Where Is Nicholas Godejohn, Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s Accomplice, Today?

Nicholas Godejohn was convicted in 2018 of first-degree murder for the death of Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, a case that gained widespread attention due to the abuse suffered by her daughter, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, with whom Godejohn was in a relationship.

Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Since his conviction, he has remained incarcerated in Missouri, and his case continues to draw attention, especially after Gypsy Rose’s release from prison in 2023.

The couple began planning Dee Dee’s murder in 2015 after Gypsy Rose revealed she was being mentally and physically abused by her mother. Dee Dee forced her daughter to use a wheelchair despite her ability to walk and to take medications she didn’t need. She shaved Gypsy Rose’s head and told their friends and family that Gypsy Rose had muscular dystrophy, leukemia and other serious ailments.

Experts said Gypsy Rose was a victim of Munchausen by proxy, a mental illness and form of child abuse where the caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either lies about or causes symptoms to make it look like the child is sick for attention.

Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to only 10 years in prison because of the "extraordinary and unusual” abuse she had suffered at her mother’s hand, according to the Springfield News-Leader. A jury convicted Godejohn of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus an additional 25 years for armed criminal action. 

Godejohn is incarcerated at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Mo., about 72 miles south of St. Louis. 

In 2022, Godejohn asked for a new trial on the grounds of having ineffective counsel, but was denied.

Though the couple, who met on a Christian dating site, both admitted to planning the murder, Godejohn is the only one who wielded the knife. 

He traveled from Wisconsin to Springfield, Mo., to commit the crime, which Gypsy Rose testified she helped arrange. Godejohn then stabbed Dee Dee in her sleep while Gypsy Rose hid in the bathroom. 

Unlike Godejohn, Gypsy Rose was able to work out a deal with prosecutors. Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said at the time that he believed the jury would have convicted Gypsy Rose of first-degree murder, but he didn’t think it was fair because of the abuse she lived through.

"When you look at this case, it's a murder. And it's a first-degree murder," Patterson said. "But it's also one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen."

Gypsy Rose’s attorney said he found decades worth of abuse that Dee Dee inflicted on Gypsy Rose.

"Essentially Gypsy's mother was holding her [as] a prisoner," Mike Stanfield said.

During Godejohn’s trial, his attorneys unsuccessfully argued he had a diminished capacity because he has autism spectrum disorder and an IQ on the low side of average.

He alleged in a new 2024 appeal that his "counsel failed to act as a reasonably competent attorney under the same or similar circumstances by failing to fully investigate and present evidence from a qualified neuropsychologist specializing in Autism Spectrum Disorder to support the diminished capacity defense."

The judge denied the initial motion for appeal, noting that "the defense counsel is not obligated to shop for expert witnesses who might provide more favorable testimony," Court TV reported.

Gypsy Rose said on Good Morning America of Godejohn, “I did my time. He's doing his time for his part. And I wish him well on his journey."

The Potosi Correctional Center is run by the state of Missouri, and its 12 buildings take up 128 acres in Washington County. The prison was built on existing farmland in 1987 and contains six housing units, a central plant, a garage and a training building. 

The facility holds multiple levels of inmates multiple levels of incarceration, from minimum to maximum security and is where the state’s capital punishment inmates live among the general population. 

There are 10 different types of prison education classes available to support its residents, including one that offers computer programming lessons to. It’s not known what, if any, programming Godejohn is involved in.

Godejohn has participated in multiple interviews from the prison. 

In a 2019 documentary, Godejohn said that he regrets the killing. “If I had to change anything at all, of course, one of the obvious ones is that I would’ve ran away with Gypsy,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to be staying with a murder on my hands. Being labeled as a killer...I don’t want to stay with that, but I’ll live with it.”

Godejohn said in another interview that he still believes he and Gypsy Rose are meant to be together. 

“[I] somehow just knew deep within my heart, somehow, me and her would end up being together in the end. There’s no other option. We have to,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gypsy Rose, while still in prison, got engaged in 2019 to a man she had been communicating with, Ryan Anderson. They married in 2022 but divorced in 2024, and she has since had a child with boyfriend Ken Urker.