Claudinne also known as "Dee Dee" and her 19-yea-old daughter Gypsy Rose Blanchard gripped the nation in 2015 with their tragic tale.
It goes down in U.S. history as one of the most recognized cases of Munchausen by Proxy. USA Today defines munchausen by proxy as a psychological condition that causes a caregiver to engage in attention-seeking behavior by making the person or people under their care ill or making people believe they are ill.
From the age of 8, Blanchard's mother Dee-Dee was able to fool friends, family, and Gypsy herself. The mother created a ruse portraying Gypsy Rose as a severely disabled child with several medical disorders. According to BBC, this included epilepsy, leukemia, and muscular dystrophy. She sought support from her community and multiple charities to help facilitate treatment from numerous doctors. Subjected to unneeded medical treatments, Blanchard was confined to a wheelchair and was always seen with an oxygen tank despite being able to walk and breathe on her own. Dee Dee regularly presented her daughter to be much younger than she was in effort to gain sympathy from the public.
Following years of medical abuse, Gypsy Rose had had enough and with the help of her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, they plotted her mother's murder. On June 9, 2015, the plan was set into motion. Godejohn traveled to the mother's residence in Missouri and was let inside by Blanchard. Knife in hand, he hid in a bathroom before attacking and stabbing an unsuspecting Dee Dee 17 times.
BBC goes on to report that the couple fled and were later caught 600 miles away in Wisconsin where the boyfriend resided. Gypsy pleaded to second-degree murder and was ordered to serve her sentence in Missouri's Chillicothe Correctional Center. Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and is currently serving a life sentence. Gypsy, now 32, has officially been granted parole after only serving 8 years of her 10-year sentence.
Stepmother, Kristy Blanchard revealed to Newsweek their family plans to celebrate her release from prison. "We're going to do Christmas, got a Christmas tree. Got her so many gifts. I went overboard, actually," Kristy said. "We're also doing a spa day[...] We're going to go get her a pedicure, manicure, facial, haircut, colored if she wants, you know, the works, bring her shopping. She can't wait."
Newsweek also went on to say that Blanchard has expressed remorse for her crime. She's due to be released on Thursday, December 28.
