Viewers of a forthcoming true crime show have been told they may never "know the entire truth" about an adopted "child" who turned out to be a fully-grown adult. As <a href="https://vt.co/news/weird/man-who-adopted-a-child-that-turned-out-to-be-22-year-old-woman-explodes-with-rage">previously reported</a>, a new docuseries called The Curious Case of Natalia Grace by Investigation Discovery will tell the story of how an Indiana couple adopted a 'six-year-old girl' from Ukraine back in 2010. However, Michael and Kristine Barnett soon became suspicious of the orphan, named Natalia Grace - even going as far as to accuse her of trying to physically harm them and their biological children. According to <a href="https://people.com/crime/natalia-grace-id-documentary-child-or-sociopath/">PEOPLE</a>, the couple came to the unbelievable conclusion that Natalia was not a young child, but actually, a 22-year-old woman with a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal - which is basically the plot line of the 2009 horror movie, Orphan. Watch The Curious Case of Natalia Grace trailer below: [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTSua2EE3fg&t=61s]] The publication reported that in 2012 - two years after Natalia was adopted by the Barnetts - the couple petitioned Marion County Probate Court to change her age legally to 22, which would then alter her birth year from 2003 to 1989. The following year, Michael and Kristine moved with their three sons to Canada without the alleged grown woman and left her alone in an apartment in Lafayette. However, the Barnetts - who later divorced - were charged with neglect of a dependent. Prosecutors couldn't charge the pair with neglect of a child because of Natalie's court-ordered age change. In addition to this, Natalia testified during Michael's trial saying that she didn't want to live in Lafayette. Now, ahead of the docuseries being released on Monday, attorney Beth Karas spoke with <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2023/05/26/natalia-grace-new-docuseries-mystery-adopt-ukraine-child-beth-karas/?adid=social-tw">TMZ</a> about the first episode and what viewers can expect. Karas was asked if the family went back to Ukraine and tried to find birth records or parents and said: "They went to the court with an emergency petition and an affidavit from a doctor who had been treating her for the past few years who said that he did not notice any growth and there was no growth in four years. "She was supposedly eight at the time. So he said, 'Well, you stop growing when you're 18. If she hasn't had any bone growth in four years, then she's at least 22,'" she continued. "And with a stroke of a pen, he went from age eight to 22 for Natalia. So she theoretically became somebody who could vote, drink, and drive." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/DiscoveryID/status/1660767562156605442]] Karas further gave her thoughts on how a six-year-old child posing as a 22-year-old woman can actually pull off something so scary. "There are people who observed her who lived near her because she had two different apartments, and they come down on a different side whether or not she is an adult or a child," she said. "They observe her riding a bicycle with another child, they also observe her acting out and coming out on men sexually," she added. "So, was she masquerading as a child?" "I'm not so sure because we are the sum total of our life experiences and we don't know what her life experiences were until then, even as a child, maybe she was sexually abused as a child, and was acting out because she didn't know any better." The lawyer added that Natalia "didn't know her boundaries," and said that neighbors who spoke with her thought that she was an adult while others didn't seem to think so. "Really the viewers are gonna make up their own minds because I really don't know," Karas said, before warning: "I lean one way but I don't know we'll ever know the entire truth here." The first part of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace will be available to watch on Investigation Discovery on Monday (May 29). <h6>Featured image credit: ID/YouTube</h6>

Viewers warned they may never 'know the entire truth' about adopted 'child' who turned out to be a grown woman

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