Ukrainian orphan Natalia Grace’s DNA test confirms her real age after she’s accused of ‘masquerading’ as a child, trying to kill parents
Natalia Grace, a Ukrainian orphan accused of trying to kill her adoptive parents a decade ago, is close to 22 years old and was under the age of 10 when she was adopted, DNA test results show.
Grace’s adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, claimed she was a homicidal adult in her 20s posing as a 6-year-old when they adopted her 14 years ago.
In a new six-part series titled “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks,” Grace, who was accused of “masquerading” as a child by the Barnetts, undergoes a DNA test that confirmed she has been truthful about her age all along.
“This one little piece of paper throws every single lie that the Barnetts said right into the trash with a match,” Grace tells her new adoptive father, Antwon Mans, while breaking down in tears on Monday’s episode.
“This is so big. Because literally, this has been 13 years of just two people lying their butts off,” she continued. “They ruined a kid’s life. They painted me as some big monster when in reality they were the ones.”
“It just proves that I was not lying about my age,” added Grace, who has a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.
“That’s exactly right,” Mans said, before Grace went on, “I just want to know why create this story, they knew and they still did what they did.”
The results of the DNA test confirmed that Grace was just 9 years old when she was abandoned by her adoptive parents, who hightailed it to Canada.
In the docuseries, Grace opened up about what happened after she was adopted by the Barnetts in April 2010.
Two years later, the couple petitioned Marion County Probate Court in Ohio to legally change the girl’s birth year from 2003 to 1989, which was granted and changed her age from 8 to 22 years old.
They then moved to Canada with their biological children, where their oldest son was due to start college.
The Barnetts previously accused Grace of emotionally and physically abusing them, as well as looming over the couple while they were sleeping with a knife in her hand — a claim she denies.
In 2013, the couple found themselves in legal trouble when Grace was found to be living alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, leading to an investigation and their arrests.
And in 2019, the couple, who have since divorced, were charged with neglect of a dependent.
Michael Barnett was ultimately found not guilty by a jury in 2022, and Kristine Barnett had all of her charges dismissed in March 2023.
