Orphan Natalia Grace’s age finally proven, but new shocking twist revealed – National | Globalnews.ca

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The newest instalment of a docuseries exploring the id of Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace, whose adoptive mother and father claimed was truly an grownup girl and terrorized their household from 2010 to 2013, has confirmed her true age but in addition left audiences with much more unanswered questions concerning the younger girl.

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks is the follow-up to the 2023 docuseries that zeroed in on Natalia’s adoptive mother and father, Kristine and Michael Barnett, who had been charged with a number of counts of neglect and accused of abandoning Natalia at a rented Indiana house in 2013 and shifting to Canada.

The Barnetts beforehand claimed that Natalia was not six years previous once they adopted her in 2010, however relatively mentioned she was a 20-year-old sociopath who tried to kill them.

Natalia, who has a uncommon type of dwarfism referred to as spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, has all the time maintained that she was certainly a baby and was mistreated by her adoptive mother and father.

Now, nevertheless, Natalia’s claims about her age have been confirmed.

In response to Individuals, a DNA blood take a look at, the outcomes of which had been revealed within the first episode of the sequence earlier this week, discovered that Natalia is roughly 22 years previous — suggesting that she was 9 when she was adopted by the Barnetts.

“This one little piece of paper throws each single lie that the Barnetts has mentioned proper into the trash with a match,” Natalia mentioned within the premiere episode.

“That is so huge. As a result of actually, this has been 13 years of simply two individuals mendacity their butts off. They ruined a child’s life. They painted (me) as some huge monster.”

“It simply proves that I used to be not mendacity about my age,” she continued. “They ignored every little thing that was pointing to the reality simply so they might create this silly lie. They knew it they usually nonetheless did what they did.”

Natalia was adopted from the foster system two years after arriving in the USA from Ukraine. A health care provider who examined her that yr decided she was about eight years previous, in accordance with a possible trigger affidavit obtained by The Related Press.

Michael Barnett instructed a detective in 2019 that he and his spouse had Natalia’s age legally modified to 22 in June of 2012. He additionally claimed that Kristine instructed Natalia to inform anybody who requested that she “seems to be younger however was truly 22.”

The affidavit mentioned the Barnetts left Natalia at an house in Lafayette, Ind., in 2013 and moved to Canada with their three organic sons, whereas persevering with to pay her hire. The affidavit didn’t specify how lengthy the woman lived alone on the house, or why it took so lengthy for prosecutors to put expenses in opposition to the couple in an investigation that began in September 2014. The doc additionally didn’t say the place the Barnetts moved to in Canada.

Michael was discovered not responsible of the fees in 2022 and prosecutors dropped the case in opposition to Kristine in March of final yr.

The docuseries’ first blockbuster season, which aired in July 2023, examined claims by the now-divorced Barnetts that accused Natalia of posing as a baby whereas making an attempt to poison Kristine, making an attempt to get their sons run over by throwing their toys into the road and brandishing a knife whereas standing close to the Barnett’s mattress late at night time.

The second season tried to reply the query of the Barnetts’ motive for making an attempt to color their adopted daughter as a sociopathic grownup.

Authorized knowledgeable Beth Karas steered to The Hollywood Reporter that Kristine hatched a three-prong plan to rid Natalia from their lives, which included absolving their duty for the woman by legally altering her age, looking for a approach to put Natalia in jail or a psychiatric facility and, ultimately, abandoning her and leaving the U.S.

Within the docuseries, Natalia additionally ranges her personal slew of alleged abuses again on the Barnetts, claiming that Kristine pepper-sprayed her twice, compelled her to take drugs at excessive doses with the intent of overdosing, in addition to accusing Kristine of forcing her to insert a tampon when she was simply 7 years previous and inflicting her to bleed — which she claims Kristine then used to attempt to show that Natalia was already menstruating.

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The sequence additionally particulars the connection between Natalia and her new adoptive mother and father, Bishop Antwon Mans and his spouse Cynthia, and the final 90 seconds drops a stunning new twist, leaving the sequence on a cliffhanger that lends itself exceptionally nicely to a different sequel season, ought to producers be given the go-ahead.

“One thing ain’t proper with Natalia,” Bishop Mans is heard saying in an audio clip voiceover, that he despatched to the present’s producers simply two weeks earlier than the sequence’ premiere. “This woman is tweakin’. I really feel like she’s the enemy of the home. And she or he mentioned to us we’ve got held her hostage.”

Cynthia might be heard within the voiceover backing Bishop’s claims, saying, “Natalia is stabbing her household within the again over a whole lie,” to which the Bishop provides, “We’re performed. We’re performed together with her.”

Jason Sarlanis, president of Turner Networks and Investigation Discovery, the community that produced and aired the sequence, instructed The Hollywood Reporter that the decision from the Mans left the crew “totally shocked” as a result of they “genuinely thought Natalia had discovered a contented ending together with her new household.”

“Our sequence was already completed and locked, however we immediately mobilized with our producers to make sure that this stunning improvement was included in our finale. Our viewers are so invested in Natalia’s case we felt our sequence wanted to mirror the continually shifting fact of her state of affairs. One factor has all the time confirmed to be true with Natalia’s story — nothing is ever what it appears,” he mentioned.

Kristine additionally took to Fb this week to share a prolonged publish together with her ideas on the sequence and Natalia’s allegations, writing, “it was eerie watching (Natalia) as if she was very nicely coached in how she was dressed and behaved and offered herself.”

Kristine maintained in her writing that Natalia was by no means abused by anybody within the Barnett household.

“Natalia was a really a lot liked and cared for member of my household,” Kristine wrote. “No one ever took a belt to Natalia and the allegations that she was ‘crushed’ are simply plain false. Any self-discipline of Natalia was very minimal and was not out of the bounds of regular parenting.”

“All of us felt an amazing quantity of sympathy for Natalia and liked her whereas she lived with us,” she added. “As a dad or mum, I’ve had good and dangerous days as a mother… I’m definitely not going to assert I used to be an ideal mother.”

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‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks’ might be streamed in Canada by way of choose On Demand platforms. Examine your information for availability.