'Adopted child' Natalia Grace's biological mom reveals child's age
‘Adopted child’ Natalia Grace’s biological mom is tracked down in Ukraine and reasserts claim her daughter was actually born in 2003 making her 19 – despite US judge ageing her at 22
- Natalia Grace was adopted by an American couple believing she was six-year-old
- But they came to suspect she was older and petitioned judge to have her re-aged
The biological mother of an adopted Ukrainian dwarf accused of pretending to be a child has again claimed her daughter is actually 19 years old, and therefore was a young girl when she taken in by an American family.
Natalia Grace’s age has been the subject of fervent debate after she was adopted in April 2010 by a family who believed she was a six-year-old girl at the time.
But Michael and Kristina Barnett came to suspect she was not as young as they believed, and in 2011 moved her into a separate Indiana apartment.
In 2012, the couple – saying Natalia was an adult ‘sociopath’ masquerading as a child – petitioned a judge to have Natalia legally re-aged, and when it was granted the then-eight-year-old became 22 overnight.
However, Natalia’s biological mother Anna Gava, who is confirmed to be her parent after providing a DNA test, has revealed Natalia’s ‘true’ age in a new documentary from Investigation Discovery, ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace’.
Anna Gava, the biological mother of an adopted Ukrainian dwarf – Natalia Grace – accused of pretending to be a child, has again claimed her daughter is actually 19 years old – raising doubts of a 2012 decision by a judge to re-age Natalia
The age of Natalia Grace (pictured) has been the subject of fervent debate after she was adopted in April 2010 by Americans who believed she was a six-year-old girl at the time
Speaking to the documentary makers via video link from Ukraine – three years after proving she is the biological mother to Grace – she is heard explaining how she herself was born in 1979.
Gava’s own age raises questions over Natalia’s re-aging, in which a judge ruled she was born in 1989. This would mean Gava would have been 10 when she had Natalia.
Gava then reveals her daughter’s date of birth.
‘She was born on September 4 2003,’ Gava says. ‘She was born at 6.25am in the Maternity Hospital No. 1. She is my biological daughter.’
This would mean that Natalia would be 19 years old today, and therefore was indeed a young child when she was adopted by the Barnetts in 2010.
Gava’s appearance in the documentary comes almost four years after DailyMail.com tracked her down in 2019 to the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. Then, she said the same thing: That her daughter is indeed still a teenager.
Speaking at the time, she said her daughter was 16.
‘I know exactly how old she is,’ Gava told DailyMailTV through a translator from her home in the southern Ukrainian city near the Black Sea.
‘This girl is my daughter who was born 16 years ago.’
It was not immediately clear if Gava’s comments would result in the court revisiting its decision to de-age Natalia, or to drop charges against the Barnetts.
In the new documentary, Gava also goes into detail about how Natalia – who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal – was put up for adoption.
She says in the documentary: ‘They showed her to me. The childbirth was difficult as well, very difficult. When I regained consciousness after anesthesia, the next day the doctor came and said, ‘There is no sense to take her home.’
‘They said that she won’t be able to walk at all, and she will be of very short stature.
‘They said a surgery would cost $100,000, and since ‘you don’t have such finances’, ‘you also have an older daughter’ – I already had Julia at the time and Natasha came after her… ‘She brought me a sample of the waiver on the paper, and I had to write five copies of it.
I didn’t initially want to leave her, but the doctors said there is nothing you could do for her. ‘You are so young,’ they said. ‘You are 24 years old. Don’t ruin your life, you will have other children.’
The Barnetts were charged in 2019 with neglecting their child after allegedly ditching Natalia and moving to Canada after they petitioned a court to increase her age from eight to 22, which was granted. In October 2022 and March 2023, their charges were dropped
Last week, former prosecutor Beth Karas (pictured) told DailyMail.com the process used to decide Natalia’s age left her feeling ‘something just wasn’t right about this case’ of Natalia
Pictured: Anna is seen in this photograph provided to DailyMail TV in 2019 walking with her first daughter while pregnant with Natalia. Gava’s own age raises questions over Natalia’s re-aging, in which a judge ruled she was born in 1989. This would mean Gava would have been 10 when she had Natalia, despite this photo showing her as being much older when pregnant
Last week, former prosecutor Beth Karas told DailyMail.com the process used to decide Natalia’s age left her feeling ‘something just wasn’t right about this case.’
The attorney said Natalia was never represented in court and was left uninformed over the process, which she argued should raise doubt over its accuracy.
Karas also appears in new documentary, where she alleged that Natalia’s disturbing behavior may have motivated her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, to use any means necessary to rid themselves of her.
‘Getting her re-aged as an adult could have been a way for Michael and Kristine to protect themselves from child neglect charges,’ she said in the documentary.
She also says that Gava’s own age means it’s unlikely Natalia was born in 1989.
‘Anna Gava was born in 1979, which means she would have been 10 years old if Natalia was born in 1989, as the courts ruled when they re-aged her,’ she says.
‘So there aren’t a lot of good reasons, besides seeing pubic hair on her, to believe she was born anytime before 2003.’
This is a reference to Michael Barnett revealing in the documentary that the couple suspected she was not a child after a trip to Disney World where Kristine discovered Natalia had ‘full pubic hair’ while giving her a bath.
The Barnetts accused Natalia of a string of disturbing behaviour.
The couple, who split in 2014, claim she is an imposter who was actually an adult, and who conned their way into their family, threatened to stab them in their sleep and poison their coffee.
On one occasion, when Natalia met another six-year-old with a rare bone disorder named spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, the Barnetts say a stark difference in age became seemingly undisputable.
Natalia, who they say did not speak with a Ukrainian accent, towered over her playmate, while her bone structure and vocabulary were far more advanced.
As the months wore on, Michael claimed it became apparent they were living with a menace, to the point she ‘threatened to stab’ her new siblings.
‘She tried to poison and kill my wife,’ Michael added. ‘(And) one night, I opened my eyes and Natalia is standing at the foot of the bed with a knife in her hand.’
The documentary also shows Natalia’s suspect behavior inside her adoptive home, including sitting at a table reading the bible. When asked why she chose to read it, she responds: ‘To get rid of these evil thoughts.’
‘She would do as much as possible to cause hurt or harm or mental distress to the entire family,’ Michael said.
Suspicious of Natalia’s true age, the couple moved her into a separate Lafayette apartment. They eventually brought her to a doctor, who told the couple that she was actually an adult.
By 2012, they petitioned a judge to have Natalia legally re-aged, which was granted – despite a skeletal survey by a local children’s hospital concluding she was around the age on 11 at the time.
Nevertheless, the Barnetts moved to Canada, but were later charged with neglecting their child after eventually ditching Natalia.
In October 2022 and March 2023, their charges were dropped.
However, Karas said the process used to determine Natalia’s age in a court of law should be interrogated amid a slew of unanswered questions.
Natalia Grace Barnett was put into a Lafayette, Indiana apartment by her adoptive parents Michael and Kristina Barnett in 2011, after they came to suspect she was far older than she claimed. A year later, they filed a petition to have her re-aged, with a judge ruling she was 22
‘Natalia didn’t know anything about any of this,’ she told DailyMail.com.
‘(It was) based on that affidavit alone, without any witnesses or hearing, Natalia did not have any guardian or anybody in court representing her, she was totally in the dark.
‘It calls into questions whether a judge should be permitted, without testimony or even hearing an affidavit from the other side, to take arguably an eight-year-old and make her 22 with the stroke of a pen.’
She said the case was ‘unusual’ because it was ‘so one-sided’, alleging that there may have been an ulterior motive to the Barnett’s push for the legal re-aging.
‘I think they saw it as an out,’ said the former attorney, adding that the Barnett’s may have truly believed Natalia was an adult and panicked over the adoption fiasco.
‘If they really believed she was an adult, this was a way for them to deal with the situation, and a cynic could say they were looking to unload her.’
In one of the more eye-catching moments of the new documentary, Michael admits that when the re-aging was complete, he was still unsure over the judge’s decision to say Natalia was 22.
‘At the time that she was re-aged, I knew she was an adult. Did I know it was 18, 22, 35, 150? No,’ he said.
Karas said his comments made it clear that, from Michael’s perspective, ‘as long as she was an adult it was lawful in what they were doing.’
Although Michael and Kristine avoided conviction on all neglect charges, Karas argued the apartment they put her up in was not fit for purpose.
Due to Natalia’s stature and disability, she struggled to climb stairs or walk for extended periods of time.
In court years later, Natalia would testify that she sustained herself mostly on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Ramen Noodles and an occasional pizza. She said she had limited use of her hands and arms, and struggled to open canned food.
Natalia was also forced to move to a second apartment after a year due to complaints about her disturbing behavior. Neighbors recounted seeing her struggling to take care of herself and recount in the documentary how they saw her wearing dirty clothing, scuffed shoes and stinking of body odor.
Michael Barnett (pictured) claimed Natalia ‘abused’ his family in the months after her adoption
Michael Barnett is pictured holding his new daughter Natalia in May 2010 in Florida just days after collecting her from the adoption center
Natalia has since slammed her adoptive parents as ‘liars’.
She hit back against their claims, with a trailer for the sequel series opening with her saying: ‘The things that Michael says I have done, is a lie.’
In a sneak-peek at her sensational sit-down interview, Natalia also hits out at Kristine, saying: ‘She was trying to make it seem like I was just this big crazy person.’
‘That’s not true,’ she adds. ‘I want to tell people what really happened, because I didn’t get that chance.’
Source: Read Full Article