.’

Kristine Barnett surrendered to authorities on Thursday, September 19 and was released after posting a $5,500 bond.

Ex-husband Michael surrendered to Tippecanoe County Jail in Lafayette on September 18 and was immediately released after having his mugshot taken and posting $5,000 bail.

He is due to appear at hearing in Tippecanoe Superior Court in Lafayette on September 24.



