Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, made a lot of claims about her health as she was growing up. These claims led to a series of bad diagnoses and medical treatments. Gypsy wasn’t really sick, though; her mother had made up the symptoms. Experts think that Dee Dee’s actions were caused by a mental disorder called Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, so she faked and caused her daughter’s illness. The truth about Gypsy and her mother only came out in 2015, after Gypsy had a boyfriend she met online kill Dee Dee.

When Gypsy was a baby Dee Dee began pretending that Gypsy had different illnesses

When Dee Dee said her daughter, Gypsy Rose, had sleep apnea, she was just a baby. Gypsy Rose was born in 1991. Dee Dee said that when Gypsy was eight years old, she had leukaemia and muscular dystrophy and needed a wheelchair and a feeding tube. Dee Dee went on to say that her daughter had seizures, asthma, and hearing and vision problems, among other health problems.

Because of what Dee Dee did, Gypsy had to take a lot of medicines and sleep with a breathing machine. She also had several surgeries, including ones on her eyes and to take out her salivary glands. When Gypsy’s teeth got rotten, maybe because of the medicines she was taking or because she didn’t have salivary glands, they were taken out.

But Gypsy could actually walk, she didn’t need a feeding tube, and she didn’t have cancer. Her mother was the one who shaved off her hair, so she was bald. Experts think Dee Dee had a mental illness called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is also called factitious disorder imposed on another. This made her make up her daughter’s illness so she could get attention and sympathy for taking care of a sick child.

Dee Dee appeared to be a charming, devoted mother, so people believed her

Gypsy’s diagnoses from medical tests were often unclear or contradictory, but Dee Dee stopped going to doctors who didn’t believe her daughter was sick. And many of Dee Dee’s carers did what she asked. She had some training as a nurse, so she could describe symptoms accurately, and she sometimes gave Gypsy medicine to make him feel like he was sick. Dee Dee was also very nice, and she seemed to love her daughter a lot. When Gypsy was old enough to talk, Dee Dee told her not to say anything during their appointments. Instead, Dee Dee always told the fake medical history of Gypsy.

Dee Dee told Rod Blanchard, Gypsy’s father, that their daughter had a chromosomal disorder that was causing her many health problems. He told Dee Dee how much he appreciated her care. When some of Dee Dee’s family noticed that Gypsy didn’t seem to need a wheelchair and asked questions, Dee Dee and Gypsy left.

Dee Dee said she was hurt by Hurricane Katrina, so in 2005 she and Gypsy were helped to move from Louisiana to Missouri. There, Dee Dee kept taking Gypsy to the doctor’s office. Hurricane Katrina was also a reason why medical records went missing.

Even when Gypsy was a teenager, Dee Dee still claimed she was sick and began to lie about age of Gypsy

In 2008, Gypsy and Dee Dee moved to Springfield, Missouri, where they bought a new house. It was made by Habitat for Humanity. It was pink and had a ramp for wheelchairs. Gypsy and Dee Dee also got benefits, like trips to Disney World and concerts paid for by charities. Dee Dee never stopped enjoying all the attention she got for being a good carer.

When Gypsy was 14, she went to a neurologist in Missouri. The doctor thought she had Munchausen syndrome by proxy. But this doctor never told anyone else about her case. In later interviews, he said that he didn’t think there was enough proof to take action. In 2009, someone told the police that Dee Dee’s stories about Gypsy’s illnesses were not true from a medical point of view. Because of this, two caseworkers came to their house, but Dee Dee was able to convince them that nothing was wrong.

As Gypsy grew older, Dee Dee began to lie about her age, going so far as to alter the dates on Gypsy’s birth certificate to make her daughter seem younger. But Gypsy was still becoming harder for Dee Dee to control.

Gypsy convinced a man she met online to kill Dee Dee

In 2011, Gypsy ran away with a man she met at a science fiction convention to get away from her mother. But Dee Dee found them quickly through friends they shared. She made the man believe that Gypsy was a child, even though she was 19 at the time. Gypsy says that when they got home, Dee Dee broke her computer and physically tied her to her bed. Gypsy has also said that her mother would hit her and sometimes not feed her.

Gypsy was able to get back online in the end. She joined a Christian dating site, which is where she met Nicholas Godejohn. She told him the truth about what her mother had done, and then she asked him to kill Dee Dee so they could be together. He went to her house in June 2015 and stabbed Dee Dee while Gypsy waited in the bathroom with her ears covered.

When Gypsy and Godejohn went back to his home in Wisconsin, police found them there. Gypsy had posted twice on the Facebook account she shared with her mother. Once, she wrote, “That b***h is dead!” She later said that she put up the posts because she wanted the body of her mother to be found.

Gypsy was ‘afraid’ and believed she ‘didn’t have anyone to trust’

When Dee Dee was killed, a lot of people who knew Gypsy wondered why she would kill her. Since she could walk, she could have just stood up in public to show that Dee Dee was lying. But Gypsy was taught to think that no one would believe her. She told him, “I couldn’t just jump out of the wheelchair because I was scared and didn’t know what my mother would do. I had no one I could trust.”

Gypsy’s mother had been in charge of her and watched over her for her whole life. No one would let her go to school. Even though Gypsy was smart, Dee Dee told everyone that her daughter had the mind of a seven-year-old. When they were out in public, Dee Dee always held Gypsy’s hand and squeezed it when she wanted her to be quiet.

An expert on Munchausen syndrome by proxy named Dr. Marc Feldman said this about Gypsy’s life and actions: “It was like when a kidnapper has full control over a person who has been taken hostage. In a way, her daughter was a hostage, and I think we can understand the crime that happened next as a hostage trying to get away.”

Gypsy is not happy that Dee Dee is dead

As Gypsy’s medical records showed that she had been abused, her lawyer was able to negotiate a plea deal for the charges she faced in Dee Dee’s death. In 2016, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She was given a 10-year prison sentence, but she will be able to get out of jail in 2024. In 2018, a judge found Godejohn guilty of first-degree murder and gave him a life sentence.

Gypsy has said that she didn’t realise how much her mother had lied to her until Dee Dee died. Even though Gypsy could walk and eat normal food, she thought she had leukaemia.

Today, Gypsy is in good shape. She has also said that being in prison gives her more freedom than the life she had with Dee Dee. But when Dr. Phil asked her if she was glad her mother was dead, she said, “I’m glad I’m out of that situation, but I’m not happy she’s dead.” In 2024, she will be able to get out of jail.