Adopted girl accused of ‘masquerading’ as 6-year-old speaks out in new doc: ‘Do I look like a monster to you?’

 A Ukrainian orphan who was accused of being "ostracized" by her former adoptive family as a child wants to share her side of the story.

Natalia Grace was the subject of the Investigation Discovery (ID) documentary "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace", which premiered in May this year. Now she's coming forward in a new six-part documentary, "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: Natalia Speaks," where she will attempt to clear her name.

Natalia said in the series, "There's a truth hidden in every lie, but you have to dig hard enough to be able to see it." "They're not going to get away from it. This is my side of the story."

"Do I look like a monster to you?" He added.

Former FBI agent Ken Maxwell, who investigated Natalia's case, told Fox News Digital that he is not surprised that Natalia is now speaking out.

"Natalia didn't get a chance to tell her full story, not even on the witness stand," Maxwell said. "And of course, the banning order was hanging over him from the very beginning... This is a natural development of events. The trial is over, and the banning order has been lifted. That allowed him to get a platform . Obviously we were very concerned, and very excited to hear his side of the story."

Michael Barnett and his then-wife Christine Barnett adopted Natalia in April 2010. At that time, he was said to be 6 years old. Six months later, the parents reportedly began observing violent behavior and questioned whether Natalia was a child or an adult woman who was betraying the family. Natalia has a form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.

According to the documentary, the couple alleged that Natalia had stored knives in their room and placed clear thumbtacks on the stairs upstairs to prevent them from being stepped on. Natalia was also accused of trying to poison Christine's coffee with cleaning solution and dragging her towards an electric fence.

"It was very strange from the beginning," Maxwell said. "You have an orphan from Ukraine who comes to the United States, is adopted by a family and then is accused of all kinds of bizarre behavior... and then this case makes media headlines internationally. "Attracted tremendous attention...so right from the beginning, we wanted to investigate further."

Maxwell delves deeper into Natalia's past in Ukraine.

"There is a record of the birth, there are records from the orphanage, that we were able to get," he said. "But there were still some unanswered questions in terms of her whereabouts after her birth, which was reportedly in 2003, according to her Ukrainian birth certificate. The hospital where she was born had a pipeline or sewer accident that caused “Some records were destroyed… whether it was a coincidence or not, his file was missing.”

"...You're also doing adoption work in Eastern Europe," he added. "If you Google adoption anomalies or fraud in Eastern Europe, your eyes will probably get a little misty reading past incidents. I'm not saying that about all adoptions, I'm just saying That it is on record that there have been some improprieties in adoption from Eastern Europe in the past."

Maxwell said that he and his team talked to Natalia. He claimed that he suffered trauma in Ukraine as a child, which affected his memory. She remembered that an unknown person had put something on her face, due to which she became unconscious.

The documentary claims that, following Natalia's alleged behavior behind closed doors, the Barnetts petitioned a court in 2012 to legally change her birth year from 2003 to 1989, which was granted. Due to this his age changed from 8 years to 22 years. The family then moved to Canada with their biological children. According to reports, the couple's eldest son was about to start college there.

The Barnetts ran into trouble in 2013 when it was discovered that Natalia was living alone in an apartment in Lafayette, Indiana, leading to an investigation and their arrest. In 2019, the couple who divorced were charged with neglect of a dependent.

Michael was ultimately found not guilty by a jury in 2022, and all of Christine's charges were dismissed this year. Both parents previously claimed that the allegations were false, that Natalia was an adult and not a neglected child.

Natalia's dental records from 2011 were shown in the documentary. It appears that he had 12 baby teeth remaining, which would have put him between 6 and 9 years old at the time. His former dentist said the results were "indisputable".