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HOURS before she is set to be released from prison, Gypsy Rose Blanchard has admitted that she regrets her involvement in her mother’s murder.
On June 14, 2015, the body Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard was found lying on her bed in a pool of blood from several stab wounds she received several days earlier.
There was no sign of her daughter, Gypsy, at their home in Greene County, Missouri.
Investigators feared that Gypsy, who reportedly suffered from several chronic illnesses, including leukemia and was wheelchair-bound, had been abducted.
However, she was found a day later in Wisconsin with her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, and it was revealed that the couple conspired to kill Dee Dee, who had subjected her daughter to several painful medical procedures she never needed.
It also came to light that Gypsy never suffered any of the physical and mental ailments that her mother claimed she had.
It was believed Gypsy was a victim of factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA) – better known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
BRUTAL KILLING
Eight years later, and set to be released on Thursday, December 28, Gypsy said the events of that night play on repeat in her mind.
“I was desperate to get out of that situation,” Gypsy, now 32, told People.
In her desperation, she asked Godejohn to kill her mother, which he did, stabbing the 48-year-old as she slept.
Gypsy hid in the bathroom during the murder, covering her ears so she wouldn’t hear her mother screaming.
Dee Dee was stabbed by Godejohn 17 times in the back and afterward, the couple took $4,000 in cash before fleeing the home.
Disturbing posts were made from a Facebook account that Dee Dee and Gypsy shared on the night of the murder.
One read: “That b***h is dead!”
“I f***ing slashed that fat pig and raped her sweet innocent daughter . . . her scream was soooo f***ing loud LOL,” read another.
Concerned friends and family alerted police to the family‘s home, where the grim discovery was made.
“If I had another chance to redo everything, I don’t know if I would go back to when I was a child and tell my aunts and uncles that I’m not sick and mommy makes me sick,” Gypsy told People.
“Or, if I would travel back to just the point of that conversation with Nick and tell him, ‘You know what, I’m going to go tell the police everything.’ I kind of struggle with that.”
However, she added: “Nobody will ever hear me say I’m glad she’s dead or I’m proud of what I did. I regret it every single day.”
WEB OF LIES
Throughout Gypsy’s childhood, Dee Dee had falsely claimed her daughter suffered from several illnesses.
One of them was muscular dystrophy which required Gypsy to use a wheelchair, however, the girl was able to walk unassisted.
Dee Dee also made Gypsy believe she needed painful feeding tubes to treat her leukemia, even going as far as shaving Gypsy’s head.
Gypsy’s family believed Dee Dee’s lies and doctors were even tricked into treating the girl’s fictitious illnesses.
“Obviously I knew that I could walk and didn’t need a feeding tube, but everything else was a really big confusion for me,” said Gypsy.
“Whenever I’d question it my mother would say I’d had a seizure the night before and didn’t remember. There was always an excuse.”
Gypsy said she tried to speak up against Dee Dee’s wild claims but her mother quickly taught her that was something she shouldn’t do.
“I would voice concerns, being like, ‘I really don’t feel like I need this,’ and she would get really, really upset with me and start manipulating me,” she told the outlet.
To get Gypsy to play along when she was younger, Dee Dee would bribe her with toys.
“She’d say ‘If you do well at the hospital then we’re going to Toys ‘R’ Us to buy a new Barbie.'”
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Dee Dee also isolated Gypsy from the outside world, never letting her attend school, and kept her from having a relationship with her father, Rod, stepmother, Christie, and her half-siblings.
“I was limited in what I could watch and the exposure I had to other kids. What I knew of the outside world was only in Disney movies and those don’t talk about warning signs of bad parents.”
NOWHERE TO RUN
When she tried rebelling against her mother as a teenager, Gypsy said things turned violent.
“I tried my best to be respectful but sometimes it was hard. She’d call me things like b***h, w***e, s**t.”
Gypsy also claimed that her mother began “hitting, punching, slapping” her to get her away.
“It was very similar to a domestic violence type of relationship,” she said. “As long as you’re complacent everything’s fine. Put your foot down, then it’s bad.”
Dee Dee tried to make Gypsy have another needless procedure, this time on her larynx, prompting Gpysy to try to run away.
“I just wasn’t having it,” Gypsy said, adding that she fled the home but was tracked down within a few hours.
“She found me, brought me back, and put in place paperwork saying I was incompetent and she had power of attorney over me.”
That’s when Gypsy decided to have her mother killed, saying “I was trying really hard to figure out another way.”
She had a conversation with Godejohn, whom she met online sometime in 2012.
“He said ‘I would do anything to protect you.’ I said, ‘Anything?’ He said ‘Yes.'”
Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 25 years for the murder.
He reportedly said that he would do it again if it meant protecting Gypsy, however, after years of therapy and self-reflection, Gypsy said her mother “didn’t deserve that.”
“She was a sick woman and unfortunately I wasn’t educated enough to see that. She deserved to be where I am, sitting in prison doing time for criminal behavior.”
LOOKING FORWARD
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2016 after accepting a plea bargain to second-degree murder.
However, in September 2023, she was granted parole after serving eight years of her sentence.
Last year, she got married to Ryan Anderson, 37, a teacher from Louisiana, and Gypsy said she’s looking forward to her life with him.
“We’re in love,” she said.
Gypsy will also reunite with her dad and stepmother, who have supported her throughout her trial and prison sentence.
The murder of Dee Dee received worldwide attention with the releases of HBO‘s Mommy Dead and Dearest in 2017 and Hulu‘s The Act in 2019.
However, Gypsy is preparing to tell her story herself in the new docuseries from Lifetime, The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, premiering on January 5.
“I want to make sure that people in abusive relationships do not resort to murder,” said Gypsy. “It may seem like every avenue is closed off but there is always another way. Do anything, but don’t take this course of action.”
As her imminent freedom inches closer, she says, “I’m on the eve of happiness” but says she’s still coming to terms with her past.
“It’s a journey. I’m still really trying to come to a place of forgiveness for her, for myself and the situation,” said Gypsy.
“I still love my mom. And I’m starting to understand that it was something that was maybe out of her control, like an addict with an impulse. That helps me with coping and accepting what happened.”
Timeline of Gypsy Rose Blanchard case
Gypsy Rose’s case has captured international attention after she came up with a plot to killer her mother, who subjected her to several unnecessary medical treatments and sugery, even making her use a wheelchair in public.
Here are the key dates in the twisted case that saw two people jailed for murder
- June 14, 2015: Dee Dee Blanchard is found dead inside her home with her daughter, Gypsy Rose, nowhere to be found.
- June 15, 2015: Investigators track Gypsy and her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn at his family’s home in Wisconsin before taking them into custody.
- July 5, 2016: Gypsy accepts a plea deal and pleads guilty to second-degree murder and is sentenced to 10 years for her mother’s murder.
- February 19, 2019: Godejohn is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 25 years for murdering Dee Dee.
- June 27, 2022: Gypsy marries Ryan Anderson while in prison
- September 29, 2023: Gypsy has been granted parole and will be released on December 28, 2023, after serving 85% of her sentence