Celebrating November as National Adoption Month
Songwriter JT Harding joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss how adoption changed his life.
A Ukrainian-born American woman who was accused by her former adoptive family of "masquerading" as a child despite allegedly being an adult was reportedly spotted with her new pastor dad selling fireworks on an Indiana parking lot.
Natalia Grace was featured in the recent Investigation Discovery documentary "The Curious Case Of Natalia Grace," where her former adoptive family, the Barnetts, accused her of emotionally and physically abusing them while pretending to be a 6-year-old girl even though she was allegedly 20. Natalia has a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.
Natalia was spotted last week with her new adoptive dad and pastor, Antwon Mans, selling fireworks in a tent on the parking lot outside a Walmart in Greencastle, Indiana, the Sun exclusively reported. She was seen using a walker to help her move around, while wearing a T-shirt with "a religious message," according to The Sun.
Natalia, who is supposedly now 19, has denied the allegations leveled at her by the Barnetts and will be featured in a follow-up ID documentary later this year called "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks."
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Archival photo of Natalia Barnett, who is accused of pretending to be a young girl at the time of her adoption, but was an adult. (Investigation Discovery)
"It's very frustrating to hear everything that's being said from Kristine and Michael because I already don't know who I am, and I want to know who I am, what happened to me," Natalia said in a trailer for the upcoming documentary.
"But I'm hearing all this stuff that never actually happened from Kristine and Michael."
Michael Barnett and his then-wife, Kristine Barnett, adopted in April 2010 someone they believed to be a 6-year-old girl named Natalia. Just roughly six months later, the parents allegedly began witnessing violent behavior and called into question whether Natalia was really a child or an adult woman who was scamming the family.
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The alleged behavior included hoarding knives in her room, urinating on her adoptive siblings, and even allegedly trying to kill her adoptive mom with Pledge cleaning solution, according to Michael Barnett.
Michael and Kristine Barnett, who adopted a young girl from Ukraine, but soon questioned her real age after a series of alleged violent outbursts. (Investigation Discovery)
In 2012, the Barnetts petitioned a court to legally change Natalia’s birth year from 2003 to 1989, which was granted and changed her age from 8 years old to 22. The family then moved to Canada with their biological children, where their oldest son was slated to start college.
The parents of the alleged girl landed in hot water in 2013 when it was discovered Natalia was living alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, leading to an investigation and their arrests. In 2019, the couple, who have since divorced, were charged with neglect of a dependent.
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Michael Barnett was ultimately found not guilty by a jury in 2022, and Kristine Barnett had all of her charges dismissed in March of this year. Both parents had previously claimed the charges were bogus, saying Natalia was an adult and not a neglected child.
Walmart location in Greencastle, Indiana. (Google Maps )
Following the documentary, Natalia's new adoptive family set up a GoFundMe page for the woman to raise funds so she could visit Israel.
"By now, many of you have seen or at least heard of the series ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.’ You have seen home videos of a frightened young Natalia taken by The Barnetts and heard about how she was left to fend for herself at 8 years old," said the GoFundMe page, which was started by Natalia's adoptive mom Cynthia Mans.
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"We are The Mans and Natalia Grace is our daughter. We believe God put her in our life and she is an amazing daughter and a loving sister," the page continued, explaining they started the page to raise funds for a wheelchair-accessible van for the planned visit to Jerusalem.
