The world has become enthralled with Natalia Grace’s story in recent years.
Grace is a Ukrainian-born American with a rare form of dwarfism, who was adopted by an American family in 2010.
Her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, gained international attention when they voiced their concerns about Natalia’s real age.
Shortly after they adopted her, the Barnetts became suspicious of her age, leading to accusations that Natalia was merely posing as a child.
Grace–who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita–was accused of being a grown woman posing as a child.
Still, a lot of the accusations the Barnetts made against their adoptive daughter were a lot more sinister.
Michael and Kristine had also made claims that Natalia tried to harm them and their biological children.
The couple accused her of trying to poison Kristine’s coffee and kill her by dragging her towards an electric fence.
Natalia was also accused of placing clear thumb tacks on the stairs, face up, so that her adopted family would step on them.
In 2019, Michael told Good Morning America that doctors allegedly treating Natalia told them “this person is a sociopath. This person is a con artist. You are all in danger.”
In 2012, just two years after they adopted Natalia, the Barnetts petitioned Marion County Probate Court to have her age legally changed to 22, which would change her birth year from 2003 to 1989.
Convinced she was actually an adult woman, the following year, the couple and their three sons moved to Canada without Natalia.
As a result, the Barnetts were charged with neglect of a dependent.
However, brosecutors weren’t able to charge the couple with neglect of a child because of Natalia’s court-ordered age change to 22.
Now, years after this story went viral, a new series on the subject, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, has been released.
In the docuseries, Natalia takes a DNA test, which presumably proves her real age.
This test seemingly proves that Natalia was, in fact, a child when she was adopted by Michael and Kristine.
The blood test, conducted by the medical lab TruDiagnostic, revealed that Natalia is approximately 22 years old.
This suggests that she was 9 years old when she was adopted by Indiana couple.
At the time of the lab work, which was conducted in Aug. 2023, Natalia believed she was around 20 years old.
“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts has said right into the trash with a match,” Natalia said in the premiere episode.
“This is so big. Because literally, this has been 13 years of just two people lying their butts off,” she continued.
“They ruined a kid’s life,” Natalia insisted. “They painted [me] as some big monster.”
“It just proves that I was not lying about my age,” she continued.
“They ignored everything that was pointing to the truth just so they could create this stupid lie,” Natalia said. “They knew it and they still did what they did.”