Investigators dig into mysterious lives of daughter, dead mother
Their legal last name almost certainly isn’t Blancharde.
Gypsy Rose Blancharde’s father claims on social media that her last name is Blanchard. But sometime during their days from Louisiana to Missouri, Gypsy Blancharde and her mother, Claudinnea “Dee Dee” Blancharde, dropped the “e” in their last names.
In the late 1990s, the older woman pleaded guilty to bad check charges with the last name of Blanchard.
It was one of many deceptions that the two women allegedly perpetuated while receiving many financial benefits such as a Habitat for Humanity home and a sponsored trip to Walt Disney World because Gypsy Blancharde was suppose to be confined to a wheelchair while battling leukemia and a host of other serious medical issues.
Gypsy Blancharde is now accused of convincing her boyfriend, who she met through the Internet, to fatally stab her mother while she was sleeping inside their Springfield home.
Gypsy Rose Blancharde, 23, of Springfield, and her “paramour,” Nicholas Paul Godejohn, 26, of Big Bend, Wisconsin, are being held in a jail in Wisconsin on $1 million bond each. They were arraigned Tuesday on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
The woman, who walked into court, was in tears and spoke in a small voice during her court appearance. Authorities said she doesn’t seem to have significant health issues and has no trouble walking on her own.
Gypsy Blancharde received treatments from Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. She and her mother stayed at Hope Lodge, which is run by the American Cancer Society.
“We are shocked and saddened by this incident,” the nonprofit said in a statement, adding that due to privacy laws they cannot say anymore.
A variety of articles and newsletters over the years were written about Gypsy Blancharde and her mother. Her age fluctuates in the articles including the exact nature of her medical issues. When she was about 8 years old, she was named honorary queen of a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. She was chosen by the Ronald McDonald house and they said she had spina bifida.
A 2001 article from a newspaper in Thibodeaux, Louisiana, said Gypsy Blancharde was “vision and hearing impaired. She can no longer walk, is fed through a feeding tube and has some brain damage from seizures.”
Photos show her looking like a sickly old woman with thick glasses and missing teeth. Some allege that her mother forced her to take seizure medication, which she didn’t need, that caused her teeth to fall out.
The women claimed they lost everything during Hurricane Katrina and fled from Louisiana to Missouri. Whenever they were confronted by discrepancies such as birth certificate or medical records, they would apparently claim they were lost during the hurricane.
Officials with Habitat in Springfield say they stand by their selection process and appears the mother and daughter met the organization’s criteria. They said it’s too early to speculate if Habitat was duped.
Prosecutors will have to determine whether extenuating circumstances caused Gypsy Blancharde to snap, such as physical or mental abuse by her mother, or if this was a cold-blooded, calculating murder by a sinister woman, former prosecutors say.
“It appears to be premeditated,” former Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders said Wednesday.
He added the allegations that this wasn’t done in the heat of the moment by a woman against her mother “makes it a fairly rare for a homicide.”
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said what seems to be fact in the case now may not turn out to be that way.
“What we’ve got to do is let the investigators and prosecutors unpack what really happened here,” Zahnd said. “In the end, their job is to present the truth to the jury.”
A Louisiana cousin is convinced that Gypsy Blancharde wanted to get away from a domineering mother who forced her to live a stifling charade to make money and couldn’t bear losing her meal ticket to a young man.
“Finally she snapped and she was done,” Bobby Pitre said. “It pushed her to that point.”
