Kriti Mehrotra
When single mother of one Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard was found dead inside her own Springfield, Missouri, home on June 14, 2015, it honestly left the entire nation shaken to its very core. That’s because, as explored in ‘The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,’ she was killed by Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn at the behest of his girlfriend/her daughter turned abuse victim Gypsy. Little did they know their actions as well as this case as a whole would soon evolve into an international sensation, especially considering Gypsy’s survival and Nick’s extremities.
Who is Nick Godejohn?
It was reportedly back when Nick was quite a young boy growing up in Wisconsin that he realized he was different from everyone else, only for it to continue expanding as the years passed. He was admittedly highly affected by his parents’ legal separation since he was just 3 or 4 at the time and then came his autism diagnosis while he was in grade school, kind of alienating him a lot. Little did anybody realize he gradually began spending most of his time playing video games or surfing the net, which actually led to some pretty dark thoughts entering his stream of consciousness.
According to the aforementioned documentary series, this negative side of Nick only came out once he began getting into relationships as an older teen because he grew controlling and violent. Gypsy Blanchard was even warned about it by one of his exes when they became Facebook official mere months after connecting through a Christian dating site in 2012, yet she paid it no heed. She was just happy she was getting to interact with somebody who wasn’t her mother — after all, she was apparently being heinously abused by Dee Dee via Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
It thus comes as no surprise Gypsy admittedly often looked at Nick as her Prince Charming and also went as far as to clearly ask if he would protect her no matter what, including from her own mother. Only when he said yes did she approach him with the idea of getting rid of her for good, especially since their plan of positively meeting for the first time at a movie hall in local Missouri had failed too. Dee Dee didn’t just dislike the Wisconsin native, but she wanted the couple to completely split up, reportedly driving her daughter over the edge as she understandably really wished to lead a free life.
Gypsy hence spoke to Nick about her mother, just for him to agree before conceding he already had dark fantasies of rape as well as murder that were driven by her alternative personality Victor. This duo subsequently meticulously planned the homicide — in between which she briefly even broke up with him owing to his extreme desires, but the plan still went ahead – and he arrived in Missouri. It was in June 2015 he stabbed Dee Dee four times as she lay in bed, only to then get intensely physical with Gypsy and flee to his home state, from where they were arrested around five days later.
Nick Godejohn is Behind Bars Today
Nick actually cooperated with authorities from the get-go, yet he wasn’t awarded any leniency owing to the brutality behind his actions — he as well as Gypsy both admitted he alone stabbed Dee Dee. It thus didn’t work when it came time for him to stand trial in November 2018, and his defense team tried to paint him as an innocent being who’d simply been lured in by his girlfriend to do her dirty work. In other words, following four days of testimonies (including Gypsy’s) plus two hours of deliberations, he was found guilty of one count each of first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Nick was hence sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole with an additional 25 years for the lesser charge, meaning he’ll remain behind state bars for the rest of his natural life. He did try to appeal in August 2022 on the grounds of ineffective counsel at trial, but his motion to vacate, set aside, or correct judgment and sentence was unequivocally denied in March 2023. Therefore, today, at the age of 34, he remains incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Centre.
Coming to Nick’s relationship with Gypsy, despite the fact they’ve long been separated, it appears as if he still holds romantic feelings towards her. “From the very beginning, I just knew we were soulmates,” he once said. “Those five days when I was actually with her, physically with her, those five days were the most intense, magical, and awe-inspiring days I’ve ever had… Somehow, I just knew, deep within my heart, some way, me and her would end up being together in the end… [So] I wanted to make sure her mom was not going to harm her anymore. I made sure of that,” and he doesn’t seem to regret it one bit.
