By: Jawahir Mohamed

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a victim of munchausen by proxy, was sentenced to a 10 year prison sentence for killing her mother (Dee Dee Blanchard). But what was actually happening behind all of the attention, donations, and heartfelt from society?

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Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard, pictured when Gypsy Rose was still a child. PHOTO: COURTESY OF INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY.

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Dee Dee Blanchard grew up with a history of lies, her parents were never a big fan of her. The family claimed that growing up she would steal from them as a payback when things wouldn't go her way and they accused her of committing fraud. Her family also believed that she had a thing for murder—her stepmother, Laura, claimed that Dee Dee tried killing her by poising her. Not only did she poison her stepmother but her family claimed that she killed her biological mother; like mother, like daughter. 

Dee Dee started diagnosing Gypsy with illnesses at around three months old, this included sleep apnea, muscular dystrophy, ear and eye problems, epilepsy, and cancer.

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However, Gypsy was perfectly healthy.  Her behavior points to Munchausen syndrome by proxy which is a psychological disorder where a person makes up medical symptoms of a child in their care to get sympathy and attention. 

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DEE DEE WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE DOCTORS OF GYPSY’S NONEXISTENT ILLNESSES BECAUSE SHE USED TO WORK AS A NURSE'S AIDE.

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She knew so much medical terminology and doctors have to rely on what patients say so they were inclined to believe her. However, Dee Dee was not able to convince all doctors. When she was taking Gypsy to see a pediatric neurologist, Bernando Flasterstein, he was immediately suspicious of Dee Dee. He took tests on Gypsy though those tests all came back negative and he saw inconsistencies on Dee Dee’s stories about Gypsy. Flasterstein talked to one of Gypsy’s previous doctors and suspected that Dee Dee had munchausen by proxy but never reported it to social services because he thought no one would believe him. 

June 14th, 2015 Dee Dee was stabbed to death by Gypsy’s boyfriend, Nichloas Godejohn. Gypsy and Nicholas conspired to kill Dee Dee so Gypsy can be free from her mothers disgusting wrath; both are now in prison. However, Gypsy doesn't regret what she did because she feels freer in prison than at home.

 

 

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“THIS TIME IS GOOD FOR ME, I'VE BEEN RAISED TO DO WHAT MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME TO DO. AND THOSE THINGS AREN’T VERY GOOD FOR ME. SHE TAUGHT ME TO LIE, AND I DON’T WANNA LIE. I WANT TO BE A GOOD, HONEST PERSON.”

— GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD

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Additional Image Citations:

(1) ET Online

(2) Biography.com