Gypsy Rose Blanchard's ex-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn helped kill her mum. What happened to him?

On December 28, 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison after serving eight years behind bars for her involvement in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

But she didn't do it alone. Gypsy Rose conspired was aided by her online boyfriend Nicholas 'Nick' Godejohn, who carried out the killing of his girlfriend's mother.

Eight years after the crime, their case continues to captivate and horrify the world.

Gypsy was raised to believe she was terminally ill. Though she was able to walk, her mother had her confined to a wheelchair, and led the young girl to believe she'd been diagnosed with everything from leukemia and muscular dystrophy and seizures, as well as developmental issues that meant she had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old – even at 23 years old.

Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard. Image: Supplied.

She was often forced to take medication she didn't need and Dee Dee would shave her head.

In the end, Gypsy didn't suffer from a single one of the conditions her mother reported.

Gypsy’s mother had invented all of her daughter's ailments, her actions thought to have been due to Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy – a condition that makes a parent or guardian distort or invent illness in a child for attention.

Gypsy Rose had gotten by for 23 years relatively unaware it was all a lie. But in 2012, she met Nicholas on ChristinDatingForFree.com and the pair began dating, in regular contact for three years before finally meeting in person in 2015.

Obsessed with fairytales, Gypsy related to Rapunzel, "who is kept in this tower for all of her life... so that is all she knows", she said in Oxygen documentary Killer Couples: Gypsy Rose: A Love To Kill in 2019. With dreams of finding her own Prince Charming, she believed she had found him in Nicholas.

"I'm a little emberessed [sic] this is my first time on an online dateing [sic] site but i thought it might be nice to me new people and maybe find love too," one of her earlier messages to him read.

As Gypsy shared the reality of living under Dee Dee's thumb with her boyfriend, Nicholas later explained he had an overwhelming desire to protect Gypsy Rose.

"She told me everything," he said on the Oxygen documentary.

"She told me her mum abused her. I wanted to make sure her mum was not going to hurt her anymore."

Nicholas wanted connection too, and was "sort of similar" to Gypsy in that he functioned like a 15- or 16-year-old and "did not really [have] a normal social interaction history", according to former FBI agent Brad Garrett.

He had been arrested in 2013 for masturbating at a McDonald's and having a concealed knife, according to E! News, and reportedly struggled with mental health issues.

What did Nicholas Godejohn and Gypsy Rose Blanchard do?

After several years of dating Nicholas online, Gypsy was hopeful that Dee Dee would approve of their relationship if she planned their meeting to a tee. Given he lived in Wisconsin (a seven-hour-long bus ride away from Gypsy and Dee Dee's home in Missouri), she wanted to make sure her mother approved.

But it ended disastrously as Dee Dee found Nicholas' behaviour bizarre when she met him during a movie date.

"[It was] awful, oh my god. She got jealous because I was spending a little too much attention on him and she had ordered me to stay away from him," Gypsy recalled in an interview with ABC News. 

She added that they argued for weeks afterwards, with Dee Dee "yelling, throwing things, calling me names, 'b**ch, sl*t, w**re'".

It was then Gypsy revealed everything to Nicholas, detailing the abuse she endured. From there, the pair hatched a plan to murder Dee Dee.

Of why he did it, Nicholas later told ABC News, "Honestly... she asked me to."

So on the evening of June 9, 2015 — not long after having their first date in person — Gypsy hid in the bathroom while Nicholas stabbed her mother to death in her sleep, using a knife and gloves that his girlfriend had stolen.

Her body would not be found until June 15. 

Nick Godejohn on Oxygen's Gypsy Rose & Nick: A Love to Kill For. Image: Oxygen.

The pair were discovered days after the murder, hiding out at Godejohn's family home in Wisconsin.

In February 2019, Nicholas was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and armed criminal action, while Gypsy (who was charged with second-degree murder) walked free on December 28 after eight years behind bars.

From jail, Nicholas later shared what the days leading up to and after Dee Dee's murder were like.

"That was, man, probably the best days I've had in my life. I mean, that's the only way I can describe it. I enjoyed every second of it," he said on the Oxygen doco in 2019.

"Those five days where I was physically with [Gypsy], those five days were the most intense and magical and awe-inspiring days I've ever had," he added.

"I somehow just knew deep within my heart, somehow, me and her would end up being together in the end. There's no other option. We have to."

Gypsy Rose and her mother Dee Dee. Image: Supplied. 

Why did Nicholas Godejohn kill Dee Dee Blanchard?

As for the reasons for his violent actions, Nicholas claimed he did it all for love.

"From the very beginning, I just knew we were soulmates," he said in the Oxygen documentary. "I was going to get a job, start looking for an apartment... I'd probably end up marrying her and having children with her.

"That's something I've never had with someone else. I've never, ever had it and to this day, she's the only one I've had it with," he added.

"It was a very deep, intimate relationship."

Nicholas had no history of violence before the murder and told ABC's 20/20, "I felt horrible about it. When me and her were in the hotel room... she [Gypsy] kept on telling me, 'Stop crying, stop crying. There’s no reason, reason to cry. It was my idea, it wasn't yours.'

"I... did what I did because I loved her. I really wanted a life with her, I really did."

Why did Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Nicholas Godejohn break up?

Afterward the sentencing, the pair's relationship deteriorated quickly and by April 2019 – just four years after Nicholas killed Dee Dee – Gypsy was engaged to another man, Ryan Scott Anderson. The pair married in August 2022.

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Speaking to ABC News in the US about her relationship with Nick in January 2018, Gypsy shared that she felt Nick was "controlling".

"He was very much like my mother in certain ways," she said.

"Both of them were very controlling... and I feel like I was trained my whole life to do as I was told, and I feel like he wanted that for a girlfriend."

In an earlier interview with Dr. Phil, Gypsy also claimed that Nicholas "had multiple personalities that were violent and scary".

"He thought he was a 500-year-old vampire named Victor," she added.

Where is Nicholas Godejohn now?

Nicholas Godejohn is currently serving a life sentence at the Potosi Correctional Center, as reported by The Springfield News-Leader. 

In August 2022, he appeared in court, where he asked to set aside his previous conviction and order a new trial on the grounds that he had ineffective counsel in his trial, but that motion was denied in March 2023.

Feature Image: Lifetime/Hulu/Oxygen.