US Woman Who Had Her Mom Killed, Freed From Prison. What's The Story?

Gypsy Rose Blanchard's case from 2015 is one of the most scathing and popular cases in the United States crime history, inspiring several films and TV shows based on it. In 2015, Blanchard pleaded guilty to being an accomplice in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee. She admitted that she convinced her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother, citing years of abuse. They were arrested from Wisconsin where Godejohn is serving a life sentence with no parole. However, Blanchard was released early from prison on December 28.

Blanchard walked out free on Thursday after serving ten years in the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, her home State. While in prison, she gave several interviews detailing the years of abuse by her mother, which led her to the final solution. She has also written a memoir about the ordeal, which will be published soon.

Why Did Gypsy Rose Blanchard Help Kill Her Mother?

If you have been on the "criminal core" or true crime documentary-obsessed side of social media, chances are you have already come across this case. Gypsy Rose Blanchard, now 32 years old, was allegedly abused and deceived by her mother, Claudine 'Dee Dee' Blanchard, to believe that she was disabled.

For years, Blanchard spent her convinced that she suffered multiple conditions including epilepsy, vision impairments and muscular dystrophy. In an HBO documentary called Mommy Dead and Mommy Dearest based on this case, Blanchard’s attorney Michael Stanfield claimed he had never seen anyone going to such great lengths as Dee Dee. “I’ve never encountered anything that is even close to what Gypsy has gone through," he said.

Blanchard suffered from Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (also known as Fabricated or Induced Illness by carers (FII), earlier known as Munchausen Syndrome by proxy), a condition in which a caregiver induces, exaggerates or fakes illness(es) to gain sympathy or attention. The condition makes caregivers take extreme measures to disable their subjects that even doctors cannot tell that it is imposed and not natural.

Dee Dee allegedly let people and doctors believe that Blanchard was younger than she really was, seeking support and treatment from dozens of doctors and charities. She subjected Blanchard to several unneeded medical procedures leaving her genuinely disabled. Blanchard spent her childhood in a wheelchair with a feeding tube and oxygen tank, convinced that she had impairments.

When Blanchard and her boyfriend Godejohn realised that she was, in fact, not disabled, he planned to stab and murder Dee Dee in her sleep. Blanchard admitted that she did not do anything to stop Godejohn, pleading guilty to second-degree murder. However, in a recent interview with People magazine, Blanchard expressed, "Nobody will ever hear me say I'm glad she's dead or I'm proud of what I did. I regret it every single day."

"She was a sick woman and unfortunately, I wasn’t educated enough to see that... She deserved to be where I am, sitting in prison doing time for criminal behaviour," she added. Blanchard wrote a memoir behind bars in which she detailed everything that she went through in childhood. The book, Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom, is set to release next month.

The Missouri Department of Corrections spokesperson Karen Pojmann said, “[Blanchard's] original 10-year sentence started in June 2015, so, barring parole violations and other extenuating circumstances, it’s expected that she’ll be on parole supervision and reporting to a parole officer until June 2025.”