Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who in 2016 pleaded guilty to murdering her mother, will be out of prison before 2024.
On Thursday, the Missouri Department of Corrections granted her parole three years before her scheduled release, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
She will be released on Dec. 28, 2023, though her original 10-year sentence would have seen her in prison until 2026.
Gypsy, who is now 32, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the gruesome 2015 killing of her mother, Clauddine (Dee Dee) Blanchard.
Gypsy’s then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, was charged with first-degree murder after he stabbed Dee Dee 17 times, leading to her death. In 2019, he was handed a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The case made international headlines — and went on to become one of the most infamous criminal cases of the last decade — because of the case’s peculiar circumstances.
Gypsy, who is an abuse victim, was for years made to believe by her mother that she had myriad serious diseases, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and brain damage. Gypsy underwent numerous surgeries, used a wheelchair and an oxygen tank and believed she was fighting for her life. Dee Dee often told others that Gypsy had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old.
Only after Gypsy’s arrest was it revealed that Dee Dee had fabricated the list of health conditions. It is widely believed Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health disorder that sees a caregiver imagine or induce symptoms and illnesses on a dependent for attention.
Dee Dee also collected donations from charitable groups, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
During her trial, Gypsy admitted that she arranged for Godejohn, whom she met on a Christian dating website, to kill her mother.
In 2018, Gypsy was interviewed as part of the ABC TV show 20/20. She said she felt “more free in prison than living with my mom” because she could “live like a normal woman.”
When interviewed that same year for an Investigation Discovery documentary called Gypsy’s Revenge, Gypsy revealed more about her childhood. She said she “couldn’t just jump out of the wheelchair because I was afraid, and I didn’t know what my mother would do.”
“I didn’t have anyone to trust,” she said.
Gypsy has been serving her sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. Her time held in the Greene County Jail prior to moving to the prison also counted toward her sentence.
Gypsy and Godejohn are no longer together. In 2019, it was reported that Gypsy became engaged to a man she met through a prison pen pal program.
The case has inspired several TV and film story adaptations. Two years after Gypsy’s sentencing, Hulu released an original mini-series inspired by the crime, called The Act. In the eight-part series, actor Joey King plays Gypsy, while Patricia Arquette portrays Dee Dee.
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