‘Sick’ Daughter Has Controlling Mom Murdered — The Twisted Case of Gypsy Blanchard

now i start off with saying things are not always as they appear [Music] oh my goodness what an incredible mother this is taking on this challenge of raising a child with so many medical problems they believe she might have leukemia could not walk was in a wheelchair i mean you name it this this girl had it what eventually came out fairly quickly was that it was a scam the big shock to a lot of people was that she was up and walking around at some point you decided to kill your mother is that correct yes [Music] t.d blanchard had been stabbed multiple times in the back very brutal extremely extremely brutal and almost a severing of her head i'm sorry that i liked you breaking news now two people charged in the murder of dede blanchard including her daughter gypsy and her boyfriend nicholas godejon okay i'll admit it i did actually stab come on i will make it gypsy manipulated nick a low person with autism whose idea was it to kill your mother mine i don't think we're ever going to get the full story from either one of them as to what actually went down so the question is who's the mastermind okay your wife is in a bar [Music] this is what he's going to tell you how to get out of that situation and i grabbed the gun trying to find the first place to put a body no sir the only thing they could do was kill it you want to say anything we the jury define the defendant [Music] i think you know we live here in a generous community springfield that likes to look out for one another a community that opened its heart to d.d blanchard and her daughter gypsy she had uh moved here after hurricane katrina had this daughter gypsy who had all kinds of medical issues they believed she might have leukemia that she was asthmatic that she had seizures she had ear problems eye problems she was paralyzed from the waist down could not walk was in a wheelchair i mean you name it this this girl had it she captured sort of the heart of the springfield community early on they got a house from habitat for humanity in missouri it's so easy to live here and it's so peaceful and i think the headline was something like hurricane katrina survivors you know happily settled here in springfield it just proves that happy endings are not just in fairy tales they're real gypsy's mother seems so brave in the face of so much adversity oh my goodness what an incredible mother this is to you know she's on her own here taking on this challenge of raising a child with so many medical problems but then on a warm summer night in springfield just after midnight the home built for dede blanchard and her daughter gypsy became the scene of a brutal crime dede claudine blanchard murdered in her bedroom her daughter missing the community in shock just total shock we have this this mother and daughter who just seems you know so happy and good-hearted friends had seen a facebook post on dd and gypsy's shared site that bitch is dead that facebook post was seen by friends and neighbors of claudine they ended up then contacting the sheriff's office to do a well-being check and that's ultimately how claudine's body was found a gruesome scene very brutal extremely extremely brutal and almost as severing of her head and police found that gypsy's wheelchair was still in the house but no sign of gypsy and then okay well that that really ramps up the the need to find her because you know you're thinking okay she's you know maybe helpless out there without her mom and first they all thought that you know somebody had kidnapped gypsy the second facebook message indicated that that the perpetrator had done something to gypsy sexually by tracking the internet data on the facebook post police were able to locate a possible suspect almost 500 miles away outside waukesha wisconsin to the home of a young man by the name of nicholas godija so they went out and there was actually a standoff between nicholas and the police for a for a brief moment he was brandishing a a knife and waving it around and he didn't want to come out it wasn't even known yet if gypsy was still alive but that if she was it was still thought that she was possibly a prisoner being held hostage by mr godeshan at that point but when police got inside the godajan house they found her along with a load of cash and disguises and wigs she and go to john had used she was there of her own free will and that's when they first learn not only that but they're actually in a relationship boyfriend and girlfriend this case has taken several disturbing twists since their disappearance and then this stunning moment [Music] gypsy standing up on her own the big shock to a lot of people was that she was up and walking around the young woman who supposedly needed a house with ramps and specialized facilities was not paralyzed at all and then doctors at the hospital had another surprise for the good people of springfield that's when they learned there was nothing wrong with her no leukemia no asthma no seizures no paralysis i want to start off with saying things are not always as they appear what eventually came out fairly quickly was that it was a scam a scam the mother had been pulling off apparently for years as a way to trick sympathetic people and charities out of hundreds of thousands of dollars the wheelchairs just a prop and a lot of people were hurt when they discovered that you know gypsy didn't really have any medical problems and that her mom had sort of duped everyone into being charitable towards them but for police the focus was not the scam but the murder of d.d blanchard and her daughter and her boyfriend were brought to the waukesha police department as prime suspects gypsy acting as if she had not a care in the world as she waited for the detectives from missouri to arrive never asked about her mom she never asked why am i here and then detective stan hancock arrives from springfield ready to cut to the chase well gypsy um we are here investigating something so i do need to talk with you about some things okay um i'm thankful because i have no idea why i'm here yeah okay your mom's dead okay now what i want to ask you is your mom's your mom's passed away okay and she's deceased all right now what i want to ask you did you have involvement in this uh she's like no oh my gosh was it a heart attack did she commit suicide please tell me she did not commit sorry she had bipolar all these different things and she just kind of sticks to this story of i didn't know i didn't know i didn't know i know you do i know you sweetheart i know you love your mom i have no doubt that you love your mom [Music] and don't you think your mom loves you don't you think your mom just is worried about you he loves you but we gotta get down to the bottom but that was a lie like most of her life little girls love to dress up as princesses none more so than gypsy rose blanchard gypsy lived a rich fantasy life that's all she really had that fantasy life became the key to understanding gypsy the key for detective stan hancock to unravel gypsy's lies about her role in the murder of her mother deity do you really want to date yourself you're taking yourself deeper no seriously [Music] listen to me okay i don't i don't play around with that okay i'm not gonna play around with this okay they realized quite early before they even walked into the the room that you know that she was she had her wits about her she's not a stupid girl by any means she's in fact she's extremely intelligent gypsy's bizarre case was investigated by fancy miseli for her podcast the good wife's guide to true crime now she's not educated her mother didn't you know send her to school you know disney movies and books were her education the disney fantasy world became gypsy's escape from a life with a cruel mother who had used and abused her since almost from birth telling her and the world that she had cancer leukemia and an endless list of other ailments gypsy did not necessarily know it was a scam she truly believed she had these conditions gypsy has a full denture set um it's it's pretty sad you know that she had her teeth rotted right out of her head and a lot of that has to do with the medications that she was given i can only imagine how awful that would have been to have been trapped in a home like that where like a prisoner basically her whole life at one point as a teenager with dyed hair gypsy's mother locked her in a backyard shed when she learned her daughter was messaging with boys online in this shed is nothing except for a toddler bed according to gypsy she was told that you know if you don't do what i'm telling you to do i'll put you in there and you'll never come out again gypsy wanted freedom she didn't want to be under her mom's thumb anymore it was when the premier date for the disney film cinderella was announced the gypsy asked a boy she had met on a christian dating site to come to springfield nicholas gotenja i invited him to come in march to see cinderella with me she was dressed to the nines as cinderella uh she had the the big wig on the uh the big huge blue dress on so she looked like a fairy tale princess and he's kind of dressed like prince charming unfortunately it hurt my mom's feelings because i somehow gypsy convinces her mom she needs to go to the restroom and so she wheels herself out and then nick leaves the um the theater as well um and they meet up in the bathroom the handicap bathroom and that is where they had um sex for the very first time how romantic right she's never even been kissed by a boy at this point and her first experience with any type of physical contact with another human is you know sex in a in a bathroom in a movie theater at the premiere of cinderella he said that it's us against the world and that he's going to protect me no matter what that we were going to get married and everything and nothing was going to stop us so now after almost two hours of lies detective stan hancock was finally slowly getting the truth out of gypsy that it was then after cinderella that the plan to murder her mother began to take shape but why did they hurt her they wasn't trying to be truthful sweetheart no more it's quiet he wanted me to solve it because my mom kept getting in the way this being together that's true sure she didn't like it she didn't want her little baby girl grow up the truth of it really began to come out detective hancock did a great job of sort of establishing a rapport with her and not being judgmental not being aggressive because those are the types of things that can cause someone to shut down and not provide information i'm sorry [Music] she finally said it and then gypsy began to describe how she helped nicholas sneak into her house late that night handing him a knife she had stolen for him at [Music] i i walmart to use the restroom and at that point um he put me in the bathroom and he locked the door and he went to my mom's not your name okay she kept screaming louder and louder and then she had said gypsy gypsy and then she said into her bedroom and then it took me to my bedroom [Music] so that means take all your choice off your bed then he raped you [Music] but detective hancock was skeptical taking photos to document what gypsy said were the bruises she suffered at the hands of nicholas godajan as babyish as she sounded and often acted detective hancock realized he was talking with a young woman who was a practiced liar she's calculating she is manipulative um and these are all things that are created by what her mother taught her and did i'm asking your direction straight you don't think he's gonna tell me that you had anything to do with your mom's killing that's the time us doing everything together as a team but i i didn't want this so did you kill your mom no no sir did you help you sir yeah let's kill your mom no sir yes sir did you have knowledge in the houses could kill your mom she truly believed she was going to get up and walk back out of there but down the hall her boyfriend nicholas godijon was about to tell a much different story [Music] i don't think we're ever going to get the full story from either one of them as to what actually went down gypsy rose blanchard and nicholas godijan two very challenged people gypsy trying to break away from a cruel mother absolutely she was a victim i mean all the way through she is a she is a victim nicholas socially awkward but looking for love we came to learn he did have autism in that he was living at home with his parents and was primarily had this entire life and personality that was lived exclusively online and as they went into hiding after the murder of gypsy's mother staying in this motel waiting for a bus to take them to his home in wisconsin the two lovebirds cooked up a plan to avoid getting caught mr gaudijan thought he was going to get away with it they had planned to mail the murder weapon and a glove from springfield back to mr gotta jean's house prior to getting on the bus before they ultimately left they had come up with a pre-planned story for uh what to say should they be caught and asked what happened hello you've been here a long time waiting on me to get here oh my gosh have it ever done it did not take long for mr godijan to abandon the pre-planned story that he just sort of stole gypsy in the middle of the night detective angela maholi played on the young man's feelings for gypsy to get him to implicate her can you love her oh do whatever you love her a lot i was born my eyes are waiting for this moment where i can talk to you okay because i was so worried about her so do you want to um do the right thing by gypsy if you love her well the truth is the worst of her songs i know there's no way there's no way i wouldn't do it i know i know you do i believe you do but this is the point where you're going to prove whether you do or not okay you mean you talk okay because it's not fair it's not fair to gypsy for her to be honest and you do you'd lie okay so what i want to know is is um can you tell me this first did gypsy know that you were going to kill her mother um honestly she asked me to okay so so gypsy knew you were gonna do it because gypsy asked you to why did she ask you to do that because she felt was the only way to be with me and then really from there on he is very forthright and very detailed in what actually happened because and then the truth is okay i'll admit it i did actually stay up come on i will make it filling in the grisly details of what happened that night in dede's bedroom as he stabbed her do you know how many times you stabbed her uh four you just have your four yeah four times the autopsy of dd blanchard would show she was actually stabbed 17 times her head nearly suffered and then she called up her gypsy but she didn't do anything okay she hollered for gypsy yes she hollered for gypsy once twice five times three times three times and what was she saying can you tell me how she said it um she pretty much yelped it he helped it it's like jazzy okay she was loud and what did you do when she did that uh [Music] it didn't stop me from keep on going okay you just kept stabbing her yeah and then they begin a cleanup uh procedure where actually he asks gypsy to clean naked that was his request because that was something that turned him on cleaning up this murder scene while she's naked and then uh she wanted to have sex with me so i did okay she want to have sex with you yes okay but down the hall gypsy had already told detectives that nicholas forced himself on her and he raped you and detectives soon recognized that nicholas gorda john had serious issues that he had two people inside his head one good one evil the ones who actually did all this the thing is i originally the good side of me originally refused to do it okay and that's the reason why it was instant that it happened right away okay because my evil side is what's actually did it okay an evil side with a name victor so victor is one of the characters that nicholas made up um he's his evil side and he claims that he is a 500 year old vampire who enjoys killing more than one person inside there's actually multiple personalities of myself have you been diagnosed with that i probably should be diagnosed with it because it has happened the thing is i used to take a medication i was used to hearing voices in my head right well you seem like a pretty honorable person and you love gypsy so i mean well that's the thing i uh i admitted to the thing is me and gypsy have cried multiple times together over this yes okay and i've told her this will harm me for that's my life because it's the truth they will breaking news now two people charged in the murder of dede blanchard including her daughter gypsy and her boyfriend nicholas godijan both are now in custody they had solved the case both gypsy and nicholas were charged with first degree murder but would a jury convict a young woman whose mother had so abused her over the years would a jury convict a young man on the autism spectrum who thought he was prince charming rescuing cinderella [Music] this is a tragic tragic event surrounded by mystery and public deception gypsy fell through every crack possible the family was suspicious they knew things were wrong and they did nothing doctors knew things were wrong and they did nothing as the sad tale of gypsy blanchard's childhood abuse became widely known it is just horrifying to think that this could go on for 23 years prosecutors in missouri had a big decision to make about the two suspects sitting in the green county missouri jail you have the person someone who actually physically carried out the murder that we have to charge nicholas go to john but then also a co-participant that may have not in this case physically wielded the knife gypsy rose blancher but was just as involved in the murder that we also had to charge but given all the gypsy had been through at the hands of a cruel and abusive mother prosecutors feared a jury might have excused what she did due to that long-term abuse that she had already suffered that ultimately she ended up pleading to second-degree murder with a 10-year sentence in prison with the possibility of parole in just a few years but there was no talk of going that easy on nicholas gotta john even though a first-degree murder charge was going to be difficult to prove there was the misconception that what mr godejon did was sort of this act of chivalry that he did it to save gypsy from this situation that was going to be a challenge to overcome and then ultimately overcoming the defense the fact that mr godeshan did have autism may please support yes outside of claudine blanchard's bedroom door stood the defendant dressed in all black wearing blue latex gloves holding a knife for the defendant he was in love with gypsy blanchard claudine's daughter and as he stood there the only thing that stood between him being with gypsy was clawdeen the key for the prosecution was to show that gorijan looking much heavier since his arrest had the mental capacity to make his own decisions autism or not and so it really came down to this this autism that mr godijan had he had two thoughts a benevolent thought that he described as an angel on one shoulder that said just take gypsy and run and a malevolent thought a devil on the other shoulder that said the bitch is dead yes this was gypsy's idea but the defendant on june 10th was ready to kill and prosecutor nathan chetman showed the jury some of the text messages that nicholas sent to gypsy is your mom a light sleeper it's my evil side doing it he won't mess up because he enjoys killing and these texts show he was enjoying it he was looking forward to it he was excited about it as the prosecutor made the case against him nicholas godajun seemed disengaged one of the known affects of autism you could tell just the way that he was just not very socialized just kind of you know odd behaviors sitting slouching down in his seat and and just you know looking around in sort of a an odd manner in his opening statement go to john's lawyer andrew mead portrayed his client as someone easy to manipulate gypsy knew there was only one way she was going to be able to spend the life with nick there was only one way to get out from under the grasp of her mother and that was to kill her mother nick was happy to do whatever gypsy wanted he was always compliant you're gonna hear testimony about nick's autism he has a low iq he suffers cognitive disabilities and in the end folks you're going to understand the dynamics of this case that nick wasn't able to formulate the necessary mental state to commit murder in the first degree but right away the jury saw the video of go to john being questioned by detective angela maholi and admitting to the murder of d.d blanchard because and then the truth is okay i'll admit it i did actually stab her i will make it i know okay on cross-examination go to john's lawyers try to suggest detective maholi had taken advantage of him did you know that he was on the autistic autism spectrum no sir had you received any kind of information that he was on the autism spectrum no sir now this particular interview took place right after midnight yes sir and he seemed tired of you is that correct um at times when he would say he was tired he did appear that he might be tired did that cause you to question whether you should continue to question him given the fact that he was tired and it was after midnight no sir being tired is not a deal breaker on an interview but go to john's case was not helped when the jury saw a jailhouse interview he did with a tv reporter while he awaited trial when he wasn't tired and also admitted to the murder describing his deliberations the darker part of me was also in love with the darker part of her and because of it the thought was is uh excuse my french but it basically said this bitch is dead mr perry do you have a witness you wish to call you keep your judge gypsy was called by the defense not the prosecution she was to be their star witness trying to save her prince starting with a scathing denunciation of her mother why were you in a wheelchair in june of 2015 because my mother forced me to be in one was there a time between when you first were put in a wheelchair in june of 2015 that you figured out that you really didn't need to be in a wheelchair yes when was that i always knew that i didn't need the wheelchair how did you know that because i could walk it was testimony the prosecution knew could be a game changer we all knew she was somewhat of a sympathetic figure at that point there was a concern that that would potentially create a situation where uh a jury may again think that mr gotezhan did what he did to save gypsy from these these awful conditions that she was in fact in what illnesses did you believe you had cancer muscular dystrophy i needed glasses i needed hearing aids seizure disorder and i can't remember what else and when did you figure out that you weren't actually sick i started to piece things together when i was about 19 years old then i didn't understand the full extent of how healthy i was until after i got arrested why did you not tell doctors that you knew you could walk or you didn't believe yourself to be killed during the time that you were doing this i didn't think that anyone would believe me i thought they would eventually tell my mom and that would make my home life even worse for me i feared her more than i feared anyone else and gypsy testified she paid for everything bus fare motels even the murder weapon was the knife she stole from walmart she also admitted that she not go to john posted the facebook messages why did you make that post claiming to be nick i wanted her to be found i wanted the cops to find her body go to john stared intently as his one-time girlfriend did her best to save him gosh it looked like he was looking directly through her it was you could tell she was terrified when you see the pictures of gypsy and dede together she just looks like a little child you know with oftentimes wearing a little hat and then when you saw her on the stand and going to john's murder trial i mean she's a woman definitely grown up and then finally the pivotal question from go to john's lawyer dwayne perry whose idea was it to kill your mother mine why did you want to kill your mother because i wanted to be free of her hold on me and with that the defense now hoped the jury would see the victim d.d blanchard as the person who should really be on trial [Music] now i have never seen facts quite like this autism becomes a big factor here the mental capacity issue is really where this lies so the question is who's the mastermind and it was vital for the defense to show nicholas godejon was not the mastermind that was the role of their final and only second witness clinical psychologist kent franks have a seat okay he has an autism spectrum disorder his ability to perceive reality is tenuous he had a psychotic episode when he was 13 years old and hallucinated and talked about hearing seven or eight different kinds of voices you just got angry more than one person inside me there's actually multiple personalities of myself but it would become a battle of the experts with the prosecution putting its own clinical psychologist on the stand dr robert denney did you find the defendant to be intellectually impaired i did not and then dr denny used the surveillance footage of go to john and gypsy to bolster his opinion go to john cool when they were told there were not enough seats on the bus they wanted to take back to wisconsin what's striking to me is that he did not blow up he did not react angry or frustrated or um like which is what something that that would be very common with somebody with this with autism and then the interaction between go to john and gypsy because you could see where they got in and out of the cab and would walk in and walk the other way he would hold the door for her when they walked by on a sidewalk he was leading she was following it looked very normal to me dr denny was the last witness the jury heard the last word on nicholas godejon's mental capacity there's been another obvious presence here throughout this trial prosecutor nathan chapman knew it was essential to get the jury's focus off gypsy and the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother the victim if we're not careful there can be a tendency to let gypsies narrative overshadow what we're really here to decide because all along flying under the radar cooling deliberately was the defendant nicholas godija and again the jury was shown go to john's text messages as he planned the murder he's not doing anything different than someone else who's planning a murder taking steps to incapacitate the victim taking steps in case you're caught to have a story his mild autism not changes nothing about any of the deliberation that you just saw there's just no other decision than he is guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action thank you very much judge let's get one thing straight who wanted claudine blanchard dead who gypsy did gypsy wanted claudine blanchard dead she is fully capable deception because that's how she lived her life she was trained that way by her own mother gypsy manipulated nick a low functioning person with autism and then gypsy pressures nick into committing a homicide against her mother but he was only trying to help the woman he loved all along it was clear that goda john's lawyer dwayne perry had given up on pushing for a not guilty verdict but instead wanted the jury to find his client guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder i believe after all the evidence that you consider there is reasonable doubt as to his capacity to deliberate first agreement and i believe the appropriate verdict in this case is one of the lesser homicides thank you very much for your time the facts of the murder of d.d blanchard were never in dispute the 17 stab wounds the knife gypsy still for him to use and nicholas godejon admitting to it on video because and then the truth is okay i'll admit it i did actually stay up come on i will make it so the jury was not expected to be out for long the main decision that they had to make was if he had the capacity if mr godijan had the capacity to deliberate then he was guilty of first-degree murder if he did not then he was guilty of second-degree murder and the difference would mean how long nicholas go to john would go to prison a first degree murder is life without parole a second-degree murder has a minimum of 10 and also can go up to life but it's not an automatic sentence it was all hanging on that decision go to john had not testified during the trial but in a sign of optimism just before the verdict was read go to john told the judge he would abide by the jury's decision on sentencing if he was found guilty of second-degree murder and if they find you a collector on count one you're still asking for jury sentencing is that correct have there been any threats made you to get you to waive that right have there been any promises and with that nicholas gotta john was ready to hear the jury's verdict would you pass down the file folders please which narrative had the jury come to believe who was the mastermind gypsy manipulated nick a low functioning person with autism whose idea was it to kill your mother mine his mild autism not changes nothing as to count one we the jury find the defendant nicholas godejon guilty of murder in the first degree we assess and declare the punishment for murder in the first degree at imprisonment for life without the possibility of probation or parole the autism defense did not work while gypsy will be eligible for parole in the next few years nicholas will spend the rest of his life behind bars the bottom line is he still stabbed an individual regardless of who it was 17 times and he by the evidence in the trial enjoyed doing that and and i believe that justice was very much served in keeping him out of the community for as long as we possibly could [Music] i don't think there is justice in this case i think that everyone is broken and there's not a way to really put the pieces back together a grim ending to what started as an abused child's longing for a cinderella fairy tale it just proves that happy endings are not just in fairy tales they're real not on this day not in this courtroom [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 258,144

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: sSJOFnJFDZE

Length: 43min 0sec (2580 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 11 2022