Gypsy Blanchard\u2019s motive for convincing Godejohn \u2013 who she met online three years before the murder \u2013 to kill her mum was because she wanted \u201cto escape her\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dee Dee Blanchard had abused her daughter for years by convincing Gypsy and the public that her daughter was extremely sick when she wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
It was this apparent case of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, a rare form of abuse in which a guardian exaggerates or induces illness in a child for attention and sympathy, that also explains the interest and mixed emotions that continue to surround the sorry story almost 10 years on.<\/p>\n
Gypsy Rose Blanchard served seven years for the second- degree murder of her abusive mother Dee Dee. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
After leaving prison, Gypsy Blanchard \u2013 now 34 \u2013 was catapulted into instant influencer status, amassing tens of millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram.<\/p>\n
Despite pulling back from social media, claiming the public scrutiny made her feel like she was in \u201ca different form of prison\u201d, discourse around the case is at an all-time high after new videos were released.<\/p>\n
The clips, released on YouTube by the Into the Weeds Podcast, show alleged video messages exchanged between Gypsy Blanchard and Godejohn during the course of their online relationship.<\/p>\n
In one newly released video, Blanchard appears to be on a couch wearing a red strappy dress, and a brown curly wig.<\/p>\n
She can be seen talking directly to Godejohn about their fantasy life together in which she bizarrely describes him as a vampire, and her wedding hopes.<\/p>\n
Blanchard also talks in great detail about how the pair are \u201cintertwined\u201d and makes graphic references to \u201cmaking love as vampire and human\u201d as well as \u201cmaster and slave\u201d.<\/p>\n
But things take a turn when she mentions the kids they may one day go on to have together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plan for if we have a boy first, we\u2019re going to protect him and our children from the outside world, because they can\u2019t know about you being a vampire,\u201d she states, according to the video.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we have a girl, the way it has to be, she has to lose her virginity to you because you are the master of the household.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will have to explain that to her when she\u2019s of an age where it\u2019s time to explain it, like not when she\u2019s 7, more like around 13.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other clips show Blanchard seemingly playing an array of characters, each differentiated by various wigs, and filmed in a number of locations in the house where the pair would later go on to murder her mother.<\/p>\n
Social media has erupted at the clips, which have since flooded TikTok, with many describing the clips as \u201cunseen evidence\u201d from the case.<\/p>\n
The \u201cnever before seen\u201d videos, which according to the documents cost US$786 ($1362) to access, followed a lengthy FOIA process with Missouri officials.<\/p>\n
Not all of the videos, of which there are more than 100, were released, with a records custodian stating \u201cthere are select videos that we are unable to release because of the \u201cnonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images\u201d that included imagery of \u201cintimate parts\u201d.<\/p>\n
TikTok has exploded following the release of the footage, with many poring over the tiniest details, such as one noting Blanchard appeared to be wearing a hospital band in one clip.<\/p>\n
Before plotting her mother\u2019s death, Blanchard was confined to a wheelchair and survived on a feeding tube.<\/p>\n
She also had a long list of medical conditions, including \u201cchromosomal defects, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, severe asthma, sleep apnoea, eye problems\u201d.<\/p>\n
But during Gypsy\u2019s court case, it emerged \u201cDee Dee forced her to take medication that she didn\u2019t need and undergo medical procedures that were not necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n
The medication caused Blanchard\u2019s teeth to fall out, while she did not go to school. <\/p>\n
Prosecutor Dan Patterson acknowledged the abuse after offering Blanchard, then 24, a plea deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at this case, it\u2019s a murder. And it\u2019s a first-degree murder,\u201d Patterson said at the time. \u201cBut it\u2019s also one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to her brutal death, Dee Dee, a single mum, appeared every part the doting mother.<\/p>\n
As fulltime carer to Gypsy, her only child with her ex, Rod Blanchard, she seemingly did everything for her.<\/p>\n
Friends described their bond as \u201cperfect\u201d. Gypsy herself even once compared their relationship to \u201ca pair of shoes\u201d because they were \u201cnever good without the other\u201d.<\/p>\n
Between hospital visits, Gypsy and Dee Dee would fly across the country to concerts, galas, celebrity meet-and-greets, and even to Disney World with expenses paid by charity organisations.<\/p>\n
But Dee Dee had fabricated all of her daughter\u2019s medical issues.<\/p>\n
In fact, Gypsy later revealed \u201cthe only thing I had wrong with me is I have a little bit of a lazy eye\u201d, during an interview with ABC\u2019s 20\/20 in 2018.<\/p>\n
As a baby, Gypsy led a relatively normal existence. But despite being a \u201cvibrant toddler who was full of energy\u201d, Dee Dee soon began \u201csaying that [Gypsy] was sick and had problems sleeping\u201d, Rod Blanchard told 20\/20.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just progressed from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the couple split, Rod Blanchard said he continued to visit Gypsy but was never able to spend time alone with his daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the visits, Dee Dee had to be there the whole time,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSomething never felt right about it. Dee Dee was so controlling.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Gypsy was 8, Rod Blanchard had been told she was suffering with \u201cleukaemia and muscular dystrophy\u201d. The conditions were supposed to have left the little girl \u201cparalysed\u201d and requiring a wheelchair and a feeding tube.<\/p>\n
Gypsy Blanchard said she had plotted to have her mother killed because she \u2018wanted to escape\u2019. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Within a few years the \u201clie\u201d had ballooned, so much so, that when their home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dee Dee and Gypsy had a new house built for them by Habitat for Humanity that came complete with a wheelchair ramp.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople felt sorry for me,\u201d Gypsy Blanchard told KSDK. \u201cThey believed the lie, they believed the fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Blanchard said the false life her mother had created left her feeling \u201clike a prisoner\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prison that I was living in before, with my mum, it\u2019s, like, I couldn\u2019t walk. I couldn\u2019t eat. I couldn\u2019t have friends. I couldn\u2019t go outside, you know, and play with friends or anything,\u201d she said, according to Fox News.<\/p>\n
Things only changed when she met Godejohn on a Christian dating website in 2012 and began opening up about realising she wasn\u2019t really sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost like love at first sight,\u201d Nicholas would later say of Gypsy in a chat with ABC News. \u201cI just connected instantly with [her].\u201d<\/p>\n
Gypsy reportedly was keen for her mother to \u201capprove\u201d of her new love, and after three years of them talking online, arranged for a meeting in March 2015 at the movies.<\/p>\n
Dee Dee didn\u2019t like Gypsy\u2019s new boyfriend, but that didn\u2019t stop the pair from sneaking off during the film to have sex, according to a report by Refinery29.<\/p>\n
For a few days, Gypsy, then 19, and Godejohn, 26, spent time together doing normal things, including a shopping trip to Walmart where the murder weapon was reportedly stolen.<\/p>\n
But the tensions proved too much for Blanchard who admitted she \u201ctalked [Godejohn] into it [the murder plot]\u201d.<\/p>\n
On the fateful night, Blanchard let Godejohn in their Missouri home and gave him duct tape, gloves and the knife.<\/p>\n
She hid in the bathroom while Godejohn stabbed her mum in the back as she slept.<\/p>\n
The pair then had sex, stole US$4000 in cash and fled to a motel nearby.<\/p>\n
After the murder was exposed, the community was left reeling, but one of Blanchard\u2019s former neurologists testified he was suspicious of Dee Dee, and lodged an official concern which stated: \u201cI believe that the mother suffers from Munchausen by proxy\u201d, E! News reported.<\/p>\n
In addition, a 2009 police report obtained by 20\/20 showed that another doctor alerted authorities when he \u201ccould not find any symptoms that support what Dee Dee alleges to be wrong with her daughter\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite being locked up, Blanchard\u2019s stepmother told media in 2018 she was happier than ever behind bars.<\/p>\n
While behind bars, she got married but following her release the pair separated and she went on to have a daughter named Aurora Urker, with her now-boyfriend, Ken Urker.<\/p>\n
While Blanchard begins her new life, Godejohn \u2013 who has autism \u2013 is still serving out a life sentence after being found guilty, the Springfield News-Leader reported.<\/p>\n
He was also sentenced to an additional 25 years for armed criminal action and is not eligible for parole.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gypsy Blanchard\u2019s motive for convincing Godejohn \u2013 who she met online three years before the murder \u2013 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[542,1558,130305,1121,156,130307,24267,71,90867,305,78,41184,15415,130,4275,117,111,139,69,13181,45822,12000,9939,131,8238,9938,130306,8538],"class_list":["post-215650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-access","tag-been","tag-blanchard","tag-case","tag-entertainment","tag-foia","tag-freedom","tag-from","tag-gypsy","tag-have","tag-in","tag-infamous","tag-information","tag-more","tag-murder","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-released","tag-request","tag-rose","tag-states","tag-than","tag-under","tag-united","tag-unseen","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}