Where Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard Now? Revisiting Her Munchausen by Proxy Case After Her Prison Release

After eight years behind bars, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released.

Munchausen by proxy victim Gypsy, now 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to manslaughter for her role in the killing of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. In 2023, she was eligible for parole after serving 85 percent of her sentence.

Dee Dee mentally and physically abused Gypsy throughout her life, convincing everyone around her that Gypsy was a terminally ill teenager with the mind of a seven-year-old – and for a long time this included Gypsy herself.

She was put in a wheelchair even though she could walk, forced to take medication she didn’t need and had her head shaved in an attempt to convince their friends, family and community that she was suffering from muscular dystrophy, leukemia and other illnesses.

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The abuse only stopped after Gypsy’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn, killed Dee Dee in 2015. Both Gypsy and Godejohn were convicted and sentenced to prison for their roles in the murder.

Gypsy became a household name after her arrest and trial, and her story was dramatized on Hulu Rank starring Joey King as Gypsy and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee. The case was also the subject of an HBO documentary Mom dead and dearest.

Here’s everything you need to know about the disturbing case of Munchausen by proxy, including how Dee Dee’s years-long deception ended in her murder—and where Gypsy Rose is now.

Who was Gypsy’s mother, Dee Dee Blanchard?

GREENE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard was born in Chackbay, Louisiana on May 3, 1967, and grew up in the nearby town of Golden Meadow. She was one of five children.

When Dee Dee was 24, she became pregnant with Rod Blanchard, who was 17 at the time. The couple married but split less than a year later. Rod told BuzzFeed News: “I woke up on my birthday, my 18th birthday, and realized I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I wasn’t in love with her, really. I knew I got married for the wrong reasons.”

In the 2017 HBO documentary Mom dead and dearestDee Dee’s relatives accused her of stealing from them and said she occasionally got into legal trouble for writing bad checks.

After returning to her father’s family after Gypsy’s birth, Dee Dee’s stepmother Laura Pitre claimed that Dee Dee put RoundUp weed killer in her food in an attempt to poison her. Laura was bedridden for nearly nine months after the incident and only recovered after Dee Dee moved out of the residence, according to the documentary.

Dee Dee’s family recalled in the documentary that she worked briefly as a nurse and displayed an uncanny ability to retain and recall medical information and terminology, which may have helped her continue her deception about her daughter’s illnesses.

What did Dee Dee claim was wrong with Gypsy?

Courtesy of HBO

As published in Mom dead and dearest, Dee Dee claimed Gypsy had leukemia, asthma and muscular dystrophy. She also pretended that Gypsy had the mental abilities of a seven-year-old, claiming it was due to the brain damage Gypsy suffered from being born prematurely.

Dee Dee and Gypsy moved from Louisiana to Springfield, Missouri, shortly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Dee Dee claimed all of Gypsy’s medical records documenting her alleged health problems were lost in the storm, according to the documentary.

Dee Dee forced her daughter to use a wheelchair (even though she could walk), shaved her head to make it look like she was undergoing chemotherapy, and gave her drugs that would cause symptoms similar to the conditions she said Gypsy suffered from. She is also accused of manipulating Gypsy’s birth certificate to register her as four years younger than her actual age.

According to the Associated Press, authorities believed that Dee Dee may have had a financial motive for the fraud; Dee Dee and Gypsy received a house from Habitat for Humanity, were backstage at Miranda Lambert concerts through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and went on all-expense paid trips to Disney World.

Rod Blanchard, Gypsy’s father, told PEOPLE in 2017 that he and Dee Dee split up before Gypsy’s birth and that Dee Dee rarely let him see Gypsy because she said she couldn’t handle Gypsy’s care.

“It was a masterpiece of disguise,” he said. “It was the perfect opportunity to control Gypsy.”

In addition to isolating Gypsy from family members who might have questioned Gypsy’s health, Dee Dee frequently changed her daughter’s doctors so that no one would suspect anything untoward. (One of Gypsy’s former doctors, pediatric neurologist Bernardo Flasterstein, suspected Dee Dee of Munchausen by proxy and told BuzzFeed News he wished he had been “more aggressive” in sounding the alarm to authorities.)

Gypsy states in the documentary that Dee Dee physically abused her behind closed doors and that some of the unnecessary medical treatment Dee Dee forced Gypsy to undergo caused tooth decay. In one incident, Gypsy said Dee Dee allegedly destroyed Gypsy’s computer and cell phone after she began communicating online and tried to date an older man she met at a sci-fi convention, and kept Gypsy tied to her bed with a leash attached. for foxes.

How did Gypsy meet her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn?

Nick Godejohn in the Oxygen special ‘Gypsy Rose & Nick: Love to Kill’.

Oxygen

According to BuzzFeed News, Gypsy first connected with Nicholas Godejohn on a Christian singles dating site, and they communicated online for two years before meeting in person. After a year of texting, Gypsy revealed to Godejohn that she could walk, as PEOPLE previously reported.

Godejohn allegedly introduced Gypsy to BDSM topics as the two grew closer, and Gypsy later testified in court that she referred to Godejohn as her “master” and herself as his “slave.”

According to BuzzFeed, Gypsy told her neighbor Aleah Woodmansee that she was in love. Gypsy’s father Rod also believes his daughter was “madly in love” with Godejohn, as he told PEOPLE in 2017. In a 2019 Oxygen special. Gypsy Rose & Nick: Love to KillGodejohn himself said he believed he and Gypsy were “soulmates” from “the very beginning” and were planning a future together as a couple.

Gypsy and Godejohn had their first live theatrical release in 2015, where they saw Cinderella. Their second personal encounter was that June, when Godejohn traveled from Wisconsin to Missouri to kill Dee Dee.

Godejohn told Oxygen that he believed killing Dee Dee was imperative so he and Gypsy could spend their lives together. The couple considered killing Dee Dee as a “plan B,” Gypsy said Mom dead and dearestbut as Gypsy’s desperation to escape grew, it became their master plan.

What crimes did Gypsy and Nicholas commit?

WAUKESHA COUNTY, WISC., JAIL.

Gypsy said Mom dead and dearest that on the night of the murder, she and Dee Dee gave each other manicures, and Gypsy put Dee Dee to bed, promising to be a “good girl.” After Dee Dee fell asleep, Godejohn entered the residence, Gypsy recalled, and Gypsy hid in the bathroom while Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee to death.

What happened next depends on which of them you ask: Godejohn says he and Gypsy had consensual sex, while Gypsy claims Godejohn raped her. In the recordings of the interrogation seen in Mom dead and dearest, Godejohn reportedly said he thought about having sex with Dee Dee’s body. Gypsy claimed: “I made a deal with him. I would let him rape me and then he wouldn’t do it to my mum.”

Gypsy and Godejohn allegedly stole $4,000 from Dee Dee’s room, then went to a Days Inn outside of Springfield, where they ate brownies. The pair then sent the knife back to Godejohn’s family home in Wisconsin, where they fled in a bus, according to a search warrant obtainedThe Springfield News-Leader.

On June 14, 2015, Gypsy wrote on Dee Dee’s Facebook, “That bitch is dead!” According to BuzzFeed News, the post caught the attention of Dee Dee’s friends, and when she didn’t return their calls, they alerted the authorities. Police found Dee Dee’s body in her Springfield home that day. They traced the IP address of the posts to Big Bend, Wisconsin, where Gypsy and Godejohn were staying.

Police raided Godejohn’s family home and arrested him and Gypsy on charges of murder and armed criminal action, according to The Springfield News-Leader. In November 2018, Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder, while Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Where is Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn now? All about his prison sentence

What was Gypsy’s line?

Nathan Papes-USA TODAY NETWORK

Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for Dee Dee’s murder. In a 2016 interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, Gypsy said she had “complicated” feelings about the punishment, though she wasn’t sure what a “just punishment” would necessarily be in her situation.

“I firmly believe that, no matter what, murder is wrong. I believe I deserve to spend some time in prison for that crime,” she explained. “But I also understand why it happened and I don’t believe I’m in the right place to get the help I need.”

Godejohn, meanwhile, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Where is Gypsy Rose Blanchard now?

ABC News

Gypsy was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri on December 28, 2023, around 3:30 a.m. local time, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed to PEOPLE.

“I’m ready for freedom,” she told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview before her release.

On September 29, 2023, it was announced that Gypsy would be released from prison in December after serving 85% of her 10-year sentence. Time spent in the Greene County Jail prior to trial will count toward her jail time.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard seen for the first time since her early release from prison

Is Gypsy still dating Nicholas?

IN Gypsy Rose & Nick: Love to Kill, Godejohn said he thought Gypsy was his “soul mate” and that he killed Dee Dee to free Gypsy from her abuse. However, their relationship fell apart immediately after his arrest, although Godejohn revealed in the special that Gypsy was still the only partner he envisioned a future with.

Gypsy, for her part, ended her relationship with Godejohn and has since had two other known romantic relationships while in prison.

Fancy Macelli, a producer who worked with the family, told PEOPLE in 2019 that she could hear the “excitement” in Gypsy’s voice when she talked about her then-fiancé, a man named Ken, whom she met after he wrote to her in prison when has seen Mom dead and dearest.

“[This relationship] is a good thing for her, and no one knows if it will be like that in the end, but it is a very positive and happy time for her right now,” said Macelli. She added that the relationship started as a platonic friendship that eventually turned into a romance .

Kristy Blanchard told PEOPLE that the family liked Ken, who proposed to Gypsy during a prison visit.

“He really likes Gypsy,” Kristy said. – And that is clearly visible when he talks about her and looks at her. The couple briefly called off their engagement before reuniting. However, it seems that their reunion was not permanent: in August 2022. The Springfield News-Leader reported that Gypsy married a man named Ryan Scott Anderson of Saint Charles, Louisiana, that June.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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