The case of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard-Anderson took the media by storm with her recent release from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri on December 28, 2023. Since her release, Blanchard-Anderson has gained over 12 million followers on Instagram and TikTok.
People have quickly taken their stand on the situation, causing inevitable hate and support. The messy nature of this case has led to controversy surrounding her release and her role in the murder of her mother, Clauddine (Dee Dee) Blanchard.
Blanchard-Anderson was born in 1991, and was immediately a victim of her mother’s mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome. This caused Dee Dee to act as if Gypsy had severe medical conditions that required constant attention, even though the supposed “dependent” Gypsy was not ill whatsoever. Since she was under the care of her mother, Blanchard-Anderson continued to endure this abuse her entire childhood.
This unnecessary medical care is hazardous for a child, especially at such an extreme level. Since Dee Dee had prior nurse training, she used medical terms to help convince doctors of her daughter’s symptoms. She even gave Gypsy medications to mimic certain conditions to sell the act further.
Gypsy was not allowed to do the talking during appointments, and Dee Dee would squeeze her daughter’s hand whenever she wanted her to stay quiet. Dee Dee was the one informing doctors of her fake medical history, and she stopped seeing any doctors who grew suspicious of Gypsy’s condition.
The family moved from Louisiana to Missouri in 2005 in an attempt to escape suspicion involving Gypsy’s ailments, including muscular dystrophy, needing a feeding tube, and countless medications. Hurricane Katrina was put to blame as to why Gypsy’s medical records were missing. The family eventually moved into a house in Springfield in 2008, which was entirely built by the Habitat for Humanity charity group.
As she grew older, Gypsy’s birth certificates were altered for her to appear younger. In 2011, she met her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn on a Christian dating site. She told him everything about her mother, who was asleep while they would be talking late at night. In June 2015, Godejohn came to her house to kill Dee Dee upon Gypsy’s request. While he had stabbed Dee Dee 17 times, Gypsy hid in the bathroom with her ears covered. On their joint Facebook account (Dee Gyp Blancharde), Blanchard-Anderson had posted that her mother was dead.
Many were immediately concerned with the vulgar atmosphere and called the police. Both were eventually arrested, with Gypsy being served ten years for her actions in being an accomplice to murder, while Godejohn would serve life without parole.
Her release on December 28, 2023 was met with a media uproar, and article after article was published about her and what has occurred in the 8 years since that fateful trial. In an interview with Dr. Phil, she stated that she was glad that she was out of that situation, but “not happy that [Dee Dee] was dead.”
On social media, she has wasted no time sharing her story. Unfortunately, many have been quick to judge her actions, with many arguing that she had minimized what she had done to her mother. However, she has not addressed these comments and continues to live her best life, using her newfound freedom to spread awareness about Munchausen syndrome.
