The local world of Louisiana and later Missouri knew Gypsy-Rose Blanchard to be a sick little girl, frail and weakened by the winds of illness but bubbly and full of the light of life. Everyone fashioned her to be helpless, her only aide being her darling mother Clauddinnea “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Together, the mother-daughter pair relished in the warm public support that was thrown at them—sports games, speeches, events, a home built by Habitat for Humanity, celebrity meet-and-greets, and a trip to Disney World.
Many philanthropic organizations were swindled by Dee Dee, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation. All this was a farce, a twisted masquerade show for affection put on by the certainly mentally ill Dee Dee. In reality, behind the walls of their pink home (aforementioned as being built by Habitat for Humanity) in Springfield, Missouri, Gypsy was the victim of her mother’s abuses. Early in Gypsy’s life, Dee Dee wasn’t excessively abusive. She would force Gypsy to go along with her show, giving her unneeded medications and forbidding her to walk in her own home. According to Gypsy, Dee Dee’s abuse would manifest in day-long arguments and episodes without food for the girl. But in 2011, Dee Dee’s maltreatment of Gypsy turned physical. Gypsy told ABC News “20/20” that Dee Dee “would hit me with a coat hanger sometimes.” The girl never fought back as she “was afraid to… she physically chained me to the bed and put bells on the doors.”
Dee Dee manipulated neighbors and family friends to alert her in the case of Gypsy attempting to act out in the hope of living her own life. Yet Dee Dee was hopeless if she thought she could prevent Gypsy from rebelling against her mother’s restraints, especially her restraints regarding Gypsy’s love life.
After she had created a profile on a Christian dating site, Gypsy met and fell in love with a man from Big Bend, Wisconsin, called Nicholas Godejohn. The two met in March of 2015 at a Springfield, Missouri movie theater, Gypsy dressed as Cinderella and Godejohn dressed as Prince Charming. They met in the hopes of attaining Dee Dee’s approval; they failed. Gypsy confessed that Dee Dee “got jealous, because I was spending a little too much attention on him, and she had ordered me to stay away from him… that was a very long argument that lasted a couple weeks… yelling, throwing things, calling me names.”
Naturally, Gypsy sought a way out. She helped plan Dee Dee’s murder “not because [she] hated her… because [she] wanted to escape her.” So, with the help of Godejohn, Gypsy began planning the path she could feasibly attain. Godejohn checked into a motel and waited for Gypsy to confirm that Dee Dee was asleep.
At their home, Godejohn was given a knife by Gypsy, alongside some duct tape and gloves. Gypsy hid in the bathroom. Godejohn committed the crime. “I heard her scream once,” Gypsy said, “and there was more screaming but not like the kind in a horror film. Just like a startled scream… she called out to my name about three or four times… I wanted to help her so bad, but I was so afraid to get up… then everything went quiet.” The corpse was discovered days later, on June the fourteenth, 2015, after Gypsy’s father David Blanchard (who had divorced Dee Dee), and his wife, Kim, were frightened when an update appeared on Dee Dee and Gypsy’s Facebook page, proclaiming Dee Dee’s death.
Mr. Blanchard crawled through the unlocked kitchen window and was alarmed to see Gypsy’s wheelchairs left behind. They had called the police, who later found Dee Dee’s body. Meanwhile, the murderous couple had fled back to Godejohn’s home in Wisconsin. The two were arrested very soon afterward, both being charged with murder.
The pair went to trial and Gypsy-Rose and Greene County prosecutor Dan Patterson went into a plea agreement with acknowledgment of the abuses she suffered at the hands of Dee Dee. Her attorney, Mr. Mike Stanfield, leafed through years’ worth of medical records, saying that “Gypsy’s mother was holding her prisoner… abusing her physically, medically, giving her medication she didn’t need, having her go through procedures that she didn’t need, to the point where most of Gypsy’s teeth are not even hers.”
Gypsy was originally sentenced to ten years for second-degree murder, but she was released three years before the appointed date. However, Godejohn was imprisoned on the charge of first-degree murder. He now serves life in prison without any possibility of parole.
Gypsy regrets what she did, as she says that Dee Dee “was a sick woman and unfortunately I wasn’t educated enough to see that.” Gypsy believes that Dee Dee didn’t deserve death; she deserved justice. Of Godejohn, Gypsy said “I don’t hate him. I feel sorry for him, and just that somebody could do something so heartless and not express remorse.”
The question arises presently: why couldn’t anyone see that Gypsy was being abused? Gypsy-Rose was a legal adult when she committed her murder, being twenty-two. But Dee Dee had received power of attorney over her, rendering the victim helpless. The Blanchards once lived in Louisiana, but they relocated to Missouri after Hurricane Katrina, an event that Dee Dee blamed for the destruction of Gypsy’s old medical records.
Dee Dee seemed to be convinced that Gypsy had a myriad of health issues, going so far as to force her to utilize a feeding tube, travel in a wheelchair, take unneeded surgeries, and take unnecessary medication. With such evidence, it is assumed that Dee Dee suffered from a disease called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a party (a parent or caregiver) exaggerates ailments suffered by their dependents to receive sympathy and fame.
Dee Dee could never receive a formal diagnosis, though. So, with her hold on Gypsy, Dee Dee was able to parade her in front of the world. She was almost caught when Dr. Flasterstein, a Missouri neurologist, noticed an absence of abnormalities in MRIs and blood tests. He contacted old doctors and learned that the original muscle biopsy test for MS was negative. When he mentioned this to Dee Dee, she “was not happy with that. She left the office in a storm.” He believed that Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen by proxy and called CPS. Two caseworkers visited the home, but couldn’t find anything wrong and closed the case.
While in prison, Gypsy met and connected with a man named Ryan Anderson, who worked at a hospital. Because of his reduced workload, the two connected even though they could not meet due to restrictions imposed during the Coronavirus pandemic. The two fell in love, serving as emotional companions for each other. They obtained a marriage license in Chillicothe, Missouri, on the twenty-seventh of June in 2022, on the twenty-first of July, the two had a small ceremony in the prison with no guests. However, they plan on having a reception with family, friends, and all the decadent trimmings of a wedding for a couple in love.
Alongside her husband, Gypsy entered into a free world with the wide support of people—their voices unified and amplified by social media—particularly younger people. Upon her release, she undeniably skyrocketed to the ranks of a celebrity. As of the tenth of January, 2024, Gypsy-Rose’s official Instagram account has over eight million followers. So it can be hoped that with the support of millions—first among them her dutiful husband—Gypsy-Rose Blanchard-Anderson will grow from her troubled past and become a moral activist for those who suffer abuse worldwide, as she hopes and plans to do.
