Natalia Grace.
“This is my side of the story, and I’m going to say what happened because I never got a chance to say what happened,” Natalia says in the one-minute clip, which is a preview of what will be featured in an upcoming two-hour Investigation Discovery (ID) documentary,The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks.
“I’m hearing all this stuff that never actually happened from Kristine and Michael,” Natalia continues. “It’s shocking and it’s frustrating because that’s not true. And, people are believing what Kristine and Michael are saying without even hearing my side.”
The Barnetts, who adopted Natalia from the Ukraine in 2010 believing she was a 6-year-old orphan, claimed she was an adult masquerading as a child when they took her in. They allege Natalia tried to harm them and their biological children during the two years she lived with her adoptive family.
In 2012, the couple petitioned Marion County Probate Court to have her age legally changed to 22, changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989.
The following year, Michael and Kristine Barnett moved with their three sons to Canada without her, leaving her alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Ind.
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The Barnetts, who later divorced, were charged with neglect of a dependent. Prosecutors couldn’t charge the couple with neglect of a child because of Natalie’s court-ordered age change.
Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent in 2022, while Kristine’s charges were dropped earlier this year, according to theAssociated PressandWTHR.
The bizarre tale of Natalia’s adoption-gone-wrong is also featured in a three-part docuseriesThe Curious Case of Natalia Grace,which debuted on ID beginning May 29.
Natalia Speaksis a follow-up documentary toThe Curious Case of Natalia Grace. It is set to air on ID later this summer.
source: people.com
