Investigation Discovery (ID) has announced another installment in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace saga. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace was followed by The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks, and the third season is titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter.
The first installment took an overview of the story, which is absolutely a riveting tale all on its own. In 2010, Michael and Kristine Barnett adopted Natalia, a Ukrainian orphan who was six years old. Natalia had spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, which caused deformities and issues of her hips, feet and knees, as well as a form of dwarfism.
The Barnetts made a lot of claims about Natalia. They said her vocabulary was too far advanced for a young child, and they even said the child tried to poison Kristine, and once pushed her into an electric fence. They had multiple psychological and medical tests and evaluations, and ultimately were able to have her birth certificate changed to reflect that she was 22 years old, not eight as she would have been at that time.
A later DNA test disagreed, stating that she was 22 years old in 2023 – meaning she would have been only nine year old when the Barnetts abandoned her, moving her to an apartment in Indiana before themselves moving to Canada with their biological children. Kristine Barnett was eventually charged with neglect of a dependent - but the charge was based on Natalia's disability, not her age.
Bishop Antwon and Cynthia Mans took her in, because they saw that she was having an exceptionally hard time getting by on her own, and it seemed like Natalia may be on the way to a happy ending.
For Natalia Speaks, Natalia was free of the gag order she had been under, and was able to give her side of the story. It varied wildly from her adoptive parents’ version, of course, leaving viewers to wonder what exactly was the truth. Then the story took another turn.
At the conclusion of Natalia Speaks, the Manses made a phone call to the production company, and it was a real doozy. Antwon said, “Somethin’ ain’t right with this girl.” He referred to her as “the enemy of the house,” and there has been a lot of speculation online as to what actually happened. Many people believe the Manses were looking to make money off Natalia’s story.
The Final Chapter will air across two nights on ID
Part one will debut on Monday, January 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The story will conclude the following night at the same time. Both episodes will also be available to stream on Max. According to ID’s press release, we will get to see Natalia’s story conclude, “but not before she is forced to navigate a number of seemingly insurmountable challenges.”
Though Natalia’s story on ID has ended, a new six-part series titled The Curious Case of… will premiere on January 13 at 10:00 p.m. ET on ID. Legal analyst Beth Karas (who participated in The Strange Case of Natalia Grace) will host, and new episodes featuring equally strange cases will be featured.