Gypsy Rose Blanchard released from prison
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the Missouri woman who plotted to kill her mother after she was forced to fake serious illnesses for years, was released from prison early Thursday.
Blanchard was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center at 3:30 a.m., a spokesperson from the Missouri Department of Corrections told The Hill.
The now-32-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2016 after pleading guilty to the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. She was granted parole after serving 85 percent of her original sentence, a Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson said, according to The Associated Press.
Blanchard originally faced a potential life sentence on a first-degree murder charge, but prosecutors cut her a deal because of the abuse she endured. Blanchard was a victim of her mother's Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder in which a parent or caretakers creates fake symptoms to make it look like their child is sick to receive sympathy, her trial attorney Michael Stanfield said, according to the AP. Throughout her childhood, he recounted, Blanchard was forced to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary medical procedures.
Blanchard also testified that her mother beat her and chained her to the bed. Eventually, she said, she realized she wasn’t as sick as her mother said she was.
In 2015, Nicholas Godejohn, Blanchard's now ex-boyfriend whom she met on a Christian dating site, stabbed her mother 17 times with a knife Blanchard provided while she hid in the bathroom, according to prosecutors, the AP reported. The couple fled to Godejohn's home in Wisconsin and were arrested days later.
Godejohn is serving a life sentence for the killing.
The story has inspired a documentary, several TV series and novels. No in-person media coverage was permitted of Blanchard's high-profile release in the interest of protecting her safety, security and privacy, a Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson told the AP.
The Associated Press contributed.