The return of 'The Curious Case of Natalia Grace'
The first installments of a docuseries into the case of Michael and Kristine Barnett and their daughter, Natalia, had Lafayette in a rage. Before new installments drop, a look back at the archives
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THE RETURN OF ‘THE CURIOUS CASE OF NATALIA GRACE’
Just when you thought it was safe from the Barnett family saga …
Investigation Discovery, the network that took a deep dive into the twists of one of Lafayette’s truly bizarre court dramas with 2023’s “Curious Case of Natalia Grace” documentary, will be back Jan. 1 with a follow-up.
This version, running over three nights to start 2024, will give Natalia Barnett a shot at telling a version of her story with “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks.” The shows air from 9-11 p.m. Jan. 1-3.
ID also is touting a preview, of sorts, called “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Road to Natalia Speaks,” on at 9 p.m. Dec. 26.
What the network will show – and how Lafayette will come out looking this time – isn’t totally clear, but the trailer has plenty of Michael Barnett with the dramatic tears. See for yourself.
The initial docuseries followed up to an October 2022 not guilty verdict for Michael Barnett, who had been accused along with ex-wife Kristine Barnett of bringing their daughter Natalia to Lafayette, renting her an apartment on the north end and leaving her in 2013 and moving the rest of the family to Canada. The pair had been charged in 2019 with assorted counts of neglect in a case the centered on whether Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan dealing with a form of dwarfism, was a pre-teen or actually an adult posing as a child – and one who had threatened to harm the family, based on what her parents told. (The prosecution was hamstrung in the case when a judge ruled that he couldn’t reverse a Marion County judge’s 2012 ruling that legally added 14 years to Natalia’s age, making her an adult.)
Remaining charges against Kristine Barnett were dropped after the jury’s verdict against Michael Barnett.
Natalia Barnett had long before been taken in by Antown and Cynthia Manns, a couple who met her in Lafayette and had since moved to Crawfordsville.
Jason Sarlanis, president of the company that includes ID, said the first installments of the docuseries were among the network’s most viewed.
To get you back up to speed, here are a couple of editions from the archive that ran here has bookends for the May 2023 ID docuseries – one looking at evidence the Tippecanoe County prosecutor wasn’t able present in the 2022 trial and the other with an interview with a juror who wondered what she’d just done once she learned the details that didn’t come up in the trial.
Here you go.
From the archives: May 29, 2023
As Natalia Grace doc looms, prosecutor releases evidence blocked in Barnett case
Birth records, DNA evidence, allegations of abuse weren’t allowed in neglect cases against Michael and Kristine Barnett. 'Curious Case of Natalia Grace' documentary debuts
How old, really, was Natalia Grace Barnett, a Ukrainian orphan, when she was brought to Lafayette in July 2013 and left in a north end apartment?
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