An in-depth timeline of Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s childhood, murder case and release from prison
Gypsy Rose Blanchard spent most of her life being forced by her mother to pretend she was suffering from chronic illness. To escape the abuse, Gypsy persuaded her then-boyfriend, Nicolas Godejohn, to kill her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard in 2015.
Dee Dee tricked doctors, family and friends into believing Gypsy was chronically ill — suffering from leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, vision and hearing impairments, seizure, and other chronic conditions, per ABC News. Despite being perfectly healthy, Gypsy was forced to use a wheelchair and a feeding tube and to keep her head shaved to mimic the effects of cancer treatment.
She underwent several unnecessary surgeries such as having her salivary glands behind her neck removed. “To this day, it has left me with the side effects of having to clear my throat all the time,” Gypsy told People last week.
To keep the deception going, Dee Dee fabricated Gypsy’s birth certificate so she would be seen as younger and went to at least 150 doctors over the years, per ABC News. When Gypsy asked questions about her health, Dee Dee allegedly responded with lies.
“I would voice concerns, being like, ‘I really don’t feel like I need this,’ and she would get really, really upset with me and start manipulating me,” Gypsy told People last week.
“Obviously I knew that I could walk and didn’t need a feeding tube, but everything else was a really big confusion for me,” she says, citing her epilepsy diagnosis: “Whenever I’d question it my mother would say I’d had a seizure the night before and didn’t remember. There was always an excuse.”
For her role in Dee Dee’s murder, Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison. After serving 85% of her sentence, Gypsy, now 32, was granted parole and released from prison on Dec. 28, per The Associated Press. She has hopes of being an advocate for those in abusive relationships.
“I want to make sure that people in abusive relationships do not resort to murder,” Gypsy told People. “It may seem like every avenue is closed off but there is always another way. Do anything, but don’t take this course of action.”
Here is an in-depth timeline of the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is born healthy
July 27, 1991: Gypsy Rose Blanchard is born in Golden Meadow, Louisiana, per People. Her parents, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard and Rod Blanchard, separate shortly before her birth.
During the first few years of her life, Gypsy was growing like a normal child. But by the time she was a toddler, Dee Dee — who worked as a nurse’s aide — began claiming her daughter was sick.
“Dee Dee was saying that (Gypsy) was sick, had problems sleeping, epilepsy, and it just progressed from there,” Rod Blanchard told ABC News in 2018. “All the visits, Dee Dee had to be there the whole time. Something never felt right about it. Dee Dee was so controlling.”
By the time Gypsy was 8, her mother claimed Gypsy was suffering from “leukemia, paralyzed, muscular dystrophy, Gypsy was also using a wheelchair and now had a feeding tube,” Rod Blanchard told ABC News.
August 2005: Hurricane Katrina rips through Slidell, Louisiana, destroying the Blanchard home. Gypsy and her mother eventually relocate to Springfield, Missouri, where Habitat for Humanity built them a small, wheelchair-accessible home, per CBS News.
Dee Dee claims all of Gypsy’s medical records were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, including her birth certificate, per People. This makes way for Dee Dee to lie about Gypsy’s real age and medical history.
By now, the media has shared Gypsy’s story — making her into something of a local celebrity. The community rallies around the Blanchards, showering them with gifts, cash donations, concerts, celebrity meet-and-greets and a trip to Disney World from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, per ABC News.
2007 and 2009: In 2007, one of Gypsy’s former physicians, Dr. Bernardo Flasterstein, claims he saw red flags when he examined Gypsy for muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy. “There was nothing there to support either. That kind of made me very suspicious,” Flasterstein told ABC News.
Flasterstein says his concerns grew when he told Dee Dee that Gypsy’s former diagnoses were wrong. “The mother was not happy with that,” Flasterstein said. “She left the office in a storm and told my nurses that I don’t know what I’m talking about and that she’s not coming back.”
“I believe that the mother suffers from Munchausen by proxy,” Flasterstein wrote in a letter to Gypsy’s primary care physician, per ABC News. At the time, he did not believe he had enough evidence to alert Child Protective Services.
According to a police report obtained by ABC News, a different doctor contacted authorities in 2009, saying he “could not find any symptoms that support what Dee Dee alleges to be wrong with her daughter.”
February 2011: For the first and only time, Gypsy tries to escape her mother’s home, per USA Today. After getting caught, Gypsy claims she was severely punished by her mother.
“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 told ABC News in 2018.
October 2012: Without her mother’s knowledge, Gypsy creates an online dating profile and begins messaging Nicholas Godejohn.
For multiple years, Gypsy and Godejohn maintained a romantic relationship through video chats and online messaging — all behind Dee Dee’s back.
Their conversations on the Christian dating app ranged from “PG-rated fairy tale declarations of love to X-rated messages,” according to WFLA News.
October 2014: Gypsy forms a friendship with her neighbor, Aleah Woodmansee, whom she would chat with online via a secret Facebook account. As Gypsy’s relationship with Godejohn escalates, she begins confiding in Woodmansee, per USA Today.
“She would show interest in like different boys and try to ask me advice on like, you know, ‘How do you approach them? How do you like kiss a boy?’” Woodmansee told ABC News. “Gypsy just wanted to be a regular teen.”
As Woodmansee recalled, Dee Dee did not approve of her conversations with Gypsy and took to destroying Gypsy’s phone and computer to prevent them from talking online.
“She was talking about this new guy that she was now in love with, and that they had met on a Christian dating site and that they were already planning on naming their children after him,” Woodmansee recalled in an interview with ABC News. “Honestly, what I was thinking whenever I saw these messages, is that these were just like fantasies and dreams and nothing like this would ever really take place.”
March 2015: Gypsy and Godejohn devise a plan to meet in person for the first time at a movie theater in Springfield, Missouri. The couple hope that if Dee Dee could meet Godejohn in person, she would give her approval, per Springfield News-Leader.
Dee Dee and Gypsy make plans to see Disney’s new “Cinderella” movie. The couple meet at the theater — Gypsy dressed as Cinderella and Godejohn as Prince Charming.
When Dee Dee is finally introduced to Godejohn, she does not approve of the relationship, per ABC News.
“She got jealous, because I was spending a little too much attention on him, and she had ordered me to stay away from him. And needless to say, that was a very long argument that lasted a couple weeks,” Gypsy told ABC News.
It was at this point Gypsy decided she wanted her mother dead. “It was not because I hated her. It was because I wanted to escape her,” she told ABC News.
Dee Dee is found murdered
June 9, 2015: On the day of the murder, Godejohn travels back to Missouri, where he checks into a local motel and waits for Gypsy to tell him Dee Dee is asleep, per ABC News. Godejohn then meets Gypsy at home.
Gypsy provides Godejohn with a knife, duct tape and gloves, according to her 2018 testimony, per Springfield News-Leader. While Godejohn killed Dee Dee, Gypsy says she hid in the bathroom with her hands over her ears.
“I honestly thought he would end up not doing it,” Gypsy told ABC News in 2018.
Godejohn stabs Dee Dee 17 times, per USA Today. The couple then goes back to Godejohn’s motel room.
“I felt horrible about it. When me and her were in the hotel room ... she kept on telling me, ‘Stop crying, stop crying. There’s no reason, reason to cry. It was my idea, it wasn’t yours,’” Godejohn told ABC News in an exclusive interview from jail. “(Gypsy) comforted me about it. I prayed once I got here. I tried to get her mother’s soul to forgive me.”
June 14, 2015: Through her “Dee Gyp Blancharde” Facebook account, Gypsy posts: “That (expletive) is dead!” Concerned Facebook friends alert the police.
Police find Dee Dee, 48, in her home that evening with fatal stab wounds, per NewsNation. Gypsy is missing, her three wheelchairs left in the home.
“Now (that) is about when I panicked. We had never, ever, ever seen Gypsy not in a wheelchair,” Kim Blanchard — a family friend — told ABC News.
June 15, 2015: Police track the previous Facebook posts to Godejohn’s home in Wisconsin, where Gypsy and Godejohn are arrested, per USA Today.
Gypsy later revealed she wrote the post in hopes someone would find her mother’s body. “I couldn’t stand the thought of her just there because what happens if it would have taken months to find her, so I wanted her found so she could have a proper burial,” per ABC News.
Gypsy pleads guilty to murder
July 5, 2016: As part of a plea agreement with Greene County Prosecutor Dan Patterson, Gypsy pleads guilty to second-degree murder, per Springfield News-Leader. Gypsy is sentenced to 10 years in prison — the minimum sentence for second-degree murder. She did not have to stand trial.
“When you look at this case, it’s a murder. And it’s a first-degree murder,” Patterson said, per Springfield News-Leader. “But it’s also one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen.”
“The prison that I was living in before, with my mom, it’s, like, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t have friends. I couldn’t go outside, you know, and play with friends or anything,” Gypsy told ABC News in 2018. “Over here, I feel like I’m freer in prison, than with living with my mom. Because now, I’m allowed to … just live like a normal woman.”
Nov. 15, 2018: Gypsy testifies during Godejohn’s murder trial.
In the weeks prior to the murder, Gypsy testifies she “started having doubts” but then “things were getting more and more physically abusive” at home. “The hitting was more. The starving was more,” Gypsy says in court, per the New York Post.
Gypsy says the murder was her idea and that she planned the majority of it, reports Springfield News-Leader. “I talked him into it,” she says of Godejohn.
When asked why she didn’t murder Dee Dee herself, Gypsy claims it was because she was too “squeamish.” “I don’t like blood. I don’t like the sight of blood,” Gypsy says from the stand, per Springfield News-Leader.
Gypsy never considered going to the police due to fear of her mother’s retaliation. “I didn’t think anyone would believe me,” she tells the court, per the New York Post. “I thought they would eventually tell my mom and make my home life even worse for me. I feared my mom more than I feared anyone else.”
Nov. 16, 2018: A jury finds Godejohn guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Dee Dee Blanchard, per Springfield News-Leader.
Feb. 22, 2019: Godejohn is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, per Springfield News-Leader.
“I was blindly in love,” Godejohn told the judge during the sentencing hearing, per Springfield News-Leader.
March 20, 2019: Hulu releases “The Act,” a limited series starring Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee and Joey King as Gypsy.
In a statement to Bustle, Gypsy said, “I feel it is very unfair and unprofessional that producers and co-producer Michelle Dean has used my actual name and story without my consent, and the life rights to do so.”
April 2019: Family friend Fancy Marcelli reveals to People that Gypsy is engaged. Marcelli says the couple met as pen pals and dated for a year and a half before their engagement.
“They are very happy,” Macelli told People. “You can hear excitement in her voice.”
It is understood their engagement was eventually called off.
June 2022: Gypsy and Ryan Scott Anderson get married, per Springfield News-Leader.
The couple begins exchanging emails in May 2020 after Anderson reaches out to Gypsy. Due to the pandemic, the couple does not meet in person until July 2021, reports People.
“Our prison wedding was just something to where we can make our vows to each other. It was something that meant something to us,” Gypsy told People of her 2022 wedding.
Dec. 27, 2023: Ahead of her release from prison, Gypsy reveals she regrets her mother’s murder in an interview with People. “Nobody will ever hear me say I’m glad she’s dead or I’m proud of what I did. I regret it every single day,” Gypsy tells the magazine.
“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,” Gypsy tells People.
Gypsy is released from prison
Dec. 28, 2023: After serving 85% of her prison sentence, Gypsy is released from Chillicothe Correctional Center on parole, per The Associated Press.
Ahead of her release, Gypsy told People, “I’m ready for freedom. “I’m ready to expand and I think that goes for every facet of my life.”
Related
Dec. 29, 2023: Gypsy posts her “First selfie of freedom!” on Instagram — solidifying her newfound stardom.
The post has garnered more than 6.4 million “likes” and attracted comments from nearly 240,000 users.
Dec. 31, 2023: In a video posted to Instagram and TikTok, Gypsy addresses the public, thanking people for “the massive amount of support” she has received since her release.
“It’s nice to be home. I’m back home in Louisiana, enjoying a beautiful day outside and I’ve got a lot of great things happening really soon,” she says and mentions her Lifetime docuseries.
Gypsy says she is looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve with her husband and family. “We’re looking to ring in the new year together. It’s going to be really awesome to have some family time after so long,” she says.
