In June 2015, a Facebook post appeared on a shared account belonging to a mother and daughter in Springfield, Missouri. It read, simply: "That Bitch is dead!"
For years, the neighbors on West Volunteer Way thought they knew the Blanchards. They saw Dee Dee as a saintly, tireless caregiver. They saw her daughter, Gypsy Rose, as a terminally ill girl with the mental capacity of a seven-year-old, bound to a wheelchair and fighting leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and a dozen other "chromosomal disorders."
When the police finally kicked in the door, they found Dee Dee Blanchard face down in her bed, stabbed to death. But the real shocker wasn't the body. It was the fact that the "sickly" daughter was missing, along with her wheelchair.
What Really Happened With the Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard?
Honestly, the case is a tangled mess of medical abuse and desperate choices. Most people know the broad strokes from The Act or various documentaries, but the granular details are what make this so unsettling. This wasn't just a "bad mom" situation. It was a decades-long orchestration of Munchausen syndrome by proxy—now clinically called Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA).
Dee Dee didn't just lie; she committed a slow-motion torture of her own child. Gypsy was subjected to:
- Unnecessary surgeries to remove her salivary glands.
- The placement of a feeding tube she didn't need.
- Medications that caused her teeth to rot and eventually be pulled.
- Having her head shaved daily to mimic the look of a cancer patient.
The "murder of Dee Dee Blanchard" didn't happen in a vacuum. It was the explosive end to a pressure cooker. Gypsy had met a guy online, Nicholas Godejohn, on a Christian dating site. They talked for three years. She told him the truth: she could walk. She wasn't 14 (her mother had lied about her age, too). She was a grown woman trapped in a literal and metaphorical cage.
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The Night of the Killing
On June 10, 2015, Godejohn took a bus from Wisconsin to Missouri. Gypsy let him into the house. She hid in the bathroom, covering her ears while Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee 17 times in the back.
It's a brutal image.
Afterward, they took a bus back to his home. They didn't even try to hide that well. They posted those incriminating Facebook messages from Godejohn’s IP address, basically inviting the police to find them. Gypsy later said she wanted her mother found so she could have a proper burial. Talk about a complicated relationship.
Why Nobody Stopped Dee Dee for 23 Years
This is the part that keeps people up at night. How does a woman trick dozens of specialists at world-class hospitals?
Dee Dee was clever. She used her background as a nurse’s aide to speak the "language" of doctors. If a physician started asking too many questions or noticed that Gypsy’s tests came back normal, Dee Dee would just move. She used Hurricane Katrina as a perfect cover, claiming all of Gypsy’s medical records were lost in the flood.
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She also "prepped" Gypsy. She told her that if she ever tried to walk or tell the truth, the police would take her away because she was "brain damaged."
The Medical Failure
In 2007, a pediatric neurologist named Dr. Bernardo Flasterstein actually suspected something was wrong. He noted that Gypsy’s MRIs were normal and she showed no signs of muscular dystrophy. But even he didn't report it to social services. He just wrote it in the file.
The system failed. The community—which had gifted them a house through Habitat for Humanity and trips to Disney World—was too blinded by Dee Dee’s "hero mom" persona to see the abuse.
Life After the Murder: Where Are They Now?
The legal fallout was just as divisive as the crime itself.
- Gypsy Rose Blanchard: She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Because the extent of her abuse was so documented, she got a relatively light sentence of 10 years. She was released on parole in December 2023.
- Nicholas Godejohn: He didn't get the same leniency. He was convicted of first-degree murder and is currently serving life in prison without parole.
Since her release, Gypsy’s life has been a whirlwind of media tours and personal drama. She married a man named Ryan Anderson while in prison, then filed for divorce shortly after getting out. By late 2024, she had moved back to Louisiana and even gave birth to her first child in December of that year.
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It’s a strange "happily ever after." She’s free, but she’s also a household name for all the wrong reasons.
Insights for the True Crime Community
The murder of Dee Dee Blanchard changed how we look at medical child abuse. It forced the public to realize that a parent’s "devotion" can sometimes be a mask for something much darker.
If you're following this case, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding the psychology involved:
- Believe the Child: Many of Gypsy's "symptoms" were only present when her mother was in the room. This is a classic red flag for FDIA.
- Records Matter: The loss of medical records in disasters like Katrina is a common loophole used by abusers to "reset" their lies with new doctors.
- The "High" of Sympathy: For Dee Dee, the payoff wasn't just the free stuff; it was the social capital. She was the "strongest woman in town." That’s a powerful drug.
Ultimately, this case serves as a grim reminder that the most dangerous people in a child's life are sometimes the ones the world is busy applauding.
Actionable Next Steps:
To better understand the complexities of this case, you should research the clinical definitions of Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (FDIA) via the DSM-5. Additionally, watching the 2017 documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest provides actual crime scene footage and interviews with the family that offer a more nuanced look than the dramatized versions.