All language subtitles for The.Curious.Case.of.Natalia.Grace.S01E03.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH

[phone ringing]

[911 operator speaking]

[theme music playing]

[Michael] April 26th, 2010,

that's the day
that we adopted Natalia.

By the time we get
to the end of 2012,

we've been living
with a sociopath,

trying to kill us everyday.

We don't know who she is,
we don't know how old she is.
She won't admit who she is.

She won't tell us
the truth of who she is.

Doctors have told us
she's nowhere near
the age you were told.

And we've actually filed
our motion in
Marion County Court

for her case to be heard
to have her age corrected
to something more appropriate.

The judge had a petition
prepared by an attorney

that would lay out
the arguments

for why this person
is not eight.

They believe
she is actually an adult.

Nobody knows quite
what... what age,

but she has not grown
in four years.

So the judge came up
with his own little formula,

"Well, you stop growing at 18.

If she hasn't grown
in four years,

then she's at least 18
when she entered their lives,

and I'm gonna add four years."

He said, "Okay,
I find you 22."

At the time
that she was re-aged,
I knew she was an adult.

Did I know it was 18,
22, 35, 150?

No.

Re-aging is not unusual,

it does happen
in international adoptions.

A couple years
might be shaved off
the age of the child

because it's more attractive
to adoptive families,

the younger the child is.

And at least,
that's the belief.

So...

Oh, I can buy
a couple of years, right?

Like, she's not really eight,
she's 10 or 11 or something.

But to jump 14 years to 22,
it doesn't make sense.

At the time of the re-aging,

there was good,
solid documentation
of an approximate age.

And she had
a primary care physician

that looked at all of it
and also provided evidence.

So that doctor
was looking at lots
of other doctors' information

and coming up
with a determination.

And then at that point,
when it's such a huge
amount of years,

you... you just have to say
what makes the most sense

based upon the evidence
and the professionals,
what they think.

And that it's in the best
interest of the child
to change their age.

You know, I'm not the doctor
and I'm not the judge,

but I felt like it was based
on something credible.

They give her
a new birth certificate,
well, a new birthday.

They give her
a new Indiana ID.

She had... Everything
changes from her year
of birth of 2003.

Back it up 14 years to 1989.

When I was at the hospital,

they signed the paperwork
and got me re-aged.

-So--
-[woman] Can you
tell me about that?

[chuckles] I don't even know
what to say about it...

-[woman] Yeah?
-...because I don't know
what happened.

[woman] Yeah, just kind
of tell me what you know.

I just know that I had
got out of the hospital.

And she got me an apartment.

Barnetts were...
were very concerned

about having her
back in their home.

[Michael] But Kristine
wants to make sure

she's got a good
place to live.

So Kristine and her
go out the next day,

and they find her
an apartment in Westfield.

Westfield, Indiana, is in
Hamilton County, Indiana.

Hamilton County, Indiana,
is in the richest part
of the state.

It's a... a single-floor
apartment complex.

She's got a living room,
she's got a... a dining room,

she's got a little
eat-in kitchen,

she's got a bathroom,
and she's got a bedroom.

Kristine and Natalia
signed the lease.

They paid the first
three months upfront.

Moving day
into Natalia's apartment,

and I know we gave
Natalia some furniture
out of our home.

We got groceries for her.

And it was just...
It's pretty basic stuff.

There's not a lot
of tale to tell there.

I think that, um,
Kristine didn't know
what to do with Natalia.

So why not put her
in an apartment

and say she's 22?

[Sue] I'm Sue McCallum,
and I was a neighbor

to Natalia when we lived
in the Westfield apartments.

Okay, now what?

[chuckles]

I just met her
by accident one day.

I see her mom setting
out all her groceries sacks
on the sidewalk

and I thought, her back
was to me and I thought,

"My gosh, that poor
little girl carrying
those groceries."

And so, I went up there.
I was going to the mailbox,

and I said, "Well, honey,
do you need some help?"

And I said,
"Where is your mom?"

And she turned around,
she said, [scoff] "I'm 22."

I expected her to have...
You know, well, young,
but she's not.

She was an adult,
you could tell
by looking at her.

And, well, her mom
had a Cadillac. [chuckles]

And she was sitting
in her Cadillac

while I was helping her
carry the groceries in

because she just left 'em
on the sidewalk.
And left 'em, uh...

Just sat there
and watched us carry it in,

and she didn't even
roll down the window

and say, "Thanks
for helping her,"
or nothing, nothing.

She just sat there and looked
and then... [swishing]

took off.

I thought it was rude
because Natalia couldn't...

hardly open
the darn front door,

you know, work
the key and get it.

So I took 'em in
and carried them
into the, um, kitchen for her.

And so, you know, I took
her to the grocery store

a couple times,
and she was also
on food stamps.

She had a food stamp card
when I take her
to the grocery store.

And I thought, "Well,
if you can drive a Cadillac,

why can't you take
better care of her?"

You know?

[Melanie] My name is Melanie.

My husband and I,
we're both
Natalia's neighbors

in Westfield, Indiana.

[Toby] The first time
I met Natalia,

I think it was just
my wife and I,

we were planting some flowers.

She just came
running across the street

and, you know, I remember
my wife and I looking
at each other

and... and just,
you know, like, "What's...
What's going on here?"

And at first,
it stressed me out,
because I thought

she was just a little kid
crossing the street.

And then she came over
and started talking to us,

and, you know,
it definitely wasn't a child.

Um, uh, it was super nice,
expressed herself well

and, you know, just
was being friendly with us.

She introduces herself,
sits right down,

starts up conversation like
we've been friends for years.

So... And that didn't
bother me...

at the time.

At the time.

[Andrew]
My name's Andrew Rice.

Um, I'm an auto mechanic,
ASE master certified mechanic.

I used to live
on Catherine Drive
in Westfield, Indiana.

One day, my grandson
was in the driveway playing.

It was about 60 degrees out.

And, uh, my wife
went in the house
for just a moment,

and I followed her in,
and then when I looked
out the window,

there was a little person
walking up our...
Into our yard,

up toward our garage.

And she started
talking to my grandson,

and they started
playing in the driveway.

They were riding
the electric motorcycle

up and down the driveway
and having races.

-[engine starts]
-[Andrew] On your mark...

get set, go.

[Natalia] Go, go,
go, go, go, go.
Come on!

[Andrew] My first impression
of Natalia was that, um,
she was a... a little person.

I didn't necessarily think
she was a child at first.

Um, and as we got
to speak with her,

she actually admitted
that she was 26 years old
at that point.

Um, and she told us
that she lived

in the apartments
down the street,

um, which were only
two to three houses
down across the street.

[man on radio]
Thirteen different leaders...

[kid] Ohhh! Oh, no...
I'm on the grass.

-There.
-[Natalia speaking]

[kid] Ah, ah, ah.

But as the sun started
to set, it started to cool
down a little bit,

and I know Natalia
didn't have a jacket
on that day,

and we were jacketed up
because it started
getting cool.

[kid speaking]

It also seemed like
she hadn't done

some of the basic
hygienic things

that most people
would normally do.

Um, her was
a little bit dirty,

and there was...

for lack of a better word,
an unpleasant body odor,

um, that she emitted.

[Sue] She wasn't
a very clean person.
She had her body odor.

And she wore the same
clothes for days and days

before she changed.
And her shoes were
all worn and scuffed up,

but part of it was the way
she had to walk.

And, you know,
they should've bought her
more shoes or something.

I remember distinctly
looking at her

and be like, you know,
after seeing dirty clothes

and I wondered,
"Can't she take her clothes
off to wash them?

Can't she put clean
clothes on herself?

How many days in row
has she worn that?

Does she only get
to change clothes

when somebody's
there to help her?"

I remember thinking that.

[Melanie] I never saw
her mom or her brothers
come visit Natalia.

The only person that I saw
ever come over there
was her adopted dad.

I only saw him
from a distance.

I noticed 'cause I think
he drove a sports car,

so I wasn't... It was a car
that I hadn't seen
come through.

But it wasn't often,
and didn't seem like
he was there a long time.

[neighbor] I only saw him
the one time on accident
drive up and get out.

And we were right kind of
where the trash can was,

and she says,
"That's my dad. I gotta go."

And I just went,
"That's your dad
in that car?

And they are making
you live here?"

[Melanie] My... My husband
and I were both...

You know, we had the concern
about her being...safe

being, uh, you know,
smaller stature
and living by herself.

Just wanting to make sure
she was okay.

She needed some help,
and we could pick up on that.

You know,
if she was five or 50,

she needed
somebody to help her
to take care of herself.

[Beth] Some of
Natalia's neighbors

were worried
for her well-being,

so they contacted
the Department of
Children's Services.

So DCS starts
an investigation.

Heather Wilson
had investigated
Natalia as a child

in the Barnett home in 2012,
before she's been re-aged.

Fast-forward almost a year...

and Natalia's now living
in an apartment by herself,

and Heather Wilson
is brought back
into the picture.

And Natalia's now,
voila, 22 years old.

And Heather Wilson may...
maybe she wasn't convinced

that... that Natalia
was an adult,

and so, you know,
she was gonna do
what she could

to investigate and make sure
the allegations of neglect
weren't substantiated,

and make sure her basic needs
are being met.

Once Michael and Kristine
learned that Heather Wilson
was back in the picture...

it was war
against Hamilton County.

[knocking on door]

-[Michael] Hello.
-[Natalia] Hi.

Where were you
when I came over?

[Natalia] I was just
taking a walk,

and I got all
the bins emptied out.

[Michael] Yep,
I'm gonna grab 'em.
Where were you walking around?

I was just walking around
on the sidewalk around here.

[Michael] In this... In...
In the apartment complex area?

-Yep.
-[Michael] I drove
all through here,

-I didn't see you.
-[Natalia] Oh.

How could you have been
walking in the sidewalk

if I drove through here
and didn't see you?

I... I was, uh, back there,
walking around
back there for...

And I was coming
back over here.

-[Michael] Yeah, like,
right over there?
-[Natalia] Yeah.

[Michael] I drove over there.

-Okay. Heather was here, huh?
-Hmm.

[Michael] What'd you guys
talk about?

[Michael] Who?
Heather got another
report on you?

[Michael] And did Heather talk
about what she's trying to do?

Um...

[Michael] Okay.

Well, I think she did.

Well, um, Heather
told us you told her

-that we only bring you
food every two months.
-Mm-hmm.

[Michael] And I showed her
all the receipts...

[Michael] ...for all the food
I bring over.

-Mm-hmm.
-[Michael] And she know
you were lying about that.

Um, they were going to...

They're gonna try
and do stuff,

but we showed
everything to our lawyer,

and our lawyer said
that they can't do anything.

Like, they're not even
supposed to come over here.

So whatever Heather
was trying with you,
didn't work.

It appears that Michael
and Kristine only started
buying groceries for Natalia

after the Department
of Children's Services
reponed their investigation.

[Michael] Where'd you
get donuts from?

I don't remember
buying donuts.

You don't know?

Got an idea where, I think,
the donuts came from.

-That's a lie.
-[indistinct chatter
on TV]

[Michael] Seriously, where did
the donuts come from?

[Michael] You just found
donuts in here?

[Michael] Let's see
if they have a date on them.

Well, they say April 23rd,
which means they're new.

So where'd they come from?

Seriously, where did
the donuts come from?

[Michael] Who brought them?

[Michael] Who?

Um, she is the... Um...

[Michael] Sue,
the lady over there?
Is she in the office?

[Michael] Why did she
bring you donuts?

[Michael] Well,
you never tell me the truth.

Her parents, they didn't
come around a lot. They...

Her dad would come
more than the mother,
and I don't know why.

And I don't even remember
what her dad looks like.

I've only seen him one time.

[Michael speaking]

[Michael] Okay.

This handwritten letter,
Natalia is recanting
all of these things

she had said
about Kristine in the past,

saying, "I made them up
to make my mom and dad
look really bad."

Is it possible that this
is actually dictated
by Kristine

so that DCS
would get off her back?

[neighbor] I was standing
in my yard

and a beautiful woman
and Natalia came.

And Natalia's hair
was all wet and cut

as if the mom
had cleaned her up,

cut her hair,
and she had
different clothes on.

I didn't know it was
the mom at the time

'cause I never saw the mom,
I always saw the dad.

And the mom said,
"Tell this lady you're sorry

and everything
you told her was a lie."

And Natalia was standing
even worse than usual.

And, "I'm sorry,
everything I told you
was a lie."

And I was going,
"Well, what do you mean?

What's going on?"

The mom didn't say,
"I'm her mother."

Natalia said,
"This is my mom."

[beeping]

[Michael] Well,
I deleted everything.

Deleted all the phone calls
and all the text messages
to her, right?

Here.

And now you can't
even talk to her.

Oh.

Michael wiped the contacts
out on Natalia's phone,

including Heather Wilson's
contact information at DCS

because, specifically
because he did not want her

to be able to call
Heather Wilson.

Michael had something to hide.

He did not want her
reporting to Social Services
something about them.

Because, why not
let her talk to them?
She needs help.

Why not let her get some help?

What is he hiding?

[Sue] Having Natalia
live by you,

well, at first, it was okay.

And then, she started sitting
on our doorsteps,

waiting for us to come home.

And, uh, then she'd follow
us in the house.

In my house, the few
times she was there,

she'd walk through
and look at things

and pick things up
and look at it

just, like, she was
casing the joint.

It was always
in the back of your mind,

"Is she gonna be around?
Is she watching?
Is she coming over?"

Like, you know,
even when we would leave,

you know, peeking
out the window,
the front window,

like, "Is she there?
Is she watching?
Can I leave?"

Because I wanna go somewhere,
I don't wanna get trapped
in a conversation.

I still talk to her.
I just had to kind
of enforce

boundaries a little bit more,
because, if not,

the minute we are home,
she would come over

or she would
call me constantly.

She knew when people come
or when they come home
or when they left

and she was really
a pest to everybody.

[sighs]

[dog barking]

[Melanie] She would
call and text me a lot,

which was fine.
I mean, I... I just think

she was very lonely
over there, and didn't have
a lot of people around her.

[Toby] Our neighbors
have our phone number,

and so if they need anything,
they know they can call us.

They know that
they can pop over,

um, ask us for something,
they need help.

We just try... I mean,
it's the Midwestern thing,
just be a good neighbor.

And, uh, you know,
if you're a good neighbor,

we're gonna be
a good neighbor.

We'll help each other out.

It's that kind of vibe.

Um...

That was quickly
taken advantage of,

um, in the sense that
Natalia would call a lot

to see when we would be home.

Um, we would be out, like,
a soccer game for our son,

and she would call
two-three times.

To the point where, like,
"Hey, you gotta stop
calling us, please."

It's like,
I just had to tell her,

you know, I wasn't offended.

It was just more like,
you know,

"Natalia, we're busy," like...

"I'm trying to enjoy
my son's soccer game,

so, um...
I need you not to call me,

and I'll call you
when I get home."

You know, but as soon
as we got home,

she saw that our...
our car pull in the driveway,

she would shoot
right across the street,

and try to, you know,

before we had time
to decompress,

anything like that, um,

latched on pretty quick,

to wanting to know
where we were,

when we were gonna be home,

um, at all times.

[Sue] Nobody liked her.
Nobody.

They kind of
felt sorry for her,

but they were leery about her,

and really didn't
want her around,

and everybody was
complaining all the time,

about her calling the office

and saying that she's waiting
on your doorstep,

and just, really eerie.

They said, "We know,
we're watching her,

but we have
to take certain steps

to evict somebody,
and we're taking the process.

I said, "Well, good."

[building manager on phone]
I think people
were creeped out by her.

This sounds
so terrible, that...

anytime there was, like,
a siting of her,

it's like, someone came
to me and said,

"I saw her today in this...
She was doing," like...

She was, like,
the talk of the town.

[Sue] I come home one day
and Natalia was in the house,

had my refrigerator
door open.

Getting a Coke, getting chips,
and just looking around.

And I said, "You don't
need to be back here.
You go back up front."

And, uh, after that,

I started locking my doors.

And then, my neighbor said,

she'd come in to her house
one time, I think,

and she didn't like it either,

so she started locking
her screen doors

so she couldn't get in.

[woman] But she
was always hungry,
always wanting food.

She's a sly fox,

'cause she could con you
in... in just, her way.

And everybody dreaded it.
She was scary.

[line ringing]

[operator speaking]

[Natalia on phone]

[operator on phone]

[Beth] While living at
the Union Street apartments,

Natalia calls the police
on herself

to tell them that she'd been
stalking a neighbor

and she had thoughts
of wanting to harm others.

[operator on phone]

[Natalia on phone]

[man] I'm aware that Natalia

contacted 911
a couple of times

while she was living
in that apartment,

and told the officers
that she was attempting

to burn down
her apartment complex

using her microwave, trying to
start a fire in her microwave,

[Natalia on phone]

[Sue] Right after that,
she was always acting
really strange.

One day, we got to talking,
I said,

"Why aren't you living
with your mom and dad?"
And she goes,

"Oh, they're afraid of me."
I said, "Why?"

And she says, "'Cause I took
a knife to them one night,"

you know, and she just
had this strange look
in her eye, like...

it's a normal thing.

It wasn't...

It wasn't until she started
talking to me more in depth

about the history
with her family,

and she said, "Well,
I tried to kill my mom."

And I just was asking her
more questions like,

"Well, what happened?
How did you try to do that?"

"I stood over them
with a knife,

so they took
all the knives away.

And then,
I tried to poison them,

so I had to live in the garage
for a while."

Like a serial killer
or something.

It's how casually they put

"attempted murder"
into a conversation.

Like, "So what?"

You know, "Oh, well."

"Oh, gee, I pulled a knife
on my parents. Big deal."

You know, that's the attitude
you got from her.

This is kind of like,
"What?" [chuckles]

What do we do
with this information?

We're not social workers,
we're not therapists.

Like, why would you
tell me that?

And how do you expect me
to handle this information?

You know, it was hard
for us to understand

how she was just left
in that apartment by herself.

Well, she just freely
offered up that she...

tried to kill her mom,
you know?

Like, that's... weird.

But then, I also think,
if I had somebody in my home,

that I thought was, um,
a threat to my other kids,

you know, what would I do?

Like, again, if I thought
she was a child

that couldn't
take care of herself,

this would be
a different conversation.

But at what point
do I start worrying about,

if I cut ties
with this person,

it's like a bad breakup.

Like... [chuckles]

"If I break up with you,
are you going to go crazy?

If I help, and then,
all of a sudden, I don't help,

are you gonna be
standing over my bed
at the end of the night,

you know, with a knife?"

[Beth] The Department
of Children Services
spent weeks

investigating Natalia
at Union Street apartments.

But DCS investigation
can't really go very far

because that
is solid legal ground,

um, from the judge, you know,
who signed the order,

that she's 22, she's an adult.

So the Department
of Children Services

have no jurisdiction
over this.

So, Michael
and Kristine Barnett

did not have to worry
about Social Services anymore.

[woman] You could just tell
she was an adult person!

You could just tell!

She wasn't
a little 11-year-old

that they left here
or wherever.

She had to be 25!

And, um, you know,

she had some...
breasts and stuff, you know.

She wore undergarments
that adults would
probably wear,

and she had a bra on
underneath her shirt,

and... and you could
see the straps of that.

She spoke very fluently.

She didn't talk
like an 8-year-old.

She talked like an...
an adult.

[building manager on phone]
She was, um, coming
into my office every day

and get candy
'cause there was,
like, a candy bowl,

and, um, just sit
and talk to me

and it was weird
and I would...

I have asked her specifically,
"How old are you?"

And she just, kind of,
shrugged her shoulders

and said, "I don't know."

She may have been a child

because that is something,
like, a child would do.

Go into an office that
you know has candy every day.

Once you become
friends with someone,

you just walk
into their house.

I feel like a lot
of the things that she did,

were very childlike.

She did show characteristics
of a youngster.

When she was playing
with my grandson,

who at the time, would've been

a couple of months shy
of four years old,

she seemed like a child
having a great time

playing with a playmate.

[both laughing]

And when she'd
interact with us,

she seemed
like an adult to us.

It's okay,
it'll get straightened out.

I just thought,
well, maybe, you know,

she has a easier time
connecting with children

'cause they're easier
to talk to,

at times, less judgmental.

And so maybe
it was just easier.

You know, everybody was leery
about her and uneasy.

And she even talked
about her brothers,

saying that the parents didn't
trust her around the...
the boys.

And she goes...
I said, "Why not?"

And she goes,
"Well, you know why."

I said, "Was you doing
things you shouldn't?"

She goes, "Well, probably."

So, you know, just like,
c'est la vie.

Weird too, she would wanna
know when our son
would be home.

And not our daughter,
but our son.

I don't really remember her
having interactions
with our daughter.

That's when things went
from uncomfortable
to... to weird,

and almost
borderline inappropriate.

So he... She would come
across the street

when he was waiting
for the bus,

um, where he would be
out there by himself,

um, waiting for the bus.

And he was eight or nine,

nine years old at the time.

So, old enough to be out there
by himself but, um,

you know, it just got
to be a point

where we felt uncomfortable
as parents, um...

Again, not knowing
how to handle this situation

was somebody like Natalia.

[Sue] If you didn't keep your
screen doors locked,
she walked in,

because one day, I come home,

my grandson and his friend
was playing Xbox.

And I walked in and I said,
"What's going on?"

And he said,
"She got to hanging around

too close to their chairs."

And rubbing up, you know,
leaning on them and stuff.

It made my grandson
feel uncomfortable,

so he told Natalia,
"Get out of here!"

And slammed the door
on her face.

I thought, how dare you try
to do anything to my grandson.

I thought...
[grunts] I just wanted
to go after her. [chuckles]

And I told my grandson,
I said,

"Don't ever let her in here,
especially if I'm not home."

[Toby] A lady from
the apartment complex
had come over

and I think she spoke
to my wife about,
um, an incident

and just, she knew
we had smaller kids,
so just to be careful.

[Melanie] She came over and...
and it's very serious,

was worrying us
about some things

that had happened
with Natalia.

And just that we need
to be careful with our kids.

And, um, I think it bordered
on almost like,

"You need to not have her over
to your house,"

which, I mean,

I appreciate being warned
if there's a situation,

um, but at the same time,

we can take that information
and make our own judgments

and make our own decisions
for our family.

One day,
we heard the door open,

and our dog just
started going crazy.

And we kind of,
like, ran out front

to the living room area,
where the front door was.

And Natalia was there.

[Toby] We got upset

when she came into our house
without permission

and started going towards
our son's bedroom,

which was in the back
of the house.

Luckily, we had a chihuahua
at the time,

that was small but fierce.

And, uh, she was very scared
of the chihuahua.

Um, and that's when we started
to distance ourselves

by saying, you know,

"I'm sorry, Natalia, we're not
gonna be home for a while."

Or "Hey, we're really busy,
we got a lot of things to do."

Not be as blunt
as we probably should have.

Um, but again, not knowing
her mental level,

not knowing how she
can handle rejection,
things like that.

You know, I remember
my wife and I having
conversations about her.

Like, "How do we
let her down?

'Cause this is getting
too much, it's too much."

Is that going to be the point
where she snaps?

[Sue] Well, nobody
let their kids out about, uh,
around her and everything

after they heard
about what she tried with
the neighbor's little boy.

It was just, like,
you had to...

Everybody had to watch out
for this person.

One person that was
taking over everything.

Having Natalia live by you
is like a Hitchcock movie.

And you got so you hated
to go out your door

because you didn't know
if she's gonna be out there
waiting on ya.

Or if you'd walk out
to the mailbox,
here she is.

[building manager on phone]
She would start walking

into people's apartments
without even knocking.

Just going in their house

and getting
into their cupboards

and eating their food.

And then,
we have a landscaping crew.

And she would, like,
hide behind the bushes.

Then kind of pop out at them
and that would scare them.

She seemed to hang
around all the older...
real old guys a lot.

And, uh,
she was trying sexual...

and talking
sexual things to 'em.

Fred was in there
doing his laundry.

And she walked in,

and he just thought
she was coming in there

to be friendly or something,
because she couldn't
reach the coins,

didn't do her own laundry,
of course.

And I guess she started
talking, you know,

sexual and crude things
to him,

and trying to ease up
to him and stuff.

He said, "I was so uneasy
and uptight with her.

I just wanted
to get out of there.

I almost left my clothes."
[chuckling]

But he said,
"I finally got away from her."

And he said, "I never want
to be in that laundry room
again with her." [chuckling]

[woman] You could
believe this man if you
knew this man. She, um...

-What is the word?
She offered him sex.
-[interviewer] Mmm-hmm.

[woman] And he said,
"Get away from me."

[Sue] Natalia went up front
and there was an older guy
out there,

and she'd go in there for two
or three hours at a time.

And she went
to his house a lot.

[woman] She said that
she was living in a house
of prostitution downtown,

and that she saw prostitutes
and she did prostitution,

before she came here,
somewhere in Indianapolis.

I didn't believe her

because that's how she talked,
in circles.

[suspenseful music playing]

One day, I see a little boy

rolling around in the grass
and everything, and...

I said, "Well, I'm going in."
And she said, "Okay."

So she went down
to the neighbor's house.

[woman] You know how you
roll down a hill?

They were laying,
Natalia and him

were laying,
rolling back and forth.

[Sue] And then
the next thing I know,

she was close
to the little boy.

And Natalia reached over.

[woman] And started
undoing his pants.

And I said,
"Natalia, what are you doing!"

[Sue] And that's when the dad
come to the door,

grabbed up his son
and was yelling at her.

[woman] He said, "If you ever
touch my son again,"

you know, he was just
the dad enraged.

[Sue] And she took off
and went up front.

[woman] Doing that with that
little boy? In front of us?

God knows what she does,
you know, behind closed doors.

It's so sick!

In Westville, you admitted
to knocking on, um,

your neighbor's door
and playing with her children?

Yes.

Do you remember harming
any one of their children?

[Natalia] No.

I never did that.

[building manager on phone]
There had been
several complaints

about her disturbing neighbors
and whatnot,

and they had said that she
was playing with these kids,

and that was just
kind of weird,

that, you know,
an adult was playing

with little kids like
the way that she was,

like, rolling around
with them, and, uh...

One person said that it
looked like she was being
inappropriate with them,

like, touching them
inappropriately,

and as the rules,

technically, like, if we get
three complaints or more,

we have the ability
to not renew someone.

She was there for a year.

Uh, and then her lease is up.

The apartment complex
is not gonna renew the lease.

So Kristine goes apartment
hunting with Natalia.

She goes
to Lafayette, Indiana.

We know
a little bit about the town,
we went to college there.

She and I,
we both went to Purdue.

So we know a bit
about the town.

Kristine finds
an apartment for her.

Very recently before that,
within weeks,

we had found out we were going
to be moving to Canada

to support my son's education.

The Perimeter Institute
in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,

wants Jacob, who is 14,

to go there for a year
to do his master's.

But I didn't know at the time,

that it was going
to be a very,

very bad last year
of marriage.

Natalia had been the subject
of so many reports,

whether it was
Adult Protective Services,

Child Protective Services,
the Westville police,

that the Barnetts
were fed up with it.

They needed her out
of that county.

But what happened in Lafayette

is the beginning of the end
for the Barnetts,

Did you agree to go
to Lafayette?

No. I didn't know
where we were going,
she just took me.

So you say she just took you
to Lafayette?

Yes.

And then what happened
when you went to Lafayette?

Uh, we went and looked
at an apartment.

And you wanted
to stay in that apartment?

I didn't, but Kristine
told me that that's where
I was gonna be living.

So you didn't
wanna live there?

-No.
-Okay.

What about
the apartment in Westville?
Did you wanna live there?

No. She just got it for me.

Okay. Well, where did
you wanna live?

I wanted to live
with Kristine.

I wanted to be with my family.

Or what I thought
was my family.

Why did you wanna live
with Kristine?

Because I didn't know
what to do.

Like, I didn't know at all
what to do.

I didn't know
how to take care of myself.

I didn't know
how to be by myself.

They got her out. [chuckles]

So, everybody was so really...
[imitates sighs]

Everybody was really happy
to see her go. [chuckles]

[Melanie] So, one night,
just like, overnight,
Natalia was gone.

And we didn't see her.

And I tried to call her phone

and her phone
was disconnected.

We had no idea
what happened to Natalia,

but it was just
that she was just gone.

-[woman] Natalia. I don't know
where she went after this.
-[interviewer] Mmm-hmm.

-[woman] I don't know
anything.
-[interviewer] Right.

I think she's
a little possessed, she is.

That's all you can really say.

She presents herself
like a nice person,

but she's really evil
and devious.

People think, well,
she's small and she's deformed

so she couldn't possibly do

all this stuff
everybody's saying.

But they're wrong
and she did do it.

[Toby] I was there,
I lived it,

I lived through it.

I still don't
have concrete answers.

I don't know how old she is,

I don't know
if what she said was true.

Yes, that's, uh, is scary,
that Natalia could still
be doing this.

That she can
manipulate people,

and you don't know,
it's probably worse

than what she did
to our apartments.

I don't think she stopped.

She's always finding some
other person to manipulate.

[interviewer] Can you tell me
a little bit

about the first time
that you met Natalia?

Uh, the first time
I met Natalia was, um,

I mean, it just
really disturbed me, a lot.
[chuckles nervously]

Quite honestly.