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Sugar Cookie

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A five-year investigation resulted in charges against parents accused of changing their adopted daughter’s age before abandoning her and moving to Canada.

Michael and Kristine Barnett are charged with neglect of a dependent, according to court documents filed in Tippecanoe County.

The girl told police she was originally from Ukraine and came to the U.S. in 2008 via an adoption program. The Barnetts became her adoptive parents in 2010, according to court documents. The girl, who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal, lived with the family in Hamilton County for two years.

In July 2013, the Barnetts rented an apartment for her on North 11th Street in Lafayette, left her alone and then moved the rest of the family to Canada, court documents said.

Police interviewed the girl in September 2014. She told them she “had not seen the Barnetts since they moved to Canada.”

The couple also had her presumptive age changed from 8 years old to 22 years old in an Indiana Probate Court, according to court documents, although the process through which the age change was made was unclear

Kristine Barnett told the girl to tell people she was 22 and simply “looks young” for her age, investigators said. In June 2010, a doctor estimated her age at 8. An evaluation in June 2012 showed the girl was about 11 years old, court documents said.

During an interview in September 2019, Michael Barnett told investigators the family had her age “legally changed” even though they were aware she was a minor. Other than paying for rent at the Lafayette apartment, the couple didn’t support the girl financially, court documents said.
 
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If they really wanted to get away with this, they should have had her declared disabled, signed her up for social security and put everything on auto pay. They could have also gotten her some assistance to help with shopping needs.

They thought they were really smart. But really they were sloppy.
 
I think because they weren't aware of her actual age, hence "presumptive"....she could have been 8 or she could have been 11 or she could have been even older. I'm wondering if the place where they got her from in the Ukraine even had proper records on her.

I wonder how long she was on her own before someone found out or she got help...
 
How did they think they’d get away with this, crazy. Although if she’s from Eastern Europe there’s a high likelihood that she has fetal alcohol syndrome— not an easy condition to parent.

People, please be practical when considering adopting a special needs child. Love does not cure all. And really you’re not that special.
 
So many 'duh' situations in this situation. How many 8 year olds act a day over 8 1/2? Why spend all that money to adopt a child only to dessert them? What would be the purpose of this other than sex trafficking? What the hades was India thinking? Wait, they don't really think in India.
 
IN couple flees from sociopathic Ukrainian dwarf they adopted -
All the news stories seem to just repeating the original reporting done by this station and wlfi.com. The details aren't many but what's is being reported is pretty fucking bonkers.

A couple claimed they adopted a eight year old girl from the Ukraine, only this couple wasn't the original adoptive parents. Some other couple brought her over from the Ukraine and two years later in 2010, this couple adopts this poor girl with dwarfism. What goes on for the next few years is a mystery but it seems that the couple discovered the little girl was only little due to dwarfism and was in fact a teenager or possible even older. They also report she's diagnosed as a sociopath/psychotic. The couple files to legally change her legal age from ten to twenty-three and then flee to Canada, leaving the psycho dwarf in a subsidized apartment and continue to pay the rent.

The only comments from adoptive mother is that the dwarf is Dx as a psychopath/ sociopath.

I'd really like to read more details on this situation. Where is the original couple that adopted this girl/brought her over from the Ukraine? Anyone checking if they are still alive or did they flee the country too? Did they realize they had adopted an adult dwarf? How did the second couple realize they were harboring a con-artist dwarf? So many questions, so little answers.

The one comment from the police officer interviewed for this story sums it up well:

Damn straight officer.

https://kiwifarms.net/threads/in-couple-flees-from-sociopathic-ukrainian-dwarf-they-adopted.61112/


Even more details in this article:
https://www.wishtv.com/news/crime-w...opted-child-in-apartment-mom-says-its-a-scam/
 
Who else is reminded of the movie The orphan?
I'll say it again.
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So many 'duh' situations in this situation. How many 8 year olds act a day over 8 1/2? Why spend all that money to adopt a child only to dessert them? What would be the purpose of this other than sex trafficking? What the hades was India thinking? Wait, they don't really think in India.
Indiana not India.
Rotflmao. The girl is from Ukraine. India is innocent this time.
 
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The neglect in this case covers a timespan ending Feb. 28, 2016, when the girl moved out of Tippecanoe County. Exactly 15 days later, a different couple petitioned to become guardians for the girl. News 8 has determined the Barnetts filed an objection and the case references an age issue.

The petition was dismissed almost two years later in January 2018 when the second couple changed their minds, but there’s no mention of why
I siding with the adoptive parents.

Because we now have couple #3 that have turned away from her.
 
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I wonder if they will ever release the actual age of the girl.,
I wonder if they will ever be able to determine what it really is. Her condition seems to confuse their tests.

Not sure if Ukraine is as bad as Romania when it comes to record keeping, but if they are, there might be little or nothing in the way of records. Also, depending on where in the Ukraine she is from, she could have been affected by left over radioactivity from Chernobyl. There are large inhabited areas that are very unhealthy.
 
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I'm trying to figure out which profile is hers on FB....there's one that belongs to an author (same name, married to a man of the same name, did the move from Indiana to Canada etc....)....but I think they have boys.
Another one is in the same area, has a husband of the same name and has a little girl (doesn't look like a dwarf though)
 
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