The Curious Case of Natalia Grace returns with more shocking twists and turns, including wild claims from her adoptive parents, “ransom” fears and a cry for help to her alleged boyfriend in the UK to help her from “literal hell.”
The Natalia Grace saga isn’t over yet.
The Ukrainian orphan first made headlines when her adoptive parents, Michael and Kristine Barnett, had her age legally changed to make her an adult — two years after they were told she was a 6-year-old girl. Claiming Natalia tried to kill them and their other children, the Barnetts then placed her in an apartment alone; the two were later arrested for neglect, but cleared of the charges.
A 2023 DNA test later determined Grace was actually a child at the time she was abandoned.
While ID’s The Curious Case of Natalia Grace in 2023 ended with Grace settling in with a new family, Antwon and Cynthia Mans, it ended on quite the cliffhanger — one that’s finally picked up on in the network’s The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter, out January 6 and 7.
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“Something ain’t right with Natalia. This girl is tweakin’. I feel like she’s the enemy of the house. And she said to us, we have held her hostage, made us look like we’re the enemy,” Antwon Mans was heard saying in a frantic phone call to producers, placed six months after they adopted Natalia, in the new episodes, which have been screened by TooFab.
“She’s done other things too, but this was a new low,” said Antwon. “Natalia does not have emotions for nothing but herself. We’re done. We’re done with her.”
Added Cynthia: “Natalia is stabbing her family in the back, over a complete lie.”
In the new episodes, the phone call continues, with the Mans claiming Natalia met a man from the UK online who “turned her against us” — so much so, that she planned to “pack up and leave” and move in with him overseas.
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“And she said we have held her hostage,” adds Antwon, as series producer Eric Evangelista calls the call “very shocking” because they they they already had a “happy ending” to Natalia’s story. That, clearly, wasn’t the case.
In a confessional, Natalia explained that she met a man named Neil online — before adding the pair “grew feelings” for each other and she just “opened my heart” to him and it “felt really good.” Neil does appear in the new episodes, though his identity is concealed to keep him and their relationship hidden from “public scrutiny.”
It’s Neil who apparently got in touch with Vince and Nicole DePaul, another family with a form of dwarfism who attempted to adopt Natalia before the Barnetts. Nicole claimed Neil found her on social media, DMed her and claimed she was being “held hostage” and had “no access to the outside world” and was being kept “like a prisoner” by the Manses.
“I learned it was Natalia who put him in touch with me … he’s extremely worried about Natalia,” she added.
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Neil also allegedly reached out to producers, saying she was in danger and needed help getting “out of the Manses’ control” — and told them he called police, who didn’t do anything. “We don’t really know what to believe at this point,” Evangelista admitted on camera.
When producers “rushed” to Tennessee after the phone call from the Manses, however, everyone was acting as if nothing was wrong.
“We came to an understanding,” said Antwon as he, Cynthia and Natalia sat down with Evangelista on camera. Natalia, meanwhile, said she would be staying at home with them, as Antwon said she “came to her senses.”
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It was Antwon who said Natalia was spending a lot of time talking to a man online, trashing her parents to him while making “a lot of false accusations.” He believed the man was brainwashing Natalia, as Cynthia said he “completely flipped Natalia’s mind against her family” and “convinced Natalia that what he was saying was right and we were wrong.”
Cynthia also said she thought the man would possible hold her for “ransom” or traffic her, causing them to cut her off from the internet.
“I thought I was in love, but it wasn’t right,” Natalia then said. “I wasn’t thinking clearly and there is something I want every girl my age and younger to know … I know that, especially at this age, you want to meet somebody, you want to be with somebody, but don’t try and do stuff on your own, because it’s not safe. I literally almost left home because I thought I was in love. I almost left my family.”
Antwon said she confessed and repented and came back to her “senses.”
After the interview, Evangelista said the conversation was “crazy,” saying it seemed like Natalia was “very rehearsed” and “very unnatural.”
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Despite the Mans saying she was cut off from speaking with Neil, Nicole claimed the two were still messaging each other via the Duo Lingo app — where Natalia allegedly claimed she was in pain constantly but was told she has to just live with it instead of trying surgery. Neil also claimed the Manses — who were made the payee of her social security checks — “robbed” her to buy their own home.
It’s then that Nicole hatched a plan to get Natalia away from the Manses — with Natalia, who was 20 at the time, suggesting she pick her up straight from church, after she excused herself to go to the bathroom. The plan would also involve Nicole and her daughter, Mackenzie, flying to Tennessee from upstate New York, before renting a car to get her.
“It’s totally worth it,” said Nicole.
“I’m scared but there’s no other way. COME GET ME. It’s HELL, LITERAL HELL,” Natalia allegedly exclaimed to Neil before the escape attempt.
The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter airs in four parts — with two episodes of Monday, January 6 and Tuesday, January 7 on ID and streaming on Max.
