Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard

Forty-eight-year-old Dee Dee Blanchard was murdered on June 14, 2015, after her daughter, Gypsy Rose, and Gypsy Rose's boyfriend, Nicholas "Nick" Godejohn, conspired to kill her. For nearly twenty years, Blanchard had subjected Gypsy to unnecessary surgeries and medical treatments, asserting that she suffered from a host of chronic illness. Even though Gypsy was of normal intelligence, Blanchard insisted that she had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old due to brain damage that occurred during her premature birth. Experts believe that Blanchard had a psychological disorder in which caregivers exaggerate or make up health problems for those in their care to gain sympathy and attention. The toxic mother-daughter relationship was the subject of the HBO documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest (2017), Lifetime’s Love You to Death (2018), and Hulu’s The Act (2019). Gypsy was sentenced to ten years in prison for her role in her mother’s murder and released early in December 2023, while Godejohn was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Background

Dee Dee Blanchard was born Clauddine Pitre in Chackbay, Louisiana, on May 3, 1967, to Emma and Claude Pitre. Relatives remember Blanchard as a troubled child who engaged in petty thefts to ease her frustrations.

Blanchard’s relatives also suspect her of murder, though this charge has never been proven. Blanchard’s mother, Emma, died in 1997. Some relatives claim that Blanchard slowly starved her mother to death. Blanchard’s stepmother, Laura Pitre, claimed in Mommy Dead and Dearest that Blanchard tried to poison her with weed killer, resulting in her being bedridden for nine months afterward.

When she was twenty-four, Blanchard became pregnant by her seventeen-year-old boyfriend, Rod Blanchard. The couple married, and on July 27, 1991, Blanchard gave birth to a daughter, Gypsy Rose. However, the marriage was short-lived.

Blanchard became convinced that Gypsy was sick when she was only a few months old, telling physicians that the child stopped breathing during the night because she has sleep apnea. As Gypsy grew, her mother claimed that she had more serious illnesses, and Gypsy believed her. By the time Gypsy was eight, Blanchard claimed that Gypsy had a chromosomal disorder that caused her to have serious health problems such as muscular dystrophy, cancer, and epilepsy. According to Blanchard, her daughter also had hearing and vision impairments, suffered from seizures, and required the use of a wheelchair and feeding tube. Gypsy was prescribed numerous medications as well as a breathing machine to use when she slept. She even underwent multiple unnecessary surgeries, including one to extract her salivary glands and having her teeth extracted.

Blanchard was able to convince physicians that Gypsy suffered from these conditions because she once worked as a nurse’s aide and had a solid grasp on medical terminology. She also doted on Gypsy, leading physicians to conclude that such a loving mother would never harm her child. Gypsy was always smiling and seemed to have a loving relationship with her mother. Blanchard also made it appear that her daughter actually suffered from these diseases. She shaved Gypsy’s head to make it look as if she had undergone chemotherapy and gave her drugs that would mimic certain symptoms. Whenever medical tests contradicted Blanchard’s story or a physician doubted her assertions, Blanchard switched to another doctor.

Blanchard and Gypsy at first lived with Blanchard’s parents. When they suspected that Blanchard may be exaggerating or lying about Gypsy’s condition, Blanchard and Gypsy moved out. They lived in public housing in the town of Slidell, Louisiana, subsisting on Gypsy’s disability checks and child support.

In 2005, Slidell was hit by Hurricane Katrina. Blanchard and Gypsy went to a shelter where they claimed that their home had been destroyed along with Gypsy’s medical records and birth certificate. At the shelter, they met a physician who suggested that Gypsy might get better care in Missouri and had them airlifted there. Blanchard at first rented a home, but in 2008, Habitat for Humanity built them a home complete with a wheelchair ramp and hot tub.

Overview

Soon Gypsy and Blanchard became celebrities of sorts and were offered free flights, trips to Disney World, and concert tickets. Physicians became aware of Gypsy’s condition and offered to try to help. Pediatric neurologist Bernardo Flasterstein was one of these physicians. Noticing inconsistencies in Blanchard’s story, he was immediately suspicious. He ordered tests, all of which came back negative. He told Blanchard that he could not find a reason why Gypsy was unable to walk.

Flasterstein decided to further investigate, speaking to physicians in Louisiana who had examined Gypsy and also doubted her mother’s assertions. Flasterstein became certain that Blanchard had Munchausen by proxy, a psychological disorder in which caregivers seek attention by obtaining medical help for exaggerated or made-up symptoms for a child in their care. However, Flasterstein did not report Blanchard to social services because he thought he did not have enough evidence.

Around the same time, Gypsy also began doubting the existence of her condition but was afraid to confront her mother. In 2010, Gypsy turned nineteen—though Blanchard told everyone she was only fourteen. Now certain that she was not sick, Gypsy became determined to get away. One night, she walked to the neighbors’ house and begged them to take her to a hospital so doctors could prove that she was not sick. Blanchard found her and told the neighbors that Gypsy’s diseases had rendered her mentally incompetent.

Next, Gypsy began secretly using a computer at night to contact men in chat rooms in the hopes that one of them could help her escape. However, when Blanchard discovered what her daughter had been doing, she chained her to the bed.

In time, Gypsy managed to use the computer again and joined a Christian dating site. Here she met twenty-three-year-old Nicholas Godejohn, who had a history of mental illness and a criminal record. The two corresponded for years and, through Facebook messages, planned to kill Blanchard.

On June 14, 2015, Godejohn awaited Gypsy’s signal that Blanchard had gone to bed, and then Gypsy let him into the house. She handed him gloves, duct tape, and a knife and hid in the bathroom while Godejohn stabbed Blanchard to death.

Afterward, the two took $4,000 that had been in the house and took a bus to Wisconsin. After Blanchard’s body was discovered, neighbors and friends feared that Gypsy had been abducted. When they discovered her medications and wheelchair were in the house, they worried that someone had also killed her. When Gypsy posted an ominous message on Facebook, police traced it to Godejohn’s home. Gypsy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Godejohn was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

In December 2023 Gypsy was released from prison after serving 85 percent of her sentence.

Bibliography

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Hollingsworth, Heather. "Gypsy Rose Blanchard Released on Parole Years After Persuading Boyfriend to Kill Her Abusive Mother." PBS News Hour, 28 Dec. 2023, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/gypsy-rose-blanchard-released-on-parole-years-after-persuading-boyfriend-to-kill-her-abusive-mother-released-on-parole. Accessed 4 Mar. 2024.

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Wynne, Kelly. “Gypsy Rose Blanchard Thinks ‘The Act’ Is Inaccurate, Won’t Meet Joey King, Spokesperson Says.”Newsweek, 22 July 2019, www.newsweek.com/gypsy-rose-blanchard-act-inaccurate-joey-king-1450507. Accessed 3 Sept. 2019.