The Natalia Grace saga: Ukrainian adoptee accused of faking her age has a new family
The disabled Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism accused of masquerading as a child and trying to kill her adoptive parents spoke out for the first time last year. Now, she’s making new, harrowing claims about what happened next. Andrea Cavallier takes a look at the bizarre case
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Years after the curious case of Natalia Grace captivated the nation, the disabled Ukrainian orphan with dwarfism accused of trying to kill her adoptive parents while masquerading as a child is now revealing the next chapter of her bizarre story.
Now, Natalia has revealed in a rare interview with PEOPLE that she’s living with her third American family, sharing new details about how she fled her last adopted family’s control in the middle of the night.
Natalia shared harrowing details of her childhood for the first time in an Investigation Discovery docuseries last year, which ended with her being welcomed into a new family, with parents Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans, a religious couple who later adopted her.
But the last two minutes of the second season of the docuseries Natalia Speaks hinted at trouble in paradise, and Natalia now says she suffered more years of alleged family torment.
The Mans were supposed to be a happy ending for Natalia, who puts her own age at 21. But it turned out to be anything but, as seen in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, which premieres on January 6 and 7 on Investigation Discovery and Max.
What exactly has happened during Natalia’s life and who is telling the truth?
Natalia’s childhood
For years, Natalia Grace was accused by her adoptive parents Michael and Kristine Barnett of “masquerading” as a child who they insisted was actually a murderous “sociopath” intent on killing their family.
The Ukrainian orphan was adopted in 2010 by the Barnetts who later petitioned a judge to change her legal age from eight to 22, after they cited chilling “evidence” that they alleged proved she was substantially older.
When Natalia, who has a rare genetic disorder called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, was adopted, the couple were told she was six years old at the time.
But the couple had doubts and later cited “evidence” that proved she was older than she was claiming to be.
When Kristine attempted to bathe their new daughter, she was shocked to discover pubic hair; it wasn’t long before the adoptive mother discovered that Natalia had been hiding her menstrual cycle, she claimed.
When the Barnetts discovered that another girl with the same rare form of dwarfism was also living in Indiana, the parents arranged a visit so the two children could meet.
Michael Barnett claims he was immediately taken aback by how much older Natalia seemed than the other girl — insisting that Natalia recognized it, too, and quickly tried to make herself seem younger.
Over the next several months, what started as a question of Natalia’s true age quickly spiraled into a vortex of allegations, with the Barnetts claiming their adopted daughter was really a homicidal adult.
Natalia’s adoptive mother Kristine, who could not be reached by ID’s producers for the docuseries, told DailyMail.com in 2019 that her family were terrorised in the months after they adopted her.
She alleged Natalia threatened to stab the family in their sleep, pushed her towards an electric fence, and poured bleach in her coffee.
When she asked Natalia what she was doing, Natalia would respond, “I am trying to poison you.”
In the first season of the ID docuseries, Natalia pushes back against the allegations that she says are blatantly lifted from the 2009 thriller film Orphan.
“I never tried to murder anybody,” she said.
In 2019, the Barnetts were taken into custody on child neglect charges after they abandoned Natalia in a Lafayette, Indiana apartment, and moved to Canada.
Michael was acquitted of the charges in October 2022, while Kristine had her case dismissed in March 2023, just three weeks before her trial. The couple have been divorced since 2013.
Natalia shares her story for the first time
Natalia’s story has resulted in multiple documentaries — including ID’s docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, which aired in 2023.
Then in 2024, she spoke out for the first time in ID’s docuseries Natalia Speaks, in which she comes face-to-face with her adoptive father in an explosive reunion where she grills him about the countless questions she’s had for years.
Natalia, who states that she “lost her childhood” also addresses some of the wild accusations thrown at her, including that she tried to kill her adoptive family.
“They’re not going to get away with this,” Natalia says in the docuseries. “This is my side of the story. Do I look like a monster to you?”
Natalia believes the Barnetts’ “lies” are confirmed when she finally gets medical confirmation about her age in the first episode.
The DNA testing done at TruDiagnostic, using just a sample of her blood to determine her “chronological age,” determined she was “closer to 22” in age at this time, which they noted was “pretty close to what you think, you’re almost 20, that’s within 2 years,” according to Dr Halland Chen, who appeared on the doc.
“I’ve known the truth for as long as I can remember, that I was a kid,” Natalia says, breaking down in tears after getting the results. “I just want people to really see the truth about my age.”
This is significantly younger than 34, which is the age according to her legally changed birthdate of 1989. That meant she was just four when she came to the United States from Ukraine and only eight years old when the Barnetts legally changed her age, and moved to Canada, leaving her behind in a Lafayette apartment alone.
“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie the Barnetts have said right into the trash, with a match. This is so big, this has been 12 years of just two people, lying their butts off. They ruined a kid’s life,” Natalia said after she was given the results.
“They painted me as a big monster, when in reality, they were the ones. It just proves I was not lying about my age. They ignored everything that was pointing to the truth, just so they could have this stupid lie. They knew it and they still did what they did.”
The docuseries also returned to the dentist’s office where the dentist who saw Natalia more than a decade ago presented an x-ray and pointed out that what it claimed was ‘indisputable’ evidence – adult teeth growing in the gums underneath Natalia’s baby teeth.
“You can’t fake teeth coming in like this,” the dentist says on the docuseries. He said the x-ray was taken in 2011 and that Natalia would have been around eight or nine years old at the time.
Natalia recalled that trip to the dentist after she lost a tooth while she was living with the Barnett family. She claimed her adoptive mother Kristine had accused her of pulling the tooth out herself.
But Natalia was still left with questions about why the Barnetts chose to make her so much older than she was.
“I always knew I wasn’t an adult,” Natalia added. “They are hiding something big, I wanna know the answers to these questions and I want people to pay for what they’ve done.”
The sit-down was the first time Natalia and her adoptive father Michael Barnett had seen each other face-to-face outside of a courtroom in years
“Why are we here, Michael?” Natalia pointedly asks.
“Why are we here?” Michael responded. “If you’re talking philosophically...”
“No, I want to know — why did you adopt me in the first place?” Natalia asks.
Michael claimed he was also a victim and that he was manipulated and mistreated by Kristine, who is now his ex-wife.
“Many of these questions there’s not going to be a single answer to,” he explained.
“This is not easy. I had the same monster you did. Kristine. I was exceptionally controlled and put down and threatened, was minimalized, anything that was who I was was ripped from me and I was guided and instructed to be exactly what she wanted me to be.”
While the two appear to be trauma bonding over this, Natalia later states that she still believes Michael is guilty, “because he stood by and did nothing.”
“If Kristine was his so-called monster, he could have fought her. I couldn’t,” she later says to the camera.
When she asks him if he knew about the alleged abuse, some of which he said he did know about, Michael became emotional and claimed he could not do anything because Kristine made threats that he would never see his sons again.
Natalia admitted in the docuseries that when she lived with the Barnetts, she would tell people she was 22 – out of fear.
“When Kristine told me to tell people I was 22, I did it because I was terrified,” she explained, detailing horrific claims of repeatedly being hit with a belt and made to stand against a wall for hours, soiling herself. “I didn’t know what she would do.”
Natalia also fired off questions to Michael and refuted his previous claims about her, including one that she held a knife in her hand as she “loomed” over his bed where he and his wife were sleeping.
“I was never in y’all’s room with a knife,” Natalia exclaims with her head in her hands.
“I know what I saw,” he responded.
Natalia has denied every allegation of murderous intentions and behaviour leveled by the Barnetts.
“They were supposed to take care of me. But all they did was hurt me.”
A bombshell phone call
After Natalia shared her story in Natalia Speaks, which ended with the girl being adopted by the Mans, the creators of the series thought that was the end.
Until they received a “bombshell” phone call that changed everything.
Hot Snakes Media co-founders and producers Eric and Shannon Evangelista told The Hollywood Reporter that they had not planned on making a third season.
Then they got a call from Natalia’s new adoptive father Bishop Antwon, who told them “We got a situation. Something ain’t right with Natalia.” Part of the call is heard at the end of season two.
“It was Christmas Eve, and it was, for us, this bombshell phone call,” Shannon told The Hollywood Reporter. “From then, we just said we had to pick up our cameras and follow it. That’s what we did.”
The creators said the series will pick up where the phone call left off.
Natalia’s escape
Natalia thought she found happiness with a new adoptive family – Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans, a couple who lived a strict religious lifestyle with their 10 children in Indiana, and later Tennessee.
The couple has advocated for Natalia and her disability, and in 2019, they went on Dr. Phil with Natalia and maintained that she never showed any signs of violence toward their family.
But it wasn’t the happy ending Natalia had hoped for.
In the new docuseries, there are claims that the Mans exploited Natalia.
Several witnesses claim to have seen the Mans physically abusing Natalia by slapping her in the face and whipping her with a belt. When asked about the allegations by PEOPLE, Natalia would not confirm or deny the alleged incidents.
But Natalia did share with the outlet how she planned her escape from the family, whom she accused of controlling her and forbidding her from contacting outsiders.
She enlisted her boyfriend and old friends Nicole and Vince DePaul, to create an escape plan. The DePauls tried to adopt Natalia in 2009 but were turned down, PEOPLE reported.
Natalia told the outlet that she was nervous about leaving her family and the “sisters” she had helped take care of, but knew it was the right decision.
So her friend secretly picked up Natalia outside of a church in Nashville and before she knew it, she was free.
“The last thing I told my sisters was, ‘You guys go ahead to the church sanctuary and I love you,’ she said. “And then I saw the [DePauls] pull up and Mack jumped out and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s actually here.’ My heart started pounding. I was terrified. I was completely terrified.”
Where Is Natalia Grace today?
Since Natalia left the Mans family, she has been living with the friends who helped her escape.
Nicole and her husband Vince are little people, like Natalia. The couple told PEOPLE that things were bumpy at first because the Mans were still involved, but have since smoothed out.
“They were calling Natalia constantly and trying to wheel her back in,” Nicole said. “It was just this constant thing where we were walking a fine line of not doing too much. See, she just came from this house that basically was ruled by a dictator, so I didn’t want to tell her what to do”
“She’s also never done one violent thing ever," Nicole added. “Our dogs love her and they sleep with her. I’m an animal lover. If I didn’t trust her, I wouldn’t leave my babies with her. They’re also a judge of character, as well.”
Natalia is learning how to drive and has been studying for her GED as she strives to be a teacher one day. She is still with her boyfriend and says “it’s a blessing to be alive.”
“Learning everything that I have about how to live with my dwarfism—it’s been a great experience,” she said. “I love it. I mean, of course, I still miss my siblings and everything. But I love it. I feel free.”
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter airs on January 6 and January 7 on Investigation Discovery and will be available to stream on Max.