Gypsy Rose Blanchard released early from US prison

Image source, Blanchard family

Gypsy Rose Blanchard with her mother Dee Dee Blanchard

By Mike Wendling

BBC News, Chicago

A woman who conspired to kill her abusive mother in a case that gripped the US has been released early from prison.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard, 32, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Dee Dee Blanchard in Missouri in 2015.

After years of abuse and invasive unnecessary surgery, she plotted with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn.

The case sparked intense media interest and spawned a number of documentary series and TV shows.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard walked out of Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri early on Thursday morning, having served seven years of a 10-year sentence.

Her boyfriend Godejohn is serving a life sentence without parole.

He stabbed Dee Dee Blanchard to death with a knife her daughter gave him and the two of them fled the scene.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her boyfriend were arrested 600 miles away in Wisconsin, where he lived.

Dee Dee Blanchard told people that her daughter was severely disabled with multiple conditions including epilepsy, leukemia and muscular dystrophy.

She received support from charities and sought treatment for Gypsy Rose from dozens of doctors, often portraying her daughter as younger than she actually was and subjecting her to unneeded medical treatments.

Gypsy Rose used a wheelchair and an oxygen tank, although she could walk and had no breathing issues.

"Things are not always as they appear," said Sheriff Jim Arnott in 2015 as he detailed the mother's fraud. "This is a tragic event surrounded by mystery and public deception."

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