Grim life of Gypsy Rose Blanchard whose mum convinced her she was dying
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is set to be released from prison after serving seven years for orchestrating the murder of her own mother.
Gypsy,32, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2016 after she and her ex-boyfriend murdered Gypsy's mom Dee Dee in 2015.
Dee Dee Blanchard had forced Gypsy to use a wheelchair and fabricated constant medical problems. But one day, Gypsy decided to exact revenge - after discovering she wasn't ill.
Now Missouri's Department of Corrections has confirmed that she will be released on December 28 - after serving just seven years.
Young Gypsy had a whole host of health problems. She was always in a wheelchair, rarely left the house without oxygen and a feeding tube, and her learning difficulties left her years behind her peers.
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Young Gypsy in the wheelchair she was forced to useMum Dee Dee ferried her to hospital appointments and cared for all her needs. In fact, Dee Dee would always hold her daughter’s hand whenever they went out, like they were two inseparable best friends.
Clauddine ‘Dee Dee’ Blanchard was a single mum and had always made her daughter her number one priority.
At three months, she took Gypsy to the hospital after she’d noticed she was having breathing problems.
Gypsy was diagnosed with sleep apnoea and sent home with breathing apparatus. Still, Dee Dee wasn’t happy.
She told her family she was convinced there was something else wrong and was determined to get answers.
When Gypsy was seven, Dee Dee told friends and family that she had a chromosomal disorder. It didn’t have a name, but it meant Gypsy would need a wheelchair and she wouldn’t develop like other children.
Dee Dee’s family wanted to help, but she made the unusual decision to move away to Louisiana and distance herself.
There, Gypsy’s health problems continued.
When her weight dropped too low, she was given a feeding tube, and severe asthma meant she needed oxygen.
When Dee Dee told doctors Gypsy was having epileptic seizures, she was given drugs to control them – sadly, it caused her teeth to crumble and fall out.
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Dee Dee then explained to people that muscular dystrophy was keeping Gypsy in a wheelchair and her learning difficulties required her to be home-schooled.
Even when she became a teenager, Dee Dee told people Gypsy had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old. Just when everyone thought they’d been through enough, Dee Dee shared the sad news that Gypsy had leukaemia.
With no teeth, huge prescription glasses, the tell-tale bald head from chemotherapy and a child-like voice, it was hard not to feel sorry for little Gypsy.
Gypsy wasn’t actually a wheelchair-bound, chronically-ill teenagerWhen Dee Dee and Gypsy had to move to Springfield, Missouri, after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home, a local charity built them a new house with ramps for Gypsy’s wheelchair – it even had a hot tub. Dee Dee was Gypsy’s full-time carer, so couldn’t work.
Other charities donated money to help with bills and even sent the pair on trips to Disney World.
No one was sure what the future held for Gypsy, but something was horribly wrong in the Blanchard home.
Dee Dee was hiding a secret. Gypsy wasn’t a teenager with a mental age of a seven-year-old, she was in fact 23. And there was nothing wrong with her.
All the health problems were a twisted lie constructed by Dee Dee. Gypsy could walk just fine, and could eat if her mum would just let her. She had no learning difficulties either.
Experts believe Dee Dee had Munchausen by proxy – a mental disorder where someone fabricates or exaggerates the illness of the subject of their care in order to get sympathy or attention. This was an extreme case.
Gypsy had been taking medicine she didn’t need. She’d been subjected to unnecessary medical procedures and surgeries, including the removal of her saliva glands to control her non-existent drooling.
Dee Dee had regularly shaved her daughter’s head and made her wear wigs or hats to mimic the look of a cancer patient.
The wheelchair, oxygen tank and feeding tube were also not needed.
And the reason Dee Dee was always holding Gypsy’s hand? So she could squeeze it hard when she suspected Gypsy was going to spill their secret.
Gypsy was actually a healthy 23-year-old, as seen in prison photo (Courtesy ABC News)When Gypsy was younger, it was easy to control her. She was banned from speaking at doctor’s appointments and Dee Dee talked down any suspicious medical staff. But now Gypsy was older, Dee Dee used violence to keep her quiet.
Once, when Gypsy tried to run away, her mum chained her to the bed for two weeks.
When she tried to tell someone she wasn’t ill, Dee Dee blamed her confusion on mental problems.
Gypsy didn’t give up in her attempt to live a normal life. She loved all things Disney and longed for her very own fairy-tale romance.
In 2013, she joined a Christian dating website and started talking to Nicholas Godejohn, 23, from Wisconsin.
Nicholas had a criminal record for indecent exposure and a history of mental illness – but once he told Gypsy he wasn’t daunted by the fact she was in a wheelchair, she was smitten.
Gypsy said her mum was overprotective, so they chatted in private using secret Facebook accounts.
When Nicholas said he wanted to meet her in person, Gypsy knew she’d have to confess if they were going to have a future. Nicholas would be the first person she’d confide in.
She told him that all her health problems had been made up by Dee Dee.
Gypsy met Nicholas Godejohn on a dating website (Waukesha County)In early 2015, they met for the first time. Dee Dee, 48, was taking Gypsy to a local cinema to see Cinderella .
Nicholas went too, so they could pretend to strike up a friendship. Gypsy was dressed as Cinderella and Nicholas was in a Prince Charming outfit. The pair managed to sneak into the bathroom and have sex.
When Dee Dee later found out that Gypsy was in touch with Nicholas, she was furious. She smashed up her computer and banned the relationship.
Gypsy realised she would never have a normal life. She was sure if she went to the police they wouldn’t believe her. So she came up with another plan.
She managed to stay in contact with Nicholas, and asked him if he would kill Dee Dee for her. He agreed. They talked about what they’d do and called it ‘Plan B’.
On 12 June 2015, Nicholas came to the Blanchard home when Dee Dee was asleep and Gypsy let him in.
After handing him gloves and a large serrated knife, she hid in the bathroom while Nicholas stabbed Dee Dee 17 times in her pink bedroom.
Once dead, he covered her with a duvet and went to Gypsy’s bedroom where they had sex.
The pair fled to Wisconsin. Gypsy worried that her mum’s body wouldn’t be discovered and it would decompose, so they posted an update on a Facebook page that Gypsy and Dee Dee shared that would make people visit the house.
‘That b***h is dead,’ they wrote. Then followed it with a longer comment suggesting that whoever had killed Dee Dee had also raped Gypsy.
On 14 June, officers found Dee Dee’s body and announced that vulnerable Gypsy was missing. Without her wheelchair, oxygen, feeding tube or her mother’s medical care, the community feared for her safety.
The public was devastated for kind, selfless Dee Dee and even started to raise funds to pay for her funeral.
But then police traced the Facebook status to Wisconsin, where they found Nicholas and Gypsy.
At first, Gypsy said she had nothing to do with the murder, and police wondered whether Nicholas had taken advantage of mentally impaired Gypsy. But then the truth unravelled.
Gypsy told them what her mum had done to her since she was a baby – that she was a victim of child abuse and that Nicholas had agreed to ‘Plan B’ to help her escape. He confirmed the story.
When news spread about what Dee Dee had done, sympathy swung in Gypsy’s favour – despite the fact she’d been party to the murder. It seemed unthinkable that a mother would do that to her daughter.
In 2016, Gypsy took a plea deal. She received 10 years for second-degree murder. There was sympathy for what she’d done, but the killing was also carefully planned, which couldn’t be ignored.
Behind bars, Gypsy thrived, with her hair growing and her weight returning to normal. Medics gave her a clean bill of health.
She went on to testify at Nicholas’ trial. She talked about how desperate she’d been to be free, but how terrified she was of Dee Dee, meaning she couldn’t go to the authorities.
‘I didn’t think anyone would believe me,’ she told the court.
‘I thought they would eventually tell my mom and make my home life even worse for me. I feared my mom more than I feared anyone else.’
The defence suggested that Nicholas, 29, had struggled with mental health issues, including autism, and had been manipulated by Gypsy to commit murder.
But in the end, the jury agreed that Nicholas was guilty of first-degree murder.
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