***THE FOLLOWING IS WRITTEN BY A STUDENT JOURNALIST; ALL INFORMATION IS ALLEGED***
A Ukrainian woman, Natalia Grace, was adopted by an American family in 2010, leading to a bizarre series of events leading to the adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, to be charged with neglect. In which this case is now getting TV treatment and a “based on a true series” mini series, a good, modern family made a movie on all of the events that took place. As a child with diastrophic dysplasia type of dwarfism, Natalia testified that she was abandoned and forced to fend for herself and pay her own disability bills when her parents left her in an inaccessible apartment to live alone.
According to her testimony, when Natalia went to live with the Barnetts, Natalia’s birth certificate said she was born in 2003, but her adoptive parents claim that certain behavior and her physical appearance made them doubt her real age. They also argued that Natalia began to demonstrate violent and threatening behavior towards them and their 3 biological sons. This led to the husband and wife petitioning an Indiana court to change her birth year from 2003 to 1989. After the change, Natalia’s adoptive parents moved her into an apartment on her own. Shortly after, local child safety authorities received a report that Natalia was an abandoned child. An investigation was opened, then discarded, due to legal change in her birth certificate.
A little later, after the Barnetts moved her into another apartment paying for one year’s rent but left out additional financial support, before the Barnetts moved to Canada with their biological children, was the last time Natalia saw the Barnetts. Shortly after, Natalia befriended couple Antwon and Cynthia Mans and soon moved in with them. Then, for two and a half years, it went quiet and nothing happened until September 2019, when Kristine and Michael Barnett were charged with neglect, in separate cases, due to the mistreatment of Natalia.
Two weeks after the charges went public, the Barnetts, who had already been divorced by then, went on an interview with the Daily Mail, where Kristine claimed she became suspicious of Natalia when she saw that she had “full pubic hair.” She also assumed that Natalia already had started menstruating. Kristene claimed that Natalia was a danger to her 3 biological sons and herself, including trying to push her into an electric fence and standing over her with knives.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that the Barnetts abandoned Natalia in a second floor apartment where she was unable to use the stairs and was without a walker, or wheelchair, or any knowledge of the city. Natalia testified that she learned nearly everything about life, including reading, writing, and washing her hair, from the Mans. The defence argued that Natalia wanted nothing to do with the Barnetts and that she moved on.
Now, all we know is that, in 2023, Natalia changed her birth year to 2003, she now lives with friends, married couple Nicole and Vincent DePaul, who also has dwarfism, and their family, and is studying for her high school diploma. “It is a blessing to be alive today because, looking back, I should’ve been dead,” she says.
