UKRAINIAN orphan Natalia Grace displayed tell-tale signs of abuse and acted out after being taken in by her former adoptive family, The Barnetts, according to an expert.
The second installment of the ID documentary, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, follows the fascinating case that has gripped the nation for years.
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The documentary claims to reveal her real age for the first time, and experts allege that she was not an adult posing as a 6-year-old, which is what her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, claimed.
They successfully petitioned to have her age changed and her birthdate to 1989 before leaving her alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana in 2003.
After new evidence came to light years later, Michael and Kristine were charged with counts of neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent causing bodily injury, and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent.
Michael was acquitted in October 2022, while Kristine had her case dismissed in March 2023, just three weeks before her trial.
Natalia Grace
The Barnetts previously claimed Natalia plotted to kill their family, stood at the end of their bed with a knife, tried to poison Kristine's coffee, and pushed her into an electric fence.
They also claim she acted out sexually over the years, which was featured in the earlier series, including a claim she assaulted a young boy in a park.
Former neighbor Sue McCallum, who lived near Natalia when she was moved into her apartment after being re-aged, repeats the allegation in the new program.
"A lot of people at the apartment reported inappropriate things she did and they had to get so much on her before they could evict her from there .... like when she was inappropriate with a little boy."
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SEX ABUSE CLAIM
Natalia defends herself by saying: "That whole story is misunderstood. I remember we were just rolling around in the grass in front of the thing, we was having a tickle fight.
"That's when the dad came out and was like, 'What are you doing?'
"They said I tried to like sexually touch him and that was not the case at all. I just started getting yelled at. I didn't know why. I thought I was being a kid."
The father of the little boy in question declined to talk to ID about the claims.
Natalia has denied all of the allegations and has slammed her former adoptive family, claiming they "stole" her childhood.
Michael has not been accused of abusing Natalia and Kristine denied the abuse claims in a previous Facebook post.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, legal analyst Beth Karas, who appears in the series, said: "She does seem to have some of the tell-tale signs of a child who had been abused.
"You know, they act out sexually, they don't know boundaries. These things might have happened. I do think that she's a little bit broken. She's never had the therapy that she needs."
She said there was little information about her time in an orphanage in Ukraine before moving to America.
'BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS'
"She probably did have reactive attachment disorder as a child, she never really attached to an adult," she said.
"Her coping mechanisms, like sometimes acting out, whether it was sexually or violent, these things probably did happen.
She alleged: "I don't think everybody who told tales about her was lying about it or mistaken. Natalia doesn't remember a lot of this stuff. That's the thing.
"But then there are other things she does remember. So her memory is not totally trustworthy either, because what do you remember as a child, right?"
Natalia bounced around from one adoption family to another before she even got to The Barnetts after the arrangements didn't work out, according to interviews in the series.
Beth said: "I suspect that the other families found her to have behavioral problems. Not an age thing, but behavioral problems. She needed help.
"They probably just got more than they bargained for, you know, were not prepared for it. And also she's a little person on top of it."
Natalia is now happy with her new adoptive parents, Cynthia and Antwon Mans, and their other children, who say in the documentary that she has been nothing but a "light."
Cynthia said: "When the verdict was handed down for Michael and they said ‘not guilty’ and he looked at us and he smirked, it was like watching my daughter be raped.
"There was no justice served. If I could have caught Kristine in an alley and put a black hoodie on, I would have busted her upside the head.
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"She has been a light to our family, she has brought so much joy. But when Natalia came into our family, she was broken."
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks will premiere across three consecutive nights on ID beginning on Monday, January 1, nightly from 9pm until 11pm ET/PT.
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