- The strange case of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace Barnett is the focus of an ID docuseries.
- Part one, which aired in May 2023, investigates her adoptive parents’ claims that she was secretly an adult.
- The second part, which premiered in January, covers Natalia’s perspective and where she is now.
Natalia Grace Barnett garnered worldwide attention after her adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, said that the Ukrainian-born Natalia hid her true age prior to her 2010 adoption and was secretly an adult when she joined their family.
Citing supposed sexual remarks from Natalia, as well as the Barnetts’ claims that Natalia had pubic hair and menstruation cycles, Michael and Kristine were so convinced that Natalia, who has a rare form of dwarfism, was actually an adult that they successfully petitioned a court to change her birth year.
You are viewing: Where Is Natalia Grace Today
However, the couple were later charged with neglecting their adopted daughter after they moved Natalia into an apartment on her own in 2012 and subsequently left the country. The legal saga involving Michael, Kristine, and Natalia is the focus of the docuseries “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” which aired its first part on Investigation Discovery in 2023.
The second part of the series, airing this week, features Natalia speaking out about her experience in her own words and even confronting Michael over his abandonment.
Here’s where Natalia Grace is today.
Natalia Grace testified against her former adoptive father in court and is now living with a new family
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The Barnetts first made their claims against Natalia public in 2019, when they were being charged with neglect of a dependent. They claimed that shortly after they adopted Natalia in 2010 she began exhibiting disturbing behaviors, including making threats of violence to family members. They believed Natalia was a 6-year-old child at the time of the adoption, they said.
“She threatened to stab my sons, drag their bodies outside, and bury them under the deck,” Michael claimed in the first part of the ID documentary. “She tried to poison and kill my wife.”
After they sent her to a psychiatric hospital, Michael and Kristine became convinced that Natalia was secretly an adult. Natalia has consistently denied all of the Barnetts’ claims regarding her violent behavior and faking her age.
Even though her Ukrainian birth certificate said she was born in 2003, Michael and Kristine successfully had Natalia’s birth year changed to 1989. (The successful change to Natalia’s age later meant that the Barnetts could not be charged with child neglect when they left Natalia in Indiana and moved to Canada, as it made Natalia legally an adult.)
Shortly after that, in 2012, they moved Natalia into an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, where she lived on her own. The Barnetts later moved to Canada, so their oldest son, a child prodigy working in theoretical physics, could begin his graduate work.
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But Natalia couldn’t live independently, according to her court testimony in the trial against Michael Barnett for neglect charges. She has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a rare kind of dwarfism that can cause skeletal abnormalities and issues with vision and hearing. In court, Natalia said shewas unable to bathe herself or use a washing machine due to her mobility issues and subsisted mostly on instant noodles, pizza, and peanut butter sandwiches.
During her second year of living alone, a neighbor connected her with the Mans family, who invited Natalia to live with them.
Natalia Grace today
As of 2023, Natalia still lives with Cynthia Mans, her husband Antwon, and the couple’s other children in the Mans’ house. The Mans family, who run shared social-media accounts, frequently post photos with Natalia. They posted a Thanksgiving family photo with Natalia, and in September 2023, they marked Natalia’s 20th birthday. As shown in the second part of the docuseries, genetic testing determined Natalia’s true age to be around 22 years old as of August 2023, though legally, she is still 34.
Michael Barnett was acquitted of neglect charges in October 2022, and the case against Kristine Barnett was dismissed in March 2023 due to insufficient evidence.
Kristine Barnett, lawyers for Michael Barnett, and the Mans family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks” is currently airing on Investigation Discovery. You can see a clip from the second part below.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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