Why We Failed Gypsy Rose Blanchard

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee, pictured on the left. On the right, Patricia Arquette and Joey King play the mother and daughter duo in the new original series The Act, on Hulu. Picture taken from https://www.eonline.com/news/1014549/how-joey-king-and-patricia-arquette-transformed-for-the-act

On June 14th, 2015, sheriffs in Greene County, Missouri received a 911 call checking on the well fare of Dee Dee Blanchard and her disabled daughter, Gypsy Rose. This was after a neighbor had seen a disturbing Facebook status from Dee Dee's account. Police found the body of Blanchard, face down in her bed, with stab wounds inflicted in her back from days before. Her daughter Gypsy, who according to her mother suffered from leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, and many other chronic conditions, was no where to be found.

Facebook posts from Dee Dee only shortly after her murder. Picture taken from https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gypsy-blanchard

Police were able to locate Gypsy in Wisconsin with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn only a day later, and announced to the public that Gypsy was an adult, and did not suffer from any of the conditions that her mom claimed she had. There was public outrage.

Later on, police discovered that doctors in New Orleans as well as Missouri had no evidence that Gypsy suffered from these disorders. A doctor that had previously "treated" Gypsy had suspected that her mother Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder in which a caregiver physically or mentally abuses a child or an elder by faking or exaggerating an illness to get attention. After Hurricane Katrina, Dee Dee and Gypsy were displaced by the storm and benefited from kind charities like Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, and Make-A-Wish Foundation. Dee Dee had also altered her name and information after being accused of poisoning her step mother.

The abuse of Gypsy was beyond the fabrication of her illnesses. When present among others, Dee Dee held onto Gypsy's hand, and squeezed it tight if she ever mentioned anything alluding to the fact that she indeed, was not sick. Later when they were alone, Dee Dee would hit her with open hands or a coat hanger. There was also instances where Gypsy was tied to her bed, and was forced to sleep next to her mother every night while wearing an oxygen mask. Dee Dee in the meantime had blacked out all the windows in the house.

There were also multiple useless and painful surgeries. Gypsy's gums were treated with Botox to stop her drooling that was constructed by Dee Dee who put a topical anesthetic on her daughter's gums before doctors visits. Tubes were put into her ears to control her ear infections. Gypsy was forced to eat through a stomach tube and was given multiple medications that caused her teeth to fall out.

She was never sick. She had been perfectly healthy since she was born.

"I'm free now in jail than I ever was with my mom." 
While her mom would sleep, Gypsy would sneak onto her computer where she created a Facebook account. This is where she met Nicholas Godejohn. The two would Facetime and engaged in certain types of dangerous and sadistic role play in which Godejohn had expressed interest in. Gypsy was hesitant at first, but only complied with him because she was convinced she had finally found her prince charming. Later on in the relationship, Gypsy had confessed to Godejohn that she wasn't like other girls, telling him what her mother had been doing to her for years. This is where they both devised a plan to kill Dee Dee, "I did it to free Gypsy," said Godejohn, who suffered from multiple personality disorder.

After killing her mother, the two fled to Wisconsin and stayed in a hotel, Gypsy recalled an interview for the documentary on HBO, Mommy Dead and Dearest, that she wasn't thinking about what was back at her house in Missouri, all she was thinking about was that she was free.

32 years of her life taken away
In 2017, Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of her mother. She plead guilty to second-degree murder. The year after, her ex-boyfriend Nick was sentenced to life, pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Dee Dee Blanchard.
In 2024, Gypsy will be will eligible for parole, she'll be 32 years old.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard will be released from prison when she is 32 years old. Picture taken from https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/gypsy-rose-blanchard-speaks-prison-murder-conviction-52149021

And here's the real sad thing about all of this, 32 years of Gypsy's life is gone. She'll be 32 when she'll finally get to live her life as a healthy woman.

Her mother Dee Dee robbed her of that. The doctors robbed her that. Her loved ones robbed her of that.

She stopped going to school when she was in second grade. She never got to experience the life of a normal child because her life consisted of visits to the hospital and spending days looking out the window wishing she could be "normal" when she was all along.

Her doctors failed her. While Dee Dee found ways to fill out fake prescriptions, they never questioned what was going on for years. Her father never looked into her medical history, he just went along with what his ex-wife told him and stayed absent in her life. Yeah Gypsy could have reached out to him, but her mother had convinced her for years to hate her father because he was a bad guy, so how could she? She had no way of escaping the hell of the prison that she was already in. No way of escaping the person that her mother was forcing her to be. She had been physically and mentally tortured for years, so of course the only mind set she was going to have at the time was to kill the person that was killing her true self.

Now, I am not in no way saying murder is right. Because it isn't. Murder can be justifiable in cases of self defense. But the justice system failed to recognize that a young woman who had been abused all her life was finally defending herself. According to an online crisis help resource center, "Better Help," "The psychological scars of abuse may take longer to manifest and may last forever if treatment is not received. Some of the most common psychological scars include: Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, depression, acting out (misbehaving and getting in trouble with police), sexual promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse, risky behavior, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mood or personality disorders, fear of relationships, and lack of self-esteem. An average of 72% of victims of abuse have post-traumatic stress disorder." 

The justice system should have recognized that Gypsy needs the help. Daily trips to a therapist in a psychological assessment center could have benefited to her mental health and bettering Gypsy after years of torment. Gypsy is probably seeing someone in jail right now, but she is confined to the experiences of affliction that jail can give, and is getting 10 years of her life taken away.

And this a major hole in the justice system, not just in Gypsy's case, but in many others.

The Act, starring Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee Blanchard and Joey King as Gypsy, premiered this past Wednesday on Hulu with two episodes. The episodes gave an accurate but distressing glimpse of the life that Gypsy endured behind closed doors. The most notable scenes of the two episodes include Gypsy figuring out that she is not allergic to sugar, CPS being called on Dee Dee and forcing her daughter to take sleeping medication, and Gypsy's teeth being removed due to being poisoned by medication she did not need for years. The Act will release new episodes every Wednesday.

Kristy Blanchard, Gypsy's step-mom, told the Springfield News-Leader, "Despite everything, she still tells me that she's happier now than with her mom. And that if she had a choice to either be in jail, or back with her mom, she would rather be in jail.

And I think that says it all.