Dwarf Con Woman's New 'Mom' & Doctors Will Be Called As Witnesses In Her Abandonment Trial
Oct. 9 2019, Updated 12:36 p.m. ET
The new “mom” of Natalia Barnett, the woman with Dwarfism whose adoptive parents have accused her of being a con artist, is on the state’s witness list in the case, according to court documents obtained exclusively by RadarOnline.com.
The documents filed on Oct. 7 in Tippecanoe County, Indiana revealed a lengthy list of witnesses in the case against Michael and Kristine Barnett, who have been accused of abandoning Natalia.
Along with several doctors, police officers and detectives, the State shared their witness list that included Cynthia Mans, the woman with whom Natalia is now living, and Antwon Mans, her preacher husband.
Cynthia and Antwon have taken Natalia in as parents and even tried to adopt her, but because her former adoptive parents, the Barnetts, had her age legally changed to 22, they were denied the adoption by the court.
Michael and Kristine Barnett are facing felony abandonment charges in the case, but they have both pleaded not guilty and insist Natalia is not a child but an adult who scammed them into taking care of her.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Michael filed a motion with the court to unseal Natalia’s medical records and a closed hearing will be held on that issue on Oct. 15.
Michael and Kristine insist that Natalia is not a child that they abandoned, but an adult who lied to them and posed as a child.
Michael’s arresting affidavit filed in Tippecanoe County, Indiana on Sept. 11 and obtained by RadarOnline.com revealed that Ukrainian-born Natalia claimed she lived with the Barnetts for two years after they adopted her in 2010, but they “left her” in an apartment “alone” in 2012.
The couple told Daily Mail TV that Natalia was a con-woman who was not a young child but a woman over the age of 20 that was threatening physical violence against their family, but the officers investigating the situation found the young person to be “credible.”
However, “Affiant believes Natalia Barnett to be reliable and credible and their statements were corroborated by police investigation,” the Affidavit obtained by RadarOnline.com stated.
Daily Mail TV reported that they were in contact with Natalia’s birth mother in Ukraine, and that she regretted giving up her daughter for adoption
Anna Volodymyrivna Gava told the publication: “I know exactly how old she is,” via a translator in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea.
“This girl is my daughter who was born 16 years ago.”
According to Gaya, “Doctors told me to leave the baby: ‘Leave her, don’t ruin your life,’ they said. Both them and my mom told me to leave her.”
Gaya described giving birth to the baby girl.
“They said the baby would never be good, that she would never be able to move, that she would be chained to a chair or to a bed,” she reportedly told DailyMailTv.
“She now lives in America with adoptive parents who want to ditch her. I thought everything was okay with her and it turned out that it's not all okay.”
Kristine and Michael Barnett claimed that when they had a friend who spoke Ukrainian, Natalia did not speak the language and did not have knowledge of her home country.
Kristine described the con she believed Natalia was pulling, telling DailyMail TV the first time she gave her adopted daughter a bath, she was shocked to see that she had “full pubic hair.” And weeks later, she noticed she had gotten her period.
“I had just been told she was a six-year-old and it was very apparent she wasn’t,” Kristine 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.”
Kristine described the dark turn Natalia’s behavior took, saying she would draw pictures of her killing family members, then wrap the sketches up in blankets and bury them in the backyard.
“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,’” Kristine recalled.
Other times, Natalia would smear blood on the house mirrors, attack babies, and make death threats, claiming she was hearing voices. One day, during a 2012 birthday outing, she tried to drag her adoptive mother on to an electric fence.
The Barnett’s trial is scheduled to begin in early 2020.