Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who plotted the murder of her abusive mother, to be released from prison
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a Missouri woman who pleaded guilty to plotting to murder her abusive mother in 2015, is set to be released from prison Thursday.
Blanchard, now 32, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for second-degree murder in 2016, when she was 24, but under Missouri law, she became eligible for parole after serving 85% of her sentence.
"Eight and half years ago, I handled the most difficult case of my career. In doing so, I helped reunite a family enduring horrible circumstances," her attorney, Mike Stanfield, said in a LinkedIn post last week, adding that he would be with Blanchard; her father, Rod Blanchard; and her stepmother, Kristy Blanchard, "to see" them "start their new life."
Blanchard's case has been the subject of several documentaries and feature films, including HBO's "Mommy Dead and Dearest," "Gypsy's Revenge" by Investigation Discovery, Hulu's "The Act" and more. Penguin Random House is also set to release an e-book by Blanchard and co-authors Melissa Moore and Michele Matrisciani, titled "Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom."
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The memoir is described as an "exclusive collection of interview transcripts and journal entries, plus [Blanchard's] own illustrations and photos," on the Penguin Random House website.
Experts believe Blanchard's mother, Claudine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological illness in which a person — in this case, Dee Dee — pretends another person — Gypsy — is ill in an effort to receive attention or material items out of sympathy for the victim.
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Dee Dee convinced Gypsy that she had a litany of illnesses, including leukemia, and was years younger than her actual age.
Dee Dee also forced her daughter to sit in a wheelchair, made her take medication she did not need, shaved her hair, removed her teeth and fed her through a tube in her stomach.
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Dee Dee and Gypsy received much positive attention and support from their Missouri community. They lived in a home built by Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their house, took charity trips to Disney World, and Make-a-Wish sent them backstage at a Miranda Lambert concert, according to Buzzfeed.
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Blanchard and her online boyfriend, Nicholas Paul Godejohn, were arrested in connection with Dee Dee's fatal stabbing in 2015. The next year, Blanchard was sentenced to a decade behind bars, while Godejohn was sentenced to life.
Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said at the time that "while the evidence in this case clearly established that Gypsy Blanchard was guilty of murder and that the murder was neither justifiable nor excusable, the amended charge and 10-year sentence fairly and justly holds Gypsy Blanchard accountable to the law while also taking into account the extreme mitigating circumstances of the nearly two decades of systematic and purposeful abuse of Gypsy Blanchard by her mother to facilitate her mother’s fraudulent schemes."
Blanchard recently told TMZ that she and her husband Ryan Scott Anderson, whom she reportedly married while in prison last year, purchased tickets to a Kansas City Chiefs game after her release and said she hopes to meet Taylor Swift, who is dating tight end Travis Kelce.