The lines you will read below are not related to the movie "The Orphan" , although the story has a super similarity.
A few years ago (in 2010), a couple from Indiana adopted a girl in Ukraine, then abandoned her. Thus began a legal battle and the parents were accused of neglecting the child and then, it was realized that everything was deeper and more mysterious than thought. The girl in question was named Natalia Grace and there is a compelling reason why her parents abandoned her.
Natalia was adopted when she was 6 years old (or so it said in the documents) and her parents, Michael and Kristine make her part of the family, along with their 3 sons. But they soon began to believe that Natalie was not really 6 years old. When her mother washed her, she saw that she had pubic hair and had not yet reached the age of puberty.
Natalia, obviously, was taller and had a more developed physique than her peers, of course, and a richer vocabulary. The Barnetts testified that the girl was menstruating and that their daughter spoke English without a Ukrainian accent (it was assumed that she had always lived in Ukraine).
The couple took the girl to the doctor, who informed them that they were dealing with an adult. In 2012, they won the legal right to record Natalie's exact age, which was 22.
The situation soon became more serious than expected and the parents, after the abandonment, said that Natalie threatened the family with a knife and tried to poison Kristine. Michael then added that their son believed they were living with a sociopathic artist. "We don't know who she is. Who the hell is this person?", says Michael in the documentary "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace", dedicated to this very story.
After Natalie's age "advanced" drastically, the couple rented an apartment about 65 miles away and left Natalie alone in her current home, according to court documents. Afterwards, they moved to Canada along with their 3 sons.
Natalie was re-adopted by Anton and Cynthia Mans and according to them, she is a loving and kind teenager and not at all a grown-up sociopath who acts like a child.
On the other hand, Natalie claims that it's all a hoax and that she has never behaved like this, and her new family can attest to that. Natalie also filed an abuse charge against Kristine, but the case was dismissed.
The documentary also includes various interviews with Michael and Kristine's neighbors. One of them, Toby Miles, describes that one day Natalie threatened the Barnett couple with a knife and that yes, she had tried to poison the adoptive parents. As a result, they swept away all the knives and forced Natalie to stay in the garage.
Another neighbor confirmed the same incident, while someone else said that when Natalie was abandoned and left alone, it was a very difficult and painful moment. "It was hard for us to understand how they just left him in the apartment alone. But I also think that if I had someone at home who threatened me and my children, what would I do, how would I act?".
It's still unclear what Natalie's exact age is, and according to legal analyst Beth Karas, it's up to Natalie to get it right.
