It all started with a Facebook post. When friends of Dee Dee Blanchard saw a sick message online about her being “slashed” and her daughter Gypsy Rose being raped, they were concerned enough to ask police to go to the house they shared and check up on them. It was a routine request, and one the police were happy to do for Dee Dee, who was something of a local legend, thanks to the selfless way she cared for terminally ill Gypsy. But when they reached the Blanchard home in Springfield, Missouri, on the evening of 14 June 2015, it was in darkness. They might have gone away if it hadn’t been for the car in the driveway. Gypsy was wheelchair-bound, and her mother wouldn’t have been able to take her out anywhere without it.

They decided to obtain a warrant to enter the property, waiting outside while it was arranged. But the person inside the house was way beyond rescue. Dee Dee had been lying in a pool of her own blood for days, murdered in a frenzied attack that had seen her stabbed multiple times, blows raining down on her back, head, and neck. But Gypsy Rose was nowhere to be seen. A 23 year old who looked more like 15 – whose body was ravaged by leukaemia, muscular dystrophy, and chromosomal abnormalities, and who suffered developmental issues – could not possibly have fought off an attacker. The police launched a search for the vulnerable girl, but no one could have expected what would happen next.

When she was 24 years old, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Pitre met Rod Blanchard, a 17 year old who worked on a shrimp boat, on a night out. They began seeing each other and, within a few months, nurse’s aide Dee Dee was pregnant. Although Rod was reluctant to commit, he knew he had to step up. Speaking on the Analysis By Dr Phil podcast, Rod explained, “I said to her, ‘I guess we’ll have to get married’. It was just how I was raised, that’s what you do. 
I wasn’t really in love with her, but I thought I’d eventually learn to love her more.” But Rod wasn’t ready for the responsibility he was facing, and when he turned 18, he left Dee Dee. When Gypsy Rose was born, he tried to play a role in her life, but things weren’t easy.
From the age of just three months, Dee Dee started noticing issues with Gypsy’s health. She suffered from 
sleep apnoea, which meant she needed a heart monitor, and then there were the digestive issues and seizures. And things kept getting worse. After Gypsy was involved in a bike accident aged seven and hurt her knee, Dee Dee realised she had muscular dystrophy, a condition that was causing such rapid muscle loss, Gypsy would soon end up in a wheelchair. Rod was devastated – and confused – saying, “Dee Dee said Gypsy had this disorder that was going to affect all her functions. She would never get full grown, and her mental capacity would be reduced. Growing 
up, she seemed like a normal, happy child, apart from the ailments her mum said she had. But I never saw her have 
a seizure or throw up from eating any food.” Yet, he trusted Dee Dee, as she was the one with the medical training.

Even with all they had been through, there was another devastating blow still to come, when Gypsy was diagnosed with leukaemia. She was dying, and with no option but to stop working to care for her, Dee Dee started relying on Rod, the support of the state, and the kindness of strangers to keep things afloat. And strangers were kind. Gypsy was taken to theme parks and pop concerts by charitable foundations that made the dreams of dying children come true, and they received thousands of dollars from well-wishers. In fact, if Gypsy had been well, they might have been struggling to make ends meet. Which should have been the case. Because Gypsy was not ill at all. Or at least she hadn’t been, before her mother started poisoning her with medications she didn’t need, and forcing her to undergo surgeries she did not require. As it turned out, the only sick thing about Gypsy was her mother.
It’s thought Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome by proxy – a psychological disorder that meant she was causing 
her daughter to seem ill to gain sympathy and money from those around her. With her knowledge as a nurse’s aide, Dee Dee was able to fabricate symptoms that had real doctors believing her when she said Gypsy was sick. She kept Gypsy out of school and isolated from anyone who might start to suspect all was not as it seemed. If anyone did get suspicious, Dee Dee would simply move to a different area and start all over again.
 Even when an anonymous caller was worried enough to have Children’s Services sent to their home, Dee Dee 
was such an accomplished liar, she managed to convince them nothing was going on. They saw what Dee Dee wanted them to see – a frail, birdlike girl with no hair or teeth, sitting in a wheelchair being fed through a tube. Dee Dee had turned a healthy baby into a sickly child, into an abused teenager. But what she’d also turned Gypsy into was a murderer.

Gypsy started rebelling against her mother when she was 15 – or at least she thought she was. After befriending 
a neighbour, Gypsy began to question why her life seemed so different from everyone around her. Searching the house while Dee Dee was out, she found documents proving she wasn’t 15 at all, she was 19 – legally old enough to look after herself. Gypsy knew she needed to escape and ran away, but Dee Dee tracked her down. As punishment, Dee Dee used a dog lead and handcuffs to tie Gypsy to her bed– for two weeks. But something had changed in Gypsy. She had endured countless invasive and excruciating medical procedures, but now she knew her whole life had been a lie. Her quiet rebellion continued, and she started going on Christian dating websites. It was here that, in 2012, she met Nicholas Godejohn, then 23, from Wisconsin.
For three years, they communicated online, talking about running away and starting a new life. In 2015, the pair met for the first time. It wasn’t quite the momentous occasion Gypsy had envisaged, and although they had sex, she wasn’t sure she was attracted to Nicholas. But she wanted to leave her mother – and he was her way out. As their relationship progressed, things got incredibly dark between Gypsy and Nicholas. Nicholas would describe graphic rape fantasies to his naïve girlfriend, and encouraged a master/slave relationship. Gypsy was discovering that the boy she thought she’d fallen in love with was a deeply disturbed man, who was convinced he had multiple personalities. One of these other personalities was a 500-year-old vampire called Victor– and Victor was going to kill Dee Dee.
Speaking at his trial, Gypsy said Nicholas had encouraged her desire to kill her mother – something she had fantasised about, but hadn’t intended to act upon. Talking to psychologist Dr Phil from prison, Gypsy described the events of that fateful night of 14 June. She said, “I texted Nicholas when my mother went to sleep. I let him in the door, and had plastic gloves waiting. He was wearing a hoodie, dark clothing, and a scary T-shirt that had evil clowns on it. I handed him the knife, and he told me, ‘Get your ass in the bathroom’. I went in and closed the door. I got down in a kneeling position and put my hands over my ears, so I wouldn’t hear anything. But I heard Dee Dee scream for me. She sounded startled, like, ‘Who’s there?’ Then she started screaming. I was so scared. She called my name three or four times, ‘Gypsy, help me,’ but I didn’t move.”  

Finally, there was silence. Dee Dee was dead. Gypsy said Nicholas then forced her to have sex before they cleaned the scene, packed some clothes, and got into a cab. The pair fled back to Wisconsin, leading police to believe Gypsy had been kidnapped by the monster who’d slaughtered her mother. But guilt was eating away at Gypsy, and she wanted the police to find her mother. So, she posted that message on Facebook, hoping it would be so shocking to those who read it, they would rush to their house. It was to be the couple’s undoing. Police traced the computer’s IP address, and when officers turned up at Nicholas’ door, the pair surrendered. They were taken into custody and charged with murder.
Because of the years of abuse she had endured and the psychological effect it had on her, prosecutors went lightly on Gypsy. In July 2015, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to the minimum term of ten years. Godejohn, however, was found guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. In February 2019, he was sentenced to life without parole. In December 2023, Gypsy Rose was freed after serving eight years behind bars, and this month she revealed that an addiction to painkillers contributed to the murder 
of her mother. She told US TV she had been under the influence of prescription drugs at the time, saying, “I didn’t want her dead, I just wanted out of my situation, and I thought that was the only way.” She also told an interviewer, “If I had a 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.”