New Evidence Found: Gypsy Rose Medical Child Abuse Claims False
From the moment that Gypsy Rose Blanchard was born her mother Claudinnea “De-De” Blanchard told everyone her daughter was extremely sick. Relatives, friends, and medical professionals all agree that the first thing De-De ever told anyone what was causing Gypsy’s random medical issues was a chromosome disorder. It was mentioned in the case file from the Greene County sheriff’s investigation into the murder of De-De, by her daughter Gypsy, and Gypsy’s online boyfriend, Nick Godejohn, by neighbor Kim Blanchard (no relation). Rod, Gypsy’s father and Kristy, her stepmother have stated this to me personally and on numerous documentaries and interviews.
“Hurricane Katrina played a big part of their lives. Their house was devastated. They got relocated to Missouri. At that point, she’s telling me, she’s got cancer, shaving her head, so that was pretty elaborate to go from chromosome disorder. Now she’s got cancer.” Rod Blanchard accounted for documentarian Erin Lee Carr, in “Mommy Dead and Dearest.”
Cancer didn’t show up in Gypsy’s file until 2007. Two years after she first shaved her head while sitting in the sink of the Superdome, with her shit eating grin, all so she could convince an unsuspecting doctor from MO, to angel flight her and her mother out of the sub par conditions. Claiming that their home was destroyed and that Gypsy needed immediate chemo treatments, treatments she never got. It was first listed in the family history as a blood disorder, and then a few months later that story morphed into Gypsy having cancer at 5 years old but this was not until 2007.
In 2019, we covered Gypsy’s medical records extensively in our podcast, “The Good Wives’ Guide to True Crime,” season one. We spent 6 of our 13 episode expose on the murder case of 2015 discussing Gypsy’s, medical records from her personal records given to us by her via Kristy. Colleen, at the time was an RN seeking a masters degree in Nursing Education. She did a very through job of reading the files however, they always still only caused us more confusion than gave us answers. At that time we were mostly evaluating the records trying to figure out how such extensive medical child abuse could have occurred. Most cases of medical child abuse (also known as Munchausen by Proxy or Factitious Disorder Imposed Upon Another) do not end well for the victims. Lacey Spears poisoned her son with salt and he died in the hospital at the age of 5. Kate Marie’s mother abused her for just a few short years and she was able to have doctors amputate Kate’s completely healthy leg.
How could Gypsy have survived such severe child abuse? In “Mommy Dead & Dearest,” Dr. Mark Feldman, a leading medical child abuse expert stated, “This is the worst case of medical child abuse I have ever seen,” Funny thing folks, he never saw a medical record or spoke to Gypsy according to an email he sent me when I asked him a question regarding Gypsy’s medical files. I was in shock. How can one go on an international documentary and state that without doing the work to make that determination. To diagnose a caregiver with medical child abuse there are certain criteria, one of which is speaking with both the abusee and the suspected abuser. At very least Gypsy’s medical records should have been evaluated and he should have talked to Gypsy and her family.
It makes me wonder though. Dr. Feldman is not the only doctor I find suspicious in all of this. With Feldman, he appeared in the very first documentary about this case. We originally thought that HBO and Mike Stanfield, Gypsy’s public defender, had very little in the way of medical records. However, in a recent discovery, I found a letter dated 2016 from Erin Carr, from HBO, to Kristy and Rod.
As you can see from the picture this was dated prior to Gypsy’s plea deal. Prior to Nick’s trial. HBO is who helped the Blanchard family collect all of Gypsy’s records even though Kristy and Gypsy lied about their access to these records on numerous occasions. Kristy & Gypsy even tried in an attempt to attack our credibility by telling other content creators that I had forged Gypsy’s signature to get the records. But I personally never requested one document. That was all done by Kristy and De-De’s former best friend and former nurse, Titania. Or so we thought, based on the letter from HBO it is uncertain how many of the records were obtained prior to the plea deal and long before we ever came on board. No forged signature was ever used to garner any information, documents, or any other evidence by anyone from our team.
Dr. Feldman seems to me to be the type of guy that would at very least want to protect his own credibility so I can’t imagine him not looking at even one record. What was his reasoning for the evaluation he made? With all the shady dealings and drama in this case I just find this highly suspicious. It makes me feel like he did see the records and he ignored the truth to fit the narrative he was being paid to give.
The doctors that saw Gypsy throughout her life are another perplexing piece of all of this. In our original assessment we believed that the doctors must have been either completely incompetent or they were in on the scam. But now with new evidence found in the medical records a whole new story has emerged. Colleen, did not come into possession of all the medical records until the last few years since the podcast. Originally, Titania was our head of medical research and she held certain files from Colleen and we cannot figure out why. About the time we did the podcast Titania told me about a document she had found in Gypsy’s files that made her really question some things. She approached me and Colleen about test results that indicated that Gypsy did in fact have a very rare chromosome disorder.
Colleen reviewed the documents that she had access to and found that there was preliminary genetic testing done by a Dr. Le Pichon but it came back as inconclusive. Colleen ruled it out as a viable diagnosis based on this result.
However, in Jan of this year, I sat down with an investigator out of Tarrant County Texas Prosecutor’s Office, Mike Webber, who specializes in medical child abuse cases. I spoke to him and explained to him that despite looking at the vast amount of documents this just did not seem to me to be a case of MBP. The first thing he did was explain to me to stop calling it that. He said to get convictions in their county successfully where other’s don’t is the terminology that they use. By calling in medical child abuse instead of the very confusing clinical terms it simplifies the case. Instead of trying to understand motive, reasoning, actions, it clears all of that out by simply looking at it as is this abuse or not? It clicked in my head right away like it hadn’t all the years talking to a wealth of experts in this specific field.
I said I could accept that term but I still felt that this case was something entirely different. It was blatantly glaring at me as a fraud case for financial gain. Mike told me that within a medical child abuse case you could have medical fraud. They often go hand in hand. Now I began seeing this as not the medical disorder of MBP but more along the lines of Malingering by Proxy.
Malingering by Proxy and Munchausen by Proxy are similar but the motives differ. MBP is identified in the DSM-V as a pathological disorder not a mental illness. It is in the same category as pedophilia. It has the same compulsive behaviors. It has many of the same mental disorder markers and causes. Malingering however is not in the DSM-V. It is not considered a mental disorder. The main difference is that in MBP a caregiver is making someone sick for emotional gratification. They like to be seen as someone who is a perfect caregiver, a savior, and they thrive and feed off that praise and attention from everyone. A malingerer is simply committing these acts for financial gain. I really felt that was what we were seeing with De-De. But these two similar conditions often go hand in hand as well.
I still wasn’t convinced. I went to Colleen and since 2019 Colleen has achieved a masters degree in Nursing Education and is an assistant director of a nursing education program. I remembered the conversation about the chromosome disorder she, Titania, & I had. I told her I remember that Titania kept insisting that the results showed she had a chromosome disorder and she even went so far as to tell Kristy about it but Kristy sluffed it off to nothing. I asked Colleen to search the new files she had and see if she could find the record.
She did. It was buried deep in a file. The file she originally had stopped three pages before the final results. In those three pages from 2011. Dr. Le Pichon who had been seeing Gypsy since 2009 when she moved her care from Springfield to Kansas City due to suspected fraud by the hospital was the final test results. Dr. Le Pichon was monitoring Gypsy for the seizure disorder her mother claimed she had. Gypsy has told us she never recalls ever having a seizure but with her ever changing stories and this new discovery I’m not as convinced.
The chromosome disorder was found by running genetic blood testing on Gypsy & De-De. A significant microdeletion of the 1q21.1 chromosome was detected. De-De was tested and it was not found to come from her and Rod was unavailable for testing. This legitimate diagnosis blows apart any ideas one might have about this case being medical child abuse. Once you learn about this disorder you can’t unsee it and you realize in an instant that Gypsy and others have all sold a false narrative from the first day. A narrative that put a mentally challenged autistic man behind bars for life, took the life of Gypsy’s mother, and left her to continue on the scams with a slap on the wrist having to only serve 8 years of a 10 years sentence. She was facing life from the impending fraud case. That all went away when Gypsy, Kristy, Mike, & HBO colluded to tell a false narrative and in my opinion cover up the truth and possibly a murder.
The first time we every heard the words Munchausen by Proxy in regards to Gypsy Rose was in the largest Facebook Group about the case. MJ Pack had been reporting the discoveries in the case as they unfolded in real time on her “Thought Catalog” site. She had reported that Gypsy and Nick had been obtained and had been on the run and it was reported that Gypsy was not sick like the entire community had been led to believe. Sherriff Arnott, stated in a press conference, “Things are not always as they appear.” Indicating that his officers had uncovered a rather extensive fraud case against the mother daughter duo leading all the way back to LA. According to Rod & Kristy De-De still has outstanding fraud charges from LA.
Days after Gypsy & Nick are located in his Waukesha parent’s house, after posting on Facebook a series of alarming tests, Kristy shows up in the Facebook group floating the words Munchausen by Proxy. And that is how it became public record. The abuse became the main focus of the media and investigators were stopped from investigating any further once Nick confessed, and a plea deal was reached for Gypsy. If you’ve followed this case at all then you know that there are serious issues with the crime scene not matching the brutality of the murder.
The only time that MBP is ever mentioned in Gypsy’s records is by Dr. Flasterstein in 2007 when Gypsy’s primary pediatrician, Dr. Steele, referred her to Flasterstein for neurological evaluation to try and understand what was wrong with her legs. It was becoming more and more perplexing to her doctors. There’s a lot of thoughts I have on Steele to be honest. I think since his appearances in the recent documentaries since Gypsy’s release I’m even more suspicious about his involvement in the fraud.
In 2005 when Gypsy first landed in MO after Katrina she saw Dr. Beckerman right away and was attended in the hospital for a period of two months before they were settled in Aurora, MO during the years of 2005-2007. Steel requested Gypsy’s medical records from LA. He claimed in, “The Lifetime Confession of Gypsy Rose,” that he had never seen all those records. Yet in 2005 he received a 207 page document from LA with all the information he needed to know this was fraud. Included in this master chart was the results from both the nerve conduction procedure and a muscle biopsy that ruled out Muscular Dystrophy as a cause of her weekend muscle tone in her legs. They labeled it an unknown chromosome disorder. Yet doctors, De-De, and the family continued to use that disorder as the beginning basis for fraud. They used it for social security benefits, perks from charities, donations from local residents, online fundraising and more. All for financial gain knowing she did not have MD.
You might recognize Dr. Beckerman from many conversations. Dr. Beckerman treated Gypsy starting at the age of 4 years old according to his records though sometimes he states she was 6 years old. The amount of lies told in this case are overwhelming and they come from everyone involved. Beckerman is a Pulmonologist and sees Gypsy based on her claimed sleep apnea. His records are the ones that are fraught with inaccuracies and blatant malpractice and perpetuated the fraud. Other doctors in his clinics see Gypsy while he’s on a leave of absence question his diagnosis and treatment plans.
Beckerman moved his practice from LA to MO a few years prior to Katrina but he continued to treat Gypsy in LA until she was angel flighted out to where he was an attending and low and behold the trio is reunited. It was even covered in a medical professional magazine. Beckerman leaps into action and is always the constant no matter where Gypsy goes for treatment. He’s who helped them get housing in Aurora, he also aided in helping them secure the Habitat House. We’ve read from Beckerman’s files and discussed him numerous times on our podcast and on our YouTube channel. To hear the absurdity of his notes go give them a listen.
So, in 2005 when Steele becomes her preliminary doctor he requests and receives the medical records from LA. In this file are the nerve conduction study results, and the muscle biopsy results from Dr. Garcia. In this muscle biopsy document it states in bolded letters, Gypsy Rose does not have Muscular Dystrophy. She is labeled with a chromosome disorder of unknown etiology. I think the reason this was stated that way in those records was the doctors were beginning to catch on in LA. They were realizing that while yes, their patient had lots of unknown symptoms and conditions they knew it wasn’t MD like De-De was claiming and using to garner financial gain from charities, social security and more. It is suspected that at this time was when the pair were tossed out of the Ronald McDonald house on the basis of fraud. The fraud that De-De was committing in LA extended well past medical fraud. She was allegedly committing identity theft, writing hot checks, stealing money from family members, defrauding charities, attempting to murder several individuals and other petty theft charges were all mounting around the time Katrina hit. De-De saw that as her way out and she jumped on it.
Dr. Steele had those records and he knew that Gypsy did not suffer from MD despite continuing to chart that in her files. It takes him a full 2 years to send her for evaluation to Flasterstein. He claims that he was becoming suspicious and Flasterstein identifies again in bold letters in a letter sent from Flasterstein to Steele stating that “Mother is not a good historian… Possible Munchausen by Proxy.”
So, you send a patient that you suspect something is off and when the doctor you send her to confirms something seems wrong and you do nothing. Steele treated her for 2 more years. Did he not read the records and letters sent to him? Did he not read where Flasterstein confirms he not only has the records that show Gypsy doesn’t have MD but also spoke to Garcia’s office manager and she stated that she knew for a fact that Garcia had ruled that diagnosis out in 2000? I can’t for the life of me figure it out other than to think he had to be gaining something from this.
In 2009 an anonymous call is made to DCFS regarding a possible “kidnapping” that Steel claims he made. I do not believe this. HBO was unable to confirm he made the call and so were we. We do believe that a nurse in his office alerted him to the changing birthdates and perhaps some of the other blatant fraud and called it in and Steele is trying to cover his ass. The call was documented as a suspicion of medical child abuse. Two officers and two DCSF workers go out to the home. Gypsy is able to provide her own birth certificate and an ID that confirms she is an adult and the workers did notate that the felt there was some serious mental delays they were witnessing so the case is left at that.
In 2009 the hospital in Springfield asked for guardianship papers from De-De from a court of law. De-De draws up several copies of a false POA and tries to present that to the hospital and they refused it. They want a judgement of guardianship. The fraud had been detected and they were beginning to investigate. At this time, Beckerman to the rescue, he helps set them up in Kansas City with new doctors.
This is where Dr. Le Pichon comes on scene. In 2009 Le Pichon begins treating Gypsy for her seizures. She is stable but they still have no answers for some of the more odd issues she was exhibiting. Of note these results for tests that used to perplex us now explain to us that there was always a doctor looking for the causes but they didn’t know what they were looking for. It wasn’t until 2011 when technological advancements gave way to more conclusive testing. A genetic blood testing was performed on Gypsy and a significant microdeletion of the 1q21.1 chromosome was confirmed. Le Pichon went on to have De-De tested for the deletion and it did not come back to her side, Rod was unavailable for testing. I bet!
So, what does this all mean? How does this prove that De-De did not medically abuse her child? The reason is simple, every medical issue that Gypsy has had over the course of her 34 years can be explained and linked back to this rare disorder. Once Colleen identified what the chromosome disorder was we took to researching it’s actual etiology and symptoms. According to rarechromo.org in an 11 page pamphlet about individuals with this rare disorder it’s uncanny how much it explains.
People with the 1q21.1 microdeletion can have no issues detected. It can range from relatively mild issues to severe conditions. One of the biggest factors in recognizing this disorder is the facial features that are exhibited by this condition. This condition can cause microcephaly, small head, which is notated in Gypsy’s chart all the way back to her being a small child. It’s what some people refer to as pinheads. The physical facial marker for this is deep inset eyes, and a triangular nose/mouth region creating a possum look or an ant eater shaped face.
In our opinion Gypsy has a moderate case of the microdeletion of the 1q21.1 chromosome and her siblings have less severe symptoms but their facial features all resemble the people who are identified with this disorder. Symptoms of this disorder include but are not limited to, microcephaly, teeth decay, excessive saliva, seizures, muscle weakness in the limbs specifically, eyesight issues, feeding issues, failure to thrive, chronic ear infections, and even has a significant predisposition for severe mental health issues including schizophrenia. Many of the minor problems associated with this microdeletion patients out grow or are able to fix them to a normal level. This explains why during the later years of her treatment her conditions were leveling out. She wasn’t seeing doctors regularly since 2011. She was treated ongoing for her teeth decay and her excessive saliva and had routine check ups. Her major issues had all resolved with treatment or because she out grew them. Gypsy still has lasting issues and will continue to have minor to moderate issues as she ages. You can see the eye problems, facial features, and the strangeness with the way she walks and her gait. She has muscle weakness and that won’t improve, it will continue to cause issues for her as she ages.
The discovery of the microdeletion of 1q21.1 chromosome blows Gypsy’s entire abuse claims apart. She was not ever medically abused. Her doctors and her mother were providing her with the best care possible for the very real issues she had. On top of that De-De was able to commit insane amounts of medical fraud for their benefit. Most chronically or fatally sick children don’t get anywhere near the special treatment and perks that Gypsy has experienced throughout her lifetime. If a child is deemed fatal it’s a miracle if Make a Wish or any other foundation donates even one experience to that child before they pass but Gypsy was given reward after reward. Children that are as ill as Gypsy and De-De claimed do not get to meet Harry Potter and hobnob with billionaires on yachts twice. They are bed ridden. Their days are filled with horrid procedures, excruciating pain, and early death.
After this discovery it’s become very clear exactly what De-De and Gypsy were up to and that was unsurmountable amounts of medical fraud for financial gain. De-De was obsessed with celebrities all the way back to her teen years when she allegedly told friends she was dating Jackie Blades from Night Ranger. She always wanted to be famous and be recognized and be rich. She achieved all of this by having her sick kid really play it up. She put her in a wheelchair, dressed her in funny clothes, and told her to pretend to be a baby. She’s an ACTRESS folks nothing more, nothing less. I could make a case for that being child abuse but then you’d have to arrest half the stage moms out there. Have you seen what people do to get their kids to participate in beauty pageants, tv shows etc. That’s all Gypsy was doing and her world was the stage.
She played a role. For doing so she was given anything and everything she wanted. She was rewarded with toys, clothes, trips, celebrity meet & greets, special Olympics, and anything her desired. Have you heard her now talking about cheerleading and brownies when she was little? But wait I thought she had no friends? Yet one reached out to me claiming she was one of the kids at the party where the trampoline story of her jumping on the trampoline and then collapsing the second momma came out occurred. But again she never had friends, despite telling Officer Hancock she has LOTS of friends. And she did. She was heavily involved in a group in Springfield called VisionCon.
You might have heard about it. It’s where in 2009 Gypsy disappeared for 4 hours during a convention hosted by VisionCon. When she was found she was in a state of undress and committing sexual relations with an older man. At this time Gypsy was 18 years old and the man was alleged to be in his 30 or 40s. People have alleged that Gypsy and De-De were involved in a Facebook group for the group where Gypsy blatantly hit on men in their 30s and 40s and De-De was well aware of it. The man she was caught with is still to this day unknown. Some have suspected it was her long term boyfriend from the group, Daniel Dwight Glidewell. But it was never confirmed that this first incident with an older man was him or not. According to sources on MJ’s thought catalog this man was banned from functions and his name should be cleared.
So in 2009 everyone knew about the fraud. EVERYONE. De-De, Rod, Kristy and the Pitre family always knew that it wasn’t true. They’ve all admitted to it in one way or another while not a single one of them has taken accountability for their actions. But in MO. in the neighborhood that De-De and Gypsy lived in and the people they were friends with all knew exactly what was what after several incidents in 2009.
Then in 2011 when the hospital in Kansas City becomes suspicious just like the one in Springfield did all hopes of continuing the medical fraud were coming to an end in their area. De-De was not well. Her health had been declining for years. And in 2015 in a trip to Disney a couple met the duo and De-De introduced Gypsy as 12 years old again and that they were thinking of relocating to Florida. Of a side note Dr. Beckerman relocated to Fl with his practice. I mean that seems so odd but…..
It is alleged by several men in this community that Gypsy was running things for years. That she was involved in sex with older men as part of fetish communities and she was running drugs according to sources. In 2011 at age of 21 years old, Gypsy leaves her home, supposedly walks several blocks over and knocks on a random person’s door to ask them to take her to visit her friend who landed in the hospital because of a bar fight. The couple allege they took her to the hospital, she was clearly wearing a disguise, she was walking and speaking just fine and they did know who she was. And of course the friend she had to see, none other than Dan Glidewell.
She arrives at the hospital with her belongings packed, and informing Dan she’s ready to run off to Arkansas with him for good. Dan and the rest of this VisionCon crew all knew exactly how old she was. She had her birth certificate with her and an ID. Now, the story goes that Dan was staying with some friends while he was in MO and his wife and children were back in AR. Dan has gotten out of a recent prison stint for drugs. This roommate supposedly contacted Kim & David Blanchard and they told De-De and she went and dragged Gypsy back. I don’t believe a word of this story.
This is supposed to be when De-De shows up claiming she’ll call the cops because her daughter is underage and Gypsy supposedly willingly leaves with her because her mom said if she came home with her she could date whoever she wanted. Yeah no. This is also when the supposed BB gun incident took place, the chaining to her bed, and the smashing of the laptop. At this time I’m on the fence about the shooting but I do know the rest of this story could not have happened when she said it did based on her medical records and procedures and things that were happening at the time. So who knows. All these people do is lie, cheat, steal and kill so we can’t trust any of them to be reliable narrators.
This I believe was the moment Gypsy decided momma had to go. Nick wasn’t the only man she tried to get to murder her mom. But that’s a story for another day.
Fancy Macelli and her team’s work can be seen in our 8 part series with InTouch Magazine, The Reelz Channel’s Copycat Killers, A&E’s Killer Cases Season 1 Episode 6 for which we were listed as contributors, on our 13 episode The Good Wives’ Guide to True Crime podcast available on all major podcast platforms. However, all of these were filmed before we discovered the truth of the chromosome disorder so we are working to clear up any misinformation people might have arose before that discovery.
You can find more information about us at thegoodwivesnetwork.com as well as on all social media platforms under @thegoodwivesnet . Follow Fancy on TikTok under spicyred92 and our official new GWN page at goodwivesnet2
Colleen, Sara, & Fancy are currently working on a documentary entitled, “Gypsy Rose & Nick, America’s Sweetheart Murderers.” Their upcoming tell all book of their 7 year journey with the De De Blanchard case gives a very personal look into what happened on June 15, 2015 in the town of Springfield, MO and more is entitled, “It’s All a Distraction- Our 7 Year+ Journey of Investigating the Life, Crimes, & Murder of De De Blanchard.”
Our first book, “The Companion 2: The Good Wives’ Guide to True Crime” is set to release in eBook, paperback and hard cover in May. You can currently pre-order the paperback version.