Gypsy Rose Blanchard will be released from prison eight years after she conspired with her online boyfriend to kill her abusive mother.
Blanchard made headlines after she was arrested along with her then-boyfriend Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn in connection with her mother Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard’s 2015 murder in Springfield, Missouri.
Friends of the Blanchards were shocked to learn of Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s role in the murder because they believed she was physically and mentally disabled and suffered from a wide range of ailments including terminal cancer.
An investigation would later show that Dee Dee forced Blanchard to pretend she was disabled since childhood. Dee Dee had told everyone that her daughter was a teenager with the mind of a 7-year-old to obtain sympathy, disability payments, and gifts from several charities.
Blanchard ultimately accepted a plea deal for second-degree murder and was sentenced to spend three years in prison in 2016. Godejohn, who carried out the brutal stabbing while Blanchard hid in a bathroom, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Officials confirmed on Thursday that Blanchard, now 32, will be released on 28 December, after serving 85per cent of her sentence.
The soon-to-be free convicted murderer told TMZ that she had already bought tickets for a Kansas City Chiefs game on New Year’s Eve, where she hoped to meet Taylor Swift, who is dating the team’s tight end Travis Kelce.
Blanchard said Swift’s lyrics helped her through her trauma and her time in prison and also noted that she was planning to buy tickets for the singer’s October 2024 tour stop in New Orleans.
Penguin Random House has announced that it would be publishing Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom, a retelling of Blanchard’s difficult upbringing and the physical and psychological abuse she endured at the hands of her mother — but this time in her own words. The e-book is slated to be published on 9 January.
“Gypsy saw her story told by others again and again in the media, from news reports and podcasts to TV series,” a news release read. “Now, granted early parole and preparing to start a new life, she’s free to speak directly to her supporters and the world.”
Blanchard’s story was the subject of the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest and Hulu’s 2019 true-crime miniseries The Act.
After authorities were alerted of a post on Dee Dee’s Facebook page reading, ‘That B*** is dead!’, her body was found in her home with multiple stab wounds on 14 June 2015.
The community was initially concerned that Blanchard, who supposedly suffered from leukaemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, and several other chronic conditions, was in danger.
Blanchard was found by police the next day along with Godejohn in Wisconsin. Investigators discovered that Dee Dee had been lying about her daughter’s age and that Blanchard had none of the physical or mental health issues Dee Dee claimed. Dee Dee reportedly had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, forcing her daughter to pass herself off as chronically ill.
