Case File: Gypsy-Rose Blanchard

Born in Louisiana in 1991, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard was the only child of Rod and Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Rod, 18 at the time, married Dee Dee briefly before separating soon after Gypsy-Rose’s birth. He would later describe Dee Dee as controlling and manipulative even in the early days of their relationship and said that Dee Dee falsely claimed their daughter suffered seizures and other illnesses as a baby.

To outsiders, Dee Dee and Gypsy-Rose seemed to be exceedingly close and devoted to each other, but as Gypsy-Rose grew older, Dee Dee’s fabrications escalated. Dee Dee claimed her daughter suffered from an astounding array of conditions, including leukemia, epilepsy, muscular dystrophy and asthma. She said Gypsy-Rose had developmental delays that gave her the mental capacity of a child and required both a feeding tube and a wheelchair. Despite the outward appearance of a worried mother and her medically fragile daughter, the reality was deeply disturbing. Gypsy-Rose was capable of walking, did not need a feeding tube and had no terminal illnesses or even developmental delays.

To keep up her ruse, Dee Dee increasingly isolated Gypsy-Rose from others, controlling her medical care, education and social interactions. She gave her daughter medications that induced symptoms of the illnesses Dee Dee claimed she had and would change doctors whenever suspicions arose. At least one doctor who examined Gypsy-Rose as a child suspected Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder in which a caregiver fakes or induces illness in another person to gain attention or sympathy. Gypsy-Rose would later claim she always knew that she could walk, but that Dee Dee said she would die without her care, even threatening to harm her if she tried to tell the truth.

In 2005, Dee Dee and Gypsy-Rose moved to Missouri after Dee Dee said they had lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. Their plight garnered instant sympathy in their new hometown, with Habitat for Humanity building a house specially adapted to fit Gypsy-Rose’s medical conditions. They became minor local celebrities, traveling to Disney World and events paid by charities.

Gypsy-Rose eventually began to question her circumstances and secretly search for connections outside her mother’s influence. Although Dee Dee tried to tightly control Gypsy-Rose's access to the outside world, her daughter found a new sense of freedom online. She began visiting dating websites and in 2012 met Nicholas Godejohn. Godejohn was from Wisconsin, and his family would later say he had been diagnosed with autism and had a history of violent fantasies.

Gypsy-Rose and Godejohn quickly became close, and in early 2015, he secretly traveled to Springfield, where the couple arranged to look like they were meeting “by chance” at a local movie theater. Dee Dee was angry that Gypsy-Rose was trying to date and told her she didn’t want her to see Godejohn again.

But the couple began planning Gypsy-Rose’s escape. On June 10, Godejohn again traveled to Missouri and entered the Blanchard home while Dee Dee was asleep. Gypsy-Rose allegedly hid in the bathroom and covered her ears while Godejohn stabbed her mother multiple times. They left the scene with cash and returned to Wisconsin, mailing the murder weapon back to his home.

When Dee Dee was discovered on June 14 stabbed to death in her bed and Gypsy-Rose was nowhere to be found, authorities and neighbors initially feared she had been abducted by her mother’s killers. But the same day, Gypsy-Rose and Godejohn posted a Facebook status on Dee Dee’s account, stating “That Bitch is dead.” This was a deliberate attempt to draw attention to the home so Dee Dee’s body would be found, but it also led police straight to the pair. They were arrested in Wisconsin on June 15.

The investigation quickly unraveled the layers of deception surrounding Gypsy-Rose’s life. Friends and neighbors who believed her to be terminally ill were stunned to see her walking unaided. As police and the media uncovered the extent of Dee Dee’s fabricated medical history for Gypsy-Rose, the narrative shifted from kidnapping and cold-blooded murder to one of abuse, manipulation and psychological control.

Investigators determined that Gypsy-Rose had been subject to severe medical abuse and mental manipulation throughout her life, with Dee Dee having doctors perform unnecessary procedures and prescribe medications that her daughter didn’t need. She shaved Gypsy-Rose’s head to mimic the effects of cancer and even lied about Gypsy-Rose’s age to make her appear younger and more vulnerable. Interviews and evidence suggested Gypsy-Rose felt she had no other way out of her circumstances other than planning her mother’s death.

Gypsy-Rose and Godejohn were charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Throughout the proceedings, Gypsy-Rose cooperated with investigators and expressed remorse for her role in the killing but maintained that years of abuse left her feeling powerless to escape through legal or social means. In 2016, Gypsy-Rose accepted a plea deal to avoid trial and a harsher sentence, pleading guilty to second-degree murder. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Godejohn went on trial in 2018, his defense attorneys stressing his diminished mental capacity that left him susceptible to what they alleged was Gypsy-Rose’s manipulation to kill her mother. Godejohn was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gypsy-Rose served eight years of her sentence and was released on parole in December 2023. She has spoken frequently about her experiences, offering a complex picture of trauma, survival and regret. Media coverage has varied, with some sympathetic to Gypsy-Rose’s circumstances and others more critical of her role in orchestrating her mother’s death.

In 2022, she married Ryan Scott Anderson; however, the marriage ended just months later. On December 28, 2024, the first anniversary of her release from prison, she gave birth to a daughter with Ken Urker, a former fiancé she had reconnected with after her release. The case has been the focus of books, podcasts and documentaries, including the A&E series The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Lifetime's Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup, as well as the fictionalized drama The Act.

The Gypsy-Rose Blanchard case has resonated deeply with the public, sparking widespread discussion about Munchausen syndrome by proxy and how medical abuse can go undetected. It also raised questions about the responsibilities of doctors, teachers, social workers and neighbors to question extraordinary claims like those made by Dee Dee. Advocates for domestic abuse and child welfare have used her story to underscore the complexities of the coercion, manipulation and psychological traps victims often face.