Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard

On June 14, 2015, sheriff's deputies inGreene County, Missouri, United States, found the body of Clauddine"Dee Dee" Blanchard (née Pitre;born May 3, 1967, in Chackbay, Louisiana) face down in the bedroom ofher house just outside Springfield, lying on the bed in a pool ofblood from stab wounds inflicted several days earlier. There was nosign of her daughter, Gypsy Rose, who, according to Blanchard,suffered from chronic conditions including leukemia, asthma, andmuscular dystrophy, and had the "mental capacity of a7-year-old due to brain damage" she had suffered as a resultof her premature birth.

After reading troubling Facebook postsearlier in the evening, concerned neighbors notified the police,reporting that Dee Dee might have fallen victim to foul play and thatGypsy Rose, whose wheelchair and medications were still in the house,might have been abducted. The following day, police found Gypsy Rosein Wisconsin, where she had traveled with her boyfriend, NicholasGodejohn, whom she had met online. When investigators announced thatshe was actually an adult, and was not suffering from any of thephysical and mental health issues which her mother claimed she had,public outrage over the possible abduction of a severely disabledgirl gave way to shock and some sympathy for Gypsy Rose.

Further investigations found that someof the doctors who had examined Gypsy Rose had found no evidence ofthe claimed disorders. One physician suspected that Dee Dee sufferedfrom Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental disorder that causes aparent or other caretaker to exaggerate, fabricate, or induce illnessin a person under their care to obtain sympathy or attention. Dee Deehad slightly changed her name after her family, who suspected she hadpoisoned her stepmother, confronted her about how she treated GypsyRose. Nonetheless, many people accepted her situation as true, andthe two benefited from the efforts of charities such as Children'sMercy Hospital, Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, and theMake-A-Wish Foundation.

Dee Dee had been making her daughterpass herself off as younger and pretend to be disabled andchronically ill, subjecting her to unnecessary surgery andmedication, and controlling her through physical and psychologicalabuse. Marc Feldman, an international expert on factitious disorders,stated that this was the first case he had experienced in which anabused child killed an abusive parent. Gypsy Rose pleaded guilty tosecond-degree murder and is serving a 10-year sentence; after a brieftrial in November 2018 Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murderand sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Dee Dee's background

Early life and marriage of Dee DeeBlanchard

Dee Dee Blanchard was born ClauddinePitre in Chackbay, Louisiana, near the Gulf Coast in 1967, and grewup with her family in nearby Golden Meadow. Blanchard was one offive children of Claude Anthony Pitre, Sr. and Emma Lois Gisclair.

Relatives recalled that she had a habitof stealing from her family, which they speculated was a form ofretaliation when "things didn't go her way". Atsome point early in her adult life, she worked as a nurse's aide. The family expressed suspicion that in 1997 she might have killed herown mother by denying her food.

When she was 24, she became pregnant byRod Blanchard, then 17. They named their daughter Gypsy Rose becauseClauddine liked the name Gypsy and Rod was a fan of Guns N' Roses. Shortly before Gypsy Rose's birth in July 1991, the couple separatedwhen Rod realized he "got married for the wrong reasons".He resisted Clauddine's efforts to get him to return, and she tookher newborn daughter to live with her family.