Gypsy Rose Blanchard (born July 27, 1991) is an American woman who conspired with her then-boyfriend for more than a year to kill her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard; the murder took place in June 2015 at the house where she lived with her mother in Springfield, Missouri. She was initially charged with first-degree murder, but later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to ten years in prison. After Dee Dee's death, allegations surfaced that she misrepresented Gypsy's health, which drew national attention to the case.[1]
Allegations that Dee Dee Blanchard subjected her daughter to medical abuse have been widely reported in later interviews and dramatizations. However, these claims originate from Gypsy Rose Blanchard's own accounts and subsequent media portrayals, and have not been substantiated by any medical or legal finding.[2][3]
She was released on parole on December 28, 2023, after serving about 85 percent of her ten-year sentence.[4][5] Given the sensational aspects of Gypsy-Rose's childhood, including allegations that her mother forced her to pretend to be disabled and terminally ill, she gained widespread media attention. Hulu produced a limited series, The Act (2019), released while she was still in prison[6], and she has been featured in interviews on a variety of TV shows, such as Dr. Phil; other programs have been based on her story. In 2024, her own reality show, Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up, premiered on Lifetime.
Early life
Blanchard was born on July 27, 1991, to 24-year-old Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard and 18-year-old Rod Blanchard. Her mother first began asserting that Gypsy-Rose had an array of different health issues from infancy. Initially, her mother told her that she had muscular dystrophy and needed a walker. When she was around seven or eight years old, she was involved in a minor motorcycle accident with her grandfather, during which she sustained a minor knee abrasion. Gypsy Rose Blanchard has claimed that, after this, her mother told her she needed to use a wheelchair.[7]
Allegations that Dee Dee Blanchard fabricated or induced illness in her daughter derive primarily from Gypsy Rose Blanchard's later statements and subsequent media portrayals. Dee Dee Blanchard was never formally diagnosed with a factitious disorder, and no medical or legal finding of medical child abuse was ever made. While one treating neurologist noted a suspicion of possible fabricated illness, it was recorded only as a differential concern and never confirmed by further testing or diagnosis[8].
Move to Missouri
After Hurricane Katrina destroyed their Louisiana home, Dee Dee and Gypsy-Rose lived in a rented home in Aurora in southwestern Missouri. During their time there, Gypsy-Rose was honored by the Oley Foundation, which advocates for the rights of feeding-tube recipients, as its 2007 Child of the Year.[9] The whole time Gypsy knew she did not need the feeding tube and knew she could walk, but continued with the charade out of fear of her mother. In 2008, Habitat for Humanity built them a small home with a wheelchair ramp and hot tub as part of a larger project on the north side of Springfield, to the east, and the two moved there. The story of a single mother with a severely disabled daughter forced to flee Katrina's devastation received considerable local media attention, and the community often pitched in to help the woman who now went by Clauddinnea Blancharde, and whom they knew as Dee Dee.[10]
Many people who met Gypsy-Rose were charmed by her.[11] Her 4ft 11in (1.50m) height, nearly toothless mouth, large glasses, and high, childlike voice reinforced the perception that she had all the problems her mother claimed she had.[12] Dee Dee regularly shaved Gypsy-Rose's head to mimic the hairless appearance of a person undergoing chemotherapy treatment, allegedly telling her that since her medication would eventually cause her hair to fall out, it was best to shave it in advance; Gypsy-Rose often wore wigs or hats to cover her baldness. When they left the house, Dee Dee often took an oxygen tank and feeding tube with them; Gypsy-Rose was fed the children's liquid nutrition supplement PediaSure well into her 20s.[10]
Dee Dee used physical abuse to control her daughter, always holding her hand in the presence of others.[13] When Gypsy-Rose said something that suggested she was not genuinely sick or seemed beyond her purported mental capacity, she recalls that her mother would squeeze her hand very tightly. When the two were alone, Dee Dee struck her with her open hands or a coat hanger.
Growing independence
Dee Dee seems to have at least once forged a copy of Gypsy-Rose's birth certificate, changing her birthdate to 1995 to bolster claims that she was still a teenager. Gypsy-Rose said in a later interview that for 14 years she was unsure of her real age.[14] Dee Dee sometimes also claimed that the original birth certificate was destroyed during the post-Katrina flooding. Dee Dee did keep another copy with Gypsy's true birthdate. Gypsy recalls seeing it during one of their hospital visits and becoming confused; Dee Dee told her it was a misprint.[15]
Gypsy-Rose had attended science fiction and fantasy conventions since 2001,[16] sometimes in costume since she could blend into their diverse and inclusive communities in her wheelchair. At a 2011 event, she made what may have been an escape attempt that ended when her mother found her in a hotel room with a man she had met online. Again Dee Dee produced the paperwork giving Gypsy-Rose's false, younger birthdate and threatened to inform the police.[10] Gypsy-Rose claims that afterward, Dee Dee smashed her computer with a hammer and threatened to do the same to her fingers if she ever snuck out again; Gypsy claims she was chained and handcuffed to her bed for two weeks; however, no handcuffs, leash or chains were found in the home. Dee Dee later told Gypsy-Rose that she had filed paperwork with the police claiming that Gypsy-Rose was mentally incompetent, leading her to believe that if she attempted to go to the police for help, they would not believe her.[17]
Sometime around 2012, Gypsy-Rose, who continued to use the Internet and phone freely, made contact online with Nicholas Godejohn, a man around her age from Big Bend, Wisconsin, whom she said she had met on a Christian singles website.[10]
In 2014, Gypsy-Rose confided to 23-year-old neighbor Aleah Woodmansee (who, unaware that Gypsy-Rose was closer to her own age, considered herself a "big sister"), that she and Godejohn had discussed eloping and had even chosen names for potential children. Gypsy-Rose, who had five separate Facebook accounts,[17] and Godejohn flirted online, their exchanges sometimes using BDSM elements, which she has since claimed was more what he was interested in. Woodmansee tried to talk her out of it, still thinking Gypsy-Rose was too young and possibly being taken advantage of by a sexual predator.[10] She considered Gypsy-Rose's plans just "fantasies and dreams and nothing like this would ever really take place". Despite Dee Dee's efforts to prevent her from using the internet, which went as far as allegedly destroying her daughter's phone and laptop,[14] Gypsy-Rose maintained contact with Woodmansee, who saved printouts of her posts, until 2014.[10]
The next year, Gypsy-Rose arranged and paid for Godejohn to travel to Springfield. She planned to pretend to meet Godejohn for the first time at a movie theater with her mother,[14] then appear to strike up a relationship based on the supposed chance encounter. When they did meet in person, Godejohn says, Gypsy-Rose led him to the bathroom, where the two had sex.[13] The two continued their Internet interactions and began developing a plan to kill Dee Dee.[10]
Godejohn returned to Springfield on June 10, 2015, arriving while Gypsy-Rose and her mother were away at a doctor's appointment. After they had returned home and Dee Dee had gone to sleep, he went to the Blanchard house. Gypsy-Rose let him in and allegedly gave him duct tape, gloves, and a knife with the understanding that he would use it to murder Dee Dee.[14]
She hid in the bathroom and covered her ears so that she would not have to hear her mother screaming. Godejohn then stabbed Dee Dee 17 times in the back while she was asleep.[13] Afterward, the two had sex in Gypsy-Rose's room, and stole more than $4,400 in cash[18] that Dee Dee had been keeping in the house, mostly from child support checks. They fled to a motel outside Springfield, where they stayed a few days while planning their next move; during that time, they were seen on security cameras at several stores. Gypsy-Rose said at that point she believed the two had gotten away with their crime.[14]
They mailed the murder weapon back to Godejohn's home in Wisconsin to avoid being caught with it,[19] then took a bus there. Several witnesses who saw the pair on their way to the Greyhound station noted that Gypsy wore a blonde wig and walked unassisted.[20]
Investigation and arrests
After seeing concerning Facebook statuses posted from Dee Dee's account, the Blanchards' friends suspected something was amiss. When phone calls went unanswered, several friends and neighbors went to the house. While the friends and neighbors knew that the two often left on medical trips unannounced, they saw Dee Dee's modified car still in the driveway, making an unannounced trip unlikely. Protective film on the windows made it hard to see inside in the low light. No one answered the door, so the gathered friends called 9-1-1. When the police arrived, they had to wait for a search warrant to be issued before they could enter, but they allowed one of the neighbors to climb through a window. He reported that the inside of the house was largely undisturbed and that Gypsy-Rose's wheelchairs were present.[10]
When the warrant was issued, police entered the house and found Dee Dee's body. Neighbors were concerned about how Gypsy would do without her wheelchair, medications, and support equipment, such as the oxygen tanks and feeding tube. Friends set up a GoFundMe account to pay for Dee Dee's funeral expenses and possibly Gypsy-Rose's.[10]
Woodmansee, who was among those gathered on the Blanchards' lawn, told police what she knew about Gypsy-Rose and her secret boyfriend. She showed them the printouts she had saved, which included his name. Based on that information, police asked Facebook to trace the IP address from which the posts to Dee Dee's account had been made. It turned out to be in Wisconsin, and the next day police agencies in Waukesha County raided the Godejohns' Big Bend home. Godejohn and Gypsy-Rose surrendered and were taken into custody on charges of murder and felony armed criminal action.[21]
The news that Gypsy-Rose was safe was greeted with relief in Springfield, where she and Godejohn were soon extradited to and held on $1 million bond. But, in announcing the news, Greene CountySheriff Jim Arnott warned, "things are not always what they appear". The media in Springfield soon reported the truth of the Blanchards' lives: that Gypsy-Rose had never been sick and had always been able to walk, but her mother had made her pretend otherwise, using physical abuse to control her. Arnott urged people not to donate money to the family until investigators learned the extent of the fraud.[21]
Gypsy-Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and was sentenced to ten years in prison.[22] Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole[23] and an additional 25 years for armed criminal action.[22]
Personal life
Blanchard was released on parole on December 28, 2023, after serving eight years of her ten year sentence. Following her release, she gave several television interviews, including appearances on Good Morning America, CNN, and The View. In 2024, she and her then-husband Ryan Anderson were featured in the Lifetime docuseries Gypsy Rose: Life After Lock Up. The couple separated later that year, according to People magazine. [24]
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