LAFAYETTE, INDIANA: In a recent development, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutors Office has released crucial evidence related to the highly controversial case of Natalia Grace. The Ukrainian orphan, adopted by an American family, has been at the center of a legal storm after allegations emerged that she may have been an adult woman posing as a child. However, the evidence was not allowed to be used in court but it shed light on crucial aspects of the case, including Natalia's birth date and her biological mother's identity.
The story of Natalia began in 2010 when Michael Barnett and his wife, Kristine, a couple from Indiana, decided to adopt Natalia, who suffers from spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia, a rare bone growth disorder, and was believed to be a six-year-old at the time. However, doubts regarding her age started to surface, prompting the Marion County Superior Court to approve a legal change to Barnett's birth record. The change indicated that she was born in 1989, making her nearly two decades older than previously thought.
Natalaia Grace's true birth date
In 2019, Barnett and Kristina were charged and arrested for neglect but claimed that Natalia was not a child as they had initially believed. Barnett was cleared of all four neglect charges in October 2022, and the charges against Kristine were dismissed in March. However, due to the statute of limitations ruling by the trial court, any evidence beyond five years before the charges were filed could not be used in court. This limitation included any mention of Natalia's age or adoption.
Tippecanoe County Prosecutor, Patrick Harrington, expressed the desire to share the complete story with the public, stating, "Given the information that is out in the public, we felt that it would be better served if we released what that evidence was."
The released evidence includes Natalia's birth certificate, medical records, adoption documents and the denial of maternal rights, all of which confirm the identity of her biological mother. The evidence establishes her true birth date as September 4, 2003.
Natalia's mother would have been 10 when she gave birth to her
"The Indiana State Police sent two detectives, and we sent one of our deputy prosecutors to Ukraine in 2019. This is before the war over there. They were actually able to find and meet Natalia's birth mother. DNA samples were taken from her, brought back to the police lab which showed she was the natural mother of Natalia," Harrington said, as per WLFI.
During the investigation, a judge in Marion County approved an emergency petition to change Natalia's birth date based on the alleged lack of growth for two years. This change revealed that the girl transitioned from being eight to 22 years old in a single day in June 2012. Astonishingly, this implied that Natalia's mother would have been only 10 when she gave birth to her.
Harrington emphasized that the purpose of releasing this evidence was not to re-litigate the case but to provide the public with a comprehensive understanding of the investigation. "The purpose of this isn't to go so much into what happened and didn't happen in court. The purpose of this is to say here's what we've had from the start of the investigation all the way. Not one person, one doctor, not a dentist, not a government official contradicts her birth date at all," he said.
