A US couple adopted a 6-year-old girl. They're now convinced she was actually an adult.

The Ukrainian orphan - who may have been a six-year-old girl when she was adopted or in fact, a 20-year-old woman - is back in the headlines. 

Natalia Grace has been in and out of the spotlight ever since her explosive story came to light in 2014, four years after her adoptive father in the US said she hoodwinked his family into taking her in. 

In a preview for a new docuseries on the bizarre tale titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, Michael Barnett claimed that we would finally know what happened.

“You’re gonna get the truth,” he told viewers in the two-minute long clip. “I will pre-warn you, you might not like the truth.”

‘Stuff of a horror movie’

Natalia’s story began when she arrived on American soil in 2008. She was adopted almost immediately, but it didn’t work out and she bounced between families. 

Fast forward to 26 April 2010 when the “tight-knit” Barnett’s from Indiana brought her home to Lafayette as a new sibling for their three sons, Jake, Wes and Evan. 

“That’s the day we adopted Natalia,” Michael said in the preview. “We had no idea what we were dealing with. 

“She’s not 6.” 

Instead, the Barnetts believed that their adoptive daughter was actually a 20-year-old woman. Natalia suffered from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a rare form of dwarfism, which accounted for her short stature. 

But it wasn’t just her age that was the issue.  

“She threatened to stab my sons,” Michael explained. 

“She tried to poison and kill my wife one night.

“I open my eyes and Natalia is standing at the foot of the bed with a knife in her hands.” 

As the clip continued, Michael suddenly cut in. “We were all abused!” he yelled, before telling the interviewer, “I hate this.”

Who’s telling the truth?

What really went on during Natalia’s time with the Barnett family remains an absolute mystery. Will we find out in this new docuseries? Or will more tales be spun?  

“I definitely didn’t feel safe around Natalia,” one of Michael’s sons told the show, but then went on to claim that his mum “is definitely not a hundred percent innocent”. 

So what do we know?

When the Barnett’s adopted Natalia in 2010, supposedly as a six-year-old, her Ukrainian birth certificate put her birthdate as 4 September 2003. But bone density tests showed that she was likely 14 years old. 

Her adoptive mother, Kristine, also noticed that Natalia had full pubic hair, a “sophisticated” vocabulary, preferred spending time with teenagers rather than people her own age, and didn’t speak Ukrainian. She also found bloody clothing in their rubbish bins, as if Natalia was trying to hide her periods. 

By 2011, the family said Natalia had grown violent. On top of threatening to stab them and pouring bleach into Kristine’s coffee, the orphan allegedly tried to push her new mother into an electric fence. 

“She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard,” Kristine told DailyMail TV.

“She was jumping out of moving cars. She was smearing blood on mirrors. She was going things you could never imagine a little child doing.”

Later a clinical therapist who worked with Natalia said she’d told her that she was really 18 and enjoyed terrorising the family. In 2012 a physician told the couple that Natalia was clearly not a child but had made a career out of pretending to be one.

Convinced that their adoptive daughter was not only an adult but a dangerous psychopath, in 2012 the Barnett’s petitioned the Marion Country Probate Court to have the date on Natalia’s birth certificate changed to 4 September 1989. This meant she would have been 20 when the family adopted her in 2010.

The family then moved to Canada, leaving Natalia behind in an apartment they had rented for her for a year. During this time, she said she didn’t go any grocery shopping but that her landlord took her to a gas station to pick up a few things. The Barnett’s had also left behind some canned food for her to eat. 

In 2014, neighbours discovered what was happening, and, believing that Natalia was in fact a helpless child, took her in. 

Five years after that, Michael and Kristine - who by that point had divorced - were charged with neglecting a dependent, while Natalia appeared on Dr Phil to convince the audience thats she was a 16-year-old girl. 

DailyMail TV also claimed to have found Natalia’s mother in Ukraine, who said she was forced to give up her daughter after her birth. 

“I know exactly how old she is,” Anna Volodymyrivna Gava said. “This girl is my daughter who was born 16 years ago.”  

In 2022, Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent, while in March this year charges against Kristine were dropped. 

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace - featuring exclusive interviews with the Barnetts - will hit Investigation Discovery on May 29 and run for three consecutive nights. 

At this point, it's impossible to say who is right or wrong. It's likely we won't ever know. Who is the real victim - Natalia or the Barnetts? 

Or does the truth lie somewhere in the middle?

Image: Investigation Discovery.