Dee Blanchard Dee Dee Blanchard was a Louisiana native and
model mother who had set up a home for herself along with her sick, young daughter, Gypsy
Rose.
At that time, they were living in public housing in Slidell, Louisiana.
Hurricane Katrina But in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and ruined
their home and lives.
They went to a homeless shelter in Covington, Louisiana.
Dee Dee told shelter employees that she didn't have Gypsy's medical records because they
had been lost in the hurricane.
One of the doctors, Janet Jordan, took pity on the mother-daughter duo and suggested moving
to the Ozarks in Missouri.
The rest of the community rallied around Dee Dee and Gypsy to build them a new home.
While other Katrina survivors waited in homeless shelters or set up homes in school gymnasiums,
Dee Dee and Gypsy were airlifted to Missouri just a month after the hurricane.
In March 2008, Habitat for Humanity finalized construction on a pink bungalow built especially
for Dee Dee and Gypsy.
It featured a wheelchair ramp to the front door and a jacuzzi to relax Gypsy's muscles.
Little did the volunteers know that they built a home for a lying mother and her troubled
daughter.
Behind the Mask From the outside, Dee Dee seemed like the
perfect mother.
People commented that Gypsy was so lucky to have been born to a loving parent who committed
herself full-time to caretaking.
Dee Dee was sweet and friendly to everyone around her.
Neighbors adored Dee Dee and took pity on Gypsy, who was wheelchair-bound, small, pale,
and thin, with crumbling teeth and a feeding tube.
Sometimes Dee Dee brought an oxygen tank around with them.
When people asked about Gypsy's diagnoses, her mother rattled off a long list: muscular
dystrophy, epilepsy, asthma, sleep apnea, eye issues, brain damage, chromosomal defects.
She spent time in the ICU as a baby and battled leukemia as a young child.
Dee Dee insisted on homeschooling her daughter, arguing that she had the brain of a 7-year
old and could never keep up with the other kids.
Gypsy dressed the part.
As a teenager and well into her 20s, Gypsy wore princess outfits, wigs, and hats, with
her favorite being a blue Cinderella dress with a curly blonde wig.
Gypsy referred to her relationship with her mom as a pair of shoes.
One's no good without the other.
In the summer, Dee Dee set up movie nights at her house for all the children in the neighborhood
who couldn't afford the local movie theater.
She projected movies onto the side of the house and charged for snacks and drinks–all
proceeds went to Gyspy's healthcare costs.
Dee Dee told her neighbor, Amy Pinegar, her life story over coffee.
She said she came from a small town in Louisiana and was forced to escape her hateful family
to protect Gypsy.
She said Gypsy's grandfather burned Gypsy with cigarettes.
She said Gypsy's father was an alcoholic, absent parent who emotionally scarred his
own daughter by mocking her disabilities.
Dee Dee said he never helped them financially, even after they lost everything in Katrina.
But despite their tragedies, neighbors thought Gypsy and Dee Dee seemed happy.
In 2007, the Oley Foundation, which advocates for patients on feeding tubes, honored Gypsy
as its Child of the Year.
They took charity trips to Disney World.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation even took them to meet Miranda Lambert.
The media rallied around the story of a single mother and her young, sick child who lost
everything in the hurricane.
Many people and foundations donated money and services to Gypsy and her mother.
Dee Dee was 24 when she got pregnant with the child of 17-year-old Rod Blanchard.
They married and named their daughter "Gypsy Rose" because Dee Dee loved the name, and
Rod was a big Guns N' Roses fan.
Right before Gypsy was born, the couple separated.
Gypsy was born a healthy baby despite Dee Dee's insistence she spent time in the ICU.
When Gypsy was just three months old, Dee Dee decided that her daughter had sleep apnea.
She took her to the hospital.
Even when tests showed no signs of sleep apnea, Dee Dee took her to other hospitals and decided
Gypsy had other health issues, like a chromosomal disorder and muscular dystrophy.
Dee Dee insisted that Gypsy use a walker to get around, even though she could walk perfectly.
Rod tried to get involved in his daughter's life but was pushed away by Dee Dee and her
constant obsessing over their daughter's health issues.
Though Dee Dee insisted that Rod was a deadbeat father, he was actually sending $1,200 child
support checks every month, even after Gypsy turned 18.
Troubled Childhood Dee Dee's previous training as a nurse's aide
allowed her to describe believable health problems for Gypsy.
She could accurately list symptoms, which impressed the doctors.
They trusted her when she described Gypsy's symptoms, even though the doctors had not
witnessed it themselves.
She said Gypsy had seizures every few months, frequent ear infections, problems with her
eyes and ears, and muscular dystrophy.
However, medical tests found no evidence for any of these conditions.
Still, Gypsy received prescription medication and even had multiple surgeries for nonexistent
problems.
Dee Dee knew the specific medications that caused specific side effects.
Then, she described the side effects to other doctors to get a medical diagnosis and more
prescription medication.
In short, she manufactured Gypsy's illness to get what she wanted: a sick daughter to
care for and all the sympathy in the world.
When Gypsy was 7, she was involved in a minor motorcycle accident.
Dee Dee insisted that Gypsy use a wheelchair from then on.
Gypsy spent much of her childhood visiting various medical specialists and emergency
rooms.
Dee Dee had her own secrets.
Her legal name was Claudine Blanchard, which she changed several times over the years.
Dee Dee's relatives said she stole from her family when things didn't go her way as a
child.
They didn't trust her and suspected Dee Dee might have ended her own sick mother's life
in 1997 by denying her food.
She moved in with her father and stepmother, who later claimed Dee Dee poisoned her stepmother's
water with weed killer, which caused chronic illness.
She was very controlling of her daughter.
She held Gypsy's hand in front of others and painfully squeezed it when Gypsy said something
inappropriate.
She physically hurt Gypsy by slapping or hitting her with a coat hanger.
She shaved Gypsy's head to look like a chemotherapy patient, telling Gypsy that her medication
would cause her hair to fall out anyway.
She treated Gypsy's saliva glands with Botox or removed them altogether to induce drooling.
Her lack of saliva glands, in addition to anti-seizure medication, caused Gypsy's teeth
to erode.
She had tubes placed in her ears to control ear infections.
Red Flags A pediatric neurologist in Springfield, Missouri,
named Bernardo Flasterstein, became suspicious of Gypsy's diagnoses after she came for a
muscular dystrophy-related visit.
He ordered MRIs and blood tests, which showed no abnormalities.
He didn't understand why she couldn't walk and noticed Dee Dee couldn't keep her story
straight.
He contacted Gypsy's physicians in New Orleans, who said her muscular dystrophy biopsy came
back negative.
He suspected Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Doctors are supposed to call authorities and social services for an immediate investigation,
but Flasterstein did no such thing.
He was told to keep quiet, that Dee Dee and Gypsy were important patients, and authorities
wouldn't believe him anyway.
When an anonymous caller told police that Gypsy's diagnoses were fake, Dee Dee told
officers that it was all an elaborate scheme to keep Rod, "the deadbeat father," from finding
them.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is when a caregiver imposes fake health problems on a patient,
usually their child.
Sometimes, this involves tampering with diagnostic tests or even injuring the child in a ploy
to receive a doctor's diagnosis.
The caregiver feels a sense of duty by looking after the sick patient, even though the illness
itself was manufactured.
They get sympathy from the patient and others, which further fuels the mental disorder.
It can result in severe health problems or worse.
It's still unknown what causes Munchausen by proxy.
Maturation As Gypsy got older, it became harder for Dee
Dee to lie to her.
Since 2001, Gypsy attended science fiction and fantasy conventions in costume.
In 2011, Gypsy escaped a SciFi convention, and her mother found her in a hotel room with
a man she met on the Internet.
Dee Dee showed the man fake paperwork to claim that Gypsy was a minor and threatened to report
him to the police.
Dee Dee then shattered Gypsy's computer and chained her to a bed for two weeks as punishment.
She threatened her daughter with physical harm and tried to declare her mentally incompetent.
Nicholas Godejohn But Gypsy continued to peruse the web after
her mother went to sleep.
She wanted to connect with people without Dee Dee around.
She signed up for a Christian dating website and met Nicholas Godejohn, who had a criminal
record and a history of mental illness.
Gypsy and Nicholas talked for over two years, and she planned to marry him.
They coordinated a plan for Dee Dee to meet him at the local movie theater.
Gypsy hoped that after her mom met Nicholas, their relationship wouldn't have to be a secret.
On the day they met at the movies, Gypsy brought Nicholas to the bathroom, and they engaged
in some physical adult activity.
But the plan didn't go as expected.
Dee Dee didn't like Nicholas–she thought he was "creepy" and "weird."
Gypsy and Nicholas saw Dee Dee as an obstacle to their love.
They had to resort to their plan.
The Plan Gypsy told Nicholas that she wanted Dee Dee
gone.
He arrived in Missouri while Gypsy and Dee Dee were at a doctor's appointment.
When Dee Dee was sleeping, Gypsy let Nicholas in and gave him duct tape, gloves, and a knife.
Gypsy hid in the bathroom while Nicholas took care of Dee Dee.
They took $4,000 cash that Dee Dee kept in the house from her ex-husband's child support
checks and hid for a few days at a motel.
They mailed the weapon back to Godejohn's home before taking a bus to his hometown in
Big Bend, Wisconsin.
They thought they got away with it.
Gypsy made a concerning post on her shared Facebook account with Dee Dee, and neighbors
decided to check on them in the Blanchard's home.
No one answered the door, even though the car was still in the driveway.
They called 9-1-1.
Gypsy's neighbor, Aleah, who Gypsy thought of as an "older sister," had Facebook messages
from Gypsy.
Police traced the messages, which linked to an IP address at Godejohn's house.
Gypsy later stated she wanted people to find her mother's body.
That's why she made the Facebook post.
Arrests Police found Gypsy at Nicholas's house, and
they were both arrested.
The trial showed life wasn't easy for Gypsy.
Instead of being an ill child who was diligently taken care of by a loving mother, it became
clear that she was the victim of lies and manipulation.
The judge decided to eliminate the death penalty or life without parole for Nicholas and Gypsy,
common sentences for the charges they faced in Missouri due to the case's unusual circumstances.
Gypsy got a plea bargain and was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Prosecutors thought Nicholas deserved a harsher sentence.
After two hours, they found him guilty of a capital crime.
In 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison.
Aftermath Family, friends, and the entire world were
shocked by this case.
HBO released a documentary called Mommy Dead and Dearest in 2017.
Dr. Phil interviewed Gypsy in prison to discuss Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
ABC featured a special on the case on Good Morning America and 20/20.
Sony, Discovery, and Lifetime made Gypsy and Dee Dee shows.
In 2019, Hulu released a true-crime miniseries called The Act with Joey King as Gypsy and
Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee.
Netflix later created its own adaptation of the story called The Politician.
But Gypsy isn't happy her mother is gone.
She told Dr. Phil she's happy to be out of her situation but wishes she hadn't resorted
to what she did.
The scars still linger.
She's had multiple relationships with men behind bars and doesn't believe she needs
counseling.
Gypsy is eligible for parole in 2024.
Click to watch one of these next videos!
And let us know in the comment section what’s the strangest dating story you’ve ever encountered!