The woman accused of being a real-life version of the horror movie “The Orphan” denied this week that she is an adult who was hellbent on killing her adopted parents.
In her first interview, Natalia Grace Barnett went on the “Dr. Phil” show to address the shocking accusations made by Kristine and Michael Barnett, who were charged with abandoning her to move to Canada.
They claimed she was really an adult when they adopted her in 2010 — claiming she tried to poison them and would stand in their bedroom holding a knife as they slept.
“I’m 16,” Natalia insisted, tearing up as she denied ever wanting to kill them.
“I was 6 years old when I came to the United States.”
Natalia claimed that she lived with “at least 30 families” after first landing here from Ukraine — including one in New York — before feeling “safe” when adopted by the Barnetts in Indiana.
The couple claims that they discovered her supposed scam after seeing pubic hair on the girl who also had menstrual cycles.
Natalia denied having periods, with Cynthia Mans, the woman currently looking after her, insisting, “She’s been with us for almost seven years. To this day she does not have a menstrual.”
“Not one,” agreed her husband, Antwon Mans.
Natalia insisted she was still only 8 when the Burnetts left her alone in an apartment in Lafayette.
“They just said, ‘We’re gonna get you an apartment and we’re going to Canada.’
“I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t really know what was going on at first, until after it happened,” she told Dr. Phil, saying she was confused and scared.
The Barnetts are both denying abandonment charges, saying they were not responsible because she was not a child.
“I guess it comes down to whether or not you are an evil, psychopath demon child that’s come over here to murder everybody,” Dr. Phil said during the interview.
