Shraman Mitra
When Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted Natalia Grace in 2010, they believed they welcomed a 7-year-old Ukraine-born girl into their home. However, shortly after, the Barnetts claimed they spotted evidence that indicated that Natalia was much older than what was stated on her birth certificate. Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace’ chronicles the shocking incident and how it changed the Barnetts’ lives. A series of turbulent years followed, leading to many ups and downs in their relationship, but the couple live very different lives now.
Kristine and Michael Barnett Got More Than They Bargained For
Kristine and Michael Barnett had enjoyed a well-settled life in Indiana with three wonderful children and looked forward to a beautiful future. In 2009, the couple took in Natalia Grace through what they claim was an emergency adoption. During the process, they were told that she was a seven-year-old Ukrainian girl with a rare form of dwarfism and urgently needed a home after her first adoptive family had abandoned her. The Barnetts were happy to make her a part of their family. However, shortly after bringing Natalia home, the Barnetts allegedly began noticing sudden changes in her behavior. For starters, they claimed that she was highly short-tempered and often raged if things did not go her way.
Natalia supposedly began gravitating toward violence and often talked about harming her adoptive parents and siblings. However, things went from bad to worse when the Barnetts woke up one night to allegedly find her standing at the edge of their bed with a knife. Terrified of what might happen next, Michael and Kristine immediately took the girl to a psychiatric hospital, where doctors claimed she seemed older than seven. The Barnetts also claimed that Natalia had a menstrual cycle and pubic hair, which pointed towards her being an adult. On top of it, Kristine and Michael claimed that they even got a Ukrainian native to talk to her, and Natalia could neither understand what the other person was saying nor could she describe her homeland.
Eventually, the Barnetts filed a court order, and the judge changed her birth year from 2003 to 1989. Once she was classified as an adult, the couple set her up in an apartment in Westfield, Indiana. Natalia lived in the apartment for several months until her lease ran out. By 2013, Michael and Kristine’s eldest son, Jacob, was accepted into a Canadian university for his Master’s Degree. To support him, the family decided to move to Canada and leave Natalia behind in another apartment in Lafayette, Indiana. It wasn’t until 2019 that the charges of child neglect were filed against the couple.
Michael and Kristine Barnett Are Leading Separate Lives Today
Michael Barnett split with Kristine Barnett in 2014, after which he moved back to Indiana and currently resides in Indianapolis with his new wife. When the charges were filed against him, he gave himself to the police but was out shortly after by posting his bail. Before this, he was interviewed by the cops, where he claimed that his ex-wife Kristine was responsible for all the abuse against Natalia. By October 2022, Michael was acquitted of the charges levied on him, giving him a clean chit in the neglect case.
When the case was still on, Michael made several appearances on news channels, where he talked about adopting Natalia and the many horrors of living with her. However, when he appeared on Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,’ where Natalia confronted him with the question of why they adopted her and then abused and abandoned her, he told a different story altogether. He claimed that he, too, had been manipulated and abused by “the same monster” as Kristine had allegedly been threatening to take away his sons from him should he not do as she stated.
Furthermore, he also stood in support of his son Jacob Barnett, who had been allegedly asked by Krsitine to urinate on Natalia’s bed when she was still living with them. The interview ended with him storming out when asked not to use swear words. Since then, Michael has chosen to live a more private life. When he was approached for the Hulu series, ‘Good American Family,’ he sold his story rights to them but was not involved in the making of the show in any capacity.
Kristine Barnett Believes That She Was Wrongfully Villainised
While Michael Barnett was acquitted of the child neglect charges, the prosecution chose to drop all the charges against Kristine in March 2023. Since the divorce from Michael, which was officialized in 2018, she has worked to rebuild her life. She currently lives in Bradenton, Florida, and continues to advocate for children with disabilities. She has also continued her career as a writer by authoring another book, ‘Witch Hunt: The Kristine Barnett Story’ which was due to launch in April 2024. In this book, she talks about her side of the story and how she has been the victim of a deeply frayed public opinion. Her first book was ‘The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism,’ in which she talked about the challenges and rewards of raising her son, Jacob, who is on the autism spectrum and harbors a brilliant mind.
For the most part, Kristine has stayed away from talking about Natalia’s case, especially since the neglect charges. However, since the Investigation Discovery docuseries, she has taken to her social media account to refute Natalia and Michael’s claims of painting her as the bad guy in the story. She had denied Michael’s claims of terrorizing him and has said that it was he who took charge when it came to abusing Natalia, claiming that he has a long history of violence against women. While fighting for herself, she is also focused on her personal life, particularly since she became a grandmother. Apart from her social media presence, she continues to live a relatively private life, preferring not to invite public scrutiny.
Read More: Antwon and Cynthia Mans: Natalia Grace’s Guardians Are Her Legal Parents Now
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