In June 2015, police in Missouri found the dead body of Dee Dee Blanchard. She was killed by her daughter.
Gypsy Rose (the daughter) was believed to have the cognitive age of a 7-year-old and to suffer from dangerous health problems.
But that turned out to be a lie. Actually, Dee Dee had a disease known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. That mental illness affects a parent or caregiver who pretends that their children are physically or mentally sick or exaggerates their illnesses.
Dee Dee lied that her daughter had problems in the chromosomes and leukemia. She also made people think her child had other severe diseases such as epilepsy and sleep apnea. She shaved Gypsy Rose’s hair to make it look as if she was undergoing chemotherapy and forced her into using a wheelchair from the age of 8.
Gypsy also had invasive surgical procedures she didn’t need, including her salivary glands extracted.
Even after the girl was mature enough to know what she’d been through her mother made her keep lying. By torturing her physically and psychologically Dee Dee forced Gypsy into pretending she was younger, . Dee Dee was using Gypsy’s fake illnesses to collect finances from different charities.
The girl (now 27) who in reality is a healthy young woman with normal mental abilities murdered her parent while attempting to escape the long-term abuse.
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in July 2016. She was not given a life imprisonment due to the cruelty of Dee Dee.
The tragedy became public after the release of a documentary called Mommy Dead and Dearest, which revealed the nightmare Gypsy had been through in her childhood and teenage years.
The story has even been adapted for TV by Hulu.
The Act tv series’ premiere date is March 20th, 2019. Joey King will star as Gypsy Rose Blanchard, and Patricia Arquette will play the role of Dee Dee in the multilayered drama on Hulu.
Hopefully, it will shed light on what it is to be affected by the Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
However, the relatives of Dee Dee and Gypsy don’t like the idea of the series. They think the family tragedy is a personal matter and shouldn’t be made public.
