Sick with Love: The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

What seemed like a loving mother-daughter relationship for a long time was actually a very toxic relationship. This is the story of a young woman who saw no other way out than to have her mother murdered.

It’s 2008 in Springfield, Missouri: Clauddine Blanchard and twelve-year-old Gypsy Rose have just moved here. Hurricane Katrina robbed them of their old home and all their belongings. She accepts her new neighborhood well and admires her mother for the loving care she gives to her sick daughter.

Gypsy Rose has suffered from a heart defect since birth and was confined to a wheelchair from the age of five because her muscles were wasting. At the age of twelve, the girl had to be fed through a stomach tube and she no longer had any hair on her head. She can barely survive. Because she cannot under any circumstances become infected with a virus, her social circle is limited to just her mother.

The residents of Springfield are touched by their plight and want to help. They raise donations and a charity provides the two of them with a house. The media also accompanies mother and daughter on their journey; Gypsy becomes a role model for other sick children in the US and gives them hope.

In 2010, a Springfield resident woke up in the middle of the night to his doorbell ringing. The now 14-year-old gypsy stands at the door and asks him to drive her to the hospital. He is amazed that Gypsy can suddenly stand on her feet and takes her home, where Clauddine gratefully welcomes her. Mother Blanchard explains to the neighbor that the girl is confused by all the medications. When asked whether her daughter is in a wheelchair, she answers that Gypsy can now take a few steps on her own, which is a big milestone. What could in retrospect be interpreted as the first sign that something was wrong in the Blanchard household was quickly forgotten at the time.

Until the big shock came on June 14, 2015: the neighbors called the police, they were worried. They haven’t seen or heard from Clauddine in days. Shortly afterwards, the house is surrounded by officers and cordoned off. It’s a crime scene now. The victim: 48-year-old Clauddine. She was found dead in her bed, stabbed seventeen times in the back. There is no sign of the gypsy for the next 24 hours.

When the officers finally find Gypsy, they are surprised because the girl, described by neighbors as a vulnerable, suffering creature, is currently walking with her boyfriend and seems in good spirits. What police discover in the course of their investigation will make waves far beyond the borders of the US.

Mother Clauddine did not use drugs to nurse her daughter back to health, but instead made her sick. All the ailments the gypsy supposedly suffered from were caused. The real patient was Clauddine herself, who suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

For example, the stomach tube mentioned above had the practical side effect for Clauddine that Gypsy did not notice what her mother was feeding her. This tube had to be replaced every six months during a painful operation. Clauddine had shaved her daughter’s hair on the pretext that she was suffering from leukemia and that her hair would soon fall out anyway. Because she also felt that her child was drooling too much, Gypsy had her salivary glands removed during a procedure. Various operations were also performed on the girl’s eyes and ears. In the documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest,” Gypsy will later say that her mother invented so many diseases that she couldn’t possibly remember everything.

To prevent the fraud from being discovered, the two visited more than 100 different doctors. Allen told Clauddine that the paperwork and health insurance cards had been destroyed during the hurricane. When Gypsy found a health insurance card one day, she was surprised when it said she was born in 1991. Her mother made her believe she was four years younger.

As soon as someone got suspicious, they changed clinics. Meanwhile, Gypsy was instructed to keep her mouth shut during examinations and not to move her legs in the wheelchair. The medications her mother gave her caused her teeth to fall out and had almost unbearable side effects. Nevertheless, Gypsy remained silent all these years, believing that her mother did this out of love.

A year before mother and daughter moved to Springfield, a research physician by proxy noted a suspicion of Munchausen syndrome in his file. However, he did nothing for fear that no one would believe him. Because Clauddine regularly requested access to files, she learned of the doctor’s suspicions and took action.

Mother Clauddine abused the gypsy not only medically, but also in other ways: she tied her to a bed – sometimes for two weeks – and beat her with a coat hanger. When Gypsy asked questions, her mother became angry and manipulated her. And even though Gypsy had a cell phone and a laptop, she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone because her mother wouldn’t allow it.

Nevertheless, she started surfing the Internet secretly as soon as her mother went to sleep. She met a young man named Nicholas on a Christian dating platform and fell in love with him.

Her mother eventually caught her talking to Nicholas – what happened next cannot be judged with certainty. The mother allegedly threatened to break her fingers with a hammer. But Gypsy didn’t let that stop her and continued writing with Nicholas. Only later would she learn that he had already been convicted of public masturbation, disturbing public order and concealed carrying of a weapon.

They came up with a plan to meet up: when Clauddine went to the cinema with Gypsy, Nicholas was there too and they pretended not to know each other. The two so-called strangers started talking and since they were in public, Clauddine couldn’t interrupt them. Before the movie started, Gypsy went to the bathroom, where she met Nicholas and the two slept together.

Moments later, the two think about how to eliminate Clauddine. At that point, Gypsy no longer saw her mother as her protector – she was actually afraid of her.

One evening in June 2014, Nicholas entered the Blanchards’ home with the provided key and was handed a knife, gloves and duct tape by Gypsy. Her lover sneaked into the sleeping mother’s room and brutally stabbed her to death while Gypsy covered her ears in the bathroom. The two then stole $4,000 cash from the safe and went to a motel to celebrate. According to their own statements, they did not expect to be caught at all.

And they didn’t exactly keep a low profile on social media either. It was their behavior online that made them the target of the investigation in the first place. For example, in a post on her mother’s Facebook page shortly after the murder, Gypsy wrote: “The bitch is dead.” The same profile then followed again in the comments: “I slaughtered this fat pig and raped her sweet, innocent daughter. Her screams were so damn loud. LOL.”

During the police interrogation it became clear relatively quickly what had happened. Because Gypsy cooperated well with the authorities and was not only the perpetrator but also the victim in this story, she was sentenced to a relatively short prison term of ten years for complicity in murder. However, Nicholas was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison on parole in December 2023 and has since been released. She has since shared her life with 8.3 million followers on Instagram.