Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who admitted to plotting her mother’s 2015 murder, is no longer behind bars.
According to NBC News, the 32-year-old Missouri woman was released from prison on Thursday morning, about eight years after she was arrested in connection to the killing of Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Gypsy was convicted of persuading her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to fatally stab her mom, who allegedly subjected Gypsy to years of abuse.
During the murder trial, Gypsy claimed that her mom had kept her sick throughout her childhood and convinced the public that she was suffering from a wide range of illnesses, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy. Gypsy told the court she was essentially a prisoner in her own home, as she was forced to shave her head, undergo multiple surgeries, and use various medical devices she did not need, including a feeding tube, an oxygen tank, and a wheelchair.
Dee Dee had a habit of publicizing her daughter’s purported illnesses, and, as a result, received a lot of donations from charities like the Make-a-Wish Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. Experts believe that the mother had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare psychological condition in which a caregiver fakes, exaggerates, or induces illnesses of a child in an attempt to receive attention and/or sympathy.
The mother reportedly duped doctors by claiming that Gypsy’s medical records were lost in Hurricane Katrina. If a physician pushed back or expressed a high degree of skepticism, Dee Dee would reportedly seek another doctor.
After returning from a doctor’s appointment in 2015, Gypsy allegedly snuck Nicholas into her home and supplied him with a knife, duct tape, and a pair of gloves. Gypsy reportedly went into a bathroom and covered her ears as Nicholas entered Dee Dee’s bedroom and stabbed her 17 times while she was sleeping.
Gypsy was arrested shortly after and ultimately pleaded guilty to a second-degree murder charge. She was sentenced to 10-years behind bars, while Nicholas was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
The murder case led to a media frenzy that resulted in a 2017 documentary film Mommy Dead and Dearest, as well as a 2019 scripted Hulu series The Act.
Ahead of her early prison release, Gypsy gave an exclusive interview to People magazine in which she expressed regret over her actions.
“She didn’t deserve that,” she said about her mom’s killing. “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… 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. 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.”
