Kristine Barnett ; Natalia Grace in The Curious Case of ‘Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter’. Photo:
Shutterstock ; Investigation Discovery/ YouTube
When Kristine Barnett accused her 8-year-old adopted daughter Natalia Grace of masquerading as an adult, it sounded like something straight out of a horror movie.
But the Indiana mom was adamant that the Ukrainian child she and her husband, Michael Barnett, adopted in 2010 was actually a 22-year-old woman who had threatened to harm them and their three biological children.
The couple also accused Grace, who has a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, of attempting to kill Kristine. In 2012, she and Michael had Grace’s age legally changed from 8 to 22, a decision Kristine claimed on Facebook that law enforcement had recommended.
In 2013, the Barnett family moved to Canada without Grace, leaving her alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Ind. Six years later, Michael and Kristine were charged with multiple counts of neglecting a dependent, but neither was convicted, per WTHR.
Grace later agreed to a DNA test while filming the 2024 ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks. The results found that she was 22 years old, which suggests she was 9 years old when she was adopted by Michael and Kristine.
Now, Grace’s case is getting the silver screen treatment with Hulu’s Good American Family premiering on March 19. Kristine is played by Ellen Pompeo, Michael by Mark Duplass and Grace by newcomer Imogen Faith Reid.
As her case gets renewed attention, where is Kristine Barnett now? Here’s everything to know about what happened to Natalia Grace’s former adoptive mother and what she’s said about the evidence that refutes her accusations.
Kristine and Michael Barnett pose with their sons in 2012. Shutterstock
Kristine Barnett was a mom of three boys living in Indiana when she and her then-husband Michael adopted Grace in 2010. She’s also an author and published a memoir in 2014 titled The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism, in which she claimed her son Jacob had an “IQ higher than Einstein’s” and a “photographic memory.”
After Kristine and Michael legally changed Grace’s age, moved her into an apartment and left for Canada, the couple were charged with multiple counts of neglecting a dependent in 2019. Michael told police that Kristine advised their adopted daughter to tell anyone who asked that she was 22 and looked young for her age, per the Journal & Courier.
Michael was found not guilty of three counts of neglect and conspiracy to commit neglect of a dependent in 2022, the Associated Press reported. In 2023, charges against Kristine in connection with the abandonment of Grace were dismissed.
Natalia Grace with Kristine and Michael Barnett who adopted her in 2000. Investigation Discovery
In February 2014 — a year after they left Grace in an apartment in Indiana and moved to Canada — Michael filed for divorce, per the Journal & Courier. When Grace confronted her former adoptive father face-to-face 10 years later in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, he claimed that he was manipulated and mistreated by his now ex-wife.
“I had the same monster you did,” Michael said in the docuseries. “I was exceptionally controlled and put down and threatened, was minimalized, anything that was who I was was ripped from me and I was guided and instructed to be exactly what she wanted me to be.”
Kristine later denied these allegations on Facebook.
Natalia Grace when she was living with the Barnett family. Investigation Discovery
Like Michael, Grace also claimed that she was abused by Kristine in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. She alleged that her former adoptive mother pepper sprayed her multiple times and hit her with a belt.
Kristine did not appear in the series, but she addressed and denied the accusations from Grace and Michael in a 2024 Facebook post.
“Natalia was a very much loved and cared for member of my family,” she wrote, adding that the abuse allegations against her were “just plain false.” Kristine continued, “If there had been any abuse of Natalia or evidence of it, I would have been found guilty of it and I would be in jail.”
The Indiana mom of three also called Grace a “sociopath” who “takes advantage” of people’s sympathies towards her and uses it to “manipulate” them. Kristine alleged that she came to this conclusion through multiple hospital visits and therapy appointments in an effort to understand her former adopted daughter.
“Michael Barnett and Natalia Barnett may have the same monster but that monster is not me,” Kristine wrote. “That monster whether it’s mental illness sociopathy or whatever it actually is may be different for each of them. But it’s within their own psyche.”
Kristine Barnett. TLC/ TikTok
Kristine has maintained her innocence since the ID docuseries and Hulu’s 2025 limited drama Good American Family have drawn more attention to Grace’s case. She wrote on Facebook in May 2024 that the “trendiness of pretending to care about Natalia has died down” and the people left were “truly pathetic.”
“You did not actually care,” Kristine wrote in the post. “You only wanted to bully a mother.”
On her public Facebook page, she describes herself as an “Author, Loving Mother, Advocate for Children With Disabilities, Writer, & Activist.” In March 2024, she announced on Facebook that she had written a new memoir titled Witch Hunt: The Kristine Barnett Story.
