Where Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard Now? Revisiting Her Munchausen by Proxy Case After Her Prison Release

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of her mother Dee Dee

After eight years behind bars, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released.

A victim of Munchausen by proxy, Gypsy, now 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016 after she pleaded guilty to murder for her role in the killing of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. In 2023, she qualified for early release after serving 85 percent of her sentence.

Dee Dee mentally and physically abused Gypsy throughout her entire life, convincing everyone around them that Gypsy was a terminally ill teenager with the mind of a 7 year old — and for a long time, that included Gypsy herself.

She was put in a wheelchair despite being able to walk, forced to take medications she didn't need and had her head shaved in an effort to convince their friends, family and community that she was suffering from muscular dystrophy, leukemia and other ailments.

Related: Who Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Estranged Husband? All About Ryan Scott Anderson

The mistreatment only ended after Gypsy's then-boyfriend, Nicholas "Nick" Godejohn, murdered Dee Dee in 2015. Both Gypsy and Godejohn were convicted and sentenced to prison for their respective roles in the slaying.

Gypsy became a household name after her arrest and trial, and her story was dramatized in Hulu's The Act starring Joey King as Gypsy and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee. The case was also the subject of the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest.

Here's everything to know about the disturbing Munchausen by proxy case, including how Dee Dee's years-long deception ended with her murder — and where Gypsy Rose is now.

Who was Gypsy's mother, Dee Dee Blanchard?

Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard was born in Chackbay, Louisiana, on May 3, 1967, and raised in the nearby town of Golden Meadow. She was one of five children.

When Dee Dee was 24, she became pregnant by Rod Blanchard, then 17. The couple married, but separated less than a year later. Rod told BuzzFeed News, "I woke up on my birthday, on my 18th birthday, and realized I wasn't where I was supposed to be. I wasn't in love with her, really. I knew I got married for the wrong reasons."

In the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, Dee Dee's relatives accused her of stealing from them and said she occasionally ran into legal trouble for writing bad checks.

After moving back in with her father's family after Gypsy's birth, Dee Dee's stepmother Laura Pitre alleged that Dee Dee put RoundUp weedkiller in her food in an attempt to poison her. Laura was bedridden for close to nine months after the incident and recovered only after Dee Dee moved out of the residence, according to the documentary.

Dee Dee's family recalled in the documentary that she worked briefly as a nurse's aide and demonstrated an uncanny ability to retain and recall medical information and terminology, which may have helped her keep up the deception of her daughter's ailments.

What did Dee Dee claim was wrong with Gypsy?

As reported in Mommy Dead and Dearest, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy had leukemia, asthma and muscular dystrophy. She also pretended that Gypsy had the mental capacity of a 7 year old, claiming that it was from brain damage Gypsy suffered from being born prematurely.

Dee Dee and Gypsy moved from Louisiana to Springfield, Missouri, shortly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Dee Dee claimed that any medical records for Gypsy documenting her alleged health issues had been lost in the storm, according to the documentary.

Dee Dee forced her daughter to use a wheelchair (even though she could walk), shaved her head to give the appearance of going through chemotherapy and gave her medications that would induce symptoms similar to the conditions with which she said Gypsy was afflicted. She was also accused of manipulating Gypsy's birth certificate to list her as four years younger than her actual age.

According to the Associated Press, authorities believed that Dee Dee may have had financial motivations for the deception; Dee Dee and Gypsy received a house from Habitat for Humanity, went backstage at Miranda Lambert concerts via the Make-a-Wish Foundation and went on paid trips to Disney World.

Rod Blanchard, Gypsy's father, told PEOPLE in 2017 that he and Dee Dee split before Gypsy's birth and that Dee Dee would rarely let him see Gypsy because she said he couldn't handle Gypsy's care.

“It was a masterpiece of disguise,” he said. “It was the perfect opportunity to control Gypsy.”

In addition to isolating Gypsy from family members who may have raised questions about Gypsy's health, Dee Dee frequently changed her daughter's doctors so none would suspect anything untoward. (One of Gypsy's former physicians, pediatric neurologist Bernardo Flasterstein, suspected Dee Dee of Munchausen's by proxy and told BuzzFeed News he wished he was "more aggressive" in ringing alarm bells to authorities.)

Gypsy alleged in the documentary that Dee Dee physically abused her behind closed doors, and that some of the unnecessary medical treatments Dee Dee forced Gypsy to undergo caused her teeth to decay. In one incident, Gypsy said that after she began communicating online with and tried to meet up with an older man she'd encountered at a sci-fi convention, Dee Dee allegedly destroyed Gypsy's computer and cellphone and kept Gypsy tethered to her bed with a leash attached to handcuffs.

How did Gypsy meet her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn?

According to BuzzFeed News, Gypsy first connected with Nicholas Godejohn on a dating site for Christian singles, and they communicated online for two years before meeting in person. After a year of messaging, Gypsy revealed to Godejohn that she could walk, as PEOPLE previously reported.

Godejohn reportedly introduced Gypsy to BDSM themes as the two grew closer, with Gypsy later testifying in court that she called Godejohn her "master" and referred to herself as his "slave."

Per BuzzFeed, Gypsy told her neighbor Aleah Woodmansee that she was in love. Gypsy's father Rod also believes his daughter was "madly in love" with Godejohn, as he told PEOPLE in 2017. In the 2019 Oxygen special Gypsy Rose & Nick: A Love to Kill, Godejohn himself said that he believed he and Gypsy were "soulmates" from the "very beginning," and that they were planning their future together as a couple.

Gypsy and Godejohn had their first in-person date at the movies in 2015, where they saw Cinderella. Their second in-person meeting was that June, when Godejohn traveled from Wisconsin to Missouri to kill Dee Dee.

Godejohn told Oxygen that he believed killing Dee Dee was imperative to ensuring he and Gypsy could spend their lives together. The couple had discussed murdering Dee Dee as a "Plan B," Gypsy said in Mommy Dead and Dearest, but as Gypsy's desperation to escape grew, it became their main plan.

What crimes did Gypsy and Nicholas commit?

Gypsy said in Mommy Dead and Dearest that on the night of the murder, she and Dee Dee gave each other manicures and Gypsy put Dee Dee to bed, promising to be "a good girl." After Dee Dee fell asleep, Godejohn entered the residence, Gypsy recalled, and Gypsy hid in a bathroom while Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee to death.

What happened next depends on which of them you ask: Godejohn says that he and Gypsy had consensual sex, while Gypsy alleges that Godejohn raped her. In interrogation tapes seen in Mommy Dead and Dearest, Godejohn allegedly said he considered having sex with Dee Dee's corpse. Gypsy claimed, "I made a deal with him. I'd let him rape me and then he wouldn't do that to my mom."

Gypsy and Godejohn allegedly stole $4,000 from Dee Dee's room, then went to a Days Inn outside of Springfield, where they ate brownies. The pair then mailed the knife back to Godejohn's family home in Wisconsin, where they then fled by bus, according to a search warrant obtained byThe Springfield News-Leader.

On June 14, 2015, Gypsy wrote on Dee Dee's Facebook, "That Bitch is dead!" Per BuzzFeed News, the post caught the attention of Dee Dee's friends, and when she didn't return their calls, they alerted the authorities. Police found Dee Dee's body in her Springfield home that day. They traced the IP address of the posts to Big Bend, Wisconsin, where Gypsy and Godejohn were staying.

Police raided Godejohn's family home and arrested him and Gypsy on charges of murder and felony armed criminal action, per The Springfield News-Leader. In November 2018, Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder for the slaying, while Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Related: Where Is Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Ex-Boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn Now? All About His Prison Sentence

What was Gypsy's sentence?

Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of Dee Dee. In a 2016 interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, Gypsy said she had "complicated" feelings about her sentence, though she wasn't sure what a "just punishment" would necessarily be in her situation.

"I believe firmly that, no matter what, murder is not okay. I do believe that I do deserve to spend some time in prison for that crime," she explained. "But I also understand why it happened, and I don’t believe that I’m in the right place to get the help that I need."

Godejohn, meanwhile, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Where is Gypsy Rose Blanchard now?

Gypsy was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri on Dec. 28, 2023, around 3:30 a.m. local time, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed to PEOPLE.

"I'm ready for freedom," she told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview ahead of her release.

She served 85% of her 10-year sentence. Her time in Greene County Jail before her trial counted towards her time served.

Following her release, Gypsy went on a media tour — sharing her experience with the world. However, fans felt her interviews lacked accountability regarding the murder of Dee Dee.

In March 2024, at the recommendation of her parole officer, Gypsy deleted her social media accounts.

"To all the people that I offended with a lack of accountability, I'm sorry," she said in her final TikTok video. "I'm learning. I'm taking accountability. I did a bad thing."

Related: Gypsy Rose Blanchard Seen for 1st Time Since Early Prison Release 

Is Gypsy still dating Nicholas?

In Gypsy Rose & Nick: A Love to Kill, Godejohn said that he thought Gypsy was his "soulmate" and that he killed Dee Dee to free Gypsy from her abuse. However, their relationship fell apart in the immediate aftermath of their arrest, though Godejohn revealed in the special that Gypsy is still the only partner he'd ever imagined a future with.

Gypsy, for her part, has moved on from her relationship with Godejohn and has since had two other known romantic relationships while in prison.

Fancy Macelli, a producer who'd worked with the family, told PEOPLE in 2019 that she could hear the "excitement" in Gypsy's voice when she talked about her then-fiancé, a man named Ken, whom she met after he wrote to her in prison when he saw Mommy Dead and Dearest.

"[This relationship] is a good thing for her, and whether it ends up being that way in the end no one knows, but for her right now it's a very positive and happy time," Macelli said. She added that the relationship began as a platonic friendship that eventually evolved into a romance.

Kristy Blanchard told PEOPLE that the family liked Ken, who proposed to Gypsy during a prison visit.

"He loves Gypsy very much," Kristy said. "And you can clearly see that when he talks about her and looks at her." The pair briefly called off their engagement before reuniting.

However, their reunion wasn't permanent. In August 2022, The Springfield News-Leader reported that Gypsy married Ryan Scott Anderson of Saint Charles, Louisiana, that June.

Gypsy's marriage to Anderson lasted less than two years. The couple announced their split in March 2024 — roughly three months after Gypsy was released from prison — and she officially filed for divorce the following month.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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