The parents of a child with an IQ higher than Albert Einstein are said to have abandoned a Ukrainian girl they’d adopted years prior, according to reports.
Kristine Elizabeth Barnett, 45, and Michael Barnett, 43, are accused of abandoning the 11-year-old with dwarfism in a flat in Indiana in the United States, when they emigrated to Canada.
The pair took their three children across the northern border for a new life, leaving the Ukrainian child without any money in the apartment they rented for her, according to claims in The Washington Post.
It’s reported the Barnett family adopted the girl in 2010, when she was just eight years old, before legally changing her age to 22 in 2012.
The child is said to have told detectives in 2014 she came into the US in 2008 ‘through an adoption’, before being taken in by the Barnetts.
As per the publication, investigators wrote in the affidavit:
She was left alone in the apartment in Lafayette while the rest of the Barnett family moved to Canada.
However, Kristine has since taken to social media to deny the accusations, insisting they are ‘false charges.’
She wrote:
I am sick and devastated from the idea of any of these charges and maintain that they are false charges.
Friends and family you decide if what you are reading is real or fake for yourselves.
I am having to come in here to confirm I am not arrested and my attorney states and has confirmed there is no warrant for my arrest.
The mum-of-three insists the adopted child is in fact, an adult and the adoption was a scam, according to reports.
Kristine and Michael Barnett previously appeared on television, during a 60 Minute piece about their 13-year-old son, Jake Barnett, who was a child prodigy physics student.
Jake, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was studying at Purdue University Indianapolis at the time the programme was made, despite his parents being told he might never be able to read, the Mirror reports.
Ms Barnett has even penned a book about her genius son, titled The Spark: A mother’s story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism, which has received brilliant reviews and was even described as ‘(an) amazing memoir… compulsive reading’ by The Washington Post.
As per The Washington Post, Tippecanoe County prosecutors filed neglect charges against the couple on Wednesday (September 11).
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.