The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Adoptive parents of adult dwarf reveal terror of living with 'sociopath' who claimed she was 6
LAFAYETTE, INDIANA: The three-night docuseries 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace' tells the tale of a family who believed they had adopted a 6-year-old orphan who was actually an adult. On May 29, the program made its ID network debut. It will air three nights in a row from 9 to 11 pm ET/PT.
Natalia Grace is shown reading a Bible and telling her adoptive mother that she is attempting to "get rid of evil thoughts" in the shocking new documentary on the unusual story of the Ukrainian dwarf. Natalia is accused of tormenting her adoptive family in Indiana, who initially thought they had taken in a six-year-old orphan but quickly realized she was actually an adult dwarf. The footage is just one example of her allegedly troubling conduct.
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'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace'
After placing Natalia up for adoption in 2010 and leaving her to live alone in an apartment while they relocated to Canada, Michael and Kristine Barnett were both recently cleared of charges of abuse. The couple, who divorced in 2014, said she is a fraud who lied to them to get into their family and then threatened to knife them while they slept and poison their coffee. The family discusses the terrifying experience in 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace'.
One thing is still unclear: was she really an adult dwarf psychopath, as the family maintains, or an orphan from Ukraine? In the opening scene, Michael Barnett laments, "She won't tell us the truth of who she is - we are living with a con artist and sociopath."
The family's nightmare started on April 26, 2010, when they chose to adopt a foreign child from a facility in Florida. They genuinely thought they were providing a home for a six-year-old orphan. Michael says life was "fantastic" in the documentary. He and his wife had a brand-new house, "hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank," and were raising their three boys.
A blood-chilling shock
He said, "Early 2010, we were blessed with many things. By the time 2014 came around, I have 37 cents in my bank account, I have no wife, I have no children, I have no home and no job. If Natalia never entered our lives, I never get divorced," as per reports.
The Barnett family's idyllic existence suddenly turned into a nightmare when they learned Natalia Grace may be a dangerous threat who might harm them, and on one of the first nights following her adoption, they began to wonder if she was really that young. He said that after a day at Disneyland, Kristine was giving Natalia a bath when she realized the child, who they believed to be just six years old, had "full pubic hair," and she let out a blood-curdling scream from the bathroom.
The pair claims there was "a lot of escalation" in the following months. This included learning that she had been delaying her menstruation for months. The vast age difference became apparent when Natalia met a six-year-old boy who had the uncommon bone condition spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia.
'She tried to poison my wife'
Michael reported that as the months passed, it became clear that they were surrounded by danger, to the point where she threatened to stab her new siblings. Michael said, "She tried to poison and kill my wife, (And) one night, I opened my eyes and Natalia is standing at the foot of the bed with a knife in her hand."
'To get rid of these evil thoughts'
The video reveals previously unseen footage of Natalia acting suspiciously inside her adoptive household, including reading the bible while seated at a table. She answers, "To get rid of these evil thoughts," when asked why she decided to read it. Michael declared, "She would do as much as possible to cause hurt or harm or mental distress to the entire family."
After some months, Michael claimed he was shocked by the diagnosis after bringing the youngster to a psychiatrist. Natalia was a "sociopath," the expert informed them, rather than the usual outcome of schizophrenia or that she heard voices, as reported by Daily Mail.