Natalia Grace Barnett Docuseries: Details on the Premiere Date, Trailer and What Happened to the Family

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace promises to have viewers riveted when the three-night docuseries premieres. Telling the story of a family who thought they adopted a 6-year-old orphan who turned out to be an adult, keeping reading for details about the show and the terrifying story behind it. 

When Does ‘The Curious Case of Natalia Grace’ Premiere?

The show premieres on the ID network on May 29, and will run for three back-to-back nights from 9-11 p.m. ET/PT.

Who Is Natalia Grace Barnett?

Natalia Grace Barnett was a Ukrainian orphan who was adopted in April 2010 by Michael and Kristine Barnett. The Indiana couple, who went through an emergency adoption process with Natalia, believed she was told she was 6 years old but quickly came to believe that she was an adult with a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal.

The Barnetts soon became worried that she was not a child after a series of allegedly violent events by Natalia directed at the couple and their three biological children. Michael  and Kristine alleged that she tried to stab the family members in their sleep, with one ​son saying in the docuseries’ trailer that he “didn’t feel safe around Natalia.” Michael also described how he woke up one night to find Natalia at the foot of the couple’s bed holding a knife.

He additionally claimed in a 2019 interview with Good Morning America ​that Natalia left upturned clear thumbtacks on the stairs so that the family would injure themselves. Natalia also allegedly tried to poison Kristine’s coffee and tried to drag her ​into an electric fence, according to Michael.

The family ended up moving to Canada in 2013 and leaving Natalia behind in a rented Lafayette, Indiana, apartment.

“We were told by doctors this person is a sociopath, this person is a con artist, you are all in danger,” Michael told GMA.

When asked by Indiana State Police Detective Brandon Davenport why they relocated Natalia to Indiana before the move, Michael reportedly said, “Because Kristine said Lafayette is a white-trash town and nobody is going to care or worry about her,’” Davenport said on the stand.

Michael and Kristine ultimately divorced but were charged by the state of Indiana with neglect of a dependent. They weren’t charged with child neglect due to their 2012 petition of the Marion County Probate Court to change Natalia’s birth year from 2003 to 1989. Thus, Natalia became an adult in the eyes of the law with that court order.

Michael and Kristine were both charged with multiple counts of neglect in September 2019, with Michael specifically facing neglect of a dependent, neglect of a dependent causing bodily injury, neglect of a dependent causing serious bodily injury and conspiracy to neglect a dependent. In February 2022, four counts of neglect of a dependent were dismissed against the father of three, and he went on trial in October 2022.

Natalia testified at his trial, “I wanted to be with the Barnetts. I wanted to live with them,” and not remain on her own in Indiana.

Michael was found not guilty in October 2022, telling Indianapolis’ WTHR-TV news, “I can breathe. I haven’t been able to breathe in a very long time.” Charges were dismissed against Kristine in March 2023, less than a month before her trial was scheduled to begin.

Who Appears in the Natalia Grace Docuseries?

When ID announced the docuseries in April 2023, the network said it will be “featuring exclusive bombshell interviews with members of Natalia’s adoptive family including father Michael Barnett and brother Jacob Barnett, as well as relatives, friends, legal experts, and neighbors of Natalia and the Barnett family.”