20/20 - True Crime Vault: Gypsy Blanchard

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

A mother devoted to her disabled daughter is found murdered, and her daughter is missing. As police investigate, they uncover a tangled web of secrets, lies and betrayal. One where no one is as they seem.  Originally Broadcast 01/05/2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Deborah Roberts. Welcome to the 2020 True Crime Vault. Each week, we reach back into our archives and bring you a story we found unforgettable. Only a true psychopath could do this. A pool of blood coming from his head. Somebody had been paid to kill me. Why would you want your husband killed? Take a listen. Coming up.

The gripping story that became a national obsession. It's just chaos. It set off a rollercoaster story. An inspirational young girl who grabbed the hearts of millions. Celebrities like Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Elijah Wood. Rallying around the princess in a wheelchair. Happy endings are not just in fairy tales. You're the reason I was born, to be your mama.

Completely dependent on her doting mother. Then... We found Dee Dee Blanchard, deceased of a violent nature. What happened with your mom that night? I don't know. What happened with my mom? The twist no one saw coming. How can this young, sick girl who can't walk be involved in her mother's death? And who is the mystery man who came between mother and daughter? One of the most elaborate con games ever.

He wants to get out. Ain't gonna happen. I'm John Quinones. It was a story so inspiring, it almost seemed like fiction. A loving mother and her disabled daughter facing challenges together with grace and devotion. And then Dee Dee Blanchard was found murdered. Her daughter Gypsy vanished.

And soon it became apparent everything people thought they knew about the pair was wrong. As Amy Robach first reported in 2018, theirs was a story of secrets, lies, and betrayal where the lines between abuser and victim are blurred, and no one is as they seem. Home movies capture the vibrant spirit of a young teenage girl. So where are you going today? I'm going to Children's Mercy Hospital to see my dentist for my teeth. Full of enthusiasm and effervescence, but behind the smiles,

life for Gypsy Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee, is one replete with hardships and challenges. Gypsy is in a wheelchair. They were local darlings. I mean, they were the shining star in this town of people who can outlast adversity and get through everything. The mother-daughter duo are local celebrities, the subject of countless local news profiles and articles. Gypsy and her multiple illnesses and diseases, leukemia, muscular dystrophy, she had learning disabilities,

had not been able to be out of a wheelchair since she was five years old. And so the community really embraced them. Dee Dee's originally from Louisiana, a one-time beauty queen. Who's our DC military queen? Ms. Claudia P. And nurse's aide. She marries Rod Blanchard at age 24. Together, the couple welcomes a beautiful baby girl.

Perfectly healthy, pretty little baby. Named her Gypsy Rose. I was excited and very scared. I'm not going to lie, I was scared. I'm 18 years old and I got a baby here, so. But she was beautiful and perfectly healthy. Yeah, she was. Nothing wrong with her. She looked perfect. I see you. You want to blow me a kiss?

Very good. But the relationship was far from perfect and the couple broke up. Not long after, Petiti was saying that she was sick, problems sleeping, epilepsy, and it just progressed from there. Leukemia, paralyzed, muscular dystrophy, and she would have seizures. Gypsy was probably seven, eight years old.

She's in a wheelchair now. She needs a feeding tube. Was Didi a good mother? I told Dee Dee she was the best mother. There's no way I can do what she's doing. You have a sick child. It's constantly 24-7 taking care of her and everything. I mean, I always praised her and told her, good job.

Rod and his new wife, Christy, would have sporadic visits with Gypsy, but they are never alone. You know, all the visits, Dee Dee had to be there the whole time. Some never felt right about it. Just Didi was so controlling of her. This is the last photo taken of Rod with his daughter

before fate would seemingly deal Gypsy and Didi another cruel blow, leaving the pair displaced and depleted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In some areas, the water is now 20 feet deep. Their home ravaged by the storm and floodwaters, they took refuge at this nearby special-needs shelter. I've learned from Dee Dee was that they were homeless, no place to go. So Mercy Hospital outed them up on the helicopter

and hung them up. after and hang them up. They were evacuated here to Springfield, Missouri, birthplace of Route 66, a tight-knit community in the buckle of the Bible Belt. With Dee Dee, a full-time caregiver, they're forced to piece together a life, largely from donations, disability payments, and child support from Gypsy's dad. A turning point seems to be when the family gets this home, located at the aptly named intersection of Hope Road and Volunteer Way. I remember my mom had gave me this little glass house, and she said, one day this will

be real. And now it finally is. the Blanchards moved into that house built by Habitat for Humanity a wheelchair ramp was built just for her she was like one of the happiest people I had ever met and yet she was the most sick that I had ever met at the same time in between hospital stays Gypsy frequently jet sets across the country. Ball games, galas, the most magical place on Earth, Disney World. Make a wish for taking her down to Orlando. All expenses paid and everything.

Right now, I'm in Cinderella's house eating some royal mashed potatoes. She even got to meet country superstars Miranda Lambert and then-husband Blake Shelton. Miranda Lambert came to Springfield a few times, and I think she gave Dee Dee and Gypsy money. Yes, she did. Look at this $3,500 check from the singer's personal account. But that wasn't all. What must I do? Check her out posing with her favorite actors, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin from Lord of the Rings. Go!

Frodo! Come on, Frodo! It sounds like a really awesome life, but I mean, it's not worth, like, what condition her health was in. But in private, Gypsy just wants to be a regular teen and find love, according to friend and neighbor Aaliyah Woodmansey. She would show interest in, like, different boys and try to ask me advice on, like, you know, how do you approach them? How do you, like, kiss a boy? Aaliyah says Mom Didi didn't approve of the girl talk. It was like, my daughter has the mentality of a child,

like, you're talking to her about teenage girl talk. It was like, my daughter has the mentality of a child, like you're talking to her about teenage girl things. But Gypsy ignores her mother going behind her back and sets up this online dating profile. She soon connects with this man and pours out her soul. I need to tell you something. I'm no model. I have a medical condition, so I can't walk. I have a chair I use.

Is that an issue? Why would that be a problem? You are an angel in my eyes. It will never make any difference in how I see you from the inside out. And with a few strokes of the keyboard, a secret online relationship blooms. But when we come back... Ain't gonna happen. Mother and daughter are nowhere to be found.

Oh my gosh, somebody has kidnapped Gypsy. The little pink house becomes a crime scene. Things are not always as they appear. Next. On I Was Prey, the podcast. Listen to the life or death experiences of people who have survived animal attacks, natural disasters, and deadly parasites alike. Hear how a triathlete is attacked by a shark while training and manages to escape after being pulled underwater. And how a hiker in Alaska survives a 1,000-pound moose attack after the animal crushes her limbs.

I Was Prey features audio from hit shows like This Came Out of Me, Nature's Deadliest, and Still Alive, and Monsters Inside Me. Listen to I Was Prey wherever you get your podcasts. Two of Springfield, Missouri's most renowned and revered citizens, Gypsy Blanchard and her mother, Didi, taking center stage. I believe there are angels among us. At a Relay for Life event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. You're the reason I was born, to be your mama. for the American Cancer Society. You're the reason I was born, to be your mama. But the sickly and often secluded Gypsy believes she too has found her guardian angel,

not at home in her mother, but online with a man, Nick Godejohn. She was in love with him. She thought that he was going to be the prince that came and finally saved her and got her out of her locked tower and they'd live happily ever after. Look at some of the messages the love-struck teenager sends a friend about her prince charming. I met a wonderful guy. He's my first boyfriend. He gives me poems and is so

romantic. She was talking about this new guy that she was now in love with and that they had met on a Christian dating site and that they had met on a Christian dating site and that they were already planning on naming their children after him. We want a snow wedding in a gazebo with red and white roses. Honestly, what I was thinking whenever I saw these messages is that these were just like fantasies and dreams. But on their shared Facebook page, the harsh reality is what people saw. But on their shared Facebook page, the harsh reality is what people saw. Dee Dee presented as a very doting mother.

This was her child. She knew she was sick and she was just going to love her unconditionally until she couldn't anymore. But then comes the day when family friends Kim and David are horrified when something very different popped up on Gypsy and Dee Dee's Facebook page. A very vulgar post. It said the bitch is dead. I instantly took it as their Facebook account had gotten hacked. Then we saw the second one, which said, and I raped her sweet daughter too.

Kim and David race to the little pink house. No one seems to be home, but their new car is in the driveway. We circled the house, knocked on all the doors and windows. I called the police and let them know that we needed a wellness check done on a disabled mother and daughter. And they said that they would send somebody out. Good breaking news. The body of 48-year-old Claudinia Blanchard has been found.

Gypsy is still missing this morning. And a huge police presence. The crime tape was up around the house. And you just can't forget that pink house with the wheelchair ramp.

I see a stretcher come out of the house and there's a sheet over a body. And I just start sobbing. I thought it was Dee Dee. We found Dee Dee Blanchard, deceased and of a violent nature. We're still actively looking for Gypsy. Then we really panicked because, oh my gosh, somebody has kidnapped Gypsy.

Tell me about the moment when you heard that something happened to DD and that gypsy was missing you know I was shocked I was like what really couldn't understand it why would somebody do this to this child you know no wheelchair no medication they could just leave her for dead authorities move quickly and hit pay dirt when they traced the IP address of those profane Facebook posts to a small house 600 miles away in Big Bend, Wisconsin, at the home of Nick Godejohn, Gypsy's boyfriend. Who is Nick Godejohn? He functions at about a 15 or 16 year old. He is a kid that sort of is similar to Gypsy from the standpoint of not really having a normal social interaction history

that most kids would have had up to that point. They go to the house. There's some sort of standoff for a period of time. They have to bring the SWAT team there. When authorities enter the home, they take both into custody. We started hearing from various sources that Gypsy wasn't a victim. She wasn't kidnapped, that she was actually involved in this somehow. It was beyond shocking. We have located Gypsy in another state. She is okay.

We do have another person of interest in custody. I'm Detective Hancock. I'm a free kid at Sheriff's Office. Your mom's dead. Wait, what? She's deceased, all right? Now, what I want to ask you, did you have involvement in this? Hang on. Listen to me. What happened with your mom that night? I don't know. I don't know what happened with my mom at all. Okay. You know what happened to your mom,

okay? You know exactly. I'm not going to play to your mom, okay? You know exactly. I'm not going to play around with this, okay? While Gypsy keeps Mom in the interrogation room, what does the other one say? What happens next leaves everyone in Springfield stunned. Go back to the newsroom and it's just chaos. Okay, this story has completely done a 180. I bet my mouth was... And what a transformation.

You'll hear from Gypsy herself. Next. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care?

DeeDee Blanchard has been found murdered in her home. Authorities have located her daughter, Gypsy, 600 miles away, and they suspect she may have had something to do with her mother's death. But the question is exactly what and why? Once again, here's Amy Robach. This is the house where Claudinia Blanchard was found stabbed to death. It set off a rollercoaster story. What would drive Gypsy to want to plan the murder of her own mother?

Local teenage hero Gypsy Rose Blanchard could be the most unlikely murder suspect ever. A supposed paraplegic suffering from muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, leukemia, and confined to a wheelchair, is now under arrest. Both she and her boyfriend, Nick, charged with killing her mother. People were saying, well, maybe she was tricked into doing this. She met somebody online. He wanted to take her away, and the mother wouldn't let her.

They fought. Somehow the mother was killed. It was still the prevailing thought that she was really innocent. The princess outfits now replaced with an orange jumpsuit. My vision was still of this fragile little girl, and that was shattered. It was hard to wrap your brain around, how can this young, sick girl who can't walk be involved in her mother's death? So it was shocking beyond shocking.

Things are not always as they appear. The people of Springfield might think they are witnessing a miracle, when astonishingly... Sid Wisconsin versus Gypsy Blanchard. Check out Gypsy's first appearance in court. Yes, that's her walking. No wheelchair, no signs of distress, not even a limp. Gypsy crying through the proceedings and shocking many of those who knew her because she was walking and not using a wheelchair. I still did not want to believe that she could walk when they showed her on the news. In fact, I rewound it and

played it multiple times because that's not who we knew. Just when you thought the Dee Dee Blanchard murder case could not get any stranger... We have covered stories where you find out that someone you thought was so sweet and innocent and turns out there's a different side. But it was like a prize fight where it's just one hit after the other.

I was happy she was walking. Big red flags. I felt so stupid. If she can walk, what else have we been lied to about? Later in this hour, we will show you the astounding extent of those lies. But one thing that is real, her voice. That voice is something you don't forget. 2103 West Volunteer Way, Springfield, Missouri.

There were comparisons to cartoon characters saying that she was forcefully talking like a baby. It sounded a little like maybe she had had some helium. Take a listen as Gypsy calls her father from jail. Take a listen as Gypsy calls her father from jail. Daddy, I understand that we haven't had a chance to get close in a long time, probably my whole life. I have a lot of questions, obviously. I'm confused. The stuff they say in the news is horrible and not true. You know that I love my mama and you know that I would never hurt her. Just know that I'm innocent and know that I'm my mama, and you know that I would never hurt her. Just know that I'm innocent and know that I'm still your little girl.

At her arraignment, Gypsy enters a plea of not guilty to her mother's murder. We are here in Missouri. We're driving to visit Gypsy Rose in prison. The big question, is she a murderer or is she a victim? In prison, the big question, is she a murderer or is she a victim? When she walks into the meeting room, I'm immediately struck by her radically changed appearance. She has long, curly hair, makeup, and her once frail frame has filled out. Who is Gypsy Rose today? More confident, more understanding of the world, and I think a better person. Or at least working on it.

She tells me about the genesis of that relationship with Nick Godejohn, meeting him online and quickly falling in love. Even hatching an ill-fated plan to introduce him to overprotective Dee Dee at a screening of Cinderella. How did it go? Awful. Oh my God. She got jealous because I was spending a little too much attention on him and she had ordered me to stay away from him. And needless to say, that was a very long argument that lasted a couple weeks.

An argument that lasted a couple of weeks. What does that look like? Yelling, throwing things, calling me names, bitch, slut, whore. Did you hate your mother at that point? I didn't hate her. You wanted her dead. Yes, but it was not because I hated her. It was because I wanted to hate her. You wanted her dead. Yes, but it was not because I hated her.

It was because I wanted to escape her. Gypsy says while Dee Dee took her to the hospital to have her feeding tube replaced, seen here, the last known image of Dee Dee alive. Nick traveled to Springfield from Wisconsin. That's him checking into a local Days Inn motel where he waited for Gypsy to give word Deedee is asleep. The s*** is going to go down tonight. Just the gloves and knife.

Duct tape, too, to muffle her. I'll pre-cut it. How are you feeling? Honestly, terrified. But then I had taken some medication that was not prescribed to me to calm me down.

Gypsy says she hands the items to Nick and hides in the bathroom while he goes into the bedroom, matching Nick's story to police. Okay, I will admit it. I did actually stab her. I will admit it.

So when you're stabbing Dee, where is she at? She's on her stomach. Did she scream or holler? Yeah, she did. What was she saying? First she said, help. And then what did she say? And then she called up for Gypsy, but Gypsy didn't do anything.

I heard her scream once. And there was more screaming, but not like the kind in a horror film, just like a startled scream. And she called out to my name about three or four times. And at that point, I wanted to go help her so bad. But I was so afraid to get up. It's like my body wouldn't move, and then everything just went quiet. Just moments later, incredibly, the couple says they have sex on Gypsy's bed,

Dee Dee's body in the room next door, before taking a cab back to Nick's motel, and there they are, caught on surveillance cameras. It's disconcerting to see how quickly they were able to turn off any kind of impact from the murder. It seemed there was no effect on them. Hi. Gypsy then shoots video of them in the hotel room. He's naked in bed. And this is just hours after Gypsy heard her mother screaming for her help, and Nicholas killed her.

It's like they shut a door, and that part of the life is over, and now we're on to our new life. Were you afraid of getting caught? That never crossed my mind. I honestly didn't think we're on to our new life. Were you afraid of getting caught? That never crossed my mind. I honestly didn't think we were going to get caught. Oh, but they did. Captured time and again on video cameras, every step documented in receipts and eyewitnesses. This is like a crime I call Hansel and Gretel, where you drop the clues along the way as you go. I mean, they couldn't have laid it out better for the police.

Look at them at the Greyhound bus counter and here hopping into Janice Buttram's taxi cab. She was in a very dark black hoodie, but she had a very odd looking wig on. looking wig on. It was an old looking share wig, which I found very unnormal. The girl looked 12, sounded 5, and had a 40 year old attitude because she was not afraid to tell me off. I just knew there was something wrong. And there's something else. The couple's attempt to hide the

murder weapon. He has the murder weapon mailed from Springfield, Missouri to his house in Wisconsin. I mean, it's like, could this get any better if you're the detective? All wrapped up with a bow. And then in separate interviews, you've got them basically admitting what they have done. So you have confessions plus all this evidence. It might seem like an open and shut case, but next we go inside the little pink house. It was filthy. The thing that shocked me the most

was the closet inside Gypsy's house. And what is found behind this locked door might unlock more than a decade of Dee Dee's closely held secrets and hold the key to freeing Gypsy. I was like, holy s***. Y'all need to get it over here right now and look at this. Stay with us.

I'm going to Children's Mercy Hospital. Gypsy Blanchard is caught in a web of secrets and lies. Even her age is in dispute. My medical insurance has 23. Okay. So how old actually are you? Let's get this. 19. 19?

Okay. Me and my mother are Hurricane Katrina survivors. Okay. So how old actually are you? 19. 19, okay. Me and my mother are Hurricane Katrina survivors. Okay. And my birth certificate was washed away in Katrina. Okay. And unfortunately, they messed up, a long time ago, they messed up the paperwork. She's behind bars and charged with murdering her mother, 48-year-old Dee Dee Blanchard, known to the community as a loving caregiver for a sickly gypsy. How did you go from this to this?

I only see it as a fall from grace. I thought back then that I was a good person, and now I just see it as it was a fraud, and I made a horrible mistake. A horrible mistake because it turns out that little pink house on Hope and Volunteer Way was actually the nerve center from which the so-called doting mother perpetrated an elaborate scam, preying on the sympathies of countless Good Samaritans. We have unearthed the appearance of a long financial fraud scheme along with this tragic event. Celebrities, charities, even cartoon characters all conned. I was disappointed that I had been duped.

That's why I caution anyone not to put money in their accounts until we kind of figure out the extent of their deception. What medical conditions did you believe you suffered from? Leukemia, asthma, both vision and hearing impaired, muscular dystrophy, and seizures. Did you always know you could walk if you wanted to? Yes.

She told you you had to stay in a wheelchair when you could walk. How did she convince you to do that? I was so young, so me looking up to her so much and just believing that she knows best, I didn't question it. Did you believe you were sick? There are certain illnesses that I knew I didn't have. I knew that I didn't need the feeding tube. I knew that I could eat and I knew that I could walk, but I did believe my mother when she said that I had leukemia. Why did you think you had cancer? Because I was taking lots of medications

that mom said that they were for cancer. And she would shave my hair off and said, it's going to fall out anyway, so let's keep it nice and neat. But it didn't fall out. No. Did that make you raise an eyebrow? She always would shave it before it would grow in. Tell me about Dee Dee. What kind of mom was she? Very protective. Do you think she protected you? No, not in certain ways, yes. In other ways,

no. I think that she was very sick in her mind. For a long time, I believed we were best friends. And when I was younger, she was my best friend. She was your only friend. Yes, other than my stuffed animals. And so I thought that she was a great mother. No complaints. We got along so perfect. You know, I saw her as an angel that can do no wrong.

But as Gypsy got older and became curious about life outside the little pink house, she says mom Deedee began exerting more control. What happens when she got upset with you? It would go into an argument that would last a couple days, or it could be something where she wouldn't feed me for two days or so. Was she ever physical with you? It started to be physical in 2011.

She would hit me with a coat hanger sometimes. Did you ever fight back? No. Because I was too afraid to. Gypsy says she did try and run away once, but Dee Dee found her a few hours later, and there were consequences. She physically chained you to the bed? She physically chained me to the bed and put bells on the doors and told anybody that I probably would have trusted that I was going through a phase.

And to tell her if I was doing anything behind her back. Gypsy's father Rod says Dee Dee had other ways to keep Gypsy from running away. After she got 18 or whatever, I mean she had she had the papers written up on on Gypsy saying that she was incompetent and everything so if anything happened you know she could claim that she's incompetent and they'd bring her back home. So she was always like looking two steps ahead, just in case this, you know, have this in place. Did you ever consider in a public place, if you stood up out of your wheelchair and walked, Dee Dee's fraud would be completely exposed?

I honestly didn't think about that. It never crossed your mind? No. So instead of planning an elaborate escape, you planned a murder? Yes. Public defender Mike Stanfield has the extremely daunting task

of coming up with a legal defense for Gypsy. The evidence against her keeps mounting. In my 10 years of practice, this case by far had the most discovery that I've ever had. Close to 100 CDs worth of papers, photos, and digital information. But it's a field trip alongside Gypsy's dad and stepmom he says proves to be the most helpful. While the outside of Gypsy's house is pretty and pink, the inside, a chaos of clutter. Frankly, it was a disaster. There was stuff everywhere. I could tell Dee Dee did a lot of just hoarding and stuff piled up, I mean, like chest high to the back of the room.

One of the bedrooms had so many items piled into it that you couldn't even walk into it. But amongst the photos on the wall and the den of disorder, some clues. The thing that shocked me the most was the closet inside Gypsy's house. I was like, holy s***. Y'all need to get it over here right now and look at this. I mean, my mouth dropped.

From the top to the bottom, full of so many medications. This isn't your ordinary medicine cabinet. It's Dee Dee's personal pharmacy, a large linen closet fully stocked. She had even written on several of the bottles of Gypsy's medication as if she was writing it for a child. For the anti-seizure medication, it would say, shaky baby.

The organization of the medications was shocking to me because in every other area of Dee Dee's life, it appeared that she had absolutely no organization or cleanliness except when it came to these medications. It let me know from the very beginning that something here was seriously wrong. You're in a better place now than you were before. Wrong because it turns out not only can Gypsy walk, she says she's never been sick. Not cancer, not epilepsy, not anything. The only thing

that I have wrong with me is I have a little bit of a lazy eye. Not all the time, but I have better vision in this eye than I do that eye. That's it. That's it. That's it. Nothing else. Nothing else. When we come back, operations, hospital stays, more than 100 doctors.

Did they fail her? How did they not see through her? Next. They like taking pictures, that's for sure. Rod and Christy Blanchard try to piece together the puzzle of his daughter Gypsy. This is more. Hunting for clues in photographs and home videos. You're the reason I was born.

Oh God, that makes me sick. To sort out fact from fiction. Do you think that Dee Dee came up with this idea? These movies generated sympathy, which generated news coverage, which generated money and free things. See this one right here? I don't know if she meant for anybody to see that one. I am about to dive off our porch into the pile of snow. You ready?

Everybody could clearly see she's moving her legs. But those old pictures only begin to tell the story. Too many to freaking count. The paper trail is where the really fresh breadcrumbs are in this Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. Hope Kids, Jason's Dreams for Kids, Kids Wish Network. So she would actually look up foundations and stuff that she can hit up and get help with. Fake birth certificate. This one says she's born in 95. Everything else is correct except the year.

You can totally tell that she changed the date. But she didn't change it here. So it was 91, she changed it to 93, and then she turned the 3 to a 5. She just wanted to make Gypsy younger and younger. And that's not all Dee Dee forged, located under her bed. It was that prescription pad that Dee Dee stole from the hospital. But while the paperwork might be fake, the pills and procedures were dreadfully real,

including multiple gastrointestinal operations, eye surgeries, even the removal of her salivary glands. Medical records reviewed by ABC News show Gypsy was treated by at least 150 different doctors. Walk me through what that appointment would typically be like. I would have a doll or a stuffed animal that I would play with. And mom would say, you know, don't talk. Just play with your stuffed animal, and we'll do something fun after. The one thing that is absolutely common across every single medical record is that Gypsy never spoke.

Every single medical record says, mother reported, mother states, history by mother. Brain scans, muscle scans, blood tests, cat scans, and you were filthy. So how would she get the doctors to understand when none of it was true? She had a very sweet personality, very convincing. She would call it Southern charm and she would use her Southern charm to get them to be friendly and get on their good side. And then she had no records. Because of Hurricane Katrina, it wiped out all the records, supposedly. The biggest question was, though, how was Deedee able to calm the doctors?

Hospitals we contacted declined to comment, but we tracked down one of her former neurologists, Dr. Bernardo Pflasterstein. My initial assessment, I saw a girl, a 14-year-old girl that was sitting in a wheelchair. Who examined her for muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy and immediately saw red flags. The testing didn't seem to show the same type of disabilities that Gypsy should be showing. There was nothing there to support either. That kind of made me very suspicious. And his suspicion only grew when he told Didi what should have been exciting news. Gypsy's prior diagnoses were wrong.

But the mother was not happy with that. And when she left the office in a storm and told my nurses that I don't know what I'm talking about and that she's not coming back. Dr. Flasterstein ultimately said, I believe that the mother suffers from Munchausen by proxy. That was one of the things that I believe he bolded and underlined in that letter. What is Munchausen by proxy. That was one of the things that I believe he bolded and underlined in that letter. What is Munchausen by proxy? Munchausen by proxy, that's essentially

when a caregiver will fabricate an illness or induce an illness in their child in order to get medical care. Dr. Jamie Kaufman is a board-certified child abuse pediatrician. It's abuse on the child, but it's to obtain attention or some kind of secondary gain for themselves. Sometimes it's financial. It can be. The most common, though, is actually emotional gain.

I look at it kind of like an addict who needs that fix. When you have a suspicion and you think that harm has been caused to the child, you could report that to social services and say, I have a suspicion. I at the time did not think that I'd had enough information just to call. Dr. Pflasterstein didn't call Child Protective Services, but someone else later did. According to this police report obtained by 2020,

a doctor alerted authorities when he could not find any symptoms that support what Deedee alleges to be wrong with her daughter. Two caseworkers later did visit the Blanchard home, but they found nothing out of the ordinary and closed the case. How was Deedee able to get away with this for so long? Most of the time, these mothers are pathologic liars. They're very difficult to detect. They're very manipulative. I think she probably did like most of these parents, these mothers.

She moved around from doctor to doctor. They go to different hospitals and different institutions. That's exactly what she did. After storming out of Dr. Flasterstein's office, she moved Gypsy's care three hours away to Kansas City. Why did your mom do this? I think that she was constantly seeking attention for herself because she didn't feel loved. So let's make this baby girl sick so it forever needs you. And that's what I think it's from.

You know a lot of people see this and just wonder why. Why didn't you say anything? I know. I beat myself up about that all the time. But I have to understand my mind frame back then. I was always so afraid of her, afraid of the consequences after. Now Gypsy and her boyfriend Nick Godejohn have to face the consequences in court with the possibility of life behind bars. Their only selfie together

shows Gypsy dressed as Cinderella, Nick as her Prince Charming. But their happily ever after may never come true. The once loving couple now at odds. There's a big difference between someone who asks someone to kill someone and someone that actually does it. Is there? I think so. Because I would never kill somebody. I would never physically go through with killing somebody.

I can't. My co-defendant was putting my name out there in a bad light. That's Nick himself speaking to me via video conference from jail. It's the first time he's ever spoken publicly. Describe for me what Gypsy's role was in the murder of Dee Dee. She was basically the mastermind behind it all. I was basically a hired hitman in its own weird sense. Do you still love Gypsy?

The reason why I did do this is because I was, for one, so deeply in love with Gypsy at the time. I still do love her. How do you feel about Nick now? If he would have asked me that two years ago, I would have said I'm still in love with him. But now, I don't hate him. I feel sorry for him. Why do you think he did it? He was very much like my mother in certain ways. Both of them were very controlling. And I feel like I was trained my whole life to do as I was told.

We begin with breaking news this morning. Gypsy Blanchard has pleaded guilty to her role in a plot to kill her mother, Claudine D.D. Blanchard. In a courtroom stunner, prosecutors cut Gypsy a deal. How do you plead to the Class A felony of murder in the second degree? Guilty. She's to be sentenced to 10 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. Department of Corrections. Gypsy's mother was holding her a prisoner. Her mother did not allow her to spend any time alone

with any other human being. You're actually a prisoner now. How do the two compare? In some ways they're the same, but now I'm so much more freer. The prison that I was living in before with my mom, it's like I couldn't walk, I couldn't eat, I couldn't have friends. Over here, I feel like I'm freer in prison than living with my mom

because now I'm allowed to just live like a normal woman. Prison isn't normal. No, not for most. But for me, it is. What do you think she'd want to say to you? I don't think it would be anything nice. All I can hope is that from wherever she is, that she still loves me in some small way.

And I want her to know that I am sorry. I'm so sorry. This is Deborah Roberts with an update. Gypsy Blanchard was released from prison in December of 2023 after serving nearly eight years for the murder of her mother. Nicholas Godejohn was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. As of 2024, his case is under appeal. Many of the charities and celebrities who donated money and services to Gypsy and Dee Dee say

they were duped. 2020 profiled Gypsy Rose in January after her release from prison. You can also find that episode on Hulu. Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes of 2020.