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‘I just wanted..’, Gypsy Rose Blanchard says murder of her abusive mother was ‘the only way out’
In 2016, Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, she got an early ticket out of jail after serving 85% of her decade-long term.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison last week after serving eight years in prison for her mother's murder. The 32-year-old Missouri woman recently opened up on reaching the breaking point after facing years of abuse at the hands of her mother, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. On Friday, Gypsy told Good Morning America that despite plotting to kill her mother, she “didn't want her dead.”
Claudine was stabbed to death in 2015 by Gypsy's then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn. Gypsy convinced Nicholas, who is currently serving a life sentence in prison, to kill Claudine. She supplied him with a kitchen knife and hid in the bathroom while Nicholas killed Claudine.
“I don’t believe my mother was a monster. She had a lot of demons herself that she was struggling with,” Gypsy told GMA. Reflecting on her decision to plot her mother's murder, she said, “I didn’t want her dead. I just wanted out of my situation, and I thought that was the only way out.”
In 2016, Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, she got an early ticket out of jail after serving 85% of her decade-long term. During the interview, she admitted to having “a lot of regrets.” Gypsy also said that she doesn't have any “excuses” for what she did.
When asked about how she feels about getting a shorter term than Nicholas, who is incarcerated for Claudine's murder, she said, “Well, I’m sure that we both have a lot of regrets. All I can really say is that I did my time, [and] he’s doing his time for his part. And I wish him well on his journey.”
According to experts, Gypsy's mother showed signs of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological illness which caused her to project her daughter with false medical issues. Claudine forced Gypsy into a wheelchair and convinced her that she was a patient of leukaemia and muscular dystrophy. She also lied about her actual age, removed her teeth and hair, and fed her through a tube in her stomach.
The case gained medical recognition after Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. At the time of Claudine's murder, Gypsy was addicted to painkillers. Both, she and her ex-boyfriend, were high at the time of the murder. Gypsy, who is now sober, told the ABC interviewer, “I don’t blame drugs. I don’t blame anything. I don’t make excuses.”
