The Ukrainian birth mother of ‘abandoned’ Natalia Barnett has been found by DailymailTV, and she has sensationally denied claims her daughter is an adult ‘sociopath’ masquerading as a child in an emotional interview.
Three foot-tall Natalia, who suffers from a rare form of dwarfism, is at the center of an extraordinary criminal case that has seen her adoptive parents Kristine and Michael Barnett charged with neglect for moving to Canada without her.
The Barnetts say they are the true victims, however, alleging the cute ‘six-year-old’ they adopted in 2010 was actually a violent grown up pretending to be a child because of a severe psychiatric illness.
But in a dramatic intervention that threatens to derail the pair’s defense, biological mom Anna Volodymyrivna Gava has broken her silence to defend Natalia, after an exhaustive search by DailyMailTV to track her down.
‘I know exactly how old she is,’ Anna, 40, told DailyMailTV through a translator from her home in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea.
‘This girl is my daughter who was born 16 years ago.
‘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.
‘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.’
Anna continued: ‘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.’
The birth mom of Ukrainian ‘dwarf’ Natalia Barnett denied she is actually an adult masquerading as a child in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV. Anna Volodymyrivna Gava, 40, from the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, tells how she had to put Natalia up for adoption 16 years ago due to her condition
Three foot-tall Natalia, who suffers from a rare form of dwarfism, is at the center of an extraordinary criminal case that has seen her adoptive parents Kristine and Michael Barnett charged with neglect for moving to Canada without her
The mother of four other kids has shared with DailyMailTV the deeply distressing story of how she felt forced to surrender her newborn daughter because of the child’s severe disabilities. And wiping away tears, she made a heartfelt plea to Natalia herself: ‘Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you.’ Pictured: Anna walking with her first daughter while pregnant with Natalia
Anna, who had divorced the baby’s father before her birth, says she later learned that social services named the girl Natasha, a Ukrainian variation of Natalia. Pictured: Natalia’s biological mother Anna Gava with husband and Natalia’s father Vadim and their first baby daughter
She added: ‘I’ve learnt that they tried to put her in a mental facility twice, that she wanted to poison, to kill someone. That’s what I read on Viber, I was sent it, and photos of her parents.’
The mother of four other kids has shared with DailyMailTV the deeply distressing story of how she felt forced to surrender her newborn daughter because of the child’s severe disabilities.
And wiping away tears, she made a heartfelt plea to Natalia herself: ‘Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you.
‘We are waiting for you. You have two sisters and two brothers.’
Anna, who had divorced the baby’s father before her birth, says she later learned that social services named the girl Natasha, a Ukrainian variation of Natalia.
DailyMailTV reporters saw a document at the orphanage that proved the baby was admitted aged nine month old in October 2003. They were not permitted to copy of picture it.
Daughter, forgive me for what happened 16 years ago. Visit soon for me to see you.
According to prosecutors, Natalia was indeed a minor child and ‘dependent’ of the Barnetts when they rented her an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 before leaving town and breaking off contact.
The couple, who have since divorced, admit moving to Canada without her so their oldest son Jacob, a physics prodigy with autism, could attend university there.
But they insist that, by then, Natalia was legally considered an adult after they obtained an emergency court order the previous year to revise her date of birth from September 4, 2003 to September 4, 1989, citing medical experts.
Today, depending on whom you believe, Natalia is either a 30 year-old woman or a 16-year-old trapped in a legal limbo that prevents her from even attending high school.
Her biological mother is insistent, however, the court made a terrible mistake and that her daughter has never lied.
Michael (left) and Kristine Barnett (right) say they are the true victims, however, alleging the cute ‘six-year-old’ they adopted in 2010 was actually a violent grown up pretending to be a child because of a severe psychiatric illness
DailymailTV reporters saw a document at the orphanage that proved the baby was admitted aged nine month old in October 2003. They were not permitted to copy of picture it. Pictured: The orphanage Natalia was placed where she remained for five years until officials contacted Anna to say she was about to be adopted by an American couple
She has an especially vivid memory of the distressing events of September 4, 2003 when she gave birth to Natalia at 6:25am but felt forced to surrender her immediately because of the child’s severe disabilities.
‘I thought everything would be fine. And when I had an ultrasound done I was told that there were, so to say, no options. That the child would be disabled,’ Anna told DailyMailTV.
‘I suffered for over a day to give birth to her. Doctors showed her to me and immediately told me that the girl shouldn’t be taken [home] because she had a complex pathology.
Short little legs, short little arms. She had no neck. In a nutshell they told me to leave her. And that was it. I did not see my baby girl after that.
‘Short little legs, short little arms. She had no neck. In a nutshell they told me to leave her.
‘The [doctor] said: ‘I am not recommending you to take her with you. You are still young, perhaps it will be fine in the future and you will give birth to other children’.
‘And that was it. I did not see my baby girl after that.’
Anna, who had divorced the baby’s father before her birth, says she later learned that social services named the girl Natasha, a Ukrainian variation of Natalia.
Natasha was placed in an orphanage where she remained for five years until officials contacted Anna to say she was about to be adopted by an American couple.
‘They showed a photo on a camera and asked me not to interfere with the adoption,’ recalled Anna, whose other children are named Miroslav, Kira, Yulia and Deniska.
‘[They told me] there are good people in America, they will pay for everything, the child will be normal.
‘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.
‘Of course I am not excusing myself, I did wrong too for ditching her, leaving her 16 years ago.’
Wiping away tears, Anna said: ‘Short little legs, short little arms. She had no neck. In a nutshell they told me to leave her. And that was it. I did not see my baby girl after that’
DailyMailTV has learned independently that Natalia arrived in the US in 2008 with paperwork stating she was named Gava Natalia Vadymivna and was born September 4, 2003
DailyMailTV asked Anna to review photographs of Natalia Barnett to try to rule out the possibility another female had assumed her child’s identity.
But she insisted Natalia and Natasha were the same girl, adding: ‘She’s like me. The way I was in my childhood.’
‘Why did they decide that she is older than according to documents?’ she demanded to know. ‘It is clear that the child does not look older.
‘You [the Barnetts] were saying and swearing you’d help the child but it turns out you didn’t do anything. Why are you leaving an underage child and say that she’s older?’
DailyMailTV has learned independently that Natalia arrived in the US in 2008 with paperwork stating she was named Gava Natalia Vadymivna and was born September 4, 2003.
The documents listed her mom’s name as Gava Hanna Volodymyrivna and said she had been ‘abandoned at hospital #1 of Mykolaiv city due to the affection of her bone muscular system’, with no parents or other relatives visiting or interested in her.
Natalia was initially adopted by a New Hampshire couple called Dyan and Gary Ciccone, who this week told DailyMailTV they did not want to discuss their time with her.
By spring of 2010, Natalia was in the care of an adoption agency in Florida who offered Kristine and Michael Barnett the opportunity to adopt her.
Parenting author Kristine, 45, and her 43-year-old ex were eager to have Natalia despite learning she had Spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia, an inherited bone growth disorder that means she’s no taller than a toddler.
But they claim they soon harbored doubts about her age when they noticed Natalia had public hair, was having periods and possessed a vocabulary way beyond her years.
Natalia was initially adopted by a New Hampshire couple called Dyan and Gary Ciccone, who this week told DailyMailTV they did not want to discuss their time with her. By spring of 2010, Natalia was in the care of an adoption agency in Florida who offered Kristine and Michael Barnett the opportunity to adopt her
Kristine Barnett alleged in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Natalia had attacked other kids, poured bleach in her coffee and threatened to stab family members and hide their bodies in the backyard
When she allegedly began to suffer mental health problems, the Barnetts say they sought the advice of experts who agreed in 2012 she was likely far older than her birth certificate suggested.
That same year Kristine and Michael Barnett say they lodged an emergency petition with Marion Superior Court to have Natalia’s date of birth revised so she could get the appropriate treatment she needed as an adult.
By then, Kristine Barnett alleged in an exclusive interview with DailyMailTV, Natalia had attacked other kids, poured bleach in her coffee and threatened to stab family members and hide their bodies in the backyard.
‘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,’ she claimed.
‘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.’
Prosecutors see things very differently, however, accusing the couple of felony neglect by endangering the life or health of a dependent and denying her necessary support and an education.
Their case does not strictly hinge on Natalia’s age because under Indiana State law a dependent can be someone who is mentally or physically disabled, regardless of age.
However an affidavit of probable cause does refer to two bone density tests carried out on Natalia at the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital in 2010 and 2012.
The first estimated she was approximately eight years old while the second suggested she was 11.
Today, Natalia is living an hour from Indianapolis with a Christian couple and their five kids. Her new ‘dad’, 36-year-old Antwon Mans, was recently ordained as a pastor and lives in a former church parsonage with his wife Cynthia, 39, an ex-McDonald’s manager (pictured together)
DailyMail.com can reveal the devout couple are aware of the questions swirling around the true age of their Ukrainian ‘daughter’ – but declined to comment when approached
Bishop Mans and his wife appear to have come into Natalia’s life sometime between 2013 and early 2016 when they lodged an application to become her legal guardians
Today, Natalia is living an hour from Indianapolis with a Christian couple and their five kids.
Her new ‘dad’, 36-year-old Antwon Mans, was recently ordained as a pastor and lives in a former church parsonage with his wife Cynthia, 39, an ex-McDonald’s manager.
The devout couple are aware of the questions swirling around Natalia’s age but they treat her like a teenager, dressing her in kids’ clothes and last month celebrating her 16th birthday.
Bishop Mans and his wife appear to have come into Natalia’s life sometime between 2013 and early 2016 when they lodged an application to become her legal guardians.
When Michael Barnett filed an objection, the Manses sought but failed to overturn the 2012 court decision that ‘re-aged’ Natalia.
Anna, meanwhile, hopes Natalia will one day make the 5,500-mile journey to Mykolaiv, a bleak shipbuilding hub that decades earlier built many of the Soviet Union’s feared destroyers and submarines.
The store worker says Natalia’s biological father Vadik, whom she reconciled with after Natalia’s birth, died six years ago.
But there is better news: Natalia’s older sister Yulia, 20, is having a baby.
‘Natasha will soon become an auntie, my daughter is pregnant now. She’s giving birth in February,’ Anna added.
‘I would like to tell Natasha that I really want to see her. I hope that when she turns 18 she goes to Ukraine and finds me. I would like to hug her and to apologize.’