Father who adopted 'child' that turned out to be 22-year-old warns people they ‘might not like the truth’

The man who adopted a 22-year-old woman posing as a six-year-old child has warned people they might 'not like the truth' that's set to come out in a new documentary.

Michael Barnett and his wife, Kristine, found their worlds turned upside down after they adopted Natalia Grace from an orphanage in Ukraine in 2010.

The parents already had children of their own, but over time it emerged that Natalia, who has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal, was not a child at all.

Michael opens up about what happened in a new documentary titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, which is set to arrive on 29 May.

But he's warned that we might not like what we hear.

ID Discovery

In a trailer for the documentary, the father said: "You're gonna get the truth. I will pre-warn you, you might not like the truth."

Michael and his wife allegedly began to notice Natalia exhibiting strange and violent behaviour shortly after bringing her into their home, with the dad describing in the trailer how he woke up one night to find Natalia standing over his bed with a knife in her hand.

In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2019, Kristine claimed: "She would make statements and draw pictures saying she wanted to kill family members, roll them up in a blanket and put them in the backyard.

"I saw her putting chemicals, bleach, Windex something like that, in my coffee and I asked her, 'what are you doing?' She said, 'I am trying to poison you'. The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here."

Kristine claimed Natalia was already getting periods and had adult teeth, while medical tests looking at Natalia's bone density indicated she was much older than the family initially thought.

By 2013, the parents were convinced she was an adult.

ID Discovery

The couple petitioned Marion County Probate Court to have her age legally changed to 22, and they were so convinced she was an adult that they left her to live on her own in an apartment in the US while they moved to Canada.

As a result, the couple were charged with neglect of a dependent - but not neglect of a child, due to the court-ordered age change.

Natalia testified at Michael's trial to say she didn't want to live in the apartment, saying: "I wanted to be with the Barnetts. I wanted to live with them."

In 2022, Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent, while the charges against Kristina were dropped in March.

The first instalment of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace will be available to watch on on Investigation Discovery on 29 May.