Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who pleaded guilty to her role in the 2015 murder of her mother Clauddinnea “Dee Dee” Blanchard, was released from a Missouri prison early Thursday morning after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence.
Blanchard, now 32, and her former boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn were arrested for the stabbing death of her mother in their Springfield home. Prosecutors said Dee Dee Blanchard, who had convinced doctors, family and friends that her daughter was severely ill and disabled for years, subjected Gypsy to extensive medical procedures and confinement that were medically unnecessary.
The case received nationwide media coverage for the shocking allegations of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which someone falsely claims that another person has physical or psychological symptoms of illness. The story was turned into the 2019 Hulu limited series “The Act,” which won Patricia Arquette an Emmy for her portrayal of Dee Dee.
A Decade of Alleged Abuse and Deception
Gypsy spent her childhood believing she suffered from leukemia, muscular dystrophy, vision and hearing loss, seizures and other ailments that confined her to a wheelchair. Her mother had convinced doctors that Gypsy had the mind of a seven-year-old when she was much older. Forced to undergo treatment including surgeries and medication that authorities later deemed pointless, Gypsy realized as a young adult that she had no real medical issues at all.
As Gypsy matured, friends and neighbors grew suspicious of some claims Dee Dee made about her daughter’s health. Some wondered if Munchausen syndrome might be to blame, but Dee Dee went to great lengths to perpetuate the alleged ruse.
Desperate to Escape Her Mother’s Control
Home videos and interviews with Gypsy revealed that her mother exercised extreme control over nearly every aspect of her daily life, purposefully keeping her in a severely weakened and childlike state. As she grew older, Gypsy became increasingly desperate to escape. She said her mother used physical restraints and surveillance to prevent her from having any independence.
“She physically chained me to the bed and put bells on the doors and told anybody that I probably would’ve trusted that I was going through a phase and to tell her if I was doing anything behind her back,” Gypsy revealed in a 2017 interview.
Online Relationship Becomes Her Ticket Out
While Dee Dee closely monitored Gypsy’s use of the Internet, her daughter was eventually able to secretly access online dating sites where she met Nicholas Godejohn. Gypsy began sharing details of her plight privately with Godejohn. The young woman viewed the older man as her ticket out of a decade of manipulation and abuse.
Murder Becomes Their Way Out
The pair are believed to have started planning Dee Dee Blanchard’s murder in 2014. The following year, prosecutors say Godejohn traveled from his home in Wisconsin to Springfield and stabbed Gypsy’s mother to death in her bedroom. Both he and Gypsy confessed that they had hoped the murder would free Gypsy of her mother’s control.
Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison. Gypsy Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder the year before for her role in planning the attack.
A Prison Sentence Leads to Freedom
In a 2017 interview with ABC News from jail, Gypsy said she felt freer behind bars than she ever had living under her mother’s excessive control and manipulation. Calling Dee Dee’s treatment of her the “ultimate betrayal,” she looked forward to living life on her own terms one day.
Gypsy completed the majority of a 10-year sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center before her release on Thursday. While incarcerated, she earned her GED and took college courses, hoping to help other abused women one day.
Now 32, Gypsy Rose Blanchard is beginning her new life of freedom without her wheelchair, feeding tube and constant surveillance. But the damage done by more than a decade trapped in her mother’s web has left deep scars, inside and out. Where her new independence will take her remains unclear.
