A dad has opened up on the tell-tale signs that his 'adopted child' wasn't actually a kid, but a '22-year-old woman'. In 2010, Michael Barnett and his wife Kristine adopted a six-year-old from Ukraine, who they believed had a rare bone growth condition.
However, Michael has since claimed that his new daughter was in fact much older than six after noticing several signs that not all was what they seemed to be. The unusual story has now been turned into a new Discovery documentary, called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.
The six-part show delves into the parents' shocking claims that they say prove Natalia was not six and how she "masqueraded as a child with intent to harm them". To this day, Natalia still denies the claims.
In the documentary, Michael and Kristine, from Indiana, US, allege Natalia was violent after moving into their home and even tried to kill them. In 2012, the couple successfully went to court to legally get Natalia's birth year changed from 2003 to 1989 - making her 22-years-old instead of eight.
Now, Michael has told of the tell-tale signs that he claims indicate Natalia was an adult and not a child like she claims, as reported by the Mirror. In the first episode of the new documentary, he recalls when the signs first began.
Commenting on the day Natalia was adopted, Michael said: "We get to the hotel that night, and Kristine’s going to give our brand new daughter a bath, and I hear a shout from the bathroom. This was a, ‘I’m not playing around, come here right now, Michael’ shout."
After entering the bathroom and seeing Kristine's shocked expression, he then saw that Natalia "had full pubic hair". He added: "And I don’t know what you think. Is that possible? Is that even possible? Who the f*** is this person?"
However, the parents were still eager to make their new family work and gave their adopted daughter "love and compassion". On a separate occasion, Michael and Kristine were left asking Natalia what had happened after they discovered a pair of her underwear.
"I can remember her physical-ness at the time, her hands were just out in front of her like this, and she’s like, 'Well, I have a period, and I’ve been hiding it'," Michael recalled in the docuseries. He added that it was this point that they really began wondering if the orphan was truly the age she claimed she was.
The rare form of Dwarfism that Natalia has is known as Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Congenita. According to Hopkins Medicine, it is a rare genetic disorder that involves spinal and epiphyseal enlargement and is classified as a type 2 collagen defect.
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Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita can be inherited with an autosomal dominant gene, which means one parent passes the gene to the child. But many patients acquire the disease because of a new mutation, or a new change in a gene.
Natalia has previously denied Michael and Kristine's allegations. During an interview with Dr Phil in 2019, she said: "It's not true. It's not true at all. I just want people to hear my side."
Meanwhile, Michael and his now-ex-wife Kristine were recently acquitted of neglect charges after abandoning her to live alone in an apartment while they moved to Canada. They claim that she was 22-years-old when they left her - despite her urging that she was just a child at the time.
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace will premiere across three consecutive nights on ID beginning Monday, May 29, airing nightly from 9-11 pm ET/PT.
