ID/HuluHulu’s Good American Family has reignited interest in the Curious Case of Natalia Grace, and while it delves into her adoption by Michael and Kristine Barnett, there’s one question about Natalia’s past that may never be answered.
Anyone who’s seen ID’s three-part documentary series will know that there are many twists and turns in this real-life saga. But Good American Family is focusing on just one stage of Natalia’s life, going back in time to 2010 to track what happened with the Barnetts.
Since there are two opposing sides to this story, the Hulu series is told from multiple perspectives, starting off with Kristine and Michael’s. In Episode 1, they adopt Natalia from First Path Adoption Center, only to discover the place is a scam.
The reality is that even before Natalia entered the Barnetts’ lives, her journey had taken a complicated and painful path, and by the time she’d reached Indiana, key details about what happened to her had already been lost – and they may never be found.
The mystery of Natalia Grace’s first adoptive family
IDBefore the Barnetts, Natalia was adopted by a couple named Gary and Dyan Ciccone in 2008. But what happened to Natalia during this time, what the Ciccones did after, and how she got moved from Ukraine to the US remains a mystery.
In Good American Family, Kristine finds out that Natalia’s previous adoptive parents came from New Jersey, even though they adopted her in South Carolina. But attorney Beth Karas says in the first season of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace that the Ciccones were situated in New Hampshire.
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“In 2008, Gary and Dyan Ciccone from New Hampshire adopted Natalia,” she explains. “By 2009, it’s possible that they found her behavior to be too hard to manage. I don’t know, but to the Ciccones, it’s clear they wanted to unload her.”
She explains that they went through a closed adoption, “giving virtually no information about her.” Karas adds, “They made a mistake though. They left their identifying information on one of the luggage tags.”
The Barnetts uncovered the luggage tag, with Michael Barnett claiming in a 2019 interview, “The Ciccones, within six months of getting her, they were taking her to little people conventions and trying to give her away under the table.
“We found two different families that they tried to give her to. One, they gave her to under the table for four months,” Michael adds, claiming they “extorted” the family for $30,000. “The family didn’t have it and they returned Natalia back.”
IDThe docu-series then speaks with Judith Irving from Clinton, Indiana, who corroborates the allegation. She says that she received an email from the Little People of America, telling her that the Ciccones had adopted Natalia and were trying to find a home for her.
Judith instantly fell in love with Natalia when she saw her picture, but as she spoke with Dyan, she received a worrying update.
“Dyan and her husband said, ‘Pay the legal fees and you can adopt this little girl.’ If I remember right, she told me that adoption costs from Ukraine were around $25,000,” she explains.
“And I find it kinda crazy that you would adopt a child and spend $25,000 and only spend a year with that child?… I don’t know if there was a financial scam or not.” Judith and her husband were unable to pay the fee, and eventually Natalia ended up with the Barnetts.
When the news broke that the Barnetts had Natalia’s legal age changed from eight to 22 years old in 2012 before moving her into an apartment alone, Judith was left heartbroken. “That was what broke my heart the most is that she wasn’t happy,” she says.
Second family raises “red flags”
IDSimilarly, couple Robyn and Dwayne Farris claimed that Dyan essentially tried to sell Natalia to them. “Back in 2009, we received an email from the Little People of America asking us if we might be interested in a possible adoption of a little girl named Natalia,” says Robyn.
“And she hooked us up with the adoptive mom, Dyan Ciccone. She had asked us if we would cover her previous medical expenses. So right then and there, we started to get concerned.
“We thought it was some kind of weird scam where, you know, she kinda came across as a used car salesman of sorts trying to ‘sell’ Natalia to us. So we said, ‘Heck, no, we’re not gonna do that. We’re not gonna pay for anything that occurred in the past.’”
They point out the “red flags” of the situation, not only that the Ciccones were trying to get rid of Natalia so quickly but also the concerns about Natalia’s wellbeing. “We were concerned about her mental health coming from an orphanage in Ukraine.”
They tried asking Dyan to have Natalia undergo a psychological evaluation but Dyan reportedly shut this down. The Farrises decided to go and visit the Ciccones’ home, and they said the situation got “crazier”.
They noticed Natalia had no shoes on and was wearing “slippery braces” on her feet. When they asked her about the orphanage, Natalia said “It sucked” but Dyan allegedly tried to downplay it.
“I knew that they were lying. She was withdrawn and quiet,” says Dwayne. They knew something was wrong, and were unable to adopt Natalia at that time, which allegedly led to Dyan going “ballistic on the phone.”
Although these claims have raised questions, there are no known records of Gary and Dyan Ciccone being publicly interviewed or investigated. The details of Natalia’s time in their home, as well as her life in the Ukrainian orphanage and how she came to the US, remain unclear.
As said by one Redditor, “There is a lot of mystery around that couple. It looks more like human trafficking to me than adoption.”
Another commented, “We got their name and a bit about how they tried to ‘pawn’ her off on other people with a high price, but no other info about them or Natalia’s time with them. It would seem like they were the ones to first adopt her from the Ukraine right?”
“Whatever the situation is with her original adoptive family, it shines a giant spotlight on how problematic private adoptions/rehoming can be,” added a third. “It opens the door wide open for neglect and trafficking. We need better laws in place.”
Be sure to keep our guide to the Good American Family release schedule bookmarked. Also check out the new documentaries hitting streaming this month, and for more on the case, read about what Freddie Gill said.