Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the Munchausen’s by Proxy victim who rose to fame after arranging the murder of her mother, is now free.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard experienced extreme relief as she was released from prison after spending seven years there. Gypsy pleaded guilty for the second degree murder of her mother Dee Dee Blanchard. She made a plan with her boyfriend at the time to escape her mother and believed the only way was to kill her. This took place in Missouri in 2015.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard grew up with her mother Dee Dee Blanchard. Growing up, Gypsy supposedly struggled with many health problems. When she was around 8 years old, her mother claimed she had leukemia and muscular dystrophy which led her to be in a wheelchair and have a feeding tube. Other illnesses her mother said she had were epilepsy, respiratory issues, hearing impairment, and vision impairment. Little did anyone know that Gypsy was not sick at all. Dee Dee faked every medical condition that Gypsy had. Doctors think that Dee Dee had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
Dee Dee and Gypsy’s family started to become curious about Gypsy. They started to ask some questions so they both packed up and moved away.
For Dee Dee to be able to get away with this she said that they were victims of hurricane Katrina which led them to have missing medical files.
Doctors began to become concerned about her medical conditions and whether they were as serious as Dee Dee was making them. Gypsy herself became concerned about this as well. Gypsy somewhat realized what was going on and became extremely scared. She felt so trapped.
At 23 years old she gave her secret boyfriend at the time a knife. His name is Nicholas Godejohn. This was the weapon used to repeatedly stab Dee Dee until she died. Gypsy was in the bathroom covering her ears while her mother was screaming for help in the other room.
Nicholas faces life imprisonment in Missouri while Gypsy only spent seven years there because of the abuse she experienced from her mother.
While behind bars she met someone and ended up marrying him. He was emailing her from outside of jail and they developed a strong relationship. Gypsy is so happy to be back into the real world with the man she loves. She also now has a relationship with her father which was limited while she was living with her mom. She says that she wished she reached out to him for help when she really needed it.
We got some insight about what people around Wayne Hills think about Gypsy’s story. Sophomore Elizabeth Weiss said, “Hearing about Gypsy’s story is very sad but very eye-opening. I am glad she is living a normal life now which was taken from her as a child.”
Senior Skyler Thompson said, “I am so happy because she shouldn’t have been in jail in the first place.”
Gypsy is getting a lot of support from the internet. People have found her story very interesting and impactful. People feel very sorry for her but they are very happy she is free now. She gets to live a happy life instead of being confined to a wheelchair forever.
