- I'd do anything to just go back
to that moment in time.
She didn't have to die.
- I told the parole board that,
look, I don't condone what Gypsy did, not at all.
- When she gets out, there's gonna be some big adjustments.
- I have been keeping a secret.
I am engaged.
(chuckling)
(dramatic music)
- [Ryan] I know Gypsy's the one because I feel it.
- He said, "Gypsy Blanchard.
I love you more than anything I've ever loved."
- Dee Dee, she took her daughter's
entire existence from her.
♪ No, you can never take my soul ♪
(birds chirping) (gentle music)
- When I get parole in 2023, it was always the plan
that I was gonna go and live with my dad and stepmom Kristy.
And then I fell in love.
(laughing)
Didn't expect that.
(Gypsy laughing)
It was very hard to keep it to just myself.
I wanted to tell everybody.
I have been keeping a secret that I am engaged.
Ryan and I have been engaged for about six months.
I think the reason
I kept my engagement a secret for so long
is because I wanted to
keep this little bit of happiness private,
even from my family because so often in my life,
nothing has been private where it's just me
and this other person that I'm with,
sharing in an intimate moment together.
(gentle music)
- [Producer] Ryan interview, take one, mark.
(slate clicks)
- My name is Ryan Anderson,
and Gypsy Rose Blanchard is my fiance.
I first learned about Gypsy watching her story.
Her story, you know, just hit me and I thought,
gosh, she's cute, you know,
like one of those things where I was like,
Gypsy's very cute.
Tiger King was very popular at the time,
and so my friend said, "I really wanna write Tiger King."
And I said, "Okay, well, I'll make a deal with you."
I said, "You write Tiger King.
I'll write Gypsy Rose Blanchard."
And that's what happened.
(tense music)
- [Gypsy] The thing that stuck out the most
about Ryan's letter is not only
how, like, genuine he came across,
but also how, like, how funny he is.
His sense of humor was great,
and I just vibed with that very well.
- She's talked to a lot of people, you know,
but she chose a Louisiana boy for a reason, I guess,
but I made her laugh and that was the most important thing.
- My mother always told me
that I would never find love for myself.
I would never find true happiness with another person,
but that didn't stop me from trying,
so I wrote him back.
Ryan and I, our relationship is just, it's goofy.
It's a little bit of everything.
I think he compliments me really well.
He has more of a softer side.
He calms almost like a storm that's inside my soul.
- When I heard Gypsy's story I felt sad for her.
I felt like I couldn't judge her for that.
I understood why she did it.
Gypsy felt like this was the only way out.
(dramatic music)
- Get a phone call from viewers.
There's crime scene tape up on this house
on the north side of town.
We call our only reporter on staff and say,
we need you to check it out.
He says, "You guys have gotta get on Facebook."
And he starts sending us links.
And so all the bells and whistles go off.
This is the duo that Habitat for Humanity helped.
This is the duo that Make-a-Wish helped.
Immediately everybody starts freaking out
because they were so beloved.
- Greene County Sheriff's Department
after being alerted to these posts
went to the Blanchard home
and they found Dee Dee was murdered in her bedroom.
Dee Dee was on her bed
with multiple stab wounds to her back.
(ominous music)
- Dee Dee's car is in the driveway.
Then they found Gypsy's wheelchair
and all her medication.
So the word was, okay, Dee Dee's found dead.
Someone took off with Gypsy,
but her wheelchair.
Did they carry her?
- It was thought that she may very well be in danger
that she didn't leave of her own accord.
- I got a call from Dee Dee's sister.
She says, "Man," she says, "I got some bad news."
She said, "Gypsy's missing
and Dee Dee's dead.
We don't know a lot more information about it
other than that."
Looking back now,
I just couldn't make heads or tails of any of it.
- My initial thought was, oh my God, somebody took Gypsy.
She can't walk. She needs this medication.
Did they bring her somewhere
and just dump her in the woods for her to die?
That was sheer panic.
- [Reporter] It's definitely a homicide investigation here,
but the main focus remains on that 19-year-old Gypsy Rose,
and searching for her and finding her.
- My niece called me up the morning
that it all came out on the news and she was crying.
It could not possibly be true.
And then you start going, but why?
(ominous music)
- It didn't make sense.
Who would come into somebody's house,
murder someone, and take a disabled child?
Like I was trying to piece that together, why, why?
Why would they do that?
(ominous music)
- [Gypsy] I did see a news report
that people thought that I was missing.
My first reaction was fear
that people were gonna come looking for me.
And not that I was afraid to be arrested,
but fear that I was gonna be brought back
to that same way of life,
but just by another person.
- A friend of Gypsy's had told police
that Gypsy was speaking with this young man,
Nicholas Godejohn from Wisconsin.
Law enforcement were able to get a warrant
and sent it to Facebook,
and Facebook was able to provide them with an IP address,
which went to Nicholas at his residence
in Big Bend, Wisconsin.
- The next day after my mother's body was found,
we spent the night watching a movie at his mother's house,
and we went to sleep.
And then the next morning, I hear racket going on downstairs
and dogs barking.
The next thing I hear is, "Nicholas Godejohn,
come out with your hands above your head.
You are under arrest."
I look out the window and see the house is surrounded
by these armored vehicles.
I panic, I'm like, oh (beep), like, what are we gonna do?
(gate buzzing)
- I have so many men that try to date me or write to me,
or try to hit on me, but
nothing and no one is gonna ever compare
to the relationship that I have with Ryan.
(soft music)
- Me and Gypsy had been corresponding
for a year and two months before I even met her.
Apparently, she had another boyfriend and didn't tell me,
and that's where her feelings laid, with him,
but, yes, she couldn't stop calling me.
She knew something was there between us.
- [Gypsy] Well, you know,
you can't control how feelings surface.
And then eventually the guy that I was dating,
I broke up with him to focus on Ryan.
Around that time,
my institution allowed us to talk on our tablet,
kinda like a cell phone.
And it's been so great
because I'm able to call him anytime I want to.
- When I first told my mother
that I was talking with Gypsy Rose,
at first she was a little like, why?
You know?
So my mom was hesitant at first
because of what she was in jail for.
"What's the need to talk to her?"
Like, why not?
And it grew from there.
I remember being like, I really wanna meet her.
The first meeting was very important to me
because it could decide where we go from there.
I was very nervous.
So it was a big deal.
And I remember her walking through the door and I was like,
wow, she is gorgeous.
- [Gypsy] I walked into the room and I thought,
wow, he's a lot more handsome than in his pictures.
So we had four hours to sit and talk together and like,
we had this connection
that it seemed so seamless, so easy.
This is something I never thought that I would have
after everything that has happened.
(ominous music)
- When our department arrived at the Godejohn residence,
it was a full SWAT team response.
There were canines there and it was a mini standoff,
I would say.
- Nick tells me to get in the closet
and we lock ourselves in the closet
for about 15, 20 minutes,
deciding what is the story
that we're gonna come up with to tell them.
Nick tells me the story that I tell the police is
my mother kicked me outta the house
and he came to pick me up to live with him in Wisconsin.
Short, simple, sweet.
- Nicholas and Gypsy didn't present necessarily
any violent actions towards the officers that were there,
but they just were refusing to come down.
- Finally, I step out.
They have guns with the lasers pointed at me.
And I tell them that I'm coming down first and they're like,
"Walk down slowly."
So I walked towards them and they grabbed me
and they handcuffed me.
It was kind of like watching a movie.
It's like it wasn't happening to me.
It was happening to somebody else.
It was just a state of emotional shock.
- Things weren't quite as we believed.
Gypsy did not have her wheelchair.
She was walking perfectly fine by herself.
It kind of put the whole investigation
into a little bit of a spin.
- [Gypsy] They kept us completely separate,
separate cars, separate interrogation rooms.
It was terrifying for me.
- I'm thinking that they're going to take me at my word.
I'm thinking that these people
are not going to figure everything out.
- Before, I could lie and think nothing of it.
I could tell a million lies
and really not feel any guilt about it.
- I was completely in the dark about what Nick was saying.
I kept thinking that he was going to stick with the story
that he created
and that our stories would line up and we would be released.
That's not at all how that went down.
(ethereal music)
- About four months after the first visit,
Gypsy called me up and she was like,
"Where do you want this relationship to go now?"
And I was like, what do you mean?
And she's like, "After meeting you,
I can now say that I have romantic feelings for you,
and it's obviously there."
She's like, "I was a little smitten with you."
That's what she told me.
That was her exact quote.
So I was like, well, I'm still smitten with you like ever
'cause I fell in love with her a long time ago.
So for the third visit,
I bought an engagement ring and I snuck it in,
put it on my chain.
- [Gypsy] We came in and sat down
and he took me by the hands
and just told me that he loved me so much.
- She had her makeup done and she looked so cute
and I was sitting across from her and I looked at her.
I just knew.
It's just one of those things you know.
And we had something special, we had that chemistry.
And I asked her to marry me.
(soft music)
- [Gypsy] He said, "Gypsy Blanchard,
I love you more than anything I've ever loved.
And I would be the happiest man in the world
if you would be my wife.
Will you marry me?"
And I said yes.
And he put the ring on my finger.
- [Producer] So I noticed you're wearing a ring
that you've been playing around with.
- This is my wedding band.
Gypsy Rose herself ordered this from a catalog.
This ring means a lot.
It symbolizes me and Gypsy's love.
And even though we're not married yet, I wear it every day
just, I look down at it and realize that Gypsy gave me this.
- Ryan knows everything about me.
The joys, the pains, the struggles,
the not so good stuff.
(dramatic music)
- [Gypsy] I've watched the video before,
and all I could do is say like,
oh, my heart feels for her because like,
I really just was so scared
and I was scared of the consequences,
but I think that I was more scared
of not having anyone to lean on
because my mother had guided me
and was that steering wheel my whole life
until I met Nick.
- It's very unusual for someone
that commits a serious crime like this
to basically open up and tell you everything,
but it didn't take long at all.
- [Gypsy] I feel like he wanted to get me out of that situation,
but then a bigger part of me thinks that
I could have been anyone
because murder was something that he always wanted to do
as a fantasy.
And I think that I was the perfect opportunity.
- At that point, they cornered me.
There was nowhere to run.
There was no one to lie to.
There was no more facades.
It was like, this is the raw situation of it.
I thought that I would be in trouble,
but I didn't think that it would be as much as Nick,
never dreaming that for my part,
I could potentially spend the rest of my life in prison.
That reality happened when I had my first court appearance.
That was this moment of, oh (beep)
I am in such deep trouble right now.
♪ No, you can never take my soul ♪
(soft music)
I know Gypsy's the one because I feel it.
You can feel that connection with somebody that you have.
I do believe I am the Prince Charming
that Gypsy's been waiting for her whole life.
I really do believe that.
When Gypsy gets out, I plan on supporting her
and doing what a husband's supposed to do to his wife.
I'm a sixth grade social studies teacher.
So like, I'm a teacher, I do okay, yeah.
I live in Louisiana and she's in Missouri.
And I help raise my nephew with my mother,
but we are looking for a place right now
for just me and her.
- [Gypsy] When I met Ryan,
he was devoting his life to raising his nephew.
I saw that as a sign
that he is gonna make a very good dad someday.
- Part of me thinks that sometimes
Gypsy might need saving,
but at the same time, I need saving too.
She saved me as much as I saved her.
She deserves the best,
especially with everything that's happened.
(dramatic music)
- Shortly after the police located both Nick and Gypsy,
Gypsy was charged,
and then ultimately extradited from Wisconsin
down to Missouri.
- The first time I seen her after many years was that day.
She had her first arraignment back in Springfield.
It was a scary day.
Just the amount of uncertainty at that time.
It was a ton of emotions going through me.
What in the world happened?
We didn't know what to think.
It was like 12 years.
It was 12 years since I had seen her.
- The image is seared in my mind.
Watching her in that orange jumpsuit
cross into the courtroom and stand in front of the judge,
this whole facade, this curtain comes down,
and it's no longer this child in a wheelchair.
- Things are not always as they appear.
- You can see Gypsy for yourself walking into court.
It was like a chill went down your spine.
There was this collective gasp or collective like, whoa.
- We think we knew her, you know,
as a sick child that couldn't walk
since she was a little girl.
I was like, is this real?
And I'm like, oh my God, what else?
What else we don't know?
- I was shaking in my seat when she walked out,
but seeing her walk, I was happy.
I was happy that she looked healthy.
- [Gypsy] Going into court, I was ashamed.
I was sad, I felt guilty.
It was a moment where I felt very low.
I kept my head down
and what I was thinking was just keep breathing.
Just keep focusing on your next step.
- When we saw Gypsy walk across the courtroom,
that made it pretty clear
that this was gonna be far more complicated
than we had initially believed.
(dramatic music)
- After the court was over we went and got back to see her,
and I put my hand on that glass
and she put her hand and I told her, I said,
"I'm always gonna love you.
If you need me, I'm here."
- It's like having,
almost a whole different child to look at
'cause now I found out she was healthy,
but we didn't know what was all true and not true.
- [Gypsy] I kind of led them to think that
I am just a victim in this just as much as my mother was.
- She was terrified.
Gypsy was terrified that we were gonna turn our back on her
and she was, "I didn't do it, I didn't know.
I didn't know Nick was gonna do this,"
and still then, we didn't know anything.
(dramatic music)
- I wanted to see the scene for myself as early as possible.
I was contacted by Rod and Kristy Blanchard,
and that was the first time that I met with them
was actually at the scene itself.
- Just like looking at it from a point of view,
like we just need to come in here and clean it out,
save Gypsy's stuff.
- As we walked through the house,
the best way to describe it is that Dee Dee was a hoarder
and one of the rooms,
there were almost a foot of just boxes
and other junk just thrown into that room haphazardly.
- And we started finding things that blew my mind.
- It's like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
- I was waiting to pinch myself
and try to wake up from this nightmare,
and never woke up from this nightmare.
(soft music)
- [Gypsy] Hey babe. - [Ryan] Hey baby.
- One day she calls me and tells me that, "Mom, you know,
Ryan is now my boyfriend."
I was like, good for you.
- The first time I heard about Ryan,
Kristy told me about him.
She said, "Yeah, no, Gypsy she's got a guy now.
And she likes him, they've been talking.
It's like her third boyfriend maybe,
second, third boyfriend."
So it's like, oh, it's just another one of her boyfriends.
- I was visiting with Gypsy.
I remember a guard walked by and was like,
"Y'all cannot get married in secret
and not tell your family and friends.
Like you can't do that to your dad, Gypsy."
And so that's when we were like, "Okay, we'll tell 'em."
- About three months ago she had called me and she said,
"Mom, I need to tell you something.
Ryan and I wanna get married."
And I just was silent for
half a minute, I'll say, you know, just
like thinking, oh God, don't get married.
Why now?
Why rush?
- [Gypsy] Kristy keeps telling me,
"Why don't you live with him first
and then see where things go?"
And I don't think that they understand
that when someone is on parole,
they have to parole to a family member.
- When we found out about this engagement with Ryan,
I thought, I wish they would wait a little bit,
but I mean, it's marriage, it's a piece of paper.
She can get a divorce after.
They don't have any kids or any assets, so.
I just want her to be happy,
especially after what happened to her.
- Inside Dee Dee's house,
the one thing that did catch our attention
was the one thing in the house
that was absolutely immaculate
and that was the medicine closet.
- There's breathing machines, there's gloves,
there's all of this medication all in rows.
- We found a prescription pad
that was stolen from the hospital.
That meant that now not only is she
using medical means to abuse Gypsy,
but now she can do it on her own.
She doesn't even need a doctor.
What Dee Dee did to Gypsy
was one of the most egregious forms of parental abuse
you can imagine.
She took her daughter's entire existence from her.
- If I could go back in time,
oh, if I could go back in time, I would rewrite the script.
I wouldn't let Dee Dee get away with it.
It would be her behind bars.
- I distinctly remember at one point
Rod just walking out of the house
and leaning on the rail of the front porch,
and just staring at the ground for a good 10 minutes.
It was hard to watch.
- I just should have been there.
I don't, you know,
I wish I would have, you know, I regret that a lot.
- [Gypsy] Over the years it's been nothing but a process
to understand what happened to me.
There's so many, many questions
that I still have not had closure about,
but whenever I'm sad and I'm crying, I lean on Ryan.
- When I think about everything that happened to Gypsy
I do get sad and I wish I was there to protect her,
but it's made her the person she is
and I feel that she's stronger because of it, I really do.
- [Gypsy] My dad and Kristy was at my preliminary hearing
and I got to visit with them for a small time.
I was still trying to keep up that self-preservation of,
I didn't have anything to do with it.
- One of the things that was presented
was this cell phone video that Gypsy had taken
and it shows her walking through her mother's bedroom
and she points at the mattress
and then makes a stabbing motion with her hand.
The video at that point,
that was a very hard pill to swallow.
- We did not.
(sighing)
- When we found out that Gypsy was involved in the murder,
I was very shocked.
My mouth dropped.
- [Gypsy] Immediately, my face just sunk.
And I felt nothing but guilt for lying to them.
- She turned around in absolute fear,
absolute fear.
- Nobody would've probably ever thought
that Gypsy was capable of that,
talking to her friends and people that knew her,
but nobody's ever been in her shoes.
It's as simple as that.
- Gypsy clearly had some involvement
in the pre-planning of this.
- [Gypsy] I felt in my heart just this overwhelming sadness
and guilt and being ashamed of the actions that I took
to make this be a reality.
- We had no other case to look at.
We had no precedent for this.
And we also weren't sure
that there was even a defense that we could raise.
If we went to trial and we lost,
Gypsy would die in prison.
She would spend the rest of her life behind bars.
(soft music)
- In Gypsy's case, if you go to trial,
the outcome is no longer up to you.
It is up to the jury or the judge.
And so it is, for me,
the most difficult decision of my legal career,
but both Gypsy and her dad and stepmom
were amenable to seeing
if there was some kind of resolution we could come to.
- I said, "The prosecuting attorney
not only agreed to reduce the charge
from first degree murder to second degree murder,
but he also agreed that the prison sentence
that she would serve would be the absolute minimum
that you can receive on the charge of second degree murder."
- [Reporter] As part of a plea deal with prosecutors,
Gypsy will spend 10 years in jail.
She will only get the possibility of probation
if she serves eight years of her sentence.
- [Gypsy] I think that 10 years was appropriate
for my level of involvement of the crime.
I think it would've been a whole mess
if they would've just let me out of prison scot-free,
didn't do any time.
I don't think that I would've had the mental stability
to transition as smoothly as I have
with 10 years in between the two.
(dramatic music)
Testifying at Nick's trial was the choice that I made.
This was my opportunity to take the stand
and take accountability and I owned up to my part.
- I did.
- The one thing that stands out the most to me of that trial
were the text messages in the exchanges between the two
and just how planned the entire event was.
I recall seeing messages pop up and Gypsy on the stand
and the prosecutor asking her
what she meant by certain things.
And she tried to deflect,
but you can see, step by step, how it all unfolded.
Their plans to try and be together
and how Gypsy was going to rid herself of her mother.
There was no disputing that.
- [Gypsy] I answered those questions
to the best of my ability
with all the honesty that I had within me.
I don't care what people think about me.
I told my truth.
(dramatic music)
(soft music)
- [Gypsy] In early 2019,
I received in the mail a letter from Nick.
Basically, he was explaining to me
that he is still in love with me.
That he doesn't regret what he did.
And so I began writing the letter back to him and I said,
"We're both paying the consequences of our choices."
And then I moved on to say,
"I don't want a relationship with you and I'm happy."
- [Producer] How do you think Ryan feels
about your relationship these days?
- [Gypsy] I think that Ryan has concerns
that, when I get out of prison, am I gonna be loyal to him?
Is my loyalty gonna be on our marriage?
And so I think that is a concern that anyone would have
considering the fact that I didn't date growing up.
After being locked up for eight-and-a-half years,
the thought pops in your head.
Am I really wanting to be married
at this point in my life?
And can I be the wife that he needs me to be?
- [Ryan] I thought that you were done feeling this way.
♪ You tried to take my freedom
- [Gypsy] What gives you that impression?
- [Ryan] Because we're getting married in, like, 12 days.
That's what gave me that impression.
- I said, Gypsy, I'll support what you wanna do,
but please don't get married.
- [Gypsy] I said, "Can you please forgive me?"
I was like, "I'm so sorry, you don't deserve this."
♪ No, you can never take my soul ♪