The story of Natalia Grace was followed by the whole world. Actually, it follows – because the topic has recently returned due to the premiere of the loud, awaited documentary entitled. “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace”in which, among other things, her former adoptive father. Mutual accusations (between her and her former guardians) seem to be endless. The versions of the two sides have always been extremely different from each other.
But let’s start from the beginning. It’s 2010. A wealthy American couple from Florida has it all – three kids, money, a luxury vacation, a beautiful home. The couple wants to surround one more child with unconditional love, which is why Michał and Kristine Barnett decide to adopt. It fell on a 6-year-old girl from Ukraine suffering from dwarfism, Natalia Grace.
They adopted a 6-year-old. “I was bathing her and I noticed she had pubic hair”
Just a few days after the adoption, things began to take an unexpected turn. The couple suspected they had been lied to about the girl’s date of birth. One day while taking a bath, the adoptive mother reportedly noticed that the 6-year-old had pubic hair.
I was bathing her and I noticed she had pubic hair. I was in shock
she told reporters from the Daily Mail.
According to the parents, the child also had a very rich vocabulary, rather inadequate for his age. She was also much taller than her peers.
She played with knives, threatened her parents with death. “I want to poison you”
But that wasn’t the worst. Allegedly, 6-year-old Natalia “played” with kitchen knives. She also tried putting bleach in her adoptive mother’s coffee. “I want to poison you,” she would admit when caught red-handed. At night, she stood with a knife in her hand over her sleeping parents. Once the spouses also noticed that – out of nowhere – she began to read the Bible. She claimed that she did it “to get rid of bad thoughts”.
These events escalated and became more frequent. The Barnetts began to fear being with Natalia under the same roof. So they went to a lawyer, and the case finally ended up in court. The judiciary inclined to the request of the adoptive parents and changed her date of birth from 2003 (recorded in the birth certificate) to 1989, which was preceded by a consultation with a doctor. In the meantime, the psychologist also decided that Natalia has sociopathic tendencies.
Controversy among the public, however, was aroused by how in 2019 the couple treated their adoptive child. They were to abandon their daughter in an apartment a few counties away from theirs and move to Canada. The Barnetts explained that this was dictated, among other things, by the fact that the girl had lied about her age. She was also to openly threaten to kill them, behave aggressively towards them, and draw scenes of murder on the walls.
The case of Natalia Grace was brought to the fore again. The couple were accused of neglecting their adoptive daughter, and after the legal date on her birth certificate was changed, neglecting her due to her dwarfism. The disease significantly limited her independence.
The Barnetts also divorced at this time, with most of the family’s wealth going towards attorneys and a move to Canada. Both were ultimately acquitted. Natalia was adopted by another family.
An adult sociopath pretending to be a child?
There are still many unexplained threads around the case. While the couple tried to convince the court and the public that Natalia was a fraud, the journalists of the British portal “Mail Online” conducted their investigation. They reached Natalia’s biological mother, who then lived in Mikołajów. She confirmed that she gave birth to a daughter in 2003.
Natalia Grace was invited to television. The girl cried in front of the cameras, claiming that she was not an adult at all. She also claimed that her new adoptive parents did not see anything dangerous in her behavior.
Another puzzling aspect is that after the divorce, Michael Barnett started blaming his wife for everything. He said she was the one who tricked him into lying and made him say that their adoptive daughter was 22 years old. In turn, in the latest, three-part documentary series “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace changes his version and accuses Natalia of cheating. The case still remains unsolved and remains the subject of much speculation and controversy.
Natalia Grace’s story served as inspiration for the film “Orphan” starring Isabelle Fuhrman. The plot tells the story of a married couple who, after losing their own child, adopt a 9-year-old girl, and their life, step by step, begins to turn into hell.
Sources: dailymail.co.uk/The Curious Case of Natalia Grace
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
