Indiana couple accused of abandoning adoptive daughter say she lied about her age: reports
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An Indiana couple accused of abandoning their 11-year-old adoptive daughter in an apartment before moving to Canada has claimed that the girl was actually a 22-year-old woman who made a career out of lying about her age.
Kristine and Michael Barnett – who are now separated – adopted the girl from Ukraine in 2010. The girl reportedly lacked a birth certificate and doctors estimated her age to be between 8 and 10. The child was also diagnosed with a bone-growth disorder that manifested in dwarfism.
Kristine Barnett discussing autism during a live TV appearance. (Disney-Walt Disney Television via Getty Images)
Kristine told Indianapolis’ WISH-TV last week that the adoption turned out to be a scam, and that the girl was a “diagnosed psychopath and sociopath” who “made a career of perpetuating her age façade.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}She also provided the station with a purported doctor’s note which said her daughter had secondary sexual characteristics of an adult woman. The note also allegedly said that the girl was committed to a psychiatric hospital in 2012 and was diagnosed with a sociopathic personality disorder.
The couple subsequently had the girl’s legal age changed to 22 in Indiana probate court. In 2013, the couple moved to Canada with their other children but left the girl in a rented apartment in Lafayette, Ind. which they paid for, according to court records cited by cited the station.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The girl was evicted in 2014 and taken into the care of some neighbors, a law enforcement source told Lafayette’s WLFI-TV. Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Felony child neglect charges were filed against Kristine and Michael on Sept. 11, the culmination of a five-year investigation. Neither has been taken into custody.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Kristine insisted on her innocence in a Facebook post published Sunday.
"I am sick and devastated from the idea of any of these charges and maintain that they are false charges," she wrote. "Friends and family you decide if what you are reading is real or fake for yourselves."