Gypsy Blanchard has recently gained a lot of traction in the media due to her release from prison on December 28th, 2023. She was serving time for taking a part in her own mother’s murder. But as the details of the case began to unfold, the reasons surrounding Gypsy’s involvement began to be considered among the public.
Gypsy-Rose Blanchard was born on July 27th, 1991. However, Gypsy wouldn’t know her true age for the large majority of her upbringing. Her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, would manipulate almost every aspect of Gypsy’s life until 2015. Dee Dee suffered from a mental illness now recognized as Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, a condition where individuals intentionally harm themselves to garner attention from medical professionals. In Gypsy’s case, her mother channeled these desires through her instead.
Initially born a healthy baby in 1991, Gypsy began experiencing alleged health issues around the age of 2, with Dee Dee claiming she would randomly stop breathing in her sleep. This led to a series of misdiagnoses, starting with sleep apnea. If Dee Dee was ever questioned about where Gypsy’s medical records were by doctors, she would claim they were lost in Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, Gypsy underwent unnecessary procedures, such as being confined to a wheelchair, having her salivary glands removed, and receiving a feeding tube.
Gypsy would slowly begin to realize how little her health problems made sense as she grew older. Once she found out she could walk, she began to second guess everything her mother told her. The seemingly countless years of manipulation at the hands of Dee Dee would soon surface, and Gypsy would do the unimaginable. But not alone.
Gypsy began an online relationship with a man named Nick Godejohn, and kept it secret from her mother. This relationship started out as something innocent to the both of them, however, it would eventually culminate into two people plotting murder. Gypsy told Nick about all the abuse she has been suffering through up until this point, and how she felt like she had no escape from her mother. She shared her speculations on all the diagnosis she received throughout the years, as well as the question surrounding her own age.
On the night of June 9th, 2015, Dee Dee Blanchard would be blindly killed in her sleep by Godejohn. Gypsy would lock herself in the bathroom in an attempt to block out any noises that may escape Dee Dee’s bedroom. Gypsy would claim that she felt like this was genuinely the only way out of her situation, and that if she hadn’t chosen to go through with it, that she’d still be trapped with her mother.
The two would later flee to Godejohn’s residence in Big Bend, Wisconsin, where they would later be found by police and taken into custody. On July 5th, 2016, Gypsy would plead guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. During Nick Godejohn’s trial, Gypsy would testify that she was the one who came up with the plan. Godejohn’s attorneys would use this as a way to argue that Nick was manipulated by Gypsy into committing the murder. Nonetheless, Nick Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder.
Gypsy would end up serving only 8 years out of her original 10 year sentence after being granted parole. She was released on December 28th, 2023, and has since made a name for herself in the media. Like being present in many interviews, podcasts, and documentaries throughout her time and prison, and following her release.
However, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding the topics of this case. Many people believe that Godejohn was wrongfully convicted, and/or that Gypsy should be spending more time behind bars. On the other side of things, Gypsy has been gaining quite the following on various social medias, allowing her to share her experiences to a wider audience of people, and more importantly, spread awareness on the effects of Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy.
