Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a Missouri teenager convicted of orchestrating the murder of her medically abusive mother in 2015, is scheduled to be released from prison tomorrow after serving eight years behind bars.
Blanchard, now 32, was the subject of a bizarre media frenzy that spawned numerous documentaries and a Hulu series after she ordered her online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to stab her mother, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, 48.
The teenager is believed to have suffered from one of the most well-known cases of Munchausen syndrome, where her mother insisted she was suffering from various made-up illnesses, leading to her undergoing painful surgeries and taking medications with unwanted side effects .
It was also alleged her mother kept her locked up and malnourished, and after meeting Godejohn online in 2012, she confided in him about her mother's obsessive and sadistic control over her and they began hatching a murder plan.
Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard (right) convinced her daughter Gypsy Rose (left) and others that she suffered from various illnesses, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy. The abuse continued for years until Gypsy ordered Rose to escape her mother's murder.
Gypsy Rose (pictured in her final years behind bars) endured years of torment as her mother confined her to a wheelchair and forced her to undergo painful surgeries and take medication with unwanted side effects
Gypsy Rose (left) was given a 10-year prison sentence for plotting to kill her mother, while her online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn (right) was given a life sentence
Dee Dee was found on the morning of June 14, 2015, after being stabbed 17 times in her sleep by Godejohn, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole.
She had made a name for herself in the public eye as a loving caregiver to her chronically ill daughter. She made numerous local media appearances while enjoying perks such as charity-sponsored trips to concerts and Disney World.
Her death was only discovered after a Facebook account she shared with Gypsy Rose posted a chilling statement: “That bastard is dead!”
The brutal murder shocked the local community and sparked a wave of speculation about what led to it. Green County Sheriff Jim Arnott told reporters shortly after the investigation began that “things are not always as they seem.”
But the twisted story that led to the killing began two decades earlier, when Gypsy was just three months old and her mother told doctors the child was having trouble breathing.
She was diagnosed with sleep apnea and placed on a ventilator. This was the first of many instances in which Dee Dee falsified her daughter's complaints.
Because of her mother's relentless focus on Gypsy's nonexistent illnesses, she was forced to use a wheelchair from a young age, and Dee Dee told her family that the child suffered from a chromosomal disorder that limited his ability to move.
In the years that followed, leukemia and muscular dystrophy were among the illnesses Dee Dee told people her daughter suffered from, and she insisted that everyone who spoke to her remembered that she had the “mind of a seven-year-old.” had.
She shaved Gypsy Rose's head to mimic the effects of leukemia, forced her to use a wheelchair 24 hours a day, slept with a ventilator, and even ordered the removal of her salivary glands.
Dee Dee once tricked doctors into removing Gypsy Rose's salivary glands and was accused of a series of depraved lies, including that she shaved her head to make it appear she had leukemia
Dee Dee is believed to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy as she led people to believe her daughter was terminally ill in order to enjoy praise and perks such as charity-funded tickets to concerts and Disney World as a loving mother
The twisted tale was told in the Hulu series The Act, starring Dee Dee, portrayed by Patricia Arquette (left) and Gypsy Rose, played by Joey King (right).
Dee Dee was believed to have benefited from control over her daughter, and she had previously been excluded from her family due to suspicions that she had killed her mother by withholding food.
While many of Gypsy Rose's illnesses were entirely fictional, her frequent hospital visits required Gypsy Rose to take a number of medications that severely affected her health. In one case, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed Tegretol, which caused her teeth to fall out.
This also resulted in Dee Dee having a feeding tube attached to her wheelchair, even though Gypsy Rose was able to eat and drink normally.
As a former nurse, Dee Dee was able to convince some doctors of her young daughter's symptoms and stopped all contact with anyone who asked her questions or gave conflicting medical results.
She was also accused of giving her daughter certain medications to mimic symptoms, such as using a topical anesthetic to numb her gums and cause her to drool.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy typically involves caregivers coercing and repressing people to get attention. However, it is also suspected that Dee Dee's motivation for her daughter's ordeal was financial.
She had used funds and services from a number of charities, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation and the Ronald McDonald House, and after Hurricane Katrina devastated her home in Louisiana, they received an outpouring of support.
This included Habitat for Humanity building them a bright pink house equipped for Gypsy Rose's various fictional problems, including a wheelchair ramp, while also soliciting donations from well-wishers who thought she was a struggling mother in one taking care of her sick child during a crisis.
Hurricane Katrina also provided Dee Dee with an opportunity to amplify the lies surrounding her daughter, as she claimed medical records, such as her birth certificate, were destroyed in the floods.
As Gypsy Rose reached puberty, she was placed under even greater control by her mother, who convinced her that she was virtually unable to move or function without her.
When asked why she didn't expose her mother's lies, Gypsy Rose said she lived in a haze of confusion and betrayal and said she “couldn't just jump out of the wheelchair because I was scared and I didn't know what.” “my mother would do it. I had no one I could trust.'
Dee Dee was able to maintain the charade of her daughter's illness throughout her childhood, stopping all contact with doctors who questioned her health or provided conflicting medical results
Because Gypsy Rose's mother shaved her head to mimic the effects of leukemia, she was often seen wearing wigs, including her “favorite” blonde princess wig
Once, when she was 14, a Missouri neurologist determined that Gypsy Rose was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy and later expressed regret that he never reported his suspicions to authorities.
A separate report also made similar claims, prompting caseworkers to visit her home. However, Dee Dee convinced her that the allegations were unfounded slander.
Dee Dee also began lying about her daughter's age in her teens, helped by the fact that her birth certificate was allegedly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
In a moment that could inspire her hopes for freedom from her mother's control, Gypsy Rose tried to escape while attending a science fiction convention in 2011, setting off with a man she met online .
She was quickly tracked down by her mother in a hotel room, and although Gypsy Rose was 19 at the time, Dee Dee produced fictitious papers claiming she was a minor.
Gypsy later said that when they returned home, Dee Dee smashed her computer with a hammer and tied and handcuffed her to her bed for two weeks.
In the year following her escape attempt, Gypsy managed to sneak back onto the Internet, primarily using the Internet after her mother fell asleep to avoid detection.
Despite being unsure of her real age and believing many lies about her health, she joined a Christian dating site to meet other people in her sheltered life. There she met Nicholas Godejohn.
The two reportedly became friends over their interest in BDSM and often discussed violent sexual fantasies, including Godejohn's “evil side.”
According to a local report from Patch.com, he was diagnosed with autism and had a prior conviction for indecent exposure after he was caught watching pornography with his hands down his pants in a McDonald's for nearly nine hours.
The question of Gypsy Rose's complicity in her mother's murder remains open. It is alleged she funded her murderous boyfriend's trip and provided him with the knife used in the 2015 murder
In 2015, three years after they first met online, the couple met in person, and Gypsy Rose was said to be so anxious for her mother's approval that she prompted Godejohn to pretend met her spontaneously at a cinema screening of Cinderella.
She then snuck away for a bathroom break and reportedly had sex with Godejohn in the cabin.
Shortly after their first meeting, the couple began plotting Dee Dee's murder, spurred on by Gypsy Rose's confessions about the abuse she had suffered throughout her life.
She later told a Discovery ID documentary that the moment the plan came together came when the couple was “chatting one evening and he said he would do anything to protect me and I asked him, 'Anything ?” and he said, “Yes.”
“From anyone?” [I asked]he said “Yes.” “Even my mother?” [I asked]'He said yes.' And that's where the development of such a plan began [into] a murder plot.'
According to Fox4, she sent Godejohn money to help him travel from Wisconsin to her home in Missouri and stole a knife from Walmart for him to use in the attack.
Godejohn then arrived at the family home in Springfield in June 2015. However, the exact date of the attack is not clear as Dee Dee lay in a pool of blood for several days.
He was let into the house by Gypsy Rose after her mother fell asleep and hid in the bathroom with his hands over his ears to drown out the noise of the brutal knife attacks.
She told ABC News that she wanted her mother dead “not because I hated her … but because I wanted to escape her.”
In an HBO documentary, Gypsy Rose later claimed that Godejohn raped her immediately after the murder, which he described as “pretty consensual” in a police interview.
“I don’t think it’s consensual,” she said.
When asked why she didn't expose her mother's lies, Gypsy Rose said she lived in a haze of confusion and betrayal and said she “couldn't just jump out of the wheelchair because I was scared and I didn't know what.” “my mother would do it. I had no one I could trust.
Despite her claim that Godejohn sexually abused her, the duo subsequently appeared to spend about five days together, running regular errands, including shopping at Walmart.
Godejohn described these running days as “the happiest” of his life and felt like he was enjoying a short time with his “soulmate.”
“Those were, man, probably the best days of my life, that's the only way I can describe it,” he told Oxygen in 2019 from behind bars, where he will spend the rest of his days without the possibility of parole.
“I enjoyed every second of it,” he continued.
“From the beginning, I just knew we were soulmates. “Those five days that I was actually with her, physically with her, those five days were the most intense, magical, amazing days I've ever had.”
Police were initially confused about Gypsy Rose's disappearance following her mother's murder and assumed she may have been kidnapped. However, investigators quickly realized that her personal life may not have been what it first seemed.
“As we started to peel back the layers, we got information based on our Facebook posts, we were able to piece it all together and then we were able to figure out that she was actually alive,” Sheriff Arnott told Time.
“And then when we talked to the detectives right up there, she was on foot, which we all thought was impossible.”
Police launched an urgent manhunt for the pair after Dee Dee was found on June 14, and they were tracked through the chilling Facebook posts from Dee Dee's shared Facebook account.
Next to the post announcing her death, another, more disturbing post read: “I – I – CUT THIS THICK UP AND RAPE HER SWEET INNOCENT DAUGHTER… HER SCREAMING WAS SOOOO LOUD LOL.”
The Facebook posts were traced to Godejohn's home in Big Bend, Wisconsin, and the duo were promptly charged.
Gypsy Rose has spoken of her desperation to “escape” her mother, claiming she was the victim of a years-long campaign of medical abuse in which her mother rubbed anesthetics on her gums to convincingly make her drool
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2015 after agreeing to a deal in which she admitted her role in her mother's murder. She is now set to be released after serving 85 percent of her sentence
Although they quickly fell into the trap, at one point they believed they had successfully gotten away with the crime, and Godejohn said they were already planning their fantasy life together.
“I wanted to get a job and look for an apartment. “After a while I would probably marry her and have children with her,” he said.
“That's something I've never had with anyone else.” “To this day, she's the only one I've ever had that with.”
He blamed Gypsy Rose for the idea of killing Dee Dee, saying she planned the plot after the forced mother tried to keep them apart – even though Gypsy Rose was 23 at the time.
Referring to his savage knife attack, he said: “Somehow I knew deep in my heart that somehow me and her would be together in the end. “There's no other way, we have to do it.
“I wanted to make sure her mother didn’t cause her any more harm. I made sure of that.'
At his trial, Godejohn's lawyers described the killer as “a low-functioning person with autism” who was “so in love with (Gypsy Rose) and so obsessed with her that he would do anything… and Gypsy knew it.”
He pleaded not guilty and a number of psychologists testified about his mental state. But prosecutors successfully argued that Godejohn recognized the importance of his plan, not least because he had discussed it with Gypsy Rose for at least a year.
After her own trial for her mother's murder, Gypsy Rose shocked the world when she attended her first court hearing unassisted.
Gypsy Rose shocked the world when she attended her first court hearing unassisted
At his trial, Godejohn's lawyers described the killer as “a low-functioning person with autism” who was “so in love with (Gypsy Rose) and so obsessed with her that he would do anything… and Gypsy knew it.”
In the years since their murderous plot, Gypsy Rose and Godejohn have parted ways, and family members say they view her twisted relationship with him as an act of “desperation.”
Godejohn told ABC News in 2018 that he felt “betrayed” by Gypsy, saying, “I loved Gypsy to the point where I would…do anything for her.” That's what I have with what I have have done, proven.
“Unfortunately, I feel like she cheated on me because I went so far.” I feel like she left me… part of me will probably always love her, but she hurt me so much .”
In 2019, the same year that Godejohn gushed about his final days of freedom, family friend Fancy Macelli told People that Gypsy Rose had gotten engaged to a pen pal while in prison.
“They are very happy,” Macelli said at the time. “You can hear the excitement in her voice.”
She said Gypsy Rose's fiancé, whom she did not name, contacted her after watching the HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest.” It is unclear whether the couple is still together. Macelli said the family agreed with the relationship but warned that they would not have an easy time together.
“Whether it will end up being (a good thing) who knows, but for her at the moment it is a very positive and happy time.”
“She's 27 years old, she deserves to be in love and she deserves to have someone to take care of her,” Macelli concluded. “He’s just there for her.”
Now that she has served eight years of her 10-year sentence, Gypsy Rose can look forward to freedom as she was granted parole in September in Missouri.
The strange and twisted saga that landed her ten years in prison still raises questions today. Sheriff Arnott recently told Ozarks First that he still has doubts about the case to this day.
“In my view, she was the mastermind of her mother's murder,” he said, suggesting that the 10-year prison sentence she received in response to a guilty plea was too lenient for her role in her mother's murder.
“If she met the 85%, then it is what it is.” “She took the time,” he said. “There are a lot of victims in this deal.” And it's not just Deedee and it's not Gypsy. It’s the entire community.”