How Gypsy Rose Blanchard Landed in Jail and Where She Is Now

The world was shocked by the story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard when it broke in 2016. Most came to learn of the mother with Munchausen’s by proxy and the daughter who killed her either through the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest or the Hulu limited series The Act. Both pieces detail how a community came to learn that Dee Dee was brutally murdered and how her daughter had orchestrated the event.

Once the truth came to light, Gypsy began serving time behind bars in July 2016. By December 2023, Gypsy was a free woman. So, where is she now and what is she up to?

After being released from prison in December 2023, Gypsy went to live with her then-husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, in Louisiana. The two met while she was in prison and tied the knot in 2022, while she was still incarcerated. A few short months after being released, however, Gypsy filed for divorce from Ryan in April 2024, per TMZ.

A lot has changed in Gypsy's life since being released from prison. In addition to splitting from her husband, Gypsy also wrote, Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom, which she published in January 2024. She's also been on and off social media, giving fans a peek into her new life.

In May 2024, Gypsy also stepped out with a new look. While she's clearly moving forward in life, it appears she's still clinging to elements of her past, particularly when it comes to romantic matters. On May 4, 2024, she revealed on TikTok that she had reunited with Ken Urker, to whom she was previously engaged. Ken was Gypsy's pen pal while she was incarcerated, and although things initially didn't work out between the two, Gypsy is now calling Ken her "soulmate."

Gypsy Rose was born July 27, 1991, making her 32 years old. She was 23 at the time of the murder. There was a point in time, however, where the public was unsure of her age because her mother had aged her down several years. In fact, Gypsy’s dad recalls Dee Dee telling him on their daughter’s 18th birthday not to mention her age because "she thinks she’s 14."

Since she was malnourished and overmedicated for much of her life, Gypsy’s small frame helped Dee Dee maintain this deception. She also was able to use their displacement after Hurricane Katrina as a cover when Gypsy discovered a birth certificate with her true birthdate on it and tried to emancipate herself.

Dee Dee also said the floods had destroyed Gypsy’s medical records, which would have revealed her muscle biopsy was negative for muscular dystrophy and that she suffered none of the other medical conditions Dee Dee purported.

From July 2016 to December 2023, Gypsy resided at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri under inmate number 1302048. Though most people’s health suffers with incarceration, her father and stepmother said she "thrived" during her time there, and had even put on weight.

Gypsy is very petite, and her family believes her growth may have been permanently stunted by the medications her mother administered. Thankfully, that seems to have been the only lingering ill effect to being medicated for conditions she didn’t actually have.

In addition to improved nutrition, Gypsy was also able to pursue her GED through Chillicothe’s continuing education programs, and in many ways, she felt she had more freedom in jail than she did when her mother was alive.

"Despite everything, she still tells me that she’s happier now than with her mom," stepmother Kristy Blanchard told the Springfield News-Leader back in February 2018. "And that if she had a choice to either be in jail or back with her mom, she would rather be in jail." That’s pretty understandable if you’re at all familiar with her history.

Until her death, friends and neighbors believed Dee Dee to be the ideal mother, raising a severely disabled young girl living with muscular dystrophy, a seizure disorder, an unspecified chromosomal disorder, and an intellectual disability. Gypsy had barely any formal education and taught herself to read with the Harry Potter series. She was forced to use a wheelchair and often a feeding tube, though she had no legitimate need for either.

The reason for all this medical fraud was that Dee Dee had Munchausen by proxy. While Munchausen syndrome refers to people who compulsively make themselves sick to gain attention and sympathy, a person with Munchausen by proxy makes a family member sick in order to gain attention, sympathy, and admiration as a devoted caretaker.

Dee Dee definitely was successful in that regard. She also profited quite well from sympathy over Gypsy’s perceived plight. They got a home through Habitat for Humanity, countless handouts from the community, free trips to Disney World, backstage access at Miranda Lambert concerts, and an endowment from the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

She also kept Gypsy’s father, Rod, away from his daughter and sold a false bill of goods about his character and involvement in their lives (he sent monthly child support payments consistently and made substantial efforts to be in Gypsy’s life). As Gypsy grew older and more aware of what was going on, she would regularly defy her mother and try to escape her situation. However, she says Dee Dee would resort to physical abuse to keep her compliant.

After Gypsy began sneaking out and using the internet after her mother had gone to bed, she met Nicholas Godejohn online and pursued a relationship with him. Eventually, they conspired together to murder Dee Dee. Nick stabbed a sleeping Dee Dee several times while Gypsy hid in the bathroom.

They fled and, days later, posted to Gypsy and Dee Dee’s shared Facebook, "That B---h is dead!" followed by a longer post saying the unnamed poster had murdered Dee Dee and raped Gypsy. According to Gypsy, those messages were intended to provoke somebody to go to the house to investigate, since her mother’s body had been lying unrecovered for several days.

Though police initially feared the worst for Gypsy, a neighbor who knew about her relationship with Nick told them about Gypsy's secret boyfriend, and the IP address belonging to his phone was linked to the post on Facebook.

During the trial, the truth about Dee Dee’s abuse and deception came to light and sympathies swayed toward Gypsy. The prosecution offered a deal and Gypsy pleaded guilty to second degree murder, accepting a 10-year sentence for the crime. She was released three years early on Dec. 28, 2023.

Nick Godejohn’s trial was delayed multiple times but finally occurred in November 2018. Godejohn had pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he is a "low-functioning person with autism" and had been manipulated by the true mastermind of the crime, Gypsy. However, a jury found Nick guilty of first degree murder. He was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

His lawyers argued for a retrial on the grounds that the jury heard prejudicial evidence about Nick considering raping Dee Dee the night he killed her, as well as the fact the jury heard a psychologist appointed by the state regarding Nick's capacity, but not the defense's psychologist. The judge denied the motion and mentioned that is a matter for a higher court to consider in appeals.