Gypsy Rose Blanchard Set to Be Released From Prison
Blanchard, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiring to kill her mother, was granted parole and is set to be released in December
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who in 2016 was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection to the death of her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard, is getting out of prison earlier. On Thursday, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed that Blanchard has been granted parole and will be released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in December, three years early.
According to the Springfield News-Leader and Ozarks First, Blanchard is currently set to be released on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023, at which point she will have already served 85% of her 10-year sentence. After reaching a plea deal with Greene County prosecutor Dan Patterson, which involved pleading guilty to second-degree murder, and being handed a 10-year prison sentence, Blanchard received credit for time served in Greene County jail. RadarOnline.com reports that her early release from prison was allowed under state law that required at least 85% of the sentence to be served.
Blanchard's release from prison will come more than eight years after her mother was found stabbed to death in June 2015, prompting a case that would garner national attention. After Blanchard and her boyfriend, Nick Godejohn, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, it was revealed Blanchard was a victim of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, a rare form of abuse in which a caregiver exaggerates or induces a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. Dee Dee convinced her daughter and those around them that Blanchard was terminally ill, claiming that Blanchard suffered from muscular dystrophy, leukemia, and other ailments — in the process accepting money and donations from charities and other organizations. Blanchard's lawyers said she was "abused" by her mother, including years of unnecessary medical procedures and confinement to a wheelchair.
Sometime around 2012, Blanchard and Godejohn met online. As their relationship grew, and after meeting in person for the first time, the young couple plotted to kill Blanchard's mother. In June 2015, Blanchard let Godejohn into her home in the middle of the night and he proceeded to stab Dee Dee 17 times as she slept in her bed. They were captured days later. For his involvement in the crime, Godejohn was charged with first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Blanchard's story became the center of several documentaries, including the 2019 Oxygen special Gypsy Rose & Nick: A Love to Kill, the HBO documentary Mommy, Dead and Dearest, and Hulu's miniseries The Act, which notably starred Joey King and Patricia Arquette.