Original subtitles

(suspenseful music)

- [Gypsy] Nick and I came up with this plan

that I was gonna lose my virginity to him.

- It's sad that she opened up to Nick.

I wish she could have, you know, come to me.

- I started to really feel like it was either her

or me.

(dramatic music)

I hear screaming and banging.

There was still a point that she didn't have to die,

and I wish I could have stopped it.

- We are leaving right now to go to Gypsy's parole hearing.

- [Gypsy] I got my answer today.

♪ No, you could never take my soul ♪

(prison doors buzzing)

(suspenseful music)

- There is a level of anticipation

going into a parole hearing,

because you're getting your chance to speak

and show them how far you have come

from point A to point Z.

I am not the same person that I was

six and a half years ago.

- I feel like Gypsy finally is finding herself,

finding that independence.

(pensive music)

She's made a lot of mistakes, but she's learning.

My name's Mia Blanchard.

Gypsy Rose is my half sister,

but I refer to her as my sister.

I feel sorry Gypsy didn't get the life that I got to live.

I got to grow up with a loving father and a loving mother.

I got to grow up going to school with my friends,

hanging out with my friends,

learning to do all these things, and she never had that.

That was taken away from her by her mother.

I always thought that 10 years was too long.

She deserved to be in jail,

but she also deserved to get help.

- I've had a chance to dissect

everything that's happened to me.

And now I'm finally telling the whole story from my word.

(pensive music)

Nick and I tried this whole meeting

at a movie theater with my mother,

and it went horrible.

I was walking on pins and needles every single day,

waiting for the other shoe to drop,

when she'd lash out again.

I felt desperate to live a normal life.

(soft pensive music)

That's when Nick and I start going into other plans.

I'm like, "What happens if you would get me pregnant?"

If I was pregnant, he would have

to stay in my life and be around.

- The emotional bond Gypsy had with her mother

was extremely unhealthy.

And Gypsy is starting to feel a little more independence.

She wants to do anything she can to not lose Nick.

Things are starting to come to a head.

(pensive music)

- [Gypsy] At the time, I was fully aware that I could walk,

that I could eat, that I didn't need the feeding tube,

that I didn't have a seizure disorder.

I was even suspicious that I didn't have cancer.

When my mother got the power of attorney papers

saying that I'm incompetent to care for myself,

it really became clear to me that I was trapped,

because if I was to attempt to run away again,

the cops would just bring me right back to my mother

because she's got these papers

saying that, like, I'm mentally challenged.

As time went on, it began to be more clear

that I was not going to get away from my mother

while she was alive.

- This is classic of kids who are held hostage

or victims of kidnappers.

They're kept in a horrible prisoner situation

for a long time, and they've been thinking about,

"How can I get out of this?"

And then they see that window closing.

Gypsy was desperate to get out.

- It was me. It was my idea.

We got into a conversation.

Nick was telling me how he would protect me from anyone,

and I asked him, I said, "Anyone?"

And he said, "Yes."

And I said, "Even my mother?"

And he said, "Yes."

He starts talking about fantasies

of murder and rape and crime,

and these are all things that I didn't know

existed in him at first,

and that is when he told me

that his alternate personality's name is Victor,

that he's a 500-year-old vampire.

(ominous music)

He starts talking to me about how Victor loves to kill,

and would kill my mother for me.

(messages beeping)

- I believed that he was capable of this,

or at least I believed in this alternate personality

that he had had.

(pensive music)

He sort of directed me to do research myself

about ways to commit murder.

He suggested poison, and so I Googled

different kinds of poisons.

Then he suggested arson,

that I just drop a candle on the bed

and it would just burn the house down.

I suggested the gun.

And he said that a gun would be too loud,

that it would alert the neighbors.

We finally settled on a knife as the weapon.

- I stole the knife from a Walmart.

(tense music)

- [Producer] What are your thoughts

on your mindset back then?

- [Gypsy] I pity myself.

I look at myself as a scared little girl,

trapped and desperate to get out of a bad situation.

I wish that I knew that there were people

that I could go to for help.

I wish that I would've known

that I didn't have to commit this crime.

Had I asked a responsible person to commit murder,

their response would've been,

"No, I'm going to the authorities."

But Nick was like, "Okay, I'm going to kill your mother."

- Today is Thursday, December 9th.

(pensive music)

I'm going to Gypsy's parole hearing,

and I'm going to be talking to the parole warden.

Rod was supposed to be her delegate,

but he couldn't come today.

Then I would, you know, step up to the plate.

- I know it's a big important thing for Gypsy,

but I told her about my schedule.

It's like, right in the middle of a one-month trip,

and she's like, "Look, I understand."

I'm glad Kristy's able to go and support her.

- I'm nervous and excited,

because this is something that is gonna change her life,

if they allow her to get out.

So, I'm hoping for great news.

- My stepmother Kristy is coming to be my support for my parole.

It's very meaningful, it's very symbolic.

The death of my mother was the death of a mother figure.

However, she wasn't the mother that I wanted.

Anyone can see the desperation that I had,

and that's why I made the choice to commit murder.

(tense foreboding music)

Nick really wanted to make my mother suffer

as much as possible in a very violent and demented way.

And so one of the fantasies that he expressed to me was

that he wanted to murder her,

and then he wanted to dump her on an abandoned farm.

There's pigs there, and apparently pigs eat anything,

but beforehand he wanted to rape her

with me by her side, while this was happening.

I was a little frightened about that.

Then he told me Victor had certain rituals

that he wanted to be done,

and it was that if we would have a daughter

that upon her 13th birthday, he would take her virginity.

After that conversation,

I dumped him.

(tense ethereal music)

A few days later, he sends me a text message,

and a message on Facebook saying

that he didn't mean it and that's just Victor.

You have to understand that I thought

that Nick's gonna be my prince charming.

I thought this was someone that was my forever,

so I took him back.

I really thought that Nick loved me,

and he was my way out.

- We picked a random date,

and it was pretty much the soonest possible

that I could get enough money to buy the bus ticket

for his transportation to Missouri.

I stole the money from my mother's safe

and sent it to him in a greeting card.

And then, this is something that I never revealed before

to anyone except for attorneys.

(tense foreboding music)

I made a video for Nick that's kind of like a walkthrough

of what the house layout looked like,

what my mother's bedroom looked like,

because he would be walking into her room in the dark.

I made the stabbing motion,

because I was high all of the time on pain pills.

The side effects of those create this disconnection to reality.

- That day I actually remember very clearly.

(tense foreboding music)

I woke up next to my mother,

and I had messaged Nick,

and he told me that he was on his bus ride.

Probably about five hours before the murder happened,

my mother and I had a moment,

and it's just so ironic, the words she chose to say.

- [Kristy] Hey, babe.

- [Rod] Hey.

You look nice.

- Thank you.

Kind of nervous, but that's why we're gonna say a prayer.

(pensive music)

- [Rod] Oh, Lord, heavenly Father,

thank you for this open door you have allowed us to have.

An opportunity for Gypsy to get released early.

Please open the hearts and the minds

of the parole panelists.

Give them understanding to Gypsy's story

and her progress that she's made, Lord.

We ask this in Jesus' holy and righteous name, amen.

- Amen.

Thank you.

- [Rod] All right, you go.

- Yeah, I gotta throw my boots on and we gotta head out.

- [Rod] Love you. - Love you too.

- [Rod] Okay. - Peace out.

(sighs) I wish he could be here.

(soft pensive music)

- Regardless of the things that I have done,

my stepmother Kristy has been there for me

without judgment.

I haven't disclosed everything to everyone,

but I am finally starting to understand

who I am and what's happened to me.

(tense foreboding music)

That night, my mother and I had planned to watch a movie.

Nick had told me that I should tell her that I love her,

and so I gave her a big hug.

I remember her telling me,

"What's that for? I'm not dead yet."

It was so ironic.

(ominous ethereal music)

I went back to her bedroom and I cried.

A part of me didn't wanna go through with it.

I hugged her pillow 'cause it had her scent,

and then after that we put the movie in

and we started watching the movie.

About two hours later,

Nick texts me that he's at the hotel.

And, at this point, she's fallen asleep,

and so I text him that she's asleep.

(suspenseful music)

So he takes a cab over to my house.

He arrives at the house,

and the first thing he tells me upon entering is,

"The bitch is dead."

(sinister music)

And he said, "Get your f-ing ass in the bathroom now."

I get down on the ground and I cover my ears,

and I hear her wake up.

And I hear screaming and banging.

(eerie dramatic music)

It stopped for a moment,

and so I uncovered my ears.

And that's when I hear her calling my name,

and she's like, "Gypsy, help me!"

And, to this day, I can't get that out of my head.

And I wanted to help her, but I don't.

I just sit there.

I don't do anything, I just sit there.

And then I hear her screaming again,

and then there was one sharp scream and then it was over.

It was silence.

I didn't hear anything.

(somber music)

I'd do anything to just go back to that moment in time.

Yeah, there's so many moments in time

that I wish I could go back to,

but there was still a point that she didn't have to die,

and I wish I could have stopped it.

(tense music)

Nick came to the bathroom door.

He was holding the knife,

and he had blood coming from his finger.

He cut his finger.

And then he instructed me to clean up the droplets of blood

that was throughout the house.

- He just watched me the whole time.

He never took his eyes off me.

At the time, I was completely dissociated

from what was happening.

It was like it was a bad dream.

(tense music)

Nick commanded me to be naked.

And then the command that,

because I didn't let him rape my mother,

that I had to agree to let him rape me.

(tense music)

- So, today is the day

that I am sort of just taking it all in,

trying to clear my thoughts,

so I can have sound thinking for my parole hearing.

It feels like after everything that I have been through,

why keep me here?

It's not gonna bring my mother back.

(pensive music)

After Nick killed my mother,

he told me to get in my bedroom

and take off all the stuffed animals that was on my bed.

I knew that he was gonna have sex with me.

Never once was it a fantasy to me.

When I yelled, "Stop!" He didn't.

I called for my mother.

(tense music)

And then, after, I blacked out for a little bit

'cause he was choking me.

When I came to, he told me to get ready.

And then called the taxi cab.

We left the house and we get to the hotel.

I was a little frightened that someone would see me,

but I was wearing a wig, so no one would recognize me.

At this point, I'm taking pain medication to get high.

I'm in a state of shock

where I didn't believe any of that happened.

That was my frame of mind.

The next day we were supposed to leave for Wisconsin.

(soft pensive music)

Nick had booked his bus ticket as a round trip,

but when we got to the bus station,

I tried to buy a ticket and there was

no place on the bus for me,

so we had to exchange our bus ticket for two days later.

So we just pretty much stay at the hotel.

(tense ethereal music)

I was very high on pain pills,

but I enjoyed being with Nick.

We ordered pizza and thought it would be funny

to make a, quote unquote, porn video.

And so I'm like, "Oh, we're gonna make pizza porn!"

And he's laying there next to me naked,

and we're talking about brownies and pizza.

He's eating a brownie!

- [Nick] Stop, honey, please!

- [Gypsy] But later he will be (beep) me.

(both laughing)

- Stop, honey.

- [Gypsy] And then he's like, "Put your phone down."

He took the phone from me

and so we're not videotaping anymore.

It was a rollercoaster of emotions

between happiness and grief.

I could be laughing my ass off at one moment,

and then crying, sobbing the next moment.

(Gypsy sobbing)

Like, "I miss my mom and I wish she was here."

(somber music)

When we got on the bus to Wisconsin,

it was so thrilling and exciting,

like winning a trip to Hawaii.

It was like the most independent thing

I've ever done in my life!

I had my digital camera and I was

looking outside the window and taking pictures.

I was very hopeful of me and Nick's future.

I stole about $5,000 from my mom's safe in cash.

(chuckles) I was so naive.

I thought that that was gonna, like,

be the money that we would live off of

for the rest of our lives. (laughs)

And of course I thought that, you know,

good old-fashioned thing, live on love. (laughs)

(tense music)

When we got to Nick's house,

he told his mother that my mother had

kicked me out of the house,

and that I would be staying with them.

And she seemed very fine with it,

but I began to think a little bit more about my situation.

I could see that he's not the independent man

that I thought that I was going to be living with.

He had a small room in the upstairs loft

and it looked the equivalent of a 15-year-old boy's room.

There was a wrestling comforter on his bed.

I just sat there.

And I contemplated, "What the F did I get myself into?"

(intense music)

(soft pensive music)

- We are leaving right now to go

to the Chillicothe Correctional Center

for Gypsy's parole hearing.

I'm gonna go in there and speak from my heart,

and just be me.

That's all I could do, is be myself

and hope and pray

it goes smoothly.

(pensive music)

- [Gypsy] Six and a half years ago,

being in court, facing the judge and the prosecution,

I had my attorneys there and they spoke for me.

And now I'm walking into this room all by myself.

There's no one to speak for me but myself.

I'm so nervous, but I'm gonna do everything I can

to show the parole board the best version of myself.

(tense music)

After arriving at Nick's house,

it was not freedom like I thought that it was going to be,

and that was not something I expected.

Nick would control what I would wear.

He picked out what I wore,

and he picked out what I would watch

just like my mother did.

He picked what we would eat.

Reality started to creep in my mind,

and I just thought to myself, "Is this really what I traded?

That life for this life?

Is this really what I wanted?"

That remorse and that guilt started to surface.

(gentle morose music)

And the idea of my mother being dead in her bed

and no one knowing.

I wanted her to be found.

(tense foreboding music)

That's when I decided to make the post

on the Facebook account that my mother and I shared.

What stuck out in my mind, and what to post is

exactly what Nick said upon entering the house,

"The bitch is dead."

And so that's exactly what I posted.

(tense suspenseful music)

- I got a phone call from a friend of mines,

and she's like, "Did you see the post

on Dee Dee and Gypsy's Facebook page?"

But then when I read it, I was like, "Wait, what?"

And it just floored me.

But, at that time, people's social media was

getting hacked a lot, so could have been

a cruel joke at first, hoping it was, yes.

(tense music)

- Then I posted a second post to let them know

the account's not hacked.

I wrote, "I slashed that fat pig

and raped her sweet innocent daughter."

I put that online because I felt

like that would alarm people.

- [Producer] Mark. (slate clicks)

- My name is Alan Voss and I was a senior detective

for the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department

in Wisconsin.

(suspenseful music)

Green County Sheriff's Department were alerted

by friends of the family that there had been

some alarming posts on Gypsy's and Dee Dee's

joint Facebook account.

After being alerted to these posts,

they had went to the Blanchard home

in Springfield, Missouri.

(rising dramatic music)

When detectives searched the home,

they found Dee Dee was murdered in her bedroom.

They also found that Gypsy's wheelchair,

which she needed all the time, was still at the residence.

One of the initial theories based on those facts,

was that Gypsy may have been abducted.

- Right now, we are very concerned

about 19-year-old Gypsy Rose.

(gentle pensive music)

- I have prepared for my hearing

for as many years as I've been in prison.

Every choice that I have made, whether it be good or bad,

leads up to this moment.

I think if I had to spend my full 10 years

within this facility, I'm not gonna lie,

I would be heartbroken.

- I wrote my letter to the parole board

to support Gypsy.

I think Gypsy truly is sorry

for everything that she went through,

and wishes she knew a better way to get out.

- [Kristy] You would've been proud of your baby girl.

- [Rod] What about you? How'd you do?

They asked you some questions?

- Yeah, they, yeah, they asked me some questions.

I told the parole board, I said,

"Look, I don't condone what Gypsy did.

Not at all.

I understand why she did it."

Gypsy sat in that chair, put her hands on the table,

straight up, and talked from the heart.

When they asked her, "How do you feel,

you know, about your sentencing?"

She said, "It's not a 10-year-sentence.

I have to live with this for the rest of my life."

- [Producer] Hey, Gypsy, how did it go?

- [Producer] Do you feel optimistic

that they're going to release you?

(soft pensive music)

- Gypsy is always gonna struggle with certain things,

but she is growing into a beautiful woman

that could own up to her stuff when she needs to.

I'm very proud of her.

- Gypsy was backed up into a corner

and she tried to get out, but she couldn't.

I want to see her get out

and live a life that she deserves.

(phone ringing)

- Phone rings and I see it's Gypsy,

and she's like, "Mom, guess what?"

I'm like, "What?"

- I was jumping up and down and all excited.

- We just kept our fingers crossed.

We were confident, but still nervous.

We were really happy.

- She was imprisoned for so long by her mom,

and now that that devil's not standing above her,

watching every move that she made,

she's completely free.

- I'm happy for her.

I wish I could have done something for her

so that she wouldn't have spent all this time in prison,

but she can certainly go forward,

and she will be a better person.

(soft pensive music)

- When the day comes that Gypsy does get out of prison,

this will be her room.

- We can clear it all out and do whatever she wants.

- Yeah.

- Get her some new decorations or whatever she needs.

When she gets out, there's gonna be some big adjustments.

Hopefully she uses the support team

that we have in place for her

to become a productive young lady and happy,

and have the life that she's always dreamed about.

(pensive music)

- When I get paroled, it was always the plan

that I was gonna go and live with my dad and Kristy.

However, I have been keeping a secret.

- [Operator] You may start the conversation now.

I am engaged.

- [Producer] Wow! (Gypsy chuckles)

- [Ryan] I know Gypsy's the one because I feel it.

- Oh, God.

Please don't get married.

Why now?

Why rush?

- [Gypsy] I think that Ryan has concerns

that when I get out prison, am I gonna be loyal to him?

And can I be the wife that he needs me to be?

(tense dramatic music)

♪ No, you could never take my soul ♪