Welcome back to the Deep Dive. I have been staring
at this stack of files for the last three days,
and I have to admit, I'm having a hard time organizing
my thoughts. I get that. Usually when we look
at a case, there's a clear villain, a clear victim,
and a timeline that, you know, it makes sense.
There's a logic to it, even if it's a terrible
logic. Exactly. But this, this file, the murder
of D .D. Blanchard and the case of Gypsy Rose,
it feels like looking into a funhouse mirror.
Every time you think you understand what you're
looking at, the reflection just it completely
distorts. It creates a profound sense of cognitive
dissonance. That's really the only way to describe
it. Yeah. You're presented with two realities
that absolutely cannot coexist. Yet for 20 years
in this quiet neighborhood in Missouri, they
did. Side by side. On one hand, you have the
saintly mother and the sick child, beloved by
everyone. On the other, a prison warden and a
hostage. And the really scary part is, to the
outside world, those two realities looked identical.
And that's what we need to unpack today. We aren't
just here to retell the true crime story that
everyone kind of knows from the headlines. I
want to understand the mechanics of this deception.
Right. How did it work? How do you fake muscular
dystrophy for two decades? How do you fool actual
surgeons into removing healthy organs from your
child? And I really want to understand how a
community that prides itself on being close -knit
can look at a house of horrors and see a Disney
movie. It's a study in psychology for sure, but
it's also about medical system failure and ultimately
about survival. And it all hinges on one incredibly
jarring catalyst. June 14, 2015. The day the
Facebook post appeared. Exactly. Up until that
precise moment, the illusion was perfect. It
was seamless. And then... On Dee Dee Blanchard's
own Facebook account, the same account where
she posted all these photos of charity trips
and medical updates. Right, the happy, brave
mom and daughter stuff. That's the one. A status
update appears. It's succinct, it's vulgar, and
it is absolutely terrifying. That bitch is dead.
Just like that. I remember seeing the screenshots
of that in the case file. It's so visceral. It's
not a cry for health. It feels more like a scream.
It is. And the comments underneath. I mean, you
can see the confusion unfolding. The neighbors
are confused. They're asking, DeeDee, are you
hacked? Some are even joking about it at first.
Because the idea of violence associated with
DeeDee and Gypsy was just... It would be like
seeing a profanity -laced tirade from Mother
Teresa. It just didn't fit the schema that they
had built up for years. But that post was the
crack in the dam. The very first one. And it
transformed what should have been a simple welfare
check into a full -blown homicide investigation.
So to understand how we got to that post and
to the body they eventually found in the bedroom,
we have to go way, way back. Yeah. Because D
.D. Blanchard didn't just... spawn into existence
in that pink house in Springfield, Missouri.
She had a history. I'm looking at these records
from Louisiana, specifically Jack Bay. And the
family dynamic here is, well, it's dark. It is
deeply troubled. Claudine Didi -Pitre grew up
in deep Cajun country. And if you look at the
interviews with her family, her stepmother, her
siblings, there was always something a little
off. A manipulative streak. A manipulative streak,
yeah. But it goes beyond just being difficult.
There are allegations in the family history that
suggest Dee Dee was experimenting with poison
long before Gypsy was even born. You're talking
about her own stepmother, Laura. Yes. The family
has gone on record more than once stating they
believe Dee Dee was poisoning Laura's food. With
what? With Roundup. Roundup. The weed killer.
The weed killer. I mean, that's not subtle. That's
like chemical warfare in the kitchen. It's brutal.
And the story is that Laura became chronically
mysteriously ill while Dee Dee was living with
her. The symptoms, the vomiting, the weakness,
they were consistent with poisoning. And the
pattern, this is what we need to flag right away.
Yeah. So when the family confronted Dee Dee about
her behavior or when she felt cornered in any
way, she did not. She fled. She ran. And once
she was gone, Laura's health miraculously improved.
So it establishes a baseline right from the start.
Dee Dee views illness not as a tragedy to be
overcome, but as a tool, a weapon. And then she
meets Rod Blanchard. Right. She's 23, working
as a nurse's aide. He's only 17. A kid. He's
a kid. They meet at a bowling alley bar. It's
this classic small -town whirlwind romance that
moves way, way too fast. They get married in
1990. But Rod, he seems to wake up pretty quickly.
He realized he was in way over his head. I mean,
he was 17. He said later that he got married
for the wrong reasons. Which seems to be a theme.
Right. It was a pregnancy scare that wasn't real.
And then shortly after, a real pregnancy. But
by the time Gypsy Rose is born in July of 1991,
they are already separated. Rod is out of the
house. But, and this is a really critical distinction
we need to make early on. He wasn't a ghost.
He didn't just disappear. No, absolutely not.
He was not an absent father. The narrative Dee
Dee spun later was that he was a deadbeat, an
alcoholic, this monster who abandoned them. But
the financial records, they tell a completely
different story. Rod Blanchard was paying $1
,200 a month in child support consistently. Which
in the early 2000s for one child is a lot of
money. It's a significant amount of money. He
was sending gifts. He was trying to call. He
was trying to be involved. But Dee Dee was the
gatekeeper. She controlled all the access. There's
this one detail about the phone calls that just
breaks my heart. Rod calls on Gypsy's 18th birthday.
Yeah. He wants to wish his now adult daughter
a happy birthday, a major milestone. And Dee
Dee just stops him cold. She tells him, don't
mention her age. She thinks she's 14. Justin.
Yeah. How does a father even process that? What
do you do with that information? It puts him
in this terrible, terrible bind. Dee Dee tells
him that Gypsy is mentally delayed, that she
has the mind of a child, and that reminding her
of her actual chronological age causes her immense
distress and confusion. So if he wants to be
a good dad? If Rod wants to speak to her, if
he wants to be a good dad and not upset his fragile
daughter, he has to play along with the lie.
He has to participate in the infantilization
or risk being cut off from her entirely. So she
weaponized his own desire. not to hurt his daughter.
Precisely. It's a masterclass in manipulation,
a really sick one. Let's talk about how the medical
construction began, because this didn't start
with a wheelchair and a feeding tube. It started
much, much subtler than that. It started at three
months old. DD became convinced that Gypsy had
sleep apnea. Which is, I mean, it's a common
fear, right? New parents worry about their baby's
breathing. It happens. Absolutely. But here's
the divergence point between a worried mother
and a dangerous one. She takes the baby to the
hospital. They do the sleep studies. They hook
her up to all the monitors overnight. And the
results? The data is clear. The baby breathes
fine. There is no apnea. She's a healthy infant.
The normal parent would be throwing a party.
Well, thank God she's healthy. Exactly. Relief.
But Dee Dee isn't relieved. She's frustrated.
She rejects the diagnosis of health. And this
sets up the loop, the pattern we see for the
next 20 years. The pattern is when a doctor says
nothing is wrong. Dee Dee doesn't accept it.
She finds a new doctor. She engages in this aggressive,
relentless doctor shopping. And the list of ailments
just, it snowballs. I'm looking at this timeline
from the file. It goes from sleep apnea to unspecified
chromosomal disorders, then muscular dystrophy,
epilepsy, hearing problems, vision problems.
It's an escalation of visibility. What do you
mean by that? Well, sleep apnea is invisible.
Nobody can see it. But muscular dystrophy requires
props. It requires a walker and then eventually
a wheelchair. The wheelchair. That's the symbol
of this whole case, isn't it? When did that start?
Very early. By the time she was a toddler, she
was already being put in a walker. Then the chair.
Dee Dee told her she was too weak to stand. Can
you imagine the conditioning? It's absolute.
If you are told from the time you are conscious,
from your earliest memories, that your own legs
will fail you, that they will collapse if you
try to stand. You don't try to stand. You sit.
You believe it. You believe it's a fact of your
existence. And then Katrina hits. 2005. And nature...
in all its destructive power, gave D .D. Blanchard
a gift. A horrible, perfect gift. They were living
in Slidell, Louisiana at the time. Right. Hurricane
Katrina just devastated the area. Their apartment
was damaged. But for D .D., the floodwaters were
the perfect eraser. Because medical records don't
float. Exactly. When they were airlifted to a
shelter and eventually relocated to Missouri,
D .D. had a completely clean slate. She could
walk into any new doctor's office and say, muscular
dystrophy, epilepsy, and leukemia, but I'm so
sorry all the files were lost in the flood. And
who is going to challenge a Katrina refugee?
It would be monstrous to do so. The sympathy
factor was just off the charts. They were airlifted
out, and a doctor at a special needs shelter
was the one who suggested they move to the Ozarks,
first to Aurora, then to Springfield. And when
they land in Missouri, I mean, talk about rolling
out the red carpet, the community didn't just
welcome them, they practically adopted them.
They were the perfect victims. A tenacious, loving,
single mother who had lost everything. A frail,
sweet, sick child with this little squeaky voice.
It just... triggered every protective instinct
in that entire community. And the material support
that followed is, frankly, staggering. Habitat
for Humanity built them a house. The famous Pink
House, custom -built with a wheelchair ramp and
even a hot tub for gypsies' atrophied muscles.
A hot tub. A hot tub. And it wasn't just the
house. I was reading about all the perks. They
were getting free flights to Kansas City for
medical appointments via charitable pilots. They
went to Disney World multiple times. They got
backstage passes to meet Miranda Lambert through
the Make -A -Wish Foundation. It was a lifestyle.
The illness was the currency, and they used that
currency to buy this life filled with gifts and
attention and sympathy. And to keep the currency
valuable, the illness had to be severe. But this
required intense isolation, right? She couldn't
let anyone get too close. No, because... Closeness
breeds scrutiny. If anyone got too close, they
might start asking questions. Like the neighbors.
Especially the neighbors. She told everyone in
Springfield the story about Rod being a deadbeat
alcoholic who was, you know, maybe even dangerous.
She effectively cut the supply line of information.
Completely. If the neighbors had known Rod was
this decent guy sending checks every month, they
might have called him. Hey, Rod, just wanted
to let you know Gypsy looks a little better today.
And Rod would say, what do you mean? She's not
sick. The lie dies with one phone call. So she
made sure no one ever had a reason to make that
call. It was strategic isolation. OK, let's move.
into what you call living the lie we've established
the setup now i want to get into the gritty day
-to -day reality of what was happening inside
that pink house yeah because medical abuse is
such a sterile clinical term it is what was happening
to gypsy was torture It was systematic physical
dismantling. I mean, let's just look at the physical
reality versus the fiction she created. Gypsy
was a healthy young woman. She was about five
feet tall. She had normal muscle tone, or she
would have if she'd ever been allowed to walk
and run and move. But Dee Dee shaved her head.
Why? What was the logic there? She told Gypsy
and everyone else that her hair would just fall
out anyway because of the powerful medications
she was taking for her cancer and all her other
ailments. So she shaved it to keep it clean and
neat. But it was really about the look. It was
100 % about the look. It was about stripping
away her identity as a young woman and marking
her as a patient. A bald head on a child or a
young woman immediately reads as sick to everyone
who sees it. It's a powerful visual cue. And
the teeth. I remember the photos from the evidence
files. Her teeth were just crumbling. They were
gray and black and broken. It was horrific, widespread
decay. Dee Dee blamed it on Gypsy's poor hygiene
or said it was a side effect of seizure medication
she was supposedly taking. But the reality was
much simpler. The reality was she was feeding
a healthy adult woman Pediasure through a feeding
tube. Pediasure is basically sugar water with
vitamins, right? For kids who need to gain weight.
It's very, very high in sugar. And that sugary
liquid would sit in her mouth and combined with
a total lack of proper dental care because Dee
Dee controlled the toothbrush, the toothpaste,
everything. It just rotted her teeth right out
of her head. And eventually they were all extracted.
Most of them, yes. Let's talk about that feeding
tube. She had a port, a G -tube, surgically installed
in her stomach. A peg tube, yes. Surgically implanted.
For a girl who could chew and swallow perfectly
fine. And we know she could eat. We know she
could eat because in secret moments, late at
night, she would sneak cupcakes or pizza that
neighbors had brought over. But in public, D
.D. would hook her up to the bag of Pediasure.
It was a prop that required invasive surgery
to install. This is where I just get so stuck
on the medical system, the salivary glands. This
story, it keeps me up at night. Explain to me
how a doctor, a surgeon, agrees to remove the
salivary glands of a child who doesn't have a
drooling problem. This is perhaps the most damning
example of how Dee Dee learned to manipulate
the mechanics of medicine. She played the game
better than they did. She did. She claimed Gypsy
drooled excessively, which, to be fair, can be
a choking hazard for someone with legitimate
muscle weakness. Now, Gypsy didn't drool. So
before the doctor's appointments... She created
the symptom. She created the symptom. She would
use a topical anesthetic. Like... Like, original
for a toothache. Something much stronger, most
likely. Something she stole from a hospital or
hoarded from a prescription. She would numb Gypsy's
mouth and gums completely. Oh, my God. Think
about when you go to the dentist and you get
a shot of Novocaine. You can't feel your lip.
You can't control your own saliva. You drool.
So she drugs the kid's mouth, drags her into
the doctor's office, and says, Look, Doctor,
see. She's drooling everywhere. And the doctor
sees the drool. He sees the wet shirt collar.
He sees the exhausted mother constantly wiping
her daughter's chin. He trusts the evidence in
front of his own eyes. He doesn't think, did
the mother just numb her child's mouth? Of course
not. Why would you think that? He thinks the
salivary glands are overactive. So they trade
it. First, they tried Botox injections to paralyze
the glands. But Dee Dee, of course, claimed that
wasn't working. So she pushed for the permanent
solution. Removal. Complete surgical removal.
They surgically remove. healthy organs based
on a theater performance. They did. And Gypsy
woke up from surgery with chronic dry mouth.
Unable to produce enough saliva, which creates
a whole host of other dental and digestive issues
down the line. It is, and I don't use this word
lightly, it is mutilation by proxy. And the control
wasn't just physical. It was so deeply psychological.
The hand holding. In every picture, every video,
you see Dee Dee holding Gypsy's hand. It looks
like affection. It looks like, oh, she's such
a protective, loving mama bear. But it was a
signaling system. It was a leash. gypsy explained
later that dd had a code a gentle squeeze meant
i love you or good job you're playing your part
well and a tight squeeze a tight squeeze meant
shut up right now and a really hard painful squeeze
meant you're gonna pay for this when we get home
so while she's smiling at the camera for the
local news she's physically threatening her daughter's
hand out of view and gypsy is terrified she knows
that if she says the wrong thing If she uses
her big girl voice instead of the high -pitched
squeak that Dee Dee insisted on, there will be
severe consequences. The voice. That high, cartoonish,
almost Mickey Mouse voice. That wasn't real.
No, that was trained. It was an affectation.
Dee Dee insisted she speak like a little child
to match the mental age Dee Dee claimed she had.
If Gypsy's voice dropped into a normal register,
she was immediately harshly corrected. It was
all about performing helplessness. This leads
to the question everyone asks. It's the first
comment on every YouTube video about this case.
It's always some version of, why didn't she just
stand up? Why didn't she just walk out of the
house and say, mom, I can walk? And that cordion,
while totally understandable from the outside,
it ignores the absolute totality of the conditioning.
You have to try and put yourself in Gypsy's headspace.
Which is almost impossible. It is. She has been
told since birth that she is broken. She didn't
go to school after the second grade. Her entire
education came from Harry Potter books and her
mother's lies. She was completely isolated from
any objective reality. Completely. And Dee Dee
told her lies that carried, in Gypsy's mind,
the weight of law. She told Gypsy, So she believed
she had no voice. legally or otherwise she believed
she had no legal standing as a person she believed
she had cancer she believed she needed the oxygen
machine to breathe at night it's a variation
of stockholm syndrome but it's so much deeper
because she never knew a life before the captivity
the captor was her creator exactly but there
were cracks The facade wasn't bulletproof. There
were these moments where the truth almost leaked
out. And I want to spend some real time on Dr.
Bernardo Flasterstein. This is the pivotal what
if of the entire saga. It really is. It's 2007.
Right. Dr. Flasterstein is a pediatric neurologist
in Springfield. Dee Dee brings Gypsy in and she's
doing her usual routine. She has muscular dystrophy.
She has seizures. Here's the long list of ailments.
But Flasterstein, he's different. He's diligent.
He's a scientist. He doesn't just listen to the
mother's story. He looks at the patient. He runs
the tests. The EMG, nerve conduction studies,
blood work, and MRI. He is looking for the actual
physical evidence of these diseases. And what
does he find? Nothing. Zero. The tests are all
clean. There's no muscle atrophy consistent with
a girl who has supposedly been in a wheelchair
for a decade. And he saw her stand. He saw her
stand up on her own two feet. He knows her legs
were strong enough to support her weight. So
he knows. He knows the diagnosis is false. He
writes in his notes that Dee Dee is not a reliable
historian. He even does something no one else
seems to have done. He calls the previous doctors
in New Orleans. The ones from before the flood.
Yes. And he finds out the original muscle biopsy
from when she was a little girl was also negative.
So he has proof that this is a longstanding pattern
of deception. So here he is. He has a child in
front of him who is being subjected to fake illnesses,
unnecessary procedures. He writes in his notes,
factitious disorder imposed on another. He names
the monster. So why doesn't he call the police?
Why doesn't he call Child Protective Services?
This is the systemic failure that haunts the
medical community about this case. Flasterstein
later explained that he felt he wouldn't be believed.
he was advised by his colleagues to use golden
gloves. Golden gloves? What does that mean? It
means handling the situation delicately to avoid
a blowout. The fear, the very real fear in the
medical and legal community, was that if he accused
Dede of abuse without a smoking gun -like...
you know, video of Gypsy riding a marathon, Dee
would turn around and sue the hospital for defamation
and malpractice. Or just run. Or worse, she would
just grab Gypsy and disappear to another state,
another hospital, and the abuse would continue
under the radar. So the strategy was to play
along. To appease her. The strategy was to keep
them in the practice. To slowly, carefully peel
back the layers of the lie. To say, hey, maybe
we don't need this medication anymore. To try
and wean them off the fiction. But Dee Dee is
a predator. And a predator senses a trap. Exactly.
She somehow found his notes. She saw the words
factitious disorder. She saw the doubt. And she
did exactly what Dr. Flasterstein feared. She
never went back. And because he didn't make an
official report? No flag followed her to the
next doctor. She just started fresh somewhere
else. That is infuriating. Golden gloves implies
you're trying to win some kind of delicate boxing
match. But this wasn't a sport. It was a hostage
situation. It highlights the extreme vulnerability
of our medical system to a bad faith actor. The
entire system is built on the assumption that
parents want their kids to get better. It has
no defense mechanism for a parent who is actively
invested in their child staying sick. There was
another missed signal, too. The anonymous call
in 2009. Right. Someone tipped off the police.
They called and said, hey, these people are using
different names, different birth dates, and by
the way, the girl looks perfectly healthy. So
the police go to the pink house. They knock on
the door. Dee Dee answers. And she spins the
narrative that she had prepared for exactly this
moment. The abusive ex -husband story. She tells
them, my ex -husband is an abusive monster. We
have to use different names and dates to hide
from him so he can't find us and hurt Gypsy.
And the police just buy it. Well, you have to
picture the scene. They look at the wheelchair
ramp. They look at the sick, frail -looking girl
with the shaved head. They look at the terrified
mother who seems to be protecting her child at
all costs. And they buy it. They close the file.
If they had made one single phone call to Rob
Blanchard. Just one. Mr. Blanchard, we've been
told you are hunting your family. And he'd say,
no, I'm at work. I'm sending them child support
checks. The whole thing ends right there. But
they didn't make the call. Gypsy, meanwhile,
is growing up inside this prison. She's a teenager,
then a young woman in her 20s. Hormones, curiosity,
the internet. You can't suppress that forever.
She starts to rebel. It manifests as this desperate,
desperate need for connection with the outside
world. She sneaks online late at night. She goes
into chat rooms. And she starts trying to find...
A boyfriend. Someone to rescue her. There was
the incident at the sci -fi convention in 2011.
That was a major turning point. She met a man
named Dan online. They arranged to meet at this
local convention, and Gypsy actually tried to
escape. She snuck away and went to his hotel
room. This was her break for freedom. It was.
But Dee Dee was always watching. She had a sixth
sense for it. She tracked Gypsy down. She intervened.
She produced the fake birth certificate showing
Gypsy was a minor, even though she was actually
19 at the time. So she threatened the guy. Threatened
him with police action for kidnapping a minor.
The man, terrified of being charged with a sex
crime, back off immediately. And the punishment
for that escape attempt. It was brutal. Dee Dee
took a hammer and smashed Gypsy's computer and
her phone right in front of her. And then the
physical restraint escalated dramatically. Gypsy
alleges she was chained to the bed for two weeks.
Chained. Chained or tied. And starved. And threatened
that her fingers would be broken with a hammer
if she ever touched a computer again. There's
one detail I found in the deep dive research
that really shocked me. The BB gun. It's often
forgotten, but it's so important. Gypsy actually
shot her mother. With a BB gun? Yes. At some
point, she got her hands on a BB gun. And in
her isolated world, she thought it was a real
gun. In a moment of absolute desperation, she
shot Dee Dee ten times with it. She was trying
to kill her. She was trying to end it. But of
course, the BBs just stung her. They left welts.
Dee Dee didn't die. And what did Dee Dee do?
Tellingly, she didn't go to the hospital. She
didn't call the police on Gypsy. She told the
neighbors it was a robbery attempt by a stranger.
She spun it right back into their victim narrative.
That shows that Gypsy was willing to use violence
long before Nick Godejohn ever showed up on the
scene. She was desperate. She was a trapped animal
chewing off its own leg to get out of the trap.
And when the BB gun failed, she realized she
needed something stronger. Or, more accurately,
someone stronger. And that's when Nicholas Godejohn
enters the picture. Right. they met on a Christian
singles dating site. Which is deeply ironic considering
where this all goes. Nick is not your typical
suitor. He had a documented history of significant
mental illness, autism spectrum disorder, a very
low IQ, and a history of disturbing behavior,
including an arrest for indecent exposure. He
told Gypsy he had a dark side. And Gypsy, who
was just starving for any kind of affection or
attention, she latched on to him. They built
this entire world online. Late at night, after
Dee Dee passed out from her medication, they
would video chat for hours. It became this intense
feedback loop of fantasy. What kind of fantasy?
There were BDSM themes, a lot of role -playing.
Nick had multiple personas. A good side? and
an evil vampire side named Victor. Gypsy played
along with it. She created her own personas,
like Ruby. They talked about eloping, about having
babies, about this perfect life they'd have together.
But it wasn't just online. They did meet once,
right? The Cinderella date. March 2015. Just
a few months before the murder, Nick traveled
to Springfield. They staged an accidental meeting
at a movie theater showing Cinderella, so Dee
Dee wouldn't be suspicious. Oh, look, a nice
young man who likes the same movie as us. And
this is where the physical relationship started.
In the movie theater bathroom, yes. Gypsy led
him to the bathroom. They had sex. It was quick.
It was in a public restroom. But for Gypsy, it
sealed the bond. It made him real. He was tangible.
And if he was real, then maybe the escape plan
could be real, too. So the plan shifts from let's
run away together to let's eliminate the obstacle.
Yes. The murder plot begins to form. June 2015.
Gypsy steals cash from Dee Dee's safe. Ironically,
it was the child support money Rod had been sending.
She mails it to Nick for a bus ticket. He arrives
in Springfield. The day of the murder. Walk us
through the logistics of that night. It's chillingly
mundane. Gypsy and Dee Dee go to a doctor's appointment
that morning. They go to a Dollar General to
buy nail polish. They come home, watch a movie.
Dee Dee goes to bed. And Gypsy lets him in. She
unlocks the front door for him. She has the supplies
ready. Duct tape. gloves, and a large serrated
knife that she had picked out. Does she do the
stabbing? No. She hands the knife to Nick. She
tells him Dee Dee is in the bedroom. Then she
goes and hides in the bathroom. She covers her
ears so she doesn't have to hear her mother scream.
And Nick goes into the bedroom. And he stabs
Dee Dee 17 times. It's a brutal, messy, violent
attack. Dee Dee screams for Gypsy. Gypsy doesn't
come out until it's quiet. And what happens next?
This is the part that disturbs a lot of people.
The aftermath. inside the house. They didn't
flee immediately. They stayed for a bit. There
was sexual intercourse in the house, most likely
in Gypsy's room, while her mother's body was
cooling in the bedroom next door. Gypsy later
claimed this wasn't consensual. She claimed she
was in shock that she just did what Nick wanted
to keep him happy and calm. Nick claimed it was
a consensual celebration of their new freedom.
It remains a major point of contention between
them. Then what? They cleaned up some of the
blood, took about $4 ,400 from the safe, mailed
the murder weapon to Wisconsin to hide it, and
then they took a Greyhound bus north. Leaving
the body to rot. For days. In the summer heat.
Which brings us full circle. Back to the start.
The Facebook post. Why post it? They were in
Wisconsin. They were way clean. Why announce
the death? Gypsy explained this later. she said
she couldn't bear the thought of her mother just
lying there undiscovered for weeks she wanted
her to be found she wanted a proper burial for
her despite everything it's a bizarre remnant
of the bond they must have shared it is it was
a digital flare gun a way to say look over here
something terrible has happened so the police
finally go in They find the body. They see the
empty wheelchairs. The community immediately
goes into panic mode. Gypsy is missing. She's
been kidnapped. She needs her meds. The manhunt
was intense. The working theory was that a predator
had killed the mom and snatched the disabled
daughter. But then Aaliyah Woodmansey steps up.
The neighbor. Aaliyah was a young neighbor who
Gypsy had secretly confided in. She knew about
the secret boyfriend. She goes to the police
and says, look, I know this sounds crazy, but
she had a boyfriend online. His name is Nick.
Here are the printouts of their chats. And technology
does the rest. They trace the IP address from
the Facebook post. It pings to a house in Big
Bend, Wisconsin. Nick Godigen's house. The police
raid the house. They find them both. And the
moment of truth. Gypsy stands up. She walks out
of the house in handcuffs. No wheelchair. No
oxygen tank. Just a normal, healthy young woman.
Sheriff Jim Arnott holds that press conference.
I can still hear his voice in my head. Things
are not always what they appear. He had to warn
the public, warn the people who are already setting
up GoFundMe pages for Gypsy's Rescue to stop
donating. The reaction in Springfield must have
been nuclear. It was absolute betrayal. You have
to understand, these people felt duped on a massive
scale. They had cried for this girl. They had
given money, time, and resources. One neighbor
said, how could I be so stupid? The Habitat for
Humanity organization was publicly humiliated.
It wasn't just a murder. It was a long con that
made everyone in town feel like an accessory.
And what about Dee Dee's family back in Louisiana?
The ones who suspected the Roundup poisoning
all those years ago. Their reaction speaks volumes.
They refused to take possession of Dee Dee's
remains. Her ashes were eventually mailed to
her father, who flushed them down the toilet.
He flushed her ashes. They said she got what
she deserved and that Gypsy had already served
her time in that pink house. Wow. That is a final
verdict if I've ever heard one. Yeah. So that
brings us to the justice system. The legal system
now has a nightmare on its hands. You have a
murderer who is also a victim of unimaginable
torture. It's an incredibly complex, legal knot
to untangle. Gypsy was the mastermind in terms
of the plot. There's no question. But she was
also a victim of severe, prolonged, documented
abuse. Her defense attorney did a great job.
Her public defender, Mike Stanfield, did a brilliant
job. He went back and got the medical records
from before the flood. He proved the fraud from
the very beginning. And the prison medical staff
proved the rest just by observing her. Right.
Gypsy arrived in jail and she thrived. She gained
14 pounds. In jail. Most people lose weight.
Because for the first time in her adult life,
she was eating real food, not pediatry. Her hair
started growing back thick and healthy. She didn't
need a single medication they thought she did.
The sick child just evaporated and a healthy
young woman emerged. She ended up taking a plea
deal. Second degree murder. She was sentenced
to 10 years in prison. But Nick. Nick didn't
fare as well. Nick went to trial. His defense
team argued diminished capacity. They said, look,
this guy has diagnosed autism. He has a low IQ.
He was completely manipulated by this girl he
loved. He was a weapon that she aimed and fired.
In the prosecution's argument. The prosecution
said he bought the knife. He traveled hundreds
of miles. He's one who physically stabbed her
17 times while Gypsy hid in the bathroom. He
made a choice. And the jury agreed with the prosecution.
They did. First degree murder, life in prison
without the possibility of parole, plus an additional
25 years for armed criminal action. That disparity
in the sentences bothers a lot of people. Gypsy
is out living her life today. Nick will die in
a concrete box. It raises really uncomfortable
questions about agency and culpability. Was Nick
a predator taking advantage of a vulnerable girl
to live out a violent fantasy? Or was he a vulnerable,
mentally ill man who was manipulated by a desperate
survivor? The legal system decided he was the
killer. But ethically, it's incredibly muddy.
So let's talk about the aftermath. Gypsy served
eight and a half years of her 10 -year sentence.
She was released on parole in December 2023.
She said in an interview, I feel like I'm more
free in prison than I was living with my mom.
That quote right there, it sums up the entire
case. Prison was an upgrade. It was an upgrade.
She had friends for the first time. She had a
job. She learned about her own abuse. She got
married while she was incarcerated. And now she's
out and she's a celebrity, essentially. She's
a media phenomenon. a reality TV star. She has
millions of followers on social media. She married
a man named Ryan Anderson in prison, separated
from him very publicly shortly after her release,
and is now reportedly with her ex -fiancé Ken
Urker. It's a complete whirlwind. But what about
the medical community? Did this case change anything?
Have there been any real reforms? There has been
a lot of soul searching. Dr. Mark Feldman, who
is probably the world's leading expert on factitious
disorder imposed on another, or FDIA, calls this
case unprecedented. It's the first recorded instance
of an FDIA victim killing the abuser. And what
about Dr. Flasterstein? He has faced very heavy
criticism. The Golden Gloves approach is now
viewed by many as a clear failure of the duty
to report suspected child abuse. It's become
a cautionary tale for pediatricians. Trust your
tests and your gut, not just the parent's story.
If the evidence doesn't match the narrative,
you have to protect the child, even if it risks
a lawsuit. So here we are. We've unpacked the
fraud, the torture, the murder, and the messy
aftermath. When you take a step back, what does
this all mean? To me, it means we have to rethink
how we view victimhood. We're trained to see
victims as passive as people things happen to.
We're also trained almost instinctively to trust
mothers. This case just subverts both of those
assumptions. It shows a mother's desire for control
can be lethal. It can. And it shows that a victim,
when pushed into a corner with no other options,
can become dangerous. It's the pressure cooker
analogy you hear a lot with this case. It's the
perfect analogy. Dee Dee sealed the lid on that
pot as tight as she could. She turned up the
heat year after year for two decades. Eventually,
the metal shatters. And the shrapnel hit everyone.
I want to leave our listeners with a final thought.
Because we all like to think we would have noticed.
We think, if I was the neighbor, if I was the
doctor, I would have seen the cracks. But would
you? Really? That's the scary part, isn't it?
If you look over your fence and you see a mom
sacrificing everything she has for her sick kid,
you don't see a crime. You see love. You see
devotion. We are socially conditioned to equate
intensive care with good parenting. Dee Dee Blanchard
hacked that social code. She used our own empathy,
our own desire to help against us. So the question
I think you have to ask yourself is, in a world
where we are taught to believe what we see, how
do we ever distinguish between a caregiver and
a captor? Because in this case, for 20 years,
they wore the exact same face. Things are not
always what they appear. Thank you for diving
deep with us on this one. It's a heavy file,
but a really important one. We'll catch you on
the next deep dive.