You’ve probably seen the headlines. One day, a family adopts a sweet young girl with dwarfism, and the next, they’re claiming she’s a 22-year-old sociopath trying to poison their coffee. It sounds like a horror movie. Actually, it literally is the plot of the movie Orphan. But in the real world, the names Barbora Skrlova and Natalia Grace are often whispered in the same breath as if they’re two sides of the same coin. They aren't.
One is a story of a woman who purposefully infiltrated a family and a school system by pretending to be a child. The other is a case of a child who was legally "aged up" by her parents to justify leaving her in an apartment alone. If you're looking for the truth behind the "adult posing as a child" trope, you have to look at how these two cases actually played out.
The Mystery of Barbora Skrlova and the Kuřim Case
Honestly, the Barbora Skrlova story is much weirder than anything Hollywood could dream up. We aren't just talking about a woman pretending to be a girl; we’re talking about a woman who successfully posed as a 13-year-old girl named Anička and later a 13-year-old boy named Adam.
In 2007, Czech police stumbled upon a horrific scene in the town of Kuřim. They found an eight-year-old boy named Ondřej locked in a dark room, bound and tortured. His mother, Klára Mauerová, was part of a religious cult. Living with them was "Anička," who everyone thought was a traumatized 13-year-old girl Klára had adopted.
The Identity Swap
When the police moved in, Anička vanished. Later, a "boy" named Adam appeared in a school in Norway. He was shy and quiet. He played with other kids. But "Adam" didn't exist. It was Barbora Skrlova, a 33-year-old woman with a rare glandular disorder that allowed her to maintain a childlike appearance.
Barbora wasn't just a passive observer. She was a key figure in the cult, which was reportedly led by her father. Prosecutors argued she was a "skilled manipulator" who helped orchestrate the abuse of the two young boys in the house. She would pretend to be a victim to gain sympathy while simultaneously participating in the torture of the children. It’s a level of psychological complexity that still baffles experts today.
💡 You might also like: Brother May I Have Some Oats Script: Why This Bizarre Pig Meme Refuses to Die
Why Everyone Compares Her to Natalia Grace
So, why does Natalia Grace keep getting compared to a Czech cult member? Basically, it’s because of the Barnetts. Kristine and Michael Barnett adopted Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (a rare form of dwarfism), in 2010. They initially thought she was six.
The honeymoon phase didn't last.
The Barnetts started claiming Natalia was an adult. They pointed to what they called "adult behaviors": pubic hair, menstrual cycles, and a vocabulary they thought was too advanced for a kid. They alleged she tried to push Kristine into an electric fence and put bleach in her coffee.
The Legal Aging
In 2012, the Barnetts did something unprecedented. They went to court and successfully petitioned to have Natalia’s birth year changed from 2003 to 1989. Overnight, their "child" was legally 22 years old. They rented her an apartment, gave her some food stamps, and moved the rest of the family to Canada.
This is where the Barbora Skrlova comparison falls apart. While Barbora was a grown woman caught red-handed using DNA evidence and school records, Natalia’s "adult" status was based almost entirely on the Barnetts' testimony and a few disputed medical opinions.
📖 Related: Brokeback Mountain Gay Scene: What Most People Get Wrong
What the Science Actually Says
By 2024 and 2025, new evidence finally put the "adult" rumors to rest. A DNA blood test revealed that Natalia was indeed a child when the Barnetts adopted her. The test results, which were widely publicized in the docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, estimated her age to be around 22 in 2023.
Math time. If she was 22 in 2023, she was about 9 years old when she was abandoned in that apartment.
The "adult signs" the Barnetts saw? Medical experts have noted that precocious puberty can occur in children with certain forms of dwarfism. The advanced vocabulary? She was a bright kid who had spent her early years in institutional settings where she had to adapt quickly.
Two Very Different Realities
When you look at Barbora Skrlova and Natalia Grace side-by-side, the contrast is stark.
- Barbora Skrlova was a 33-year-old woman who used her condition to facilitate the abuse of actual children. She was a perpetrator within a cult structure.
- Natalia Grace was a child with a disability who was re-aged by the legal system based on the claims of her adoptive parents. She was the victim of neglect.
The Barnetts were eventually charged with neglect of a dependent. Michael was found not guilty in 2022, and charges against Kristine were dropped in 2023. This happened because the legal system was hamstrung by the fact that Natalia was legally an adult at the time she was abandoned, even if she was biologically a child.
👉 See also: British TV Show in Department Store: What Most People Get Wrong
Actionable Insights for True Crime Followers
If you're following these cases, it’s easy to get sucked into the "creepy kid" narrative. But there are lessons here about how the legal and foster care systems can fail vulnerable people.
Verify the medical context. In cases of dwarfism or rare genetic conditions, standard "age markers" often don't apply. Always look for specialized pediatric endocrinology reports rather than general practitioner notes.
Look at the paper trail. Barbora Skrlova’s deception was uncovered through DNA and birth records that proved she was born in the 70s. In Natalia’s case, her original birth records from Ukraine always supported her being a child; it was the amended US court order that created the confusion.
Be skeptical of the "Orphan" narrative. The media loves a story about a "secret adult" because it taps into a primal fear. However, in reality, cases like Barbora Skrlova are vanishingly rare, while cases of medical neglect and adoption breakdown are unfortunately common.
The next time someone brings up Barbora Skrlova and Natalia Grace in the same sentence, you’ve got the facts. One was a master of disguise in a dark cult; the other was a little girl who just needed a home.
Next steps for deeper research:
- Examine the 2023 DNA findings in the Natalia Speaks docuseries to see the specific genetic markers used.
- Research the "Grail Movement" splinter group to understand the cult dynamics that surrounded the Barbora Skrlova case.
- Review the Indiana state laws regarding "re-aging," which have come under fire following the Barnett case.