Gypsy Rose

Published May 6. 2019

The case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard is one of ghastly disturbance and obscurity. Dealing with a wide range of subjects such as Munchausen syndrome by proxy and first-degree murder. To the unfortunate circumstances that come with child abuse, and an extreme egotistical state of mind. The murder of Dee Dee Blanchard was something to be foreseen not staggering.

Clauddine or Claudinea Pitre, more commonly known as Dee Dee Blanchard was born May 3, 1967, to Claude Anthony Pitre, Sr. and Emma Lois Gisclair. Growing up in Chackbay, Louisiana, Dee Dee had five siblings and from a young age was involved in petty theft, and was even suspected of poisoning her stepmother by incorporating Roundup weed pesticide in her food, in attempts to kill her. In 1990, at the age of 24, she fell pregnant with Rod Blanchard’s child, her 17-year-old partner. They then got married, but before Gypsy’s birth, the two separated, as Rod felt he got married for the wrong reasons and was not prepared to be a father. Despite her efforts to get Rod back, she moved away with Gypsy.

Throughout her life, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy suffered from multiple illnesses and conditions. From three months old, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy had sleep apnea, this began the cycle of nonlegitimate claims concerning Gypsy’s health. From then on, Dee Dee would claim that her daughter had an unspecified chromosomal disorder, had epilepsy and frequently had seizures. Was severely allergic to sugar, and was unable to eat food by mouth, therefore she was forced to have a feeding tube. Gypsy was constantly given various medications, often in a drug-induced state, and some wonder what Dee Dee was putting in that feeding tube. She claimed that Gypsy had leukemia and continuously shaved her head explaining to Gypsy that “It’s going to fall out anyway, might as well keep it neat!”. Dee Dee also claimed that Gypsy had overactive salivary glands and would often choke on her saliva. She would then numb her gums when visiting the doctor to convince them of her condition and eventually had them removed. Due to the amount of medication, or just poor oral care, Gypsy’s teeth rotted and her mother had them all extracted. A plethora of surgeries had been performed on Gypsy, all through Dee Dee’s persistence with the multiple pediatricians and doctors. She also confined Gypsy to a wheelchair, declaring that she had muscular dystrophy, a rare group of genetic diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.

When in reality, around the time Gypsy was 8, she went on a motorcycle ride with her grandpa and got into a small accident, causing an abrasion to her knee. Dee Dee then used this as leverage to get Gypsy in a wheelchair, but Gypsy had always been able to walk. These are just some of the many lies Dee Dee had told to the world and supporters of her daughter.

Dee Dee and Gypsy were survivors of Hurricane Katrina and were provided with a custom made pink house with a wheelchair ramp just for Gypsy, made by Habitat for Humanity in Springfield Missouri. Dee Dee used this to claim that all of Gypsy’s medical history and her birth certificate was washed away in the flood. She used this to manipulate doctors, supporters, and even Gypsy to confuse her of her actual age. Dee Dee told everyone that Gypsy was between 14–15, and had the mind of a seven-year-old, when in reality she was already an adult, well into her twenties. Rebellion and curiosity building in Gypsy, behind her mother’s back, she created an online dating profile on christiandating.com, this is where she met Nicholas Godejohn. A man around her age with a history of mental illness, including dissociative identity disorder or autism.

From 2012 to 2015, Gypsy and Godejohn conduct in a long-term online relationship. In 2014, Gypsy reveled to Aleah Woodmansee, her neighbor who she thought of like a sister figure, that she was in a relationship with someone and was interested in eloping with him. Aleah took it as a fairy tale, as she was deceived by Dee Dee’s claims of Gypsy having the mind of a child, and didn’t think much of it.

Sometime in June 2015, Gypsy gathered money she had secretly been saving, (money that her father Rod had been sending through child support) and sent it to Godejohn, along with a roundtrip bus ticket, so he could visit her in Springfield. The plan was for them to meet up at a theatre, where her unknowing mother would take her to see a movie. Nicholas was supposed to bump into them by “accident” and strike up a conversation, hoping to impress Gypsy’s mother. Unfortunately for Godejohn, things did not go as planned and Dee Dee found “the man” to be intrusive and like a pedophile, warning Gypsy to stay away from him.
Gypsy continued to speak to Godejohn, and the two conspired a plan to kill Dee Dee.

In June of 2015, Godejohn returned to Springfield, to fulfill the request of Gypsy, to kill her mother. Dee Dee went to bed and Gypsy reported that the last words her mother said to her were “Don’t hurt me.” Later in the night, Gypsy let Godejohn into her house and gave him duct tape, gloves, and a knife. She then hid in the bathroom and covered her ears, as she didn’t want to hear her mother die. She reportedly heard Dee Dee call out for her, a surprised scream and then silence. They mailed the murder weapon to Godejohn’s house in Big Bend and then traveled out of Springfield where they stayed at a hotel for approximately a few days until heading to the home of Godejohn in Big Bend, Wisconsin.
Arriving at Godejohn’s house in Big Bend, where he lived with his parents, Gypsy grew worried that no one would find her mother’s body. In attempts to alarm and spark interest in her supporters back in Springfield, she took to Facebook to write on her and Dee Dee’s shared account “That B**** is dead!”. Friends shocked by her language started reaching out in attempts to figure out what was going on. One of the neighbors contacted the police and on June 14 they found Dee Dee Blanchard dead lying face down in her bed, with multiple stab wounds in her back.

After news broke out that Dee Dee was dead and Gypsy was missing, her neighbor Aleah Woodmansee told the police about Gypsy having an online relationship, and how at the time she didn’t believe her but had suspected that it had something to do with the death of Dee Dee and Gypsy’s disappearance. Police soon tracked the location of the Facebook post and arrested both Gypsy and Godejohn for the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard has come to terms with her life and is ready to move on from her past. She has learned that she was a victim of Munchausen by Proxy. Munchausen by Proxy or (MSBP) is a mental health problem in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury in a person under his or her care, such as a child, an elderly adult, or a person who has a disability. In this situation, Dee Dee was the caregiver getting high on the attention that her victimized daughter gave her. With this information, we can conclude that Gypsy’s actions were done in self-defense and it may have been the only option for her to escape. Gypsy herself has stated that she feels “freer” in prison than when living with her mother. Gypsy has reconnected with her father and is working on rebuilding their relationship. She is engaged and is looking forward to starting her own family and helping fellow victims of Munchausen by Proxy.

Nicholas Godejohn was convicted of First-degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence without parole.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was charged with Second-degree murder and is currently halfway through her ten-year sentence, and will be eligible for parole in 2024.

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