I'm baaccckkk!!! Thank you guys for being patient while I took a little break, but I am ready to get back to business and what really truly matters in life. True crime stories.
Now you guys I did a TON of research for this weeks story, it's a tad bit lengthy, but is a roller coaster ride you won't regret getting on. Now buckle up, this week we are going to discuss the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard and the events leading up to her death.
First we will go to the night of June 14th, 2015, friends became worried about Dee Dee after there were posts made on Dee Dee's Facebook page that were graphic and troubling. They read "That B**** is dead," and "I f****** slashed that fat pig and raped her sweet innocent daughter...her scream was soooo f***** loud lol." When friends and family saw the status, they took it upon themselves to investigate. Dee Dee's car was still in the driveway, but no one answered the door. The police were called and soon obtained a warrant to enter the home, it was then that Dee Dee's body was found. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, face down, on the floor of her bedroom. She’d been stabbed to death and covered by a blanket. It was evident she had been there for several days. Even more troubling was there were no signs of her teenage daughter Gypsy Rose in the home. She was missing, but police were certain that she was still alive because she was the only other person to know her moms Facebook login information as they shared a page together, they thought whoever had Gypsy made her log in to the account so the posts could be made. Friends and family became frantic, Gypsy was no ordinary girl. She was wheelchair bound and had a laundry list of medical conditions and now she was gone without her wheelchair and none of her medication.
Let me tell you a little back story about Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Dee Dee was born Clauddine Pitre in Chackbay, Louisiana in 1967 to Claude Pitre and Emma Lois Gisclair, she had 5 siblings. When she was 24 she became pregnant by Rod Blanchard who was 17 at the time. The 2 of them married, Rod felt it was the right thing to do, but stated at the time he wasn't in love with Dee Dee, but felt as though he could be at some point. Shortly before Dee Dee gave birth they ended up separating, Rod said he realized they got married for the wrong reasons. Gypsy Rose Blanchard was prematurely born in July 1991, Dee Dee and Gypsy lived with Dee Dee's family in Louisiana.
According to Rod, Dee Dee stated that their daughter started suffering from sleep apnea when she was just 3 months old. Overtime Dee Dee told him that Gypsy had developed a wide range of other health issues that she said attributed to an unspecified chromosomal disorder. Around age 7 Gypsy inherited a disease called muscular dystrophy that causes muscle weakness and loss, she was then confined to a wheelchair from that point on. She was a very sick child, besides the muscular dystrophy and sleep apnea, she also was diagnosed with leukemia, epilepsy, vision and hearing impairment, asthma, and digestive issues which required her to have a feeding tube. She went through a multitude of surgeries including eye, leg and throat surgeries, at one point she had her salivary glands removed. Dee Dee told everyone that Gypsy would only ever have the mental capacity of a 7 year old.
If this doesn't sound tough enough the mother daughter duo lost everything when Hurricane Katrina hit. With the help of Habitat for Humanity they were given a brand new home in Springfield, Missouri customized to fit the needs of Gypsy. They captured the hearts of many and received a multitude of support through donations, vacations and several events they were invited to. The two of them had a very close bond, they were best friends.
Going back to the night of June 14th, 2015, police were able to track down the location in which the Facebook posts originated. The address was to a home in Wisconsin. Who could possibly be in Wisconsin that would want to murder Dee Dee in cold blood and kidnap her handicapped daughter from Missouri? On the morning of June 15th a swat team surrounded the home, they did a sweep of the residence and took into custody a man by the name of Nicholas Godejohn. They found him hiding in his bedroom closet. He was 26 and he had a record. A few years earlier he was accused of watching porn at a McDonald's for nearly 9 hours. When police were called he was arrested for disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon (he had a large knife in his pocket.) Oh did I forget to mention that when they entered the home they also found Gypsy, but she was not in distress like they expected her to be. It was discovered that Gypsy and Nick had been in a 3 year long relationship online. The police had so many questions and soon all would be revealed.
You know the saying you never know what happens behind closed doors... well Gypsy Rose's life is the ultimate example...
Remember all those medical conditions I listed out above that Gypsy Rose had, well she in fact had none of them. The feeding tube she had... she didn't need, she was able to swallow and digest food no problem, the medications she was taking....she didn't need and they only mimicked the symptoms of the medical conditions she "had," the wheel chair she was in... yep you guessed it she didn't need that either, she was able to walk. Also, her mental capacity was much greater than what her mother had told everyone. She told everyone that Gypsy was a teenager when in fact at the time of Dee Dee's murder Gypsy was 24.Was this a mother daughter scheme carried out for years or something much more sinister? Has your head started spinning yet?
Dee Dee Blanchard came across as the Wonder Woman of moms, but in reality she was a monster. She suffered from Munchausen by proxy (a mental health condition in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care in order to gain sympathy and attention from others.) She used her daughter for profitable gain by making it seem as though her child was so sick she would never make it to the age of 21, when she was the one that was causing harm to her own daughter. Dee Dee worked at a hospital at one point in her life as a nurse's aid, because she picked up on things working in the medical field it was easier for her to come up with aliments and know what conditions cause what symptoms and what medications can cause what side effects. When Gypsy was younger her father Rod thought it was odd that she had these medical conditions as she seemed to be healthy, but didn't question it because Dee Dee knew more about medical conditions than he did and she seemed to be a great loving mother. Was Gypsy aware that she wasn't sick?
Gypsy believed and trusted her mom for the most part about her illnesses, but as she got older she noticed things didn't quite add up. She knew she could walk, she would sneak out of bed at night while her mother was sleeping to walk around. She realized that she could eat normally and didn't need the feeding tube. When she was 19 she discovered she was older than what her mom had told her and others, she saw her date of birth on a medical card and when she asked Dee Dee she told her it was a mistake on the card. Dee Dee would pump Gypsy full of unnecessary medications through her feeding tube everyday. Was able to convince doctors that Gypsy had these conditions, if she wasn't able to they would go on to the next doctor. They took the word of a mother saying all of these things her daughter was experiencing. If the doctors asked for her prior medical records Dee Dee would tell them that everything was destroyed in Katrina. When Gypsy was "diagnosed" with muscular dystrophy this wasn't the case. Gypsy had to go through a painful procedure to test for muscular dystrophy and the results actually came back as negative, but Dee Dee went on to tell everyone it was positive. Dee Dee gave Gypsy medication that is meant for epilepsy and for those that suffer from it it's a great medication, but for those that don't it has negative effects, such as making Gypsy's teeth crumble to the point that Dee Dee took her in to have them extracted.
Even more heartbreaking is there were doctors that caught on to what Dee Dee was doing, but nothing was ever done. Child protective services was out to their house 3 times, but nothing ever came from those visits either.
You may be asking if Gypsy was able to why didn't she stand up for herself. The truth is that she was scared of her mother and the abuse that she knew would happen if she did so. She was too scared to tell anyone and she had to go along with the charade. At one point she was able to get a laptop and a cellphone and would hide it from her mom. She made her own Facebook profile and would chat with people including her friend/neighbor Aleah Woodmansee. Gypsy made one attempt to run away, she met up with a 35 year old man that she met at a convention with her mom. When her mom found out she tracked her down, took her home, smashed her laptop with a hammer and proceeded to drag her across the floor and violently tied her to the bed for a couple weeks and said "if you ever try that again, I'm going to smash your fingers with a hammer."
One day while talking with Aleah the two of them discussed a Christian dating site that Aleah had been on. Gypsy was intrigued, she longed to have a boyfriend, she wanted her prince charming to come and save her. She snuck her mothers laptop at night to create her profile and chat with guys.
Enter in Nicholas Godejohn. He said all the right things to Gypsy and made her feel beautiful and loved, for awhile she told him that she was sick and confined to a wheelchair and he didn't care. But as things progressed between the two she ended up telling him everything that was going on at home with her mother. Now things got very weird between the 2 lovebirds, I mean real weird. Nicholas told Gypsy that he had multiple personalities, one of them was a 500 year old vampire named Victor who was dark and dangerous. To adapt to these personalities Gypsy came up with her own; there was Kitty who was a little girl, Candy who was the vixen and Ruby who was for Victor specifically, she was a werewolf and was evil. They would video chat while erotic role playing and talking about BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism.) Gypsy didn't realize that she was soon going to be apart of someone taking advantage of her when she was at her most desperate moment.
They were madly in love and wanted to be together, she knew her mother would never let her go willingly or approve of them meeting online and having a relationship for 3 years behind her back. They came up with a plan, they decided Nick would take a bus from Wisconsin to Missouri and they would have a chance meeting while Gypsy was with Dee Dee out and about acting like they didn't know each other, would strike up a conversation, Gypsy and Nick would start dating shortly after with the blessing of Dee Dee and they would have their happily ever after. The day came, Nick was set to meet up at the movie theater where Gypsy and Dee Dee were seeing the remake of Cinderella, Gyspy was even dressed up as Cinderella per her moms request. Things didn't go according to plan, Nick sat down next to them and Dee Dee immediately thought it was creepy that a grown man was seeing Cinderella and even made comments to him. He left the theater, shortly after Gypsy excused herself to go to the bathroom. The 2 of them met up in the romantic handicap bathroom, the first time ever being alone and in person together. Naturally they got it on right then and there.
After the failed attempt, Gypsy grew desperate. She couldn't take it anymore, it was either going to be her life or her mothers life. She then asked "Victor" a question, "Victor, will you kill me mother." Victor accepted. Gypsy thought of different ways that they could do it, but ultimately she stole a knife from Walmart and decided stabbing her would be the easiest. Gypsy bought Nick/Victors bus ticket, booked his hotel room and got everything ready for him. Victor said I'm going to rape your mother when I'm done, Gypsy told him no I can't let you do that instead you can rape me after.
The night of June 10th, the plan was set in motion, Dee Dee went to sleep, Gypsy met "Victor" at the door, he put on his gloves and told her to go to the bathroom to wait and while in there he wanted her to shave completely and greet him naked. Gypsy went into the bathroom and covered her ears, but she could still hear her mom crying out for her as she was stabbed multiple times.
Afterwards they had sex and then cleaned up, but did a terrible job of it, they left a ton of evidence behind. They took a cab a few hours later to the hotel Nick had been staying in. The were going to take a bus back to Wisconsin to be with Nicks family the next day, but due to a shortage of seats they had to wait a couple days. In the meantime Gypsy was taking Vicodin and Xanax to calm her nerves, she says she wasn't herself. She was worried about the bus station having metal detectors so they mailed the murder weapon to Nicks house and when they got there they would get rid of it. Well as you know they made it to Wisconsin. Gyspy wanted people to know about her mom so she created those Facebook posts so she would be discovered and could have a proper burial and that they would think Gypsy was just another missing person, but as you know plans didn't go the way they had hoped.
Both of them confessed as to what happened to Dee Dee. I won't go into the trials, but you can find them online if you wish to see them. Nick has never been officially diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, but during his hearing Psychologists were brought in to testify that he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and his attorneys argued that this made it difficult for him to discern fantasy vs. reality. Regardless he was sentenced to life in prison.
Gypsy told everyone the truth about her mother, she plead guilty and was sentenced to 10 years. The prosecutor said it would have been easy to try to get life in prison, but Gyspy had "extraordinary and unusual circumstances." Gypsy says she is not happy her mother is dead, and that she loved her, but the abuse was never going to end. That she is working on forgiving her mother and forgiving herself. She is more free today inside prison than she ever was with Dee Dee Blanchard, she is a healthy 27 year old looking forward to a bright future. Her and Nick are not together. She became engaged recently to a man that was a pen pal of hers, her family has met him and approves. She says she now knows what true love really is. Maybe she will get her happily ever after all.
Hard to believe this is the same person.
Now you guys I did a TON of research for this weeks story, it's a tad bit lengthy, but is a roller coaster ride you won't regret getting on. Now buckle up, this week we are going to discuss the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard and the events leading up to her death.
First we will go to the night of June 14th, 2015, friends became worried about Dee Dee after there were posts made on Dee Dee's Facebook page that were graphic and troubling. They read "That B**** is dead," and "I f****** slashed that fat pig and raped her sweet innocent daughter...her scream was soooo f***** loud lol." When friends and family saw the status, they took it upon themselves to investigate. Dee Dee's car was still in the driveway, but no one answered the door. The police were called and soon obtained a warrant to enter the home, it was then that Dee Dee's body was found. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, face down, on the floor of her bedroom. She’d been stabbed to death and covered by a blanket. It was evident she had been there for several days. Even more troubling was there were no signs of her teenage daughter Gypsy Rose in the home. She was missing, but police were certain that she was still alive because she was the only other person to know her moms Facebook login information as they shared a page together, they thought whoever had Gypsy made her log in to the account so the posts could be made. Friends and family became frantic, Gypsy was no ordinary girl. She was wheelchair bound and had a laundry list of medical conditions and now she was gone without her wheelchair and none of her medication.
Let me tell you a little back story about Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Dee Dee was born Clauddine Pitre in Chackbay, Louisiana in 1967 to Claude Pitre and Emma Lois Gisclair, she had 5 siblings. When she was 24 she became pregnant by Rod Blanchard who was 17 at the time. The 2 of them married, Rod felt it was the right thing to do, but stated at the time he wasn't in love with Dee Dee, but felt as though he could be at some point. Shortly before Dee Dee gave birth they ended up separating, Rod said he realized they got married for the wrong reasons. Gypsy Rose Blanchard was prematurely born in July 1991, Dee Dee and Gypsy lived with Dee Dee's family in Louisiana.
According to Rod, Dee Dee stated that their daughter started suffering from sleep apnea when she was just 3 months old. Overtime Dee Dee told him that Gypsy had developed a wide range of other health issues that she said attributed to an unspecified chromosomal disorder. Around age 7 Gypsy inherited a disease called muscular dystrophy that causes muscle weakness and loss, she was then confined to a wheelchair from that point on. She was a very sick child, besides the muscular dystrophy and sleep apnea, she also was diagnosed with leukemia, epilepsy, vision and hearing impairment, asthma, and digestive issues which required her to have a feeding tube. She went through a multitude of surgeries including eye, leg and throat surgeries, at one point she had her salivary glands removed. Dee Dee told everyone that Gypsy would only ever have the mental capacity of a 7 year old.
If this doesn't sound tough enough the mother daughter duo lost everything when Hurricane Katrina hit. With the help of Habitat for Humanity they were given a brand new home in Springfield, Missouri customized to fit the needs of Gypsy. They captured the hearts of many and received a multitude of support through donations, vacations and several events they were invited to. The two of them had a very close bond, they were best friends.
Going back to the night of June 14th, 2015, police were able to track down the location in which the Facebook posts originated. The address was to a home in Wisconsin. Who could possibly be in Wisconsin that would want to murder Dee Dee in cold blood and kidnap her handicapped daughter from Missouri? On the morning of June 15th a swat team surrounded the home, they did a sweep of the residence and took into custody a man by the name of Nicholas Godejohn. They found him hiding in his bedroom closet. He was 26 and he had a record. A few years earlier he was accused of watching porn at a McDonald's for nearly 9 hours. When police were called he was arrested for disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon (he had a large knife in his pocket.) Oh did I forget to mention that when they entered the home they also found Gypsy, but she was not in distress like they expected her to be. It was discovered that Gypsy and Nick had been in a 3 year long relationship online. The police had so many questions and soon all would be revealed.
You know the saying you never know what happens behind closed doors... well Gypsy Rose's life is the ultimate example...
Remember all those medical conditions I listed out above that Gypsy Rose had, well she in fact had none of them. The feeding tube she had... she didn't need, she was able to swallow and digest food no problem, the medications she was taking....she didn't need and they only mimicked the symptoms of the medical conditions she "had," the wheel chair she was in... yep you guessed it she didn't need that either, she was able to walk. Also, her mental capacity was much greater than what her mother had told everyone. She told everyone that Gypsy was a teenager when in fact at the time of Dee Dee's murder Gypsy was 24.Was this a mother daughter scheme carried out for years or something much more sinister? Has your head started spinning yet?
Dee Dee Blanchard came across as the Wonder Woman of moms, but in reality she was a monster. She suffered from Munchausen by proxy (a mental health condition in which a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care in order to gain sympathy and attention from others.) She used her daughter for profitable gain by making it seem as though her child was so sick she would never make it to the age of 21, when she was the one that was causing harm to her own daughter. Dee Dee worked at a hospital at one point in her life as a nurse's aid, because she picked up on things working in the medical field it was easier for her to come up with aliments and know what conditions cause what symptoms and what medications can cause what side effects. When Gypsy was younger her father Rod thought it was odd that she had these medical conditions as she seemed to be healthy, but didn't question it because Dee Dee knew more about medical conditions than he did and she seemed to be a great loving mother. Was Gypsy aware that she wasn't sick?
Gypsy believed and trusted her mom for the most part about her illnesses, but as she got older she noticed things didn't quite add up. She knew she could walk, she would sneak out of bed at night while her mother was sleeping to walk around. She realized that she could eat normally and didn't need the feeding tube. When she was 19 she discovered she was older than what her mom had told her and others, she saw her date of birth on a medical card and when she asked Dee Dee she told her it was a mistake on the card. Dee Dee would pump Gypsy full of unnecessary medications through her feeding tube everyday. Was able to convince doctors that Gypsy had these conditions, if she wasn't able to they would go on to the next doctor. They took the word of a mother saying all of these things her daughter was experiencing. If the doctors asked for her prior medical records Dee Dee would tell them that everything was destroyed in Katrina. When Gypsy was "diagnosed" with muscular dystrophy this wasn't the case. Gypsy had to go through a painful procedure to test for muscular dystrophy and the results actually came back as negative, but Dee Dee went on to tell everyone it was positive. Dee Dee gave Gypsy medication that is meant for epilepsy and for those that suffer from it it's a great medication, but for those that don't it has negative effects, such as making Gypsy's teeth crumble to the point that Dee Dee took her in to have them extracted.
Even more heartbreaking is there were doctors that caught on to what Dee Dee was doing, but nothing was ever done. Child protective services was out to their house 3 times, but nothing ever came from those visits either.
You may be asking if Gypsy was able to why didn't she stand up for herself. The truth is that she was scared of her mother and the abuse that she knew would happen if she did so. She was too scared to tell anyone and she had to go along with the charade. At one point she was able to get a laptop and a cellphone and would hide it from her mom. She made her own Facebook profile and would chat with people including her friend/neighbor Aleah Woodmansee. Gypsy made one attempt to run away, she met up with a 35 year old man that she met at a convention with her mom. When her mom found out she tracked her down, took her home, smashed her laptop with a hammer and proceeded to drag her across the floor and violently tied her to the bed for a couple weeks and said "if you ever try that again, I'm going to smash your fingers with a hammer."
One day while talking with Aleah the two of them discussed a Christian dating site that Aleah had been on. Gypsy was intrigued, she longed to have a boyfriend, she wanted her prince charming to come and save her. She snuck her mothers laptop at night to create her profile and chat with guys.
Enter in Nicholas Godejohn. He said all the right things to Gypsy and made her feel beautiful and loved, for awhile she told him that she was sick and confined to a wheelchair and he didn't care. But as things progressed between the two she ended up telling him everything that was going on at home with her mother. Now things got very weird between the 2 lovebirds, I mean real weird. Nicholas told Gypsy that he had multiple personalities, one of them was a 500 year old vampire named Victor who was dark and dangerous. To adapt to these personalities Gypsy came up with her own; there was Kitty who was a little girl, Candy who was the vixen and Ruby who was for Victor specifically, she was a werewolf and was evil. They would video chat while erotic role playing and talking about BDSM (Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism.) Gypsy didn't realize that she was soon going to be apart of someone taking advantage of her when she was at her most desperate moment.
They were madly in love and wanted to be together, she knew her mother would never let her go willingly or approve of them meeting online and having a relationship for 3 years behind her back. They came up with a plan, they decided Nick would take a bus from Wisconsin to Missouri and they would have a chance meeting while Gypsy was with Dee Dee out and about acting like they didn't know each other, would strike up a conversation, Gypsy and Nick would start dating shortly after with the blessing of Dee Dee and they would have their happily ever after. The day came, Nick was set to meet up at the movie theater where Gypsy and Dee Dee were seeing the remake of Cinderella, Gyspy was even dressed up as Cinderella per her moms request. Things didn't go according to plan, Nick sat down next to them and Dee Dee immediately thought it was creepy that a grown man was seeing Cinderella and even made comments to him. He left the theater, shortly after Gypsy excused herself to go to the bathroom. The 2 of them met up in the romantic handicap bathroom, the first time ever being alone and in person together. Naturally they got it on right then and there.
After the failed attempt, Gypsy grew desperate. She couldn't take it anymore, it was either going to be her life or her mothers life. She then asked "Victor" a question, "Victor, will you kill me mother." Victor accepted. Gypsy thought of different ways that they could do it, but ultimately she stole a knife from Walmart and decided stabbing her would be the easiest. Gypsy bought Nick/Victors bus ticket, booked his hotel room and got everything ready for him. Victor said I'm going to rape your mother when I'm done, Gypsy told him no I can't let you do that instead you can rape me after.
The night of June 10th, the plan was set in motion, Dee Dee went to sleep, Gypsy met "Victor" at the door, he put on his gloves and told her to go to the bathroom to wait and while in there he wanted her to shave completely and greet him naked. Gypsy went into the bathroom and covered her ears, but she could still hear her mom crying out for her as she was stabbed multiple times.
Afterwards they had sex and then cleaned up, but did a terrible job of it, they left a ton of evidence behind. They took a cab a few hours later to the hotel Nick had been staying in. The were going to take a bus back to Wisconsin to be with Nicks family the next day, but due to a shortage of seats they had to wait a couple days. In the meantime Gypsy was taking Vicodin and Xanax to calm her nerves, she says she wasn't herself. She was worried about the bus station having metal detectors so they mailed the murder weapon to Nicks house and when they got there they would get rid of it. Well as you know they made it to Wisconsin. Gyspy wanted people to know about her mom so she created those Facebook posts so she would be discovered and could have a proper burial and that they would think Gypsy was just another missing person, but as you know plans didn't go the way they had hoped.
Both of them confessed as to what happened to Dee Dee. I won't go into the trials, but you can find them online if you wish to see them. Nick has never been officially diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, but during his hearing Psychologists were brought in to testify that he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and his attorneys argued that this made it difficult for him to discern fantasy vs. reality. Regardless he was sentenced to life in prison.
Gypsy told everyone the truth about her mother, she plead guilty and was sentenced to 10 years. The prosecutor said it would have been easy to try to get life in prison, but Gyspy had "extraordinary and unusual circumstances." Gypsy says she is not happy her mother is dead, and that she loved her, but the abuse was never going to end. That she is working on forgiving her mother and forgiving herself. She is more free today inside prison than she ever was with Dee Dee Blanchard, she is a healthy 27 year old looking forward to a bright future. Her and Nick are not together. She became engaged recently to a man that was a pen pal of hers, her family has met him and approves. She says she now knows what true love really is. Maybe she will get her happily ever after all.
Hard to believe this is the same person.
Resource: Analysis of a murder podcast
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