Natalia Grace has been adopted by several families since she left Ukraine for the U.S. as a child in 2008.
The orphan was born in 2003 and was adopted by Dyan and Gary Ciccone in 2008, immigrating to New Hampshire, where the couple lived. However, according to court documents, her new adoptive parents soon relinquished parental rights due to her disruptive behavior.
Natalia was eventually adopted in 2010 by the Barnett family, which included Kristine and Michael Barnett and their three sons. Soon, the Barnetts grew wary of Natalia, who they believed was older than she said she was due to markers such as pubic hair and having adult teeth. They successfully petitioned an Indiana court to “re-age” her by legally changing her birth year from 2003 to 1989.
The Barnetts also accused Natalia of being a “sociopath” and trying to kill members of their family. In 2013, they moved her into apartments in Westfield and Lafayette, Ind., before moving themselves to Canada and cutting off contact with her.
After a month of living alone, Natalia befriended Cynthia Mans, who quickly invited her to live with her and her husband, Christian pastor Antwon Mans, and their 10 children. In 2023, the family legally adopted her — but later that year, Natalia’s conflicts with them came to a head, leading her to escape in the middle of the night.
Now, she lives with the DePaul family, who had originally wanted to adopt her when she was a child. Her story continues in the new season of her docuseries, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, airing on ID and Max on Jan. 6 and 7.
So what happened to Natalia Grace’s former adoptive parents after she left their homes? Here’s everything to know about where the Barnetts and the Manses are now.
Who are the Barnetts?
Kristine and Michael were parents to three sons — Jacob, Wesley and Ethan — before Natalia joined their family in 2010. The family lived in Indiana with their four children until their move to Canada in 2013 so Jacob, who has autism and is a math and science prodigy, could pursue graduate studies in physics.
In the three years Natalia spent with the family, the Barnetts alleged that she was an adult posing as a child and had tried to harm them and their biological children. PEOPLE previously reported that Kristine accused Natalia of trying to poison her and dragging her toward an electrical fence.
In October 2019, Michael told Good Morning America that doctors allegedly treating Natalia told them “this person is a sociopath. This person is a con artist. You are all in danger.”
Why did the Barnetts leave Natalia Grace in her own apartment?
In 2013, before they moved to Canada, the Barnett family got Natalia — whose legal age was changed to 22 at the time — her own apartment in Lafayette, Ind., after allegedly experiencing behavioral problems with her, including one incident in which she allegedly placed thumb tacks on the stairs face up so that they would step on them.
However, Natalia denies this ever occurred and detailed the struggles of living on her own as a child — whose date of birth, following medical tests and DNA analysis, was legally restored to 2003 — in a rare interview with PEOPLE in January 2025.
“I really disliked being the girl who was re-aged and lived in her own apartment,” she said. “I didn’t understand why I was alone. I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive. All I was told was, ‘You’re 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you’re 22 and you tried to murder your family.’ I was taught to lie.”
In 2019, Kristine and Michael were charged for neglecting a dependent. However, in 2022, Michael was found not guilty, per the Associated Press, and a year later, charges against Kristine were dropped, WTHR reported at the time.
Where are the Barnetts now?
Michael filed for divorce from Kristine in February 2014, per the Journal & Courier. Five years later, according to the outlet, Kristine’s address was listed in Bradenton, Fla.
The same year she and Michael divorced, Kristine published a book, The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing, Genius, and Autism, about her son’s life experience and how he excelled at school.
While the two have primarily lived out of the spotlight, Michael joined Natalia in the first season of her docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks in January 2024. During one of the episodes, Natalia accused Kristine of abusing her and detailed instances of when her former adoptive mother would pepper spray her and hit her with a belt. Michael alleged that he was also mistreated by Kristine.
“This is not easy,” he said on the show. “I had the same monster you did. 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.”
While Kristine did not appear on the show, she wrote in a lengthy since-deleted Facebook post that the accusations against her were “just plain false.”
“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,” she wrote.
“I believe Natalia takes advantage of that sympathy to manipulate people,” Kristine continued. “I believe this because I sat through numerous hospital visits and therapy visits trying to understand and help Natalia and thinking we might be able to find the root of the issue. In the end I learned she is a sociopath.”
She concluded her post by stating that she was not Natalia and Michael’s “monster,” as he claimed.
Who are the Manses?
A month after the Barnetts left Natalia in her apartment, she befriended Cynthia, who invited her into her home with her husband Antwon just days after first meeting.
In 2016, the couple petitioned to become her legal guardians, however, a hearing was required to determine whether Natalia was a legal adult. Though a judge declared her to be an adult, she continued living with the Manses.
Throughout the Barnetts’ legal battle, the Manses stood by Natalia, with Cynthia testifying on her behalf in Michael’s trial, insisting that she never exhibited problematic behavior in their home.
The family was able to legally adopt her in 2023. However, by the time her docuseries aired in January 2024, there was tension brewing between the Manses and Natalia.
“Something ain’t right with Natalia,” Antwon said in a call to the producers of the show. “This girl is tweaking. I feel like she’s the enemy in the house.”
“Natalia is stabbing her family in the back, over a complete lie!” Cynthia added.
Why did Natalia Grace leave the Manses?
Three days before Christmas in 2023, Natalia — with the help of her boyfriend Neil — left the Manses home in Nashville in the middle of the night. She later told PEOPLE that she and the family clashed over her independence and romantic life, citing one incident in which Antwon found sexually explicit texts on her phone to Neil and took her phone away, forbidding her from having contact with him.
Neil had contacted the DePaul family — who previously had wanted to adopt Natalia — to help her escape. Now, Natalia lives with them in their home in upstate New York.
“At first it was bumpy because the Mans were still involved. They were calling Natalia constantly and trying to wheel her back in,” Nicole DePaul, the family matriarch, told PEOPLE. “It was just this constant thing where we were walking a fine line of not doing too much. See, she just came from this house that basically was ruled by a dictator, so I didn’t want to tell her what to do.”
Where is the Mans family now?
In the final season of Natalia’s docuseries, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, Natalia gave viewers a look into her life with the DePauls. However, her relationship with the Manses remains unclear.
In the documentary, Natalia spoke positively of the Manses, with Nicole expressing surprise that the orphan wanted Cynthia to remain the “payee” of her disability funds.
When producers asked Natalia about accusations against the Manses alleging they abused her and their children, she declined to comment. “I don’t want to talk about that,” she said.
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