"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" explores the complex story of Natalia Grace, as well as the legal saga involving Natalia and her adoptive parents Michael and Kristine Barnett.
Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, was adopted by the Barnetts, who later abandoned Natalia after claiming she was actually an adult pretending to be a child. The now-divorced couple, who said they believed Natalia to be six years old when they first adopted her in 2010, claimed that Natalia made violent threats against family members — including trying to poison Kristine — and that she had pubic hair and menstrual cycles. Natalia has consistently denied all of the Barnetts' claims regarding her violent behavior and faking her age.
After sending their adopted daughter to a psychiatric hospital, Michael and Kristine became convinced that Natalia was secretly an adult and successfully petitioned in court to change Natalia's age from eight to 22, altering her birth year from 2003 to 1989. The Barnetts then moved Natalia into an independent apartment, first in Westfield, Indiana in 2012, and then in Lafayette, Indiana in 2013 and left the country, moving to Canada to support their eldest son's graduate education. They were later charged with neglect in connection to Natalia's case.
"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" first aired on Investigation Discovery in May 2023 and focused on the Barnett family's perspective. In the second part of the documentary series, which aired this week, Natalia gets to tell her side of the story.
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In the new episodes, Natalia alleges that her adoptive mother, Kristine Barnett, abused her as a child, coaching her to say that she was older than she actually was. Michael says in a conversation with Natalia featured in the documentary that his ex-wife also manipulated him and agrees that Kristine, who didn't participate in the docuseries, was cruel to Natalia.
When reached for comment, Kristine Barnett said in an email to Business Insider that allegations that she "abandoned" or "abused" Natalia were false, maintaining that Natalia was determined to be an adult by parties other than herself and Michael. She said that she had declined to participate in the ID docuseries.
"The 'evidence' presented on the TV show did not go through the courts or any legal standards to be verified as true," she said.
Here's everything we know about where Michael and Kristine Barnett are now.
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Michael and Kristine split up in 2014
The Barnetts split up long before they made their claims against Natalia public in 2019.
The Lafayette Journal & Courier reported that Michael Barnett left Canada in late 2013 and moved back to Indianapolis. Per court documents accessed by USA Today, Kristine said Michael moved back to Indiana after an unspecified "incident impacting the children" in fall 2013 before filing for divorce from her in February 2014. Their divorce was finalized four years later.
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Michael later remarried, he says in the docuseries.
In 2019, the former couple were charged with neglecting Natalia
While Natalia was legally an adult due to the Barnetts re-aging her in court, she was still classified as a dependent of the Barnetts as a result of her disability.
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In 2019, Michael and Kristine were charged with neglect of a dependent, Fox 59 reported citing court documents filed in Tippecanoe County in Indiana. According to the Lafayette Journal & Courier in 2022, the couple were specifically charged with neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent causing bodily injury, neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury, and conspiracy to neglect a dependent.
Testifying in court against Michael during his trial, Natalia explained how her rare kind of dwarfism can cause skeletal abnormalities and issues with vision and hearing. According to Natalia, she was 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 while living on her own in Indiana.
Michael Barnett was acquitted of neglect charges after a jury trial
Per the Journal & Courier, Michael turned himself in to authorities in September 2019, and bonded out. At the time, records indicated that he lived in Indianapolis.
Per the same publication, an October 2019 gag order meant that anyone involved in the case was forbidden from making public comments about the case.
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Michael was acquitted of the charges in October 2022. In the documentary series, Natalia says that Michael reached out to her to speak after the gag order was lifted. During the conversation, he said that he and Natalia had "the same monster" in Kristine, but ultimately stormed out of the encounter after Natalia's guardian, Bishop Antwon Mans, asked him to stop swearing.
Kristine Barnett's neglect charges were dismissed
Kristine turned herself in shortly after Michael in September 2019, according to the Journal & Courier. At the time, her jail records showed that she lived in Bradenton, Florida, though the charges listed an Indianapolis address.
In March 2023, a Tippecanoe County judge signed the order to dismiss the charges against Kristine, per the Journal & Courier, citing "insufficient evidence" at trial to prove the charges in this case beyond a reasonable doubt."
A lawyer for Michael Barnett declined to comment when reached by Business Insider.
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All six episodes of "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks" are now available to stream on Max.
