Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who was abused for years by a mother who forced numerous fake illnesses on her, is released early from prison after serving eight years of a decade-long murder sentence.
Blanchard, 32, has been paroled and is scheduled to be released on Dec. 28, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed Friday. Local branch in Missouri Ozarks first was the first to announce the news on Thursday.
Blanchard, whose story was portrayed in the 2019 Hulu series “The Act,” has been in custody since 2015 for her role in the suspected murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard The diagnosed case had Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Experts said during the trial that this mental illness was the cause fabricate What she claimed were her daughter’s various illnesses, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and brain damage due to a premature birth. She also unnecessarily forced her child to use a wheelchair, shaved her head to mimic the side effects of chemotherapy, and gave her medication that caused severe tooth decay, all while collecting gifts and donations from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and other charities sick children.
After Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her Springfield, Missouri home, her daughter admitted to conspiring with her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to carry out the murder while hiding elsewhere in the house as he attended the elder’s life woman put an end to it.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard pleaded guilty Second degree murder, while a jury found Godejohn guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
In an interview with ABC News’ “20/20” in 2018, Blanchard said prison was more liberating than life with her mother, who she eventually discovered had fabricated her various illnesses.
“In the prison where I previously lived with my mother, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t have friends. I couldn’t go outside, you know, and play with friends or anything.” Blanchard said. “Here I feel like I’m freer in prison than when I live with my mother. Because now I can…just live like a normal woman.”