Did the Mans family try to ‘brainwash’ Natalia Grace – or did they try to ‘blackmail’ her: Legal expert (exclusive preview)

More of Natalia Grace’s life with the DePaul family after running away from the home where she lived with her parents, Cynthia and Antwon Mans, will be featured in upcoming episodes of The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter.

In an exclusive clip from the third episode, premiering Jan. 7 on Investigation Discovery, legal expert Beth Karas explains the theory that the Manses may be trying to blackmail Natalia, 21, with the messages she exchanged with her online boyfriend Neil. (See it below.)

Karas takes viewers back to a phone call to producers from 2023, where The Manses claimed they began to distrust Natalia, accusing her of “doing other things.”

Although it’s unclear exactly what her parents were talking about, viewers later learn that the Manses weren’t happy that Natalia, without their knowledge, was communicating with a man named Neil, whom she met on Facebook – and was considering moving to the UK to be with him. .

In an earlier episode, Manses and Natalia talked about their conflict and how it was apparently resolved: Cynthia and Natalia claimed that the secret messages between Natalia and Neil were deleted from Natalia’s Facebook account.

But in Episode 3, ‘The Hell Loop’, Karas suggests that may not be the case: The Manses may have secretly kept the private communications to use against their daughter if she publicly claimed she was being abused by her parents .

As Nicole DePaul, the friend whose family Natalia now lives with in upstate New York, speculates in an upcoming episode: “So I’m starting to realize that Natalia isn’t being brainwashed by Cynthia and Antwone. She’s being blackmailed by them. Natalia is lying on the camera because they have dirt on her.”

Since dramatically fleeing her home with the Manses in Tennessee and moving to upstate New York to live with the DePaul family, Natalia has shared various accounts of her time with the Manses.

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When allegations surfaced that Cynthia and Antwon were physically abusive towards their children, she has refused to discuss it with producers. In the final two episodes airing tonight, ‘The Hell Loop’ and ‘Breaking the Chains’, viewers can expect to see what Natalia has to say about her parents in conversations with others.

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter ends tonight from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT on Investigation Discovery and streams on Max.