You must certainly know the story. An American couple adopts a 6-year-old child. Everything seems to be going like a fairy tale, but the child’s strange behavior emerges, and it is realized that the girl is actually a 22-year-old with dwarf syndrome. This mind-blowing story will be broadcast as a docu-series on TLC, titled The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. The first episode will tell the story of the Barnett family’s adoption process, filled with lies, and whether Natalia is a dangerous adult disguised as a child. Ahead of the series’ premiere, we interviewed one of the documentary’s key figures, Beth Karas, a lawyer and TV commentator, for 221B readers.
I remember when I read this story in the newspaper, I wondered if I had misunderstood it, and I read it again. How did you react when you first heard about this case? The story you are trying to solve is one of the strangest things I have ever heard in my life.
Beth Karas: I definitely agree with you on that. It is also one of the strangest stories I have come across. I knew the story in general. It was reported years ago, but then I got involved with the production company that was developing this story, and they started sharing the information with me. I thought, “What’s going on here?” And I have to say that during the recordings, while I was talking, I was actually learning some things at the same time as the viewers.
So your reactions are real?
Beth Karas: Real, because what the production wanted was to take the audience on a journey with my analysis. So, sometimes I would learn something that the crew had just learned, and I would be like, What? So, you know, there was a lot in this story that I found challenging, of course. I had to get to the truth because I’m a former prosecutor, I’m a trial person. You follow the facts to determine what to charge a person with. You don’t come up with a theory and then find the facts to fit it. You go where the facts take you. The facts in this case made my head spin. How old is Natalia? What really happened?
How did you choose this story? Do you have any special connection with it?
Beth Karas: The production company I was working with was in that community, but they were trying to solve other cases. I joined in to help them analyze and understand what was going on here and present it to the audience. I was doing what I’m doing now with documentaries. I was on a channel called Court TV, which televised the trials. The only thing I did was to explain to the audience what was happening in court. So my strength is in a way to distill things and make them understandable to ordinary people. The company said to me, This is a story that needs to be told, and it’s still going on.
Big cases get a lot of commentators. There are even some people on sites like Reddit who think Natalia is right. How much do you pay attention to comments in big cases like this?
Beth Karas: Personally, I kind of ignore them. Because people have to think about both sides of the issue. Some people will be against Natalia. They’ll say she’s a bad person, she’s manipulative. Others will say she was a child. So people will have their own opinion, and that’s what we want, right? We want people to make their own decisions. We just give them the facts, and we say, You decide. What I mean is that’s what the jury does. You give the jury the best evidence you have, and you let the jury decide what is the strongest evidence or what is the truth.
Yes, of course. I’ve only finished two episodes, I haven’t finished the whole season yet. But I’m really curious about this, Natalia, one night, she stood by her new parents’ bedside with a knife; is that true?
Beth Karas: This is the testimony of her stepfather, Michael Barnett. Yes, when he woke up, he saw Natalia standing over him, and she had a knife in her hand.
Really?
Beth Karas: The more you watch, the more you’ll be surprised. You know, there will be another season. And because Natalia talked, it’s going to be dealt with more comprehensively.
She couldn’t talk. True, she had to follow the no-talking rule.
Beth Karas: Yes, in the first season, she couldn’t talk. We could only see what she shared on social media or on Facebook. She doesn’t sit down and give interviews until season 2. But this time, that problem will be solved. I honestly don’t know where the truth is. You’ll hear both sides.
This type of true crime series keeps the sense of curiosity always alive. True crime documentaries also have a large audience.
Beth Karas: Yes, yes, that’s true. True crime documentaries are watched a great deal.
Therefore, I would like to ask about the concept of the “CSI effect.” Do you think that people with a high potential to commit crimes learn clues and information about how to commit the perfect crime from documentaries and TV series?
Beth Karas: So, do I think that whether people use what they learn on TV to commit crimes? Yes, maybe.
Really?
Beth Karas: Yes, I’ll tell you why. I told the story of a serial killer here in the United States. He’s in jail now. He was arrested in Los Angeles. He killed two people there, he attempted to kill another person, and he killed someone in Chicago. In fact, he was not caught for many years, and he told one of his ex-girlfriends that he knew how to commit the perfect crime because he watched these TV shows. At least in this case, I think it’s an anecdote. It’s a story, but this serial killer claims that he got tips. He got caught eventually, didn’t he? He’s not that smart. But I think people get ideas from the productions. They learn how it’s done. They try not to leave behind any forensic evidence that could identify them. But nowadays, technology is so advanced, DNA evidence is so sophisticated, and we have cameras all over our phones, you know, they leave digital footprints, I think it’s really hard to evade the police.
And finally, can I ask you what you want to say about this season?
Beth Karas: I would like to suggest to viewers in Türkiye to keep an open mind. Don’t rush to conclude the first or the second episode. Watch it from the beginning to the end. There are 6 episodes, and I think there will be some episodes where they won’t believe what they hear. When I tell the stories, they are usually summarized as a husband killing his wife or a mother killing her children. But in fact, the case is very deep. So the audience can enjoy it, they can learn something, and they can talk about it, but I advise them to keep an open mind like a jury.
