Child That Captured The Nation’s Attention In the ’90s Is Finally Ready To Share Her Story
Childhood should be a time of innocence. But unfortunately, some children don't get to grow up feeling safe, loved, and cherished. For these children, childhood isn't something positive, it's a black hole that could swallow them up.
Beth Thomas was just 19 months old when she was adopted into a loving family who knew about the suffering she endured. Her adoptive parents hoped their love would help Beth overcome the trauma, but as she grew up, it became painfully clear that something was wrong...
Meeting Tim and Julie
Beth Thomas was 19 months old when she was taken from her abusive biological parents by the Department of Social Services. A couple named Tim and Julie adopted both her and her brother, Jonathan, shortly after, but neither one was ready for what would come next...
"Perfectly Healthy"
Although Social Services knew about the children's previous home life, they told Tim and Julie that Beth and Jonathan were perfectly healthy. The parents showered the children with love every day, but no amount of nurturing and care prepared them for the horrors soon to come.
Ravaged Psyche
Although Beth had a cute smile and outgoing demeanor, the abuse she suffered at the hands of her real father ravaged her psyche. She had inside her a level of anger and resentment towards the world that was quickly beginning to manifest.
Nightmares
Initially, Beth suffered from nightmares as a result of her life prior to Tim and Julie. She would often wake up screaming in her room, completely inconsolable. The nightmares, although horrific, were nothing compared to how she began to treat her parents and brother over the next several years...
Beth's Torment
Beth began sneaking into her brother's bedroom at night and physically assaulting him. He was younger and couldn't defend himself from her attacks. If that wasn't enough, she also tormented the family dog. Beth's parents were starting to fear for even their own safety.
Locking Her Up
In fact, her parents were so concerned with her behavior that they had a special lock installed on her bedroom door so she couldn't leave her room at night. They were afraid of the harm their own daughter could cause, and they knew she needed to get serious help.
The Diagnosis
Tim and Julie sent Beth to a therapist for intensive sessions to find out the cause of her violent outbursts and to learn what they could do to stop them. After listening to what Beth had to say about her actions, she was diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), a direct result of her violent past.
No Empathy For Anyone
Children with RAD have almost no ability to connect with other humans on an emotional level. Beth was completely incapable of giving or receiving love, and that was why she was acting out. She simply had no empathy for those around her, humans and animals alike.
A Little Psychopath
The lack of empathy and inability to feel remorse after heinous actions are classic signs of psychopathy. All of this behavior could be linked back to the abuse Beth suffered as an infant.
She's Not Alone
Children who experience the abuse Beth endured almost always grow up with intense anti-social behavior and social awkwardness. And just like these other children, without proper help, there was no telling how much more pain she'd inflict on her family.
Getting Worse
Life had become miserable for every member of the household. Jonathan and the dog were suffering from physical abuse, and Tim and Julie were terrified their daughter would eventually try hurting them. It was time to take extreme measures...
Calling Connell Watkins
Tim and Julie enlisted the help of a therapist named Connell Watkins who specialized in attachment therapy. Watkins was heavily involved with a controversial type of healing known as "compression therapy." Even though the method had its critics, Watkins convinced Tim and Julie to give it a try.
Controversial Therapy
Compression therapy sought to release suppressed rage in a controlled environment, bringing a child to a state of submission where they could be re-parented. The method didn't come without its risks, but amazingly, Beth reacted extremely positively to her first few sessions. Still, that didn't mean she'd take to it for good.
A Turnaround
It took one year of intense compression therapy and a monumental amount of support from her parents, but Beth Thomas finally shed the psychopathic emotional state that plagued her life. She understood right from wrong and realized the hurt she caused for so many years.
28 Years Later...
It's now been 28 years since Beth started the controversial therapy that completely turned her life around, and her life has completely transformed! Her tumultuous childhood was completely put behind her thanks to Connell Watkins. Unfortunately, Watkins' life didn't pan out as well...
Tragic Ending
Her controversial compression methods landed her in jail for seven years after a ten-year-old girl named Candace accidentally died during a "rebirthing" ceremony; she was asphyxiated by four adults who were supposed to be helping her through the process. Beth was extremely fortunate to have made it through Watkins' process unscathed.
Trying To Rebuild
Beth now works as a nurse, and she's also the co-author of a book called More Than a Thread of Hope that discusses all the issues associated with RAD and how parents can learn to cope with a child who suffers from it.
Families By Design
Beth also runs a company called Families By Design that offers assistance to children who suffer from RAD. She knows all too well the struggle they face every day, and she's there to let them know there's light at the end of the tunnel.
Looking Back
Beth Thomas is an inspiration to people who struggle with RAD everywhere. Her adoptive parents probably never thought she'd make a full recovery due to the abuse she suffered, and there were moments when they questioned whether she'd have a future at all.
The Long Road
The long road to retraining Beth's emotional sensibilities was difficult for everyone involved, and still her adoptive parents refused to back down from the challenge. Some parents of children with psychopathic tendencies feel torn between their child's needs and the rest of the family's safety.
Even Worse Case
It started in 2010. Foster parents Kristine and Michael Barnett sped from Indiana to Florida, as, just a few days earlier, they’d received a phone call asking them if they’d be interested in an emergency adoption of a 6-year-old girl. Without hesitation, they said yes.
Desperate For A Daughter
They knew little about the circumstances leading to their new daughter’s displacement, or really, anything about her at all. According to Kristine, the red flags that should have slapped them in the faces when they met, didn’t even register.
Meeting Natalia Grace
Kristine was nervous as she first met Natalia Grace, who, unbeknownst to the two parents, had characteristics of dwarfism. The agency explained Natalia had a rare bone disorder called spondyloepimetaphyseal dysplasia. A shock, sure — but it was a ripple compared to what the family would soon learn.
Uncharted Territory
Caring for a child with a physical disability was uncharted territory for the Barnetts. Though, they were in a financial position to help a child with specific needs. No other information about her past family or medical conditions were provided, only a birth certificate.
Pushing Away Concerns
Other than a Ukrainian certificate listing her birthday as September 4th, 2003, they had no clue about their child’s first 6 years. Michael and Kristine assisted Natalia in walking to the car, pushing away concerns about the ambiguity of it all. The priority was making Natalia feel loved.
Family Bonding
First stop, Disney World. The Barnetts eased Natalia into the family with special attention, bonding with her three new brothers, and ice cream. All efforts were to make their girl comfortable, and on a beach outing, they glimpsed what was going on inside her head.
Natalia's First Slip-Up
Natalia sat with her parents on the sand watching her brothers swim. She requested to be carried into the waves (so far, she’d shown visible difficulty walking). When Mike and Kristine replied in a few minutes, Natalia stood up straight and bolted into the water.
Another Real Shock
Still, Kristine didn’t suspect anything negative. The real questions were raised after bathing Natalia for the first time. “I noticed she had full pubic hair. I was so shocked. I had just been told she was a six-year-old, and it was very apparent she wasn’t.”
Natalia's Odd Preferences
In the following months, Kristine says she and Michael observed other hints that their daughter was older than they’d thought. The dolls and children’s toys they bought her sat untouched. Natalia preferred the company of teenage girls.
Speaking Fluent English
Once she started opening up, Natalia was quite the conversationalist. Her parents couldn’t help but notice her advanced vocabulary, particularly for her age. Also, there wasn’t any trace of an accent to her English.
Huh?
Thinking that Natalia would enjoy communicating in her native language, the Barnetts asked a friend of theirs from Ukraine to visit. When spoken to, Natalia couldn't provide any details about her former home, let alone understand the language at all.
How Old Is She?!
Her demeanor, coupled with finding her menstrual blood-stained underwear hidden in the trash, pushed Kristine and Michael to believe Natalia was actually closer to a teenager than the small child she appeared to be physically.
Going To The Doctor
Kristine said Natalia’s age didn’t change how she felt about her daughter. If anything, the murky circumstances about Natalia’s origins compelled her to create a safe space where she could be herself. That included taking care of her health by determining her medical age.
More To Love
Bone density tests ordered by their physician confirmed what Michael and Kristine suspected. The results concluded Natalia to be at least age 14. With that news in mind, the Barnett family's claim the love stayed, they just adjusted their parenting to her true age.
Hoping To Help Natalia
All the unicorn shirts and princess patterned dresses in Natalia’s closet were swapped for more age-appropriate clothing. It was their hopes, Kristine said, that when Natalia had permission to live as her actual age, that she’d let her guard down.
Bad Behavior
Instead, things took a spectacular nose dive. Natalia’s behavior grew more erratic by the day. Once, she was captured on a monitor attacking a baby when no one else was in the room. Then there were times when she’d wiped body fluids on the walls.
The Potential Poisoning
The most troubling was Natalia’s satisfaction for harming others, namely her mother. “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 said.
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Seeking Professional Help
For the better part of the next two years, Natalia was evaluated by a slew of health professionals for psychiatric disorders. During one of several stays in St. Vincent Indianapolis Stress Center, she confided in a clinical therapist that she was indeed 18 years old.
A Career Con Artist
In March 2012, their primary care doctor, Andrew McLaren, provided a note agreeing that Natalia’s birth certificate must be inaccurate. He explained, given all the admissions Natalia previously made to other doctors, that she was a career con artist.
Changing Her Age
When medical professionals confirmed their suspicions, the Barnetts decided to have Natalia’s age legally changed. Not out of malice, they say, but to ensure their daughter could receive the level of adult psychiatric care that her doctors said she truly needed.
Officially An Adult
Judge Gerald S. Zore concluded that their evidence was sufficient to prove Natalia wasn’t born in 2003 as her birth certificate stated. He approved the change to her legal age, making her new birth year 1989.
Mom and Dad's Side of the Story
After she left psychiatric care, Kristine and Michael helped their now legally 22-year-old daughter secure an apartment. They wanted to get Natalia on track to independence since, in the eyes of the state, she was an adult.
Living Solo
They held her hand through signing up for food stamps, getting a social security number and official ID, and applying for state benefits. Assistance only went so far. A few months into Natalia’s solo living experiment, things went haywire.
Parenting At Arm's Length
Behavior problems got Natalia booted from her state-run psychiatric housing. So, take two, the Barnetts helped get her set up in another apartment in Lafayette, Indiana. Still filling a parental role at a careful arm’s reach, the Barnett’s tried to map out Natalia’s next steps.
Finally Hopeful
In daily conversations, Kristine said she and Natalia discussed college. Her next step was making high school equivalency so she could pursue a cosmetology program. They agreed to pay the first year of school, as they did with their other kids. Natalia’s future looked bright.
Greeted With Controversy
“I co-signed the lease and paid for the rent upfront for a year. I did everything you would do when you send your child off to college, I helped her with groceries and bought furniture at Target,” Kristine said. Others disagreed with the Barnetts' motive.
Their Other Child
In the midst of Natalia’s age conundrum, Kristine and Michael were getting attention for the achievements of their son, Jake. By 12 years old, Jake made waves as a physics prodigy, publishing scholarly papers and fielding college offers.
In The Spotlight
The spotlight cast on the entire family in a 2012 episode of 60 Minutes. Natalia appeared on camera too, seated at the dinner table next to Kristine. No mention of their ongoing saga with their daughter was made.
Set For Success
While Natalia settled into her apartment, Kristine published her book, The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism. As she tells it, Natalia was set up for success when they moved to Canada for Jake’s next opportunity.
Natalia's Regression
Prior to moving, Kristine saw signs of Natalia's regression. A pink child-like dress in her closet and an equally immature bike sat outside the apartment building. If Natalia was pretending to be younger, as a legal adult, Kristine’s hands were tied.
Natalia's New Family
From Canada, Kristine said she attempted to maintain contact with Natalia but she answered the phone less and less. The final time they spoke, Natalia told her she was making spaghetti for her new family.
Who's At Fault?
Their last news of Natalia was when she changed the beneficiary from her social security from Michael to someone else. Kristine presumed she’d hoodwinked another family. She resigned to wash her hands of the drama — until she was charged with felony neglect.
Under Arrest
In September of 2019, a Tippecanoe County judge approved warrants for the arrest of Kristine and Michael Barnett. The couple divorced in 2014, with Michael moving back to Indiana. Despite their split, they were united in shock at the neglect allegations.
Trying To Clear Her Name
“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 told the Daily Mail in attempts to clear her name.
Bone Density Test
What started as a bizarre story has only gotten stranger since authorities refute the Barnetts' claims that Natalia was an adult. They say back in 2010, a bone density test by a different doctor than the parents allege, proved Natalia was only age 8.
Pleading Not Guilty
That means Natalia would only have been 11 when her family moved to Canada leaving her behind to fend for herself. Michael and Kristine both challenged these claims, pleading not guilty to their charges.
Why Did They Wait?
Authorities were notified in 2014 and interviewed Natalia who stuck to that story, that she was a child and her family had taken off. One major concern is why the police waited over 5 years to pursue action against her parents?
Clashing Stories
The answer to that and so many other questions remain to be seen. Police claim Michael Barnett admitted that Kristine concocted the theory that Natalia was older than she looked, but his lawyers deny that completely.
Biological Mother Speaks Out
Reports by the Daily Mail dug further into Natalia’s elusive history prior to her adoption. A woman named Anna claimed to be Natalia’s biological mother and supported the 2003 birth date stamped on the Ukrainian birth certificate.
Tearful Birth Story
She gave a teary account of Natalia’s birth story, saying the doctors advised her to give her baby up because she wouldn’t be able to provide the serious level of care required of a child with her disability.
A New Family
Now she regrets her decisions after seeing the harm Natalia suffered at the hands of her adopters. Luckily though, a family did step forward and take the teenage girl into their care after Kristine and Michael moved to Canada.
Finding Permanent Parents
Pastor Antwon Mans and his wife Cynthia came into contact with Natalia sometime between 2013 and 2016. They haven’t given statements to the media, but from their social media accounts, it’s clear they consider Natalia their daughter.
No One Knows The Truth...Except Natalia
In light of these developments, Kristine and Michael stuck to their story that Natalia is a 30-year-old suffering from severely dangerous psychological problems. There's no debating that Natalia looks older in recent pictures. Whether she’s a teen or not, time will tell.
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